People Willing to Receive...

Waking up to the sound of rain drops on a roof for a third straight morning is enough to make you want to go crazy. I spent the majority of the rainy morning sitting around the living room reading, and then I heard a proclamation from the dining room that made me rush to the nearest window to see for myself. William had announced that the sky was blue. Mr. Sun himself had decided to break through, and with the strong sea breeze that forever resides in Natal, it would be no time at all before the majority of the clouds were gone. Aunt Lori and Uncle Mark had already planned to meet with Lillia to look at some used wooden furniture for the co-op so our options were to go and sit in the car for the majority of the day or make our way down to the beach.

I decided that it would be a good idea to take the kids and walk the mile or so down to the beach, passing through what could be considered a middle class Brazilian neighborhood, even though it would be seen as poor by our standards. From what I had seen of these neighborhoods in the past, there were always people milling about in the streets, especially at lunch time, which was quickly approaching. I scrounged up every Portuguese tract we had in the house, and packed my backpack with water and some other things we would need for the day. William, Caroline and I made our way down the roads, stopping and handing out tracts to everyone we would see. Almost everybody would graciously accept the literature, look down, read the title and say Obrigado (thank you) with a smile on their face. It was encouraging to say the least. Here were people who had nothing, yet they were still happy with things that would cause each of us who have so much utter misery. There was no crumpling the paper up and throwing it on the already trash covered cobble stone street. No scowls from someone saying "you have interrupted my busy day". All we experienced was thankfulness’ for even this small little piece of paper that someone had taken time to give them.

We made it to the beach which was crowded with many tourists. Vendors walked the beach with their carts of food and trays of art products trying to make a little money to buy themselves a meal. As sad as it was, it can get rather old quite fast when they disrupt you over and over again. The waves were big and Will and I went in for a bit, but it was obvious that Caroline did not want to be there. She refused to sit down, stating that she "hated the sand" and it was rather uncomfortable to watch her stand in the same place for an extended period of time. After about an hour at the beach, we headed home, distributing more tracts along the way. Fewer people were in the streets at this time of day, and it was only a short matter of time before we arrived back home.

The kids swam for the majority of the afternoon, and then we went to get Pizza once their parents returned. It wasn't the traditional style pizza that I was used to, but if you tried telling yourself it was something different than Pizza it was actually quite good. They are big on cheese, meat, shrimp, beans, rice and yucca root a potato-like thing that they use as a substitute for starch products down here. I was exhausted, so I hit the mattress soon after arriving back home...

William and Caroline with Daniel, A Street Vendor Selling Bracelets in the Natal Village

William Poses With a Starving Horse Who is Picking Through Garbage Looking for Food