Home from the weekend

Many people have told us we need to eat Brazilian churrascaria while we are here since it is sort of the Brazilian national style of cooking. Grilled meat, the favorite all over Brazil. So last night we finally decided to try it. We ordered the house specialty sampler that had grilled pork loin, ribs, sausage and several cuts of beef. It came with grilled pineapple, rice, beans, what they call salad but is a lot like salsa, the malagueta pepper sauce we love so much (HOT HOT HOT) and a delicious blend of mashed potatoes and manioc we'd never had before. Delicious! It was enough for four people at least and all for about the equivalent of 40 US dollars. Enjoyed outside under an almost full moon in the balmy breeze listening to live Brazilian music.

There is no nightlife in Praia do Forte so after walking around we headed back to our hotel. We discovered our TV had lots of movie channels and watched a romantic comedy (title unknown) in English with Portuguese subtitles. With the simple dialog of a simple movie, we had a lot of fun learning new words and expressions. Much more effective than Portuguese with English subtitles which I tried earlier in the week.

We got our usual rainy day today, so we mostly just walked around the village and did some shopping. The monkeys that hang out near the open air breakfast room did not want to stay outside in the rain today. The staff kept trying to lure them out with treats, but with no luck.

Much to my delight, I found a jewelry store that carries reasonably sized and priced replicas of the silver balanganda cluster jewelry I saw at the museum. The clerk was so pleased that I knew about the history she took a long time showing me their beautiful examples and explaining the meaning of each charm in a mixture of English and Portuguese. I purchased a small one that I will treasure always as a reminder of this beautiful part of Brazil, Bahia, that has a culture and history so rich and so different from anywhere else in the world.

There are two volunteers from our October trip that I keep in touch with. We emailed last week and they are both jealous we are here again. Cindy, who was with us at Madre Teresa has also been here twice. When I gave her the update on the missing children and the troubles with the parents of Jade and Rafael, she said she broke down and cried.

Tonight we are scrambling to come up with ideas to entertain the children tomorrow. I've used up most of what I had planned already. It's too late to go to the mall and look around for ideas, so we'll have to make do. Larry brought some stickers and the soccer ball is usually a hit. I try to do some learning activity each day, but I've used my one book I can read every way I can think of. I loaned it to someone else to use in her daycare tomorrow. I have some number stickers - maybe I can come up with something to do with those. Oh! I just had an idea! I'd better go get busy!
Judy