Plumeria

this is what Brasil smells like: heat and salt, plumeria, a different, richer tobacco, aftershave and sunscreen. the sunscreen comes from us, we are trying not to get burned. it is to no avail, however.

The Baldwins

i told you about our lame first day in Curitiba. After that, we went here

and here we met

Elder and Sister Baldwin

and that made us

rach and i are constantly noticing how blessed we are on our little adventure around Brasil. it is turning into something better than we imagined by doings not our own. somehow, we´ve met the choicest of people, been safe everywhere, gotten to places we´ve had no idea how, etc.

one of those blessings has been the sweet missionary couple that we ran into at the Curitiba Temple. they are from Clinton, UT and have been in Brasil for the past 5 months. they are here without Portuguese training, and they are running merely on faith. they are so happy to be experiencing Brasil, and every little thing is an adventure to them. they are completely submissive to the trials of a new and uncharted country.

i was particularly touched by their faith in sacrament meeting last sunday. they both gave talks for the first time in the meeting. their words had to be translated into Portuguese as they spoke. both were nervous and didn´t quite know how things would work. Sister Baldwin got up to the podium and was obviously feeling awkward and unsure of herself. however, as she began her talk and got into the swing of it, she spoke with an amazing dignity that demanded everyone´s attention. her message got through loud and clear. Brother Baldwin´s love for the Brasilian people was so obvious as he spoke of the Savior´s life and his desire for all to Come Unto Him. everyone in the room was very touched. rachel and i were incredibly proud of them, as we felt we´d seen the process from the beginning and were watching our already dear friends do something that was difficult.

seeing their sweet life is a testament to the blessings of serving the Lord. we got to know them quite well. their pure hearts and and trust in the Lord made us miss our own missions.

we love you Elder and Sister Baldwin!

I Love to See the Temple

this big tree right in back of the temple is particular to the Curitiba area. when the temple site was picked, President Hinckley requested the temple be built around this tree.

wish i could remember the name of this. Eduardo?

Enormous

Foz do Iguaçu=Big Water. Understatement. See here:

Everything was so beautiful. We could not believe what we were seeing. Each independent waterfall was amazing, and there were hundreds of them. 294 to be exact. I am sort of depressed looking at these pictures, because none capture what the falls really were like.

Iguaçu was definitely worth the trip. It was worth being the only trip, if we only had one to choose. We met a guy today who rode a bus 18 hours from Buenos Aires, and is turning around tomorrow to take the same trip back. He was happy he did it. By the way, this particular guy was recently laid off from Lehman Bros, so he took off to South America. I laughed when I found that out. Shouldn´t have, but sometimes I can´t help it.

We also loved the little town we were in. Our hostel was clean and pretty, the manager helped us with everything. There is a run-around man that has driven us a few places. He goes through the neighborhoods and honks at all his friends.

Here are some some pictures. I will be posting all of what we took on facebook, so watch there for them. They are amazing. xo

Little

The cute little town of Foz do Iguaçu.


the horse and wagon in the background is the recycling service.

this is the pool bar that saved us with cheeseburgers our first day. wrote about that before.

so many different currencies around here!

my argentinian plate. this green pear was nast.

Curitiba

I have so many good pictures that need to be posted from Iguaçu, just no time. Access to computers is rare.

We are now in Curitiba. We arrived at the city after a 10 hour bus ride from Foz do Iguaçu. It was a good little ride. We were on a sleeper bus that gave us treats and left right on time. We met a cool guy on the bus, Tomatiho, who helped us open the bathroom door. He has his hair in a braid all the way down to his rear. He has a coffee shop somewhere in Curitiba that we~ll probably stop by and say hey to him again.

