Rio de Janeiro In Retrospect

There were are few things that just did not fit in the previous posts about our trip to Rio de Janeiro, which I thought were important. So I have rounded them up in this post.

Rio de Janeiro is a lot larger than Teresina. More people, more cars, more money, more of most things. What surprised me about the culture, though, is that people were more polite. And not just a little.

The Public Transportation System

In Teresina the idea of getting in line for something does not exist (unless there is someone to enforce it). In order to get on the bus here, if there are more than three people at the bus stop, one must fight just to get to the door. No blood no foul.

In Rio de Janeiro people were orderly, and even polite, about getting in line.

I was also impressed that the equipment (the buses and subway trains) was in very good condition, and often had air conditioning. In Teresina the buses are generally pretty old—or at least get to looking that way in a very short time. Air conditioned buses would be a dream.

The bus / Metrô combination worked really well for us. If you don't know Portuguese it might not work as well for you, but a great many people there speak English, so I recommend trying it. Besides, the Metrô website is available in English, so almost anyone could get their route planned easily.

I like riding the bus around to get a feel for a new city. While it isn't always the best form of transportation it does help one familiarize oneself with the basic layout.

Feel

As I mentioned in the second paragraph, as a whole people were a lot more polite than here in Teresina. Many people said "Hi," as we passed on the sidewalk. And almost everyone we asked for help was happy to guide us on our way. It struck me as odd that in such a big city people would do that, while in Teresina people can be a lot more cold. Maybe it is the heat here.

For being so full of people, Rio really felt like a much smaller town most of the time—just sprawled over a lot of area. The geography of the city could have something to do with that. The city is built within the vales of these granite hills that rise from just above sea level to 2000 feet and fall back down to sea level, all within a couple of miles. There is a lot of getting around the mountains to be done.

Our expectation was that we would constantly be hearing "bolas perdidos" (stray bullets) flying around, in some ways. That is the sense of Rio de Janeiro that the national news portrays. I did not hear any. Though, the favelas are different where most of this takes place, and we had no reason or desire to go into any of them.

On a side note, I have found a couple of great blogs by some Americans living and working among the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

I never felt like we were in any immanent danger, but knowing that crime is a huge problem there kept us alert. We also avoided using English at all times, and I avoided speaking at all in buses and on the sidewalks. While my accent might not give me away, a) I don't trust that I don't have an accent, and b) A simple grammatical mistake would be a giveaway that I am a foreigner. Foreigners are often the target of choice for the local banditos, who generally just want to make off with some cash or nice jewelry.

Recommendations

The following are a few things that one might consider while planning a trip to Rio de Janeiro. It is not complete, but I think covers the major things.

• If you are planning a visit to this great city, then do not miss Sugar Loaf, or Christ the Redeemer. Each of these costs R$ 35.00 per person currently, but well worth the trip.


• Know the basic distance (in kilometers) between your various destinations if you are using a taxi, as well as how much it will likely cost. Taxi drivers pick up the little things that give you away as a foreigner very well, and will sometimes "take you for a ride."


• Museums seemed to be plentiful, but we never had time or energy to visit one. When we do return I would like to spend some time seeing the various memorials and museums around the city. Patrick and Nyna visited at least one that looked really interesting from the photos. Maybe Patrick can write a little more about that (hint, hint)?


• Maracanã [*] is one of the largest football stadiums in the world—soccer, if you are in the US. Patrick and Nyna took a tour. From the pictures I saw, I would say this is on the list of must-see things, though maybe toward the bottom.


• Follow basic travel-safety guidelines. Keep your wallet in your front pocket. If you are lost or scared (or both) do not act that way, it is the best way to become prey. Do not carry to much cash with you (and not in your shoe, as you could end up barefoot and broke!).

