The only reason I can come up with for the fact that the weathermen are wrong 80% of the time in Natal is the fact that there is a constant steady breeze that must blow any possible rain cloud toward a different area. While Tuesday was supposed to be steady rain, it was nothing but steady sun. Hot sun! Uncle Mark and I took off early in the morning to pick up some supplies for the day and make some copies of the baseball instructions in Portuguese. Aunt Lori and the kids cleaned the pool that had collected leaves from the palm trees that overhang.
We ate an early lunch and went over to the Planalto, but that was not before stopping at the bank for a quick currency exchange. One of the teller windows had two "spider web" shaped indents in the glass from where a bandido (bandit) had shot two bullets into the glass. Thankfully the 10 inch thick bulletproof glass had done its job and deflected the bullets, leaving just gunpowder residue on the glass around the indents.
Several of the guys were awaiting our return when we arrived at the Planalto, but Lillia, who was supposed to translate for me, was nowhere to be found. She had needed to take a trip to the train station, leaving only Aunt Lori to do the translation. I began explaining the basics of baseball, while the six or seven people sitting there eagerly listened and asked questions. I kept to the basics of balls and strikes, the field, the positions, the players, outs and how to score. When I went over the material ahead of time, it wasn't too much. But with the questions and translations, the lesson took almost two hours to complete.
After we finished Uncle Mark met with a concrete expert, who is also a missionary, named Luciano about making an actual driveway to the hall. He was not happy to learn that the concrete he had already bought was not the right type, and upset at the construction store salesman who had sold them the materials. Luis, Aunt Lori, Uncle Mark, and Luciano talked about other concepts and ideas concerning the hall renovation.
Caroline conversed with some friends she had made, Gleisse and Selma, while I took 9 or 10 others down the road to the dirt soccer field we had used on Sunday. I wanted them to practice pitching in the strike zone and finding a comfortable batting stance. They formed a line, and I had Paulo pitch while I caught and called the balls and strikes. It wasn't too long before they were starting to get the hang of it. Another young guy, Eriberto, got out of work and was riding home on his bicycle and saw us playing and decided he wanted to play too.
He had never pitched a baseball before in his life, but he was extremely athletic and was the coordinator for Project: Soccer School. He asked Paulo if he could pitch and Paulo handed him the baseball. He threw about 20 pitches or so. All of them so fast that they hurt to catch and all of them extremely accurate. Once he figured out what the strike zone was, he was able to adapt to each individual batter, despite their age or height, and throw them a perfect fastball strike. Out of all the pitches he threw, only one was outside the strike zone which I found extremely impressive. After an hour and a half of playing it was getting dark, which is not a time that you want to be out in the open in the Planalto. There is a lot of crime and it is an area of Natal that the police will not venture into on patrol. Most of the people that live in this area are too poor to have a phone, which means that most of the time they fend for themselves.
We headed for home shortly thereafter where I spent most of the night reading. Uncle Mark and Aunt Lori went to bed extremely early while I stayed up with the kids. At about 10:00, I grew weary of waiting for my father to come online for a web chat and I went to bed too. William then informed me that he felt dizzy, and after trying to get over this sudden spell he decided that he wanted to sleep with his mom. This displaced an already sleeping Uncle Mark, who is fighting a sore throat. He then moved to the couch and continued his sleep. At about 2:00 in the morning I was awakened by that loudmouth horse that was trotting back and forth in the road in front of our house. He was screeching over and over and over again the most painful noise I had heard him make yet.
After about 20 minutes of this I was ready to call the nearest glue factory to inform them where they could find a key ingredient free of charge. Uncle Mark had moved into William's bed at this point, and it was not too long before he was snoring on the same decibel level as my father. This kept me awake, and after about an hour of trying to sleep I went outside and lay on the ground to look at the stars for a while. It was a gorgeous night, a little chilly, but perfectly clear. When I was weary I went back in and fell asleep soon thereafter. I had coordinated with a couple guys from the meeting to go to the beach with them the next morning even though the weather report called for rain. By this point it should be quite evident that I am not holding any stock in the good folks at weather.com...
