The Feira

Here again is a view of our home.  Here is a view of our street.

Monday through Saturday.

Here is the same street on any given Sunday:

Can you find the purple wonder?  I know it’s difficult.

Yes, this is the weekly feira which means = market.  Vendors come from the surrounding areas and set up a booth with their meat/produce/spices/grocery items or products for sale.  It so happens that Ben, Meg, Franca and Edite all live on one of the four streets used on this day.  What does this mean for us?  This means that we are in a great location for shopping.  It also means that we are woken up and KEPT up starting at around 4:00am every Sunday morning when the vendors are setting up.  Setting up must of course involve loud music (forro: pronounced foe-hoe) set on repeat and plenty of cachaça (brazilian rum).  We are slowly aclimating to this early Sunday morning  ritual that happens litterally outside the front door of our small home, though as you’d imagine it’s a bit irritating!  To give a visual, here’s our view outside on market Day:

There are a few grocery stores in town that carry dry goods, frozen meat and sad looking produce which I suppose you could get by on.  But generally speaking the feira offers the freshest stuff at the best prices.  So most all of the local friends, including us, do our food shopping for the week on Sunday morning at the feira.    It’s not just food that is sold however.  There is also everything from patio furniture, mattresses and clothing to tobacco, knives and little chicks dyed green and pink – don’t ask.  It’s sort of your classic scene where everyone is shouting at you to stop at their booth and you’re shouting back “how much per kilo for your_____”  After awhile though, you know which venders you like and trust and you get down a system.  I must humbly admit that with a little help in the beginning from Edite, Ben and I are well on our way to mastering the feira and we love it!  Here is a typical adventure:

An idea of how packed the streets get.

                     

Ben choosing cheese

Cheese getting weighed before final price is given

It smells as good in here as it looks.

Our egg lady

         

Our helper is never far...

A sister in our hall and her husband selling beans

People from the rurals pour in by truck or bus

Usually when we get home, it’s time to snack on chunks of fresh cheese and watermelon while we wash the produce, clean and chop the meat, pick through beans and get to cooking.  Here’s a standard meal:

Oh, and don’t forget the hot sauce :)

Ask and You Shall Receive

Early on in our trip, Ben met Junior doing door-to-door.  He was working out of his home making large metal gates for the outside of a home or store.  Here is Junior working:

        

He accepted a study and is now one of Ben's regular students.

But WHY is he in a tree!?  Well this is what happens when you tell your student that you love avocados and it happens that you're studying on a picnic bench under his avocado tree.  His mother was there to give him lots of directions on which ones were the biggest and best.  He knocked most of them down with a long stick and Ben caught them all with this joke, "Good thing I play baseball!" crickets.....crickets.......  There is a hilarious video of all this, however it appears that videos are just too hard to load :( 

Turns out we left there with a bag full of huge, delicious avocados and Junior left knowing the bible's answer to why we get old and die.  Love service!

Surprise Visitors!

Remember the two couples we met at Praia do Frances?  Well the other day they called us up and said they'd be here in the morning to spend the day!  We were surprised and excited.  They were our firsts "guests" in the new place.  We had a big breakfast then headed to the rurals for a morning in service.  It ended with us all drinking beer and eating tapioca in the bigger city nearby called Arapiraca.  This is NOT the tapioca you're thinking of.. it's a NorthEastern Brazil style taco thing that is amazing!!  But, it merits its own blog so that'll have to wait :) Here's some pics from the day..

             

Quote of the day from Allen upon arrival, "WHEW.  The Society really doesn't like you guys!" -  referring of course to the EXQUISITE beauty of our town!  haha. We love that guy.  They made us feel really good about this assignment, like there would be no reason to be here if not for Jehovah.  It was reassuring.  And, he and Katie met a nice girl who accepted the BT book, gave a donation and I've since had two studies with her. 

The Color Purple

A famous movie starring Whoopie Goldberg and Oprah.