Closing

Though the primary purpose of our trip was to do Nádya's visa interview at the US Consulate, we did get to do some of the fun things there are to do in Rio de Janeiro. We noticed a big difference in the cultures of Rio and Teresina, and really enjoyed ourselves once the stress was over. If you are considering a trip to Rio de Janeiro, stop considering and go. By far, it is one of the most interesting cities I have visited.

I am open to questions or comments if anyone has something you want to know. Hope you enjoyed the series! (And if you did feel free to share it with others.)

This entry is the closing segment of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. If you liked the series, try subscribing to the RSS feed or getting updates via email.

Rio de Janeiro Day One: Getting There

To the Airport

The alarm went off. I sprang out of bed and as my feet hit the floor I wondered why it had gone off. Then, as the fog of sleep cleared I realized that it was time to head to Rio de Janeiro. It was raining hard (even for Teresina). I wondered how wet we would get in the process of loading the car with our suitcases.

Nádya and I got around, then had breakfast while Kylie slept. While I got our bags downstairs and out to the car Nádya got Kylie. She must have realized this was very odd behavior for us, as she completely woke up, and remained awake until we were on the plane.

It is only about five minutes to the airport from our house by car. Maybe less. The rain had subsided by the time we got there, which made unpacking the bags from the car a little easier.

After checking in and waiting for a bit the screens at the airport started telling us that our flight was delayed. Not by much, but it was enough that they decided that we needed to get boarding passes for the next flight moved back to the following flight. Unfortunately they only decided this after we had passed the security checkpoint. So we had to go back to the desk, get our boarding passes, then go back through security.

To Fortaleza

While I have taken so many flights that I gave up keeping track years ago, for Nádya and Kylie this was flight number one. Nádya was a bit nervous, but after a few jitters she grew accustomed to it and even liked it. Kylie was going about the business of getting some more sleep.

We landed in Fortaleza and had to wait for a bit for our next plane. In the mean time a family visiting from Portugal came over and started visiting with us—well, to be honest, the came over to visit with Kylie. We just delude ourselves into thinking that people want to talk to us when all they want is to talk with Kylie.

Kylie had the time of her life (she loves to see other children, and actually has taken to jumping and kicking when she sees them). There are some more pictures in our album from the day.

To Rio de Janeiro

From Fortaleza we were headed to Rio de Janeiro. But somehow we had either missed the note that we were stopping in Salvador, or we were not told. Sitting on the ground in Salvador, our flights were all running late, and we were tired and bored. Ripe time for a distraction or two.

Next thing we know we saw Patrícia Werneck coming down the asile of our plane. She is an actress who recently played a rather large part in a novela (soap opera). I had watched bits and pieces of the novela, so I immediately recognized her.

I, however, had forgotten about the Kylie factor. I figured she was headed toward the back of the plane where we were seated for any host of reasons except to talk with us. I was wrong. She had heard Kylie laughing and screaming (not crying, the happy screams), and wanted to meet her.

She said that Kylie "Looks like a Johnson's baby!" Gerber is not as big in Brazil as Johnson & Johnson, so it is like someone saying that she looks like a Gerber baby.

Patrícia Werneck seemed like a delightful person, and even though Kylie was not to excited about interacting with her (it was nap time again) she obliged our request to get a photo of her.

She left, and after a few minutes we saw another person we recognized from the novelas:

Caio Blat ended up in the chair right behind us. He too was interested in Kylie, but by this time she was pretty grumpy. I overheard him telling the flight attendant that he was very tired and just wanted to sleep. That he did. The entire flight he was sacked out in the chairs behind us.

I guess the two actors had been in a presentation of the Passion of Christ in Floriano (?) where Caio Blat had played Pontius Pilate, and Patrícia Werneck had played Mary Magdalene.

Arrival in Rio de Janeiro

One of the things we did not know about our trip is where we would stay. We knew that trying to afford a hotel was out of the budget range (buying the plane tickets there was about two-month's worth of income while on sale for half-price).