We ate an early lunch and went over to the Planalto, but that was not before stopping at the bank for a quick currency exchange. One of the teller windows had two "spider web" shaped indents in the glass from where a bandido (bandit) had shot two bullets into the glass. Thankfully the 10 inch thick bulletproof glass had done its job and deflected the bullets, leaving just gunpowder residue on the glass around the indents.
Several of the guys were awaiting our return when we arrived at the Planalto, but Lillia, who was supposed to translate for me, was nowhere to be found. She had needed to take a trip to the train station, leaving only Aunt Lori to do the translation. I began explaining the basics of baseball, while the six or seven people sitting there eagerly listened and asked questions. I kept to the basics of balls and strikes, the field, the positions, the players, outs and how to score. When I went over the material ahead of time, it wasn't too much. But with the questions and translations, the lesson took almost two hours to complete.
After we finished Uncle Mark met with a concrete expert, who is also a missionary, named Luciano about making an actual driveway to the hall. He was not happy to learn that the concrete he had already bought was not the right type, and upset at the construction store salesman who had sold them the materials. Luis, Aunt Lori, Uncle Mark, and Luciano talked about other concepts and ideas concerning the hall renovation.
Caroline conversed with some friends she had made, Gleisse and Selma, while I took 9 or 10 others down the road to the dirt soccer field we had used on Sunday. I wanted them to practice pitching in the strike zone and finding a comfortable batting stance. They formed a line, and I had Paulo pitch while I caught and called the balls and strikes. It wasn't too long before they were starting to get the hang of it. Another young guy, Eriberto, got out of work and was riding home on his bicycle and saw us playing and decided he wanted to play too.
He had never pitched a baseball before in his life, but he was extremely athletic and was the coordinator for Project: Soccer School. He asked Paulo if he could pitch and Paulo handed him the baseball. He threw about 20 pitches or so. All of them so fast that they hurt to catch and all of them extremely accurate. Once he figured out what the strike zone was, he was able to adapt to each individual batter, despite their age or height, and throw them a perfect fastball strike. Out of all the pitches he threw, only one was outside the strike zone which I found extremely impressive. After an hour and a half of playing it was getting dark, which is not a time that you want to be out in the open in the Planalto. There is a lot of crime and it is an area of Natal that the police will not venture into on patrol. Most of the people that live in this area are too poor to have a phone, which means that most of the time they fend for themselves.
We headed for home shortly thereafter where I spent most of the night reading. Uncle Mark and Aunt Lori went to bed extremely early while I stayed up with the kids. At about 10:00, I grew weary of waiting for my father to come online for a web chat and I went to bed too. William then informed me that he felt dizzy, and after trying to get over this sudden spell he decided that he wanted to sleep with his mom. This displaced an already sleeping Uncle Mark, who is fighting a sore throat. He then moved to the couch and continued his sleep. At about 2:00 in the morning I was awakened by that loudmouth horse that was trotting back and forth in the road in front of our house. He was screeching over and over and over again the most painful noise I had heard him make yet.
After about 20 minutes of this I was ready to call the nearest glue factory to inform them where they could find a key ingredient free of charge. Uncle Mark had moved into William's bed at this point, and it was not too long before he was snoring on the same decibel level as my father. This kept me awake, and after about an hour of trying to sleep I went outside and lay on the ground to look at the stars for a while. It was a gorgeous night, a little chilly, but perfectly clear. When I was weary I went back in and fell asleep soon thereafter. I had coordinated with a couple guys from the meeting to go to the beach with them the next morning even though the weather report called for rain. By this point it should be quite evident that I am not holding any stock in the good folks at weather.com...
Class is Now in Session
Aunt Lori Translating for Me in My Feeble Attempt to Teach the Game of Baseball
The Co-Op at Work on Tuesday
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