Also, words to describe our new home!  Here is the before and after:



Ok so here's the skinny:  Things were not working out with the previous roommates and we were stressed about finding a place of our own for the remainder of our stay.  One day, Ben pays a visit to Edite and Franca.  If you're following the blog, you know that they are an older couple who own what is now the old Kingdom hall and live in the green house next to it.  Well they started chatting about the meetings and so on and Ben asked them how they would be getting to the meetings now that the KH had been moved to a section of town that is a good 35 minute walk from their house, slightly uphill.  Now mind you, Franca is 91 and Edite 70, both with bad legs and health issues.  They told Ben, "We don't know!  We have a car but neither of us drive anymore.  It's too far to walk each way..we just don't know what to do."  Ben quickly explained that he had obtained an international driver's license before we left and that he'd be happy to drive them - which means we wouldn't have to walk either, yaye!  They were so thrilled that they not only accepted his offer but in exchange, made us promise to use the car whenever and for whatever we wanted provided we put gas in it.  We excepted the offer in return and hence, our previous post about a trip to the beach!

A friendship formed quickly between the four of us and before we knew it they were begging us to move into the old KH that now sat empty.  They explained, "We're lonely and would love having people nearby that we trust.  We have an extra oven (naturally), bed, sofa, dresser, table and plenty of kitchenware!  Please consider it!"  The only hitch was that it would require a bit of effort on our part to make it home.  We needed to do things like minor wall repair, installation of a shower in the bathroom, cleaning, painting and of course a few purchases.  It was hard to know what to do because we knew this would take away from service for a bit but we had only a few days to prayerfully consider it as we had sort of an informal contract with M&F that would soon "renew" for the next month.  One day on our regular, much needed escape to the Bakery, we decided it was worth the effort and made the decision to move.

What an incredible blessing it's been!! Both for us and for Edite and Franca.  More about that in a bit, but here's us working on the place:

Ben showing off his cement wall patching skills in the bathroom

Unbaptized publisher Francisco installs shower register

Finished bathroom, what a beauty eh? ;)

This is an extension of the kitchen and bathroom?  It's our sink for both rooms.  However, how to make it look decent...... this is what we came up with.  That, and we only had a little paint left haha.

Hanging an old door Franca had as a shelf

Helpers :)

Making a room divider requires: two sheets, a large stick, nails and cord.

The above punch list plus the purchase of a hutch for the kitchen, a used refrigerator and a fan, this is what you get:

We have so much peace here and are much happier and more content in our assignment.  It also feels good to to have Franca and Edite remind us each day what a blessing it is for them to have us around.  Several times a day we wander over to their place to use the internet (another bonus!) or to play dominos or just to say hi.  When Franca's children call, who all live in Sao Paulo, he tells them that he has new children living with him.  He puts his hand over the speaker part of the phone and asks me every time, "What State are you from?" and I tell him, "Massachusetts" and when he gets a panicked look on his face and goes silent I tell him, just say "Novo Iorki" = New York.  Seems like the whole world knows how to pronounce New York :)

Franca was in the world until 13 years ago.  Not only this but he was heavily involved in Spiritism.  He is the only one in his whole family who got the truth and does the best he can despite not being able to read.  Idite also was in the world most of her life but is very educated and has gone 150% full speed since she learned the truth.  Ten years ago they met each other (in Sao Paulo) and decided that together, they could accomplish some good here - where Franca grew up and owned property - so they moved here.  They were the first witnesses in Sao Sebastiao and pioneered together for a few years.  In reality, Franca accompanied Edite as she witnessed to everyone possible.  He would hand out tracts and say the prayers as they covered the territory and conducted studies but it was Edite who did all the teaching.  Now there are 21 publishers, most of whom studied with Edite.

Because of age and health, they are both limited as far as the door to door work.  But still, not a day passes when Edite doesn't have a student here to the house :)  Here is our dear sister teaching one of her students AND her husband to read and write portuguese using the society's tools:

We are so thankful that Jehovah brought the four of us together.  What a blessing it's been to know them.

"The Coast" -a Novel written by Meghan Onega.

To speak frankly, after our bout with dengue we were ready to pack it up and head home.  This happens.

However, Benjamin came up with a much better plan which he thought would lift our spirits.  He said, “Let’s head to the coast!”  So we did.. and it did :)

This has been our favorite leg of the trip so as a warning, this post will be long (but fun)!

The details of how we got a car will be discussed later as it involves a new living arrangement and all these details merit their own post.  But there we were in our borrowed blue Chevy, Lonely Planet travel book in hand - somewhat reminiscent of B&M cerca 2007 driving through southern Brazil stopping where we pleased- this time cruising the Northeast coast.  Here is our first sighting of the water!

