July 5, 2005
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July 5, 2005
I tried to cook yesterday. Ricardo showed me how to make goose-goo (I guess it sounds more like “koos-koos”, but I like calling it goose-goo anyway.) which requires two ingredients, so I figured I could not mess it up too badly. Well, it was edible, and everyone applauded my efforts. You just need the corn mix and salt, but I could not find any salt, so I used this stuff that smelled salty. It turned out to be super concentrated salt, making the goose-go taste OVER salty. But other than that, my cooking was a success. And David was nice enough to eat it.
On Monday nights they play futebol (soccer) here, and I watched them until the bugs had
gotten their fill of me. I sure do miss Pastor Assuario. He would always have me join in and help me out, even if he did make me look bad by passing the ball through my feet. There are a lot of people gone it seems. Pastor Assuario and his family went to Africa to serve the Lord. It had been his dream for over 18 years to go. Sundah (who was the director of the camp last year) and his wife are serving at his home church now, Raissa and Samela moved to Bahia, and Edna (who was in charge of the puppet ministry and much more) moved away. And then there are people like Lenuison who cannot be as involved because they have other things to do. Ahh.
Oh, I enjoyed my first fejoada (beans), rice, salsa, and suco de Maracuja (passion fruit juice) in eleven months. My word, it was so good. As we were walking to the gas station, I was so happy and overcome with just a joy to be there. Please continue to pray for my computer, it is really messing up a lot and making this difficult. Last night Edjane made us dinner (since my attempt was NOT called dinner) and Katia, Ricardo, and Gilson were all there, eating and laughing around the kitchen. It was so wonderful. It was a “moment.” You know, those times where you know life is special. Gilson is always making everyone laugh and telling jokes, and as he saw my blank face (I obviously do not know when the right time to laugh is, and normally just laugh because everyone else is and I love to hear it) he had Ricardo translate for me. (Which was nice because a lot of times I just sit there for a long time not understanding. And, more often than not, I never learn what they were saying or what was so funny. At first this used to bother me, but I am totally reconciled with being clueless, because the other option is to be a bother to them and constantly be asking, “what did they say?” I choose the lesser of the two evils.)
Here is one joke I wanted to write out for you, just so you can understand alittle of how Brasilians think.
The Israeli police, Scotland Yard, and the FBI came to Brasil for a contest to see who was the best. They would release a rabbit into the woods and see which group could return with it the soonest. The Israeli police came back 20 minutes later and everyone was impressed. Scotland yard came back in 25, and the FBI went all out, flying in helicopters and red lights, snagging the rabbit in 15 minutes. The Brasilian police took their raggedy old car into the woods and two hours later returned. “Where is the rabbit?” the others asked, and they said it was in the trunk. They opened the trunk to find a pig, curled up and saying “I promise I am a rabbit! I promise I am a rabbit!”
So what does this tell you about Brasil? Well, they are not very patriotic. They are very world minded instead of just their country, and their police are known for taking FOREVER to do anything, and then giving bribes to get their way. Ricardo said the people are just fed up with all the corruption. My logic class would ask, “If there is no patriotism because of the corruption, perhaps there is corruption because there is no patriotism.” I love the quote from WW2 of “Evil prospers when good men do nothing.” I don’t know, and I sure do not have any place to talk since in the US I barely remember to vote and really care nothing for politics.
Things are just done differently here. Ricardo and Katia are living in one room…like a normal hotel room, and it is not cramped in there, plus they have a small kitchen area made in it…and this is all they own. I think I brought from the US almost as much stuff as they have (okay, slight exaggeration, but still). I told Ricardo that I only have seven reis (about 3 dollars) until I have my money exchanged. I was slightly complaining and he just smiled and said, “Oh, that is more than I have.” And he was serious! He has a car to get around to the churches, but the problem is, finding money to put gas in! (gas is R2.35 a litter—5 litters in a gallon, the dollar is down in exchange, so that is about $5US a gallon) part of me wants to throw everything away and learn what this life is like because…S-T-U-F-F seems to be how you spell “American” nowadays.
