Natal, Brazil 2007: A Land Where Lemons are Limes...

I had made plans with Eliza the night before to go to the beach the next morning. She picked me up at 9 and we met her friend down on the beach. The tide was high, and the shoreline was crowded with visitors and vendors even at the early morning hour. The best sun for getting color occurs between 9:00 and 12:00 in the morning, while the afternoon sun is farther away and seems much cooler. We walked along the beach toward a famous dune called “Bald Mans Head”.

After the walk, we got a smoothie drink of sorts made of guarana, a Brazilian fruit that they use for lots of cooking and in several of their sodas. It supposedly gives you energy, but I had mine mixed with maracuja (Passion Fruit), which works as a calmative. Any energy that I would have received was soon stricken from the record. They both got theirs with lime, which is known as a lemon down here. They don’t have actual lemons down here and they have always thought that the “yellow fruits” were limes. I don’t know if we are right or if they are, but maybe the reason is that Brazil is south of the equator. Much like summer at home is winter down here, perhaps a lemon in North America is a lime in South America.

I borrowed a bike from Salomão, which provided me a little bit of freedom to go off by myself, and rode the mile from his house to mine. All in all, between 9AM and 12PM I had walked about 6 miles and rode a bike for 1. The day was still young, but I was exhausted from the sun and from doing the first real exercise in about a week. We ate a big lunch, the general custom in Brazil, and then Mark, Lori and Caroline went over to the co-op to meet the man that was delivering the raw wooden tables and chairs to be painted.

Caroline got started on a project of her own at the cooperative, while Uncle Mark sanded a chair down to test and see if painting would work. All tests passed, and the women welcomed their new project. They spent the day at the co-op, while William and I went down our road toward a little village. We did not have many tracts left, only about 70 in all, and it only took us about 20 to 30 minutes to personally hand each one out. Once again I was encouraged by how happy people were to take the literature that we were giving them.

Luis and his family once again came over for dinner. It was a very late and informal meal, but it was still absolutely delicious. Luis grilled meat, cheese, bread and pineapple and all of it was mouth watering. I couldn’t quite realize why there had not been much rare meat on the plate, until I noticed that Luis had hoarded it all for himself. We also experienced Brazilian tomatoes, which we unanimously agreed were the best tomatoes we had ever had. Everyone left and all of us did a web call with my father and my grandmother, then it was time for bed! With all the sun and walking I had done I was ready for it...