We had a promise, though, from one of the leaders of the Baptist Convention that goes to our church that we would be able to find a place if we went to the same seminary where Patrick and Nyna stayed. "If not at the seminary, then someone will find you a place. I promise."

Of course, it was 11 o'clock Easter Sunday morning when we arrived at the seminary, and nobody who knew anything about our situation was around. There was a group there who were cooking lunch, though, and they helped us contact someone who would know what to do. They even fed us, and gave us water (the last real meal we had had was at home in Teresina).

Stay tuned to find out where we ended up staying.

This entry is part of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. Don't want to miss out on the coming entries? Try the RSS feed, or getting updates via email.

An Afternoon In The Park

Toward the end of 2007 we first came into contact with Tim and Joyce Keliher. I think it was back when I preached at an English service here in Teresina. They are missionaries who help facilitate on-campus Christian groups. They don't lead the groups, they are there for support of the student-leaders of the groups.

It was a great afternoon, and the park is a pretty interesting place even if it is filled with ravenous mosquitoes. There were two things that stuck out among the mountain of photos we took that afternoon. (And we would have taken more, but the camera's battery died.)

The Iridescent Lizard

As we were hiking around the part of the park that leads down to the river a lizard that had been sunning itself scampered across the path. It was so cool looking that we had to find it to get some pictures. Fortunately it was not far off the path (we did not have to even leave the path), and we got some pictures.

It was about a half meter long, and my guess is that it was a chameleon of some sort. I have not seen anything like it before, so iridescent, so blue and green. So cool.

There are three more pictures of it in our photo album from the afternoon.

If you know more about this lizard than I do please comment!

The Birds

The tropical bird trade is huge business here, and a lot of it is not legal. As we were traipsing back toward the front of the park we passed a police station. Nádya asked if they still had a zoo exhibit a little further on. It turns out that there was not, but they did have some birds whose owners had been caught without bird-owning licenses, and would we like to see them?

The one above is a crested cardinal, and pretty rare from what they told us. The birds were there because it was the weekend, and IBAMA (the agency which evaluates and frees the birds who can be returned to the wild) is closed on the weekend. Again, there are more photos in our photo album from the afternoon.

One intriguing fact they told us was that the cages are crushed when the birds are handed over to IBAMA. I guess that is to discourage investment in such things. It really is not that uncommon to see someone riding down the street on a bicycle with a bird-cage. They are usually caught for their songs, which can be very beautiful.

Three Things About Kylie

She loves to play with her hairbrush. This includes chewing on it and hitting things with it, she just hasn't quite figured out how to brush her own hair with it.

Kylie loves typing. She loves the keyboard so much that she only has to see someone using one, and she will start whining to go over to it and pound on it for a while. This picture is in her stroller; she was lucky enough for the computer keyboard to quit working with the computer, and now has her own for a toy.

She also loves this monkey. It happens to be my mother-in-law's, and is from USBank. I am not sure of the story of how it got here (I have a guess, but will leave that for someone else to tell in the comments.), but Dona Carmélia has been very clear that it is hers and she wants it back. We will happily oblige her.

Patrick Has Arrived

Patrick got here this morning on the right plane, and even a little early. The only hitch in the journey was that his suitcases did not arrive with him. They are supposed to come later today according to the airline.

[Update (Feb. 21 7:30 PM local): Patrick and Nyna have headed off to Rio de Janeiro this morning, and I got an email from Patrick that they had arrived safely. Patrick's luggage got here after midnight last night, so it did not get here "the next day," but he was happy to have it all the same. ;) ]

Kylie: Seven Months

Our little princess turned seven months old on Saturday, so we had the usual party. There were not as many in attendance because of various activities, but those who were there enjoyed it thoroughly.

It has been fun to see people's reactions to Kylie change over the last month, or so. When she was first born people would say things like, "Oh, she looks exactly like her dad!" That has been changing recently with more and more people saying she looks exactly like Nádya. She is growing and changing so much!