We got to the city at 7 am, and it was freezing freezing freezing. We walked about a kilometer to our hostel. When I saw it from down the street, I immediately got concerned. It was sick. But, don~t judge a book by it~s cover, right? So we went in and the lobby was nice. We were then taken to our room. It was small, dirty, and smelled like urine. I asked for a different room, but none was available immediately. We were still tired and Rach is pretty sick (poor girl) so we decided to just sleep for a while. We were wet from the mist in the air walking, our room was freezing and stinky, we didn~t want to touch anything yet we were so tired...ugh it wasn~t a pretty picture. Also, the shower water was only cold. Ahhh...we were so spoiled in Iguaçu! We finally got another room, which still smelled like pee but not as bad. When I realized things weren~t getting any better, I found us another hostel and we checked out as soon as possible.

Our new hostel is beautiful and clean and smells good. The maid cleaned our walls even before we got in. It is like a little cabin resort back here. We~re out of the main city, so that helps things. Any Wilbur Family reading this: remember that little cabin place we went to a few times for reunions? It~s like that but prettier because it~s Brazil.

We made it to the temple today! Hooray! We found a bus that goes directly to it. There we met a missionary couple from Ogden who don~t speak Portuguese, Elder and Sister Bljiueirjka (can~t remember right now). When they found us to be English speakers, they were beyond excited. We are staying with them for the rest of the weekend and they are taking us all over the city and to church, etc. There is another little man at the temple that speaks English, Elder Nakuto, who is so so cute. He is Japanese Brasilian and speaks moderate Eng. We are spending the day in the templar tomorrow, so I am sure we will be bff with him and his lovely espousa by nightfall.

Bus ride today: at the bus stop, I asked a man standing there too if we were going the right direction. He asked me if I spoke English, but then continued to speak to me in some sort of weird Portuguese (I may not be able to speak Portuguese, but I can tell when something is off). I left him after getting my answer, and he came up to us a few seconds later to start up a conversation. He said he spoke Italian and English, but never actually spoke English. I think he thought Italian was English. Who knows. Anyway, he told us he was a policeman and showed us his badge. That didn~t do much for me because I could smell alcohol on his breath. Dude, your flashy little badge doesn~t make up for your bad breath. So he kept talking to us despite the fact that we were ignoring him. I was getting so annoyed that I finally started talking to him in English really fast, just to slow him down. I told him all about the run I went on this morning during which I got totally lost in downtown Curitiba, but found my way back because I recognized a building labeled Philadelphia and a weird manican (how to you spell?) shop. He didn~t understand me and finally left us alone. So, we finally got on the bus and got to our stop. The Policeman got off before us, and I darted away from him as quickly as I could. When I looked back to make sure Rachel was behind me, I inadvertently stepped right into someone~s pirated DVD loot that they had spread out on a blanket. This big man with a cigarette yelled at me to stop. So I did, and when I realized where I was I had no time to change my course. The big cigaretted guy just came and grabbed me from the middle of his pile in a bear hug, got me off his stuff and put me back down. He was obviously amused by his strength. I was laughing and choked out Descupla!! and ran away toward Rachel. (I would use quotation marks for this story, except that I can~t find them, nor the apostrophe key, because I~m on a Brasilian keyboard and it~s different.)

At least we got away from The Policeman.

So that is it for now. I still need to write about Iguaçu. Dang. Just prepare for me to be telling everyone that you HAVE to go there!

First Stop

we arrived at Iguaçu safe and sound yesterday afternoon. this place is as different as night and day from Brasilia. for starters, the Portuguese is not only spoken with a few different pronunciations, it is shared with Spanish. this is because we are in Argentina~s back yard. every other person speaks something different, or a mix of both. i kinda like it, since i can pull vocab from both languages and manage to put together a sentence. it gets confusing, though, and since my language is already pretty screwey, it is now just a disaster. blah.

the first thing we did after checking into our hostel, which, by the way, is beautiful, is set off in search of food. i was starving and therefore cranky, and we could find nothing. every place we tried was closed or not cooking for some reason. finally, Rachel noticed a little counter poking out of a run down looking building. we stumbled in and discovered an outdoor pool hall filled with rusty old men drinking cerveza. a younger guy in dreadlocks ran over and we asked if he had any food. he said no, but that he could make us some cheese burgers for three haies (this isn~t spelled right, but the Spanish issue is messing me up and i can~t sound it out for the life of me). Brasilian burgers have much to be desired but since starvation was the alternative, we took him up on it. turns out they were the best dang food we have ordered. loved them. and loved the little bar. we watched the grandpas play pool for a while, it was pretty intense.

we went to Foz do Iguaçu today. it was the most breathtaking thing we have either ever seen. prepare for some sweet footage.

