Down Came the Rain in Torrents...

Saturday was a fairly uneventful day, other than learning that five small monkeys live in our backyard. These cute and fearless creatures enjoy many of the multiple fruits that grow in Brazil. Dona Lucia, the housekeeper of our landlord/neighbor, feeds them bananas, tomatoes and mangos to coax them over to her home. They spend much of the time on the roof of the bathhouse that separates our yard from the landlords. I tried to feed them a tomato out of my hand and one got pretty close. It is something that I will have to work on, but I know now how John McCain's arms feel after holding a tomato outstretched for over 15 minutes. Last night

Salomão and his wife Cintia took us to a restaurant for dinner to get shrimp later that evening. establishment was aptly named Camarão's (the Portuguese word for shrimp). While considered expensive in many Brazilian circles, it was still relatively cheep when compared to American dining. What made it even more economical was the fact that the portions were large enough for between two and four people. We all split different shrimp dishes, which all tasted delicious, although William and Caroline both had hairs across their behind and would make it known several times over that they did not like the restaurant.

We returned home after dinner, and a brief stop at Salomão's house where the wise man spent some time attempting to teach Uncle Mark how to play a game called Dutch Blitz. It looked like an intriguing game, but my head was pounding, as it had been for the past 30 hours or so, and I just wanted to get home. I went to bed soon after returning home, but a deluge of rain woke me up at about 1:00 AM. I walked through the house only to find that the tile roof over the dining room and kitchen was leaking. The floors were soaked, and the water level in the pool had risen about 4 or 5 inches. Rain was blowing sideways and coming in the "winter garden" that sits parallel to the dining room. A winter garden, as if any Northern Brazilian has any clue what winter really is, is an indoor garden that almost every home has, no matter how rich or how poor. There is typically no roof over the garden, allowing the trees, vines and bushes to get water during rainstorms. With the rain blowing the way it was, water was strewn thought the living room and dining room.

The rain did not let up over the night, and we hoped that the hall had not suffered the same fate as our humble abode had the night before. We got ready for meeting, and made our way to an underpass where Luis met us so we could follow him to the hall. After a few minutes of driving it seemed to me as if we were entering into a completely different world...