We took her to the doctor for her monthly checkup on Friday, and the doctor said everything looks fine. She will start teething soon (Well, she has already started chewing on nearly anything she can get her hands on.), and she gained 300 grams (0.7 pounds), and grew one centimeter (0.4 inch) since we were there three weeks ago.

Kylie had a great time getting her picture taken. Incidentally, she hardly ever automatically smiles for the camera—we usually have to coax that out of her, but it is not terribly hard to do. She actually loved the cake, and wanted to be close to it. In the picture above I am holding her back from diving in.

Singing? Clapping hands? Kylie loves them both. I think I have mentioned that she likes to dance, as well.

We sing the birthday song every month, and last night was no different, except that Kylie was kind of humming along. She is beginning to form words, and really recognizes when mom is talking to dad. She is even beginning to catch on to the concept of waving goodbye!

Of course, at the end of the night she is ready to go to bed. Saturday she tuckered out pretty early, so we were glad that we started the party a bit earlier than usual.

The following is just for a technical verification. You may ignore it. Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Teresina's Striking Sunsets

There are some things I will miss about living in when we move to the United States. One of them is the sunsets. Here are three shots of two sunsets I have taken in the past week.

These are all taken in the same place: An upstairs window in our house.

Christmas: Later Than Planned

My parents sent me a package near the beginning of December. This was our Christmas presents and, while they were told it should get here in time, it didn't.

New Years? Nope.

Karl's birthday? Não.

It did come on Nádya's birthday (the 21st of January) though!

Here is Kylie with part of what she got:

My present may seem odd to you: Shoes. I have not been able to find any here, and my old ones were wearing out. My feet are very happy. ;)

Kylie At The Six Month Mark

From Kylie's 6th Month

On the 16th of January we had our usual monthly celebration of Kylie's birth. As we get closer to heading to the United States these parties become a little more precious to us, as the family gathers together and celebrates.

There wasn't anything particularly special about this one—well, the cake was spectacular. But that is always the case. Kylie is getting to the point where she has a bit of involvement in the parties, which makes them more fun. I am not sure that she understands that the parties are for her, but she certianly warms right up to having lots of people around. At least until it is just past her bedtime...

There are a great many more images in our web album, should you wish to see more. Which reminds me: If you have questions about a particular photo in the web albums feel free to use the comment form below the photo.

There are a couple more entries coming soon. :)

Karl Winegardner's Birthday Party

From January Birthday Celebrations 2008

Karl had a great birthday. There is not a lot to say about it in terms of what the party was like. It included family, and a friend who visited. But it was fun. The cake was great (Of course it was, my mother-in-law made it!), and having family members around was the highlight.

The pictures in this post link to the album, which has many more pictures of the evening. You may have seen them, though, if you looked at all the pictures in the album from the last post about Phil's party.

Photos: An Update From Teresina, Brazil

From Kylie's 5th Month

There have been a number of events since Christmas that we took photos of, some of which have been posted in our photo album. The above is from a trip we took to the mall to see the Christmas display (It was interesting, but not as interesting as other years.).

Here are some of the highlights:



Kylie has begun to sit on her own, and loves looking around and exploring the new vistas in that way.



About the same time she started sitting, she started gleefully giggling at certain things we do. There are a couple more like this in the album.



While waiting at the mall before another event (which I will write about shortly), we ran into some friends from church. Their daughter is one month older than Kylie. They were fast friends.



Nádya's brother, Júnior, came from Parauapebas, Para to spend Christmas and to ring in the New Year with us. Kylie loved the extra attention. ;)



While no teeth are showing yet, Kylie is definitely getting ready to teethe. She loves chewing on this little thing, or another toy that looks like a foot—or her own foot for that matter.

Oh, and since this is the first post of 2008: Happy New Year!

Yluska's ABC Graduation

From Yluscka's ABC Graduation

The 8th of December we were invited to go to a graduation party for Yluscka. I was very much looking forward to it until I realized that I would be wearing a tie and slacks—at that point I was just looking forward to it.