Charmed

we've so far experienced Brazil through the friendships of 5 amazing people. almost as soon as we arrived here, we were swept into a circle of very close, long-time friends that we have grown to love. Fernando and Gabriela, Érico, Taíza, and Mindú. you've seen lots of pictures and read stories, and i wish you could come to dinner with all of us one night to really experience them.

they take care of each other. they communicate with ease in their words and big gestures and touch. they live side by side with full expectation that they will all be around for a long time. i love how they express fondness for each other just as easily as they brazenly chasten. not much seems to offend, probably because all are confident in their good relationships.

everything is topped with their physical comfort with one another. i love seeing Fernando and Mindu greet each other after a day apart as if they were long-lost friends, Érico kiss his sister Taíza in greeting, Gabi scolding Mindu for who-knows-what as she concurrently has her arm draped around his shoulder. Taíza and Gabi both grab my hand when they are telling me something important. one night at dinner, Érico and his married sister Tainà were sitting side by side. they were in separate conversations, and i saw Érico naturally reach over and rest his hand on Tainà's newly swelling, pregnant belly. it was beatiful. i wish i had a picture.

while my brother is very loving himself with words, he's only kissed me once. it was a long time ago. we were arguing about something, and i remember telling him to "kiss my butt." so, he grabbed my face and kissed me on the forehead. i have to admit, it was very funny.

(Myles--i'm totally not saying you get to kiss me hello now.)

we met our friends due to a chance encounter at institute (religion class) one of the first nights after we arrived here. there we met Taíza, and were very relieved that she spoke English. we immediately loved her. that one little meeting has made all the difference for us here in Brazil, as we were then introduced to the rest of the group. we have been to their homes and met parents and grandparents and looked at pictures and tasted new food. we've been taken all over the area on little adventures. they've included us in their circle and taken care of us as well. Rachel and i are contstantly amazed at the luck we've had here. we are so grateful to them!

we love our Brasilians. we'll miss you!

Hi Mare

This picture makes me think of Mary Ann.

The Yard

Cara and Randy have a some pretty sweet fruit trees in their yard: lemon, papaya, starfruit, banana, cashew fruit, orange, mango, and avocado. can you imagine the dreamland that is the backyard full of mangoes and avocados? here are some pics of the yard, house, and lemonade.

so far, every Brasilian yard i've seen has a hammock or two. usually matching.

it's a mystery to me how Brasilia has all in the same soil pine trees, palm trees, and cacti. but, behold.

Cara's pretty painted windows.

the house


manga

banana

avocado

orange

trees trees trees

backyard

Sunday Dinner at Gab's

This is feijoada (fay zho aa da), the national dish of Brazil. It's pork and black bean stew served with rice. Yum! We had it at Gabi's grandmother's home. Everyone there said it is good we had our first feijoada there, because her grandma makes the best.

Last Day

at the school. so sad.
here are my lovelies. Luiza was absent Friday for a birthday party. hmmm.

Lucas and Vinicius


José and Victór


afterwards, Miss Denise took Rach and i out for Brasilian Tapioca. Tapioca is a thing made from the raw tapioca flour, into a tortilla sort of thing. it is filled with meat, cheese, eggs, bananas, creme de leite, sweetness on and on. it's the flourescently bright thing there on the plates. in the bowl are biscoitos. cookies.



we both look like we're 5 in these.

Miss Denise, in her true teacher fashion, did not let us only taste tapioca, but asked for us to see it being made in the kitchen. then, she bought us tapioca ice cream. this was like a cold form of the pudding. yum.

i will really miss the kids. especially Lucas i think.