To give you a reference point of where we were, here’s a map showing the state we live in.  I’m pointing to our first stop:

Our first stop was in a little town who’s found its place on the map because of an unimpressive lighthouse at it’s center.  You can’t say much for the beach either except that it’s very pretty to look at and deserted for miles.  The problem is, that it’s waters are too rough and rocky to swim in.  We feel though that we sort of got the best of both at our pousada (inn) …

That’s right, you got to lounge in pool area with a view of the ocean..so relaxing.  Here’s a few more pics of our place:

   

Wait, I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking we got gypped because there was no slide?  You’re wondering why we would stay at an inn that didn’t offer something that at least slightly resembled a water park?  Well don’t worry… 

                     

Ok, so on to our beach walk..

We debated whether to stay in Corruipe another day as we were still tired and the goal was to “relax/recover” but we couldn’t help ourselves.  We knew there had to be friendlier beaches and cooler towns.  We were up early the next day and hit the road.  Here’s some things we saw along the way.  *Vineyard friends, note the almost-Gayhead-cliffs we saw in a little town!

Finally we ended up in a great beach town called Praia do Frances..

We selected the Inn we wanted, plopped our bags down and showered up.  Stomachs growling, we quickly headed out again in search of a good restaurant.  But something happens.  En route to the restaurant we see a sister out evening witnessing.  Ben screeches to a halt and calls her over while I scream, “No don’t, I’m hungry!! Ugh Ben...you always….”  And there she was, all smiles at his window.  We explained who we are, where we’re from, why we’re in Brazil and so on.  Well she excitedly tells us that an elder in her hall is from Canada and speaks English and lives right nearby.  Next thing we know, she’s in the car with us directing us to his home.  Turns out he and his wife were there and invited us to have dinner with them.  Meet Alan and Katie:

A&K wrote a letter to Brazil 13 years ago asking where the need was greater.  The reason they chose Brazil was because Katie is a Brazilian citizen.  She is German by decent, but all tying in with WW2, she was born in Brazil and moved to Canada when she was two years old.  Through marriage Alan was also granted legal residence along with whatever children they may have.  They received word that the need at that time was in southern Brazil, so that’s where they headed.  Oh yes, I forgot to mention………… with their SIX small children.

The family lived there for five years and all became (and currently are) fluent in Portuguese.  This adds to their first two languages, English and French.

After five years, back in Canada Alan’s mother got sick and the family returned for three years.  In this time five of their children decided to stay in Canada and one returned with them, this time to Northeastern Brazil, currently where the need was great.

They are truly incredible for what they’ve done with their life and so so happy.  They both teach English here and there and make/sell sausage to local restaurants.  This supports their pioneering – which has stopped only temporarily because of spending all their time at their congregation build.  Here, you can’t count RBC time if you’re a pioneer!  Sad.  Anyway we sat out on their porch talking and laughing and munching on homemade sausage, saurkrat, pizza and brownies.  It was so nice to talk with others in English for the first time in over a month.  We look forward to sometime soon meeting their daughter Chelsea who lives in the capital, Maceio.

As we were leaving they suggested that as part of our beach day the next day, we go to a restaurant called Beleza Tropical because a brother in their hall runs it.  So that’s just what we did.  Meet Francisco:

Francisco and his wife Silvia (who we meet later) are awesome.  They are 27 and 24 and have been married two years.  It’s her parents who own the restaurant and she, her brother and Fransisco run it.  Turns out Fransisco spent six months in the U.S. on some kind of work program so he too spoke quite a bit of English and loves American football, asked us if we like Cracker Barrel..haha.. it was great.  We met Silvia that night and the four of us had drinks.  We also met them back at their restaurant the next day for lunch.  They’ve invited us to stay with them anytime we come back to Frances.  We are flirting with the idea of spending our whole last month there but we’ll see what happens.

This trip was truly a blessing and just what we needed.  A week later Allen & Katie and Francisco & Silvia headed to Maceio to watch the Superbowl at Chelsea’s apartment.  They texted us the score and highlights of every quarter.  Sorry Pats fans :(  Can’t wait to see them all again.

A happy and refreshed Ben and Meg