Yluscka would be addressing her peers, teachers, family members, and others, so we thought it would be fun to go for that reason alone (There were others, such as food.). The party was going on smashingly, the appetizers were good, and the little ceremony was interesting. I was actually with Kylie inside part of the time because she was hungry and tired.

As the ceremony was coming to a close—well, as soon as Yluscka had received her diploma—the first drops of rain began to attack the ground. I was inside at the time and heard much screaming, and the rush of running feet. For maybe ten seconds the rain came slowly, but then a full downpour was in progress. Then the lightning and thunder.

I watched as the workers rushed to get things under cover from this surprise. The tables and chairs that had been arranged outside were now needed inside (even if space was not sufficient).

Then the power went out.

If the 100 or so kids were scared before, this added to the fear and so screams abounded. I don't recall that the power came on again while we were there. The rain continued for an hour or more, then stopped.

Unfortunately, the rain and power-outage delayed dinner. On the upside it was romantic when it did come. Dinner by candlelight is great on a stormy night.

When the rain finally did stop, we still had to wait for about 45 minutes for the water in the street to go down.

From Yluska's ABC ...

For many more photos of this event, see links below the photos in this post.

Oh, and wearing a tie was not so terrible.

Sickness

From Kylie's 4th M...

Check out the linked album above for more new photos of Kylie.

Kylie is running a bit of a fever today, along with a cough and sneezing—her first such illness. We took her to the doctor, who said that it is just a cold or the flu, and assured us that we were doing things right.

The weather is changing; we had our first real thunderstorm last night. None of us slept real well. That means cooler temperatures, but way higher humidity. Fun.

We are doing just fine otherwise. Time is marching along, and we look at our child every once in awhile and say, "Wow, hasn't she doubled in size since yesterday afternoon?"

Four Months

Here it is four months, and I feel like it has been two. Okay, maybe not in all ways, but it has really flown by.

The cake was excellent (those are candy-coated peanuts on the frosting). The family was gathered round, and the conversation was great (in two senses of the word ;) ). It was quite the fun event; we even got some great pictures of it:

Kylie's 4th Month

Note: Unfortunately for this here blog, I am finding I need to cut back on the writing. While I will try to keep you up to date on what is going on around here, there will probably not be as much detail. This is because I am now a stay-at-home-dad and so have a few other things to do. I love it. But I miss writing here.

What Is Happening?

The last month, or so, has been full of news. All of which I want to share, but have not had the time to put it all into written word as of yet. Part of that is because of the emotions involved, and part because I have been so busy running to and fro to various doctors. Following is my attempt to explain summarize it all.

Patrick Visits

My good friend Patrick Borter came to visit his fiancé, Nyna (who also happens to be my sister-in-law). It was really good to see him, especially since he had some adventures getting here.
We really enjoyed having them to our house a couple of times, and just kind of hanging out together. When we did make it to Nádya's parent's house on a couple of occasions it was quite fun for the whole family to be together (Well, nearly the whole family. Jr. still lives to far away—in Parauapebas—to come visit for things like this. We missed him.) for a short time.
Patrick and Nyna are awaiting their fiancé visa, and the last time they were together was in September of last year.
What photos we have of the visit are here.

The Move

We have moved. We are once again living with Nádya's parents. It was not exactly our first choice, but with Nádya returning to work, and me going under the knife soon (keep reading for more info on that), we were running out of options for child-care.
Also, amerInglês has lost a lot of students in the last few months; mostly due to financial difficulties. So the student's financial difficulties became ours.
It is kind of comical, when one steps back from the situation, looking at us trying to fit the stuff from our house into our room. Ha! We might get the 3-D jigsaw figured out someday. More on this later.

Health

Some members of my family in the States has had some pretty serious health problems of late. Here are a couple, followed by my own situation.

Grandpa

My 93-year-old grandfather recently fell—I have not heard why, but my guess is that he was pushing the limits of his abilities. ;) He likes do live that way. Anyway, as a result of the fall he ended up with a blood-clot in his lower leg, and is in the hospital.
Grandpa is an old farmer; he does not go to the hospital for something minor (like cutting off part of a digit, or splitting his head open after falling off a ladder). He is an “It's only a flesh wound!” type of guy.

Rebecca (Karl's Cousin)

Rebecca was in the hospital for a few days (maybe a week—I lost track because of so many other things going on) because her platelets were so low. The diagnosis is “Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura.” Which is medical speak for “blood problems of an unknown cause.” (Okay, so that might not be an exact translation, but that is what it means to me.)
She is on the mend at home now (since last Thursday), but still does not have much energy, and is on chemotherapy treatments. Her platelet counts have been measured at six—when the low end of normal is 140-150.

Karl

For a couple of months I have been experiencing some abdominal pain. At first I thought it was nothing, but when it persisted I decided to go to the doctor. I don't know how much of the time since my first appointment we have spent traipsing around town going to one doctor and another, then to the insurance company to authorize exams. But it has been more than enough.
Long story short: I have a gall-stone, and need to have surgery to get it out.
That means that I will be in the hospital for at least a day, and who knows how many days of recuperation. We are waiting for MediPlan (our health insurer) to approve the operation, so I don't know when this will happen, but probably this week sometime. The doctor wanted to do it today, but MediPlan is dragging its feet.
We will try to let you know when we know more.

[composed and posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: steps back | financial difficulties | short time | fiancé visa | Patrick Borter | Our Activities | Our Story | serious health | child care | been so busy | good friend | jigsaw | Life In Brazil | returning to work | health problems | Living Outside the US | pushing the limits

Recife Trip: Success

We are home after an eventful trip to Recife, but before all the details, here is a quick rundown of our itinerary for the trip:

1. Sunday the 23rd, at 10:15 AM 10:55 AM:Leave for the bus station.
2. 12:30 PM: Bus leaves for Recife.
3. Monday the 24th, at 6:15 AM arrive in Recife.
4. 1:30 PM: Arrive at US Consulate.
5. 2:30 or 3:00 PM Leave US Consulate.
6. 7:15 PM: Bus leaves Recife for Teresina (with us aboard).
7. Tuesday the 25th, noon: Arrive in Teresina.

Does that look grueling enough? It was more than enough for me. I am still recovering!

It is a fairly common thing among Evangelicals when traveling to ask for hospitality and give it in turn. So we thought we would try to save on the hotel that way. On the advice of our pastor here (who had tried to find other arrangements for us ahead of time, as one needs the commendation of a pastor) we asked to be taken to this Baptist Church/Seminary, but ended up at a slightly different church.

We walked in at about 7:15 AM, and to my wonder there was a service going on. On the way to the church from the bus garage Kylie had put her diaper to good use, so we were really in need of somewhere we could change her quickly. Nádya asked someone sitting in the back who the pastor was.

I went down front to where he was sitting, and asked him if we could talk outside for a moment (the music was playing so loud that it was difficult to communicate). It turns out that he was not the pastor—in fact, he did not even go to that church!

He is a missionary from the United States. He was also kind enough to invite us to his home and rest there. It was a beautiful apartment with a wonderful view of the city—which is drastically different from Teresina, and far more beautiful. They were very gracious in offering their home, taking us to lunch, and even offering s'mores (marshmallows are impossible to find). They even dropped us off at the consulate!

At the consulate we were treated very cordially (in stark contrast to last time), and all the applications, forms, and other documents were accepted. I did need two more documents for Kylie's registration, but those can be emailed when I get them. So, it was a successful trip.

I have already had a couple people ask me when we were coming home since the trip was successful. We don't know. This is the first step in the process, now we wait to be called for our big interview in Rio de Janeiro. There will also be some more documents to get for that, as I recall, but hopefully they will inform us what we need to do before we get there. They say they will.

Now we just wait.

[More panoramas of Recife here, and other photos of the trip are coming.]

[composed and posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: eventful trip, bus station, missionary, commendation, recife, cordially, marshmallows, drastically, baptist church, Our Activities, Our Story, leaves, rundown, itinerary, bus garage, s'mores, Teresina, evangelicals, stark contrast, kylie, grueling

Teresina Rainbow

Rainbows are not something I have seen a lot here. So, even though I was a bit late heading out the door, I took some photos of this one yesterday. Enjoy them. They remind me of the storm I wrote about a while back.

[composed and posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: brazil, teresina, rainbows, photos

Pictures of Brazil: Teresina

I have just posted some more pictures in the album with pictures of Teresina. They are even all geographically marked (approximately) to the location where they were taken.

Some of the pictures are taken from a bus (the older ones as of this posting), and some of them are taken from our recent trip to get Kylie's Brazilian Passport. That trip, while not entirely wasted, was not a successful attempt. We ended up having to go back twice more to get the passport: Once to take some forgotten documents (my fault...) and once to pick up the passport.

But we have the passport! It is the first step in the process toward our move to the US.

[composed and posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: passport, Our Activities, teresina, kylie, Our Story, brazilian, Life In Brazil

Trying New Things

The past weekend was pretty huge for us. I preached my first sermon on Saturday (after teaching two English classes—I was really tired by the end of it all). Then we took Kylie to church on Sunday, her first time. And, on Monday we had our Second Wedding anniversary.

Sermon:

The sermon went well. I am not really the right person to analyze it, as I know what was left out that was meant to be included. God used me. People were touched. I am happy with the end result.
Nádya said that, “It was like you had been preaching for years!” I joked that it was because I went long (I did—but it was the interpreter's fault [joking!]), and she said that she was really impressed with how it went. I could tell that others were too. In fact, I have been asked to preach again at my church here.

Unfortunately, we were not able to get an audio recording of the sermon. Nádya did get most of it on video before the battery died, but it is to big for any place I have to store it on the web (and the audio is barely intelligible too...).

Kylie's Trip to Church:

We loaded up the diaper bag, and hauled our kid to the bus stop early Sunday morning. Kylie falls asleep when we walk with her in our arms, or ride in a car with her.The bus was no different. She was out by the time we got to the bus stop, and stayed out until we were almost to church.

People “ooh-ed and awww-ed” like they do everywhere when they see a 40-day-old baby. Kylie loved the attention, and was adorable as always. (Disclaimer: I am not biased. Not at all.)

The service was very different Sunday; usually there are a few songs, the pastor preaches, then Sunday School. Last Sunday, though, there were two guest preachers, and no Sunday School. I did not understand much of what was said because both of the guys had accents from different parts of the country.

All the same, I could tell that the sermons were moving, and that people were responsive to them.

Our Anniversary:

Two years! Wow, that was fast.


We went to the shopping center where our first date took place, and subsequently got engaged. That was mostly just to get a picture—it is far to hot recently to stay outside in the afternoon, and that mall is outdoor except for the shops themselves.

Then we went to Teresina Shopping, where it is air conditioned, and spent the afternoon there. Kylie loved it—“it” being the air conditioning. We used the mall's stroller, and had a very relaxing afternoon wandering the mall.

People “ooh-ed and awww-ed” like they do everywhere when they see a 41-day-old baby. Kylie loved the attention, and was adorable as always. (Disclaimer: I am not biased. Not at all.)

Of course, there is a down-side of spending the afternoon in air conditioning: Leaving it. None of us liked it, but Kylie least of all. Poor girl cried for a long time when we got home because it was to hot. Next time we might not stay as long.

It was all worth it. One of the best (if not most tiring) weekends I have had in some time.

[composed and posted with ecto]

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