Natal, Brazil 2007: Welcome to Natal...

Our cars pulled up to the house and we all got out. The sound of a nearby saxophone cut through the air. As I turned the corner and entered the gate I saw the entire Natal assembly cheering. A sign hung between two pillars welcoming Mark, Lori, Caroline and William to Natal. I snapped a few photos of this happy bunch, who couldn’t understand a word I had tried saying to them, and then took a brief tour of the house.

It was a much different style than I had originally thought, and something unique to anything I had seen in Boston, or in the United States for that matter. Other than a brief trip to Spain, US and Canadian property styles were all I was used to. Everything was open and tiled. It was very attractive appealed to my taste immediately. I met members of the assembly, futilely attempted to remember their names and spoke a little "Sportoguese" (Spanish and Portuguese mixture similar to how we would call the English/Spanish form "Spanglish"). They threw a party for us with appetizers and cake, and it was around that time that I noticed it was getting much darker outside.

I thought perhaps it was 8 or 9 PM, but a glance of my watch proved my ignorance of life near the equator. It was only 5:30, and the hours of darkness in Natal are only slightly fewer than the hours of light. People began to leave and I befriended a three year old named Pietro who began to teach me some of the language. Pietro was the son of Luis and Lillia, and he was extremely smart for his age. He told me the Portuguese equivalent for plant (planta), patio (pátio), shirt (camisa), pants (calças), shoes (calçado), socks (meia) and sky (céu). I pointed to an ant and asked him how to say "ant" in Portuguese. Just whsen I thought he was going to give me the answer, he stood up and stomped on it. That was the end of our lesson for that day. I wasn't about to listen to a teacher who would destroy the objects in the lesson.

After everyone had gone, we made a list of things we needed there at the house. Everyone other than me was in bed before 8:00. I took this solitude to do some reading and explore each corner of the house looking for an internet connection. I went to bed by 9:30, and attempted to sleep. I dozed off, but was woken shortly thereafter by a loud bang. The light cover from the ceiling fan above had been rocketed across the room and bounced off the concrete wall. I stayed awake for a while longer and then dozed off again. A pouring rain and freezing cold woke me shortly thereafter and I was beginning to get annoyed of all the disturbances. At that point I did need "a little sleep, a little slumber" and "a little folding of the hands". It seemed like it had been a week since I had slept. Hours later, I finally managed to achieve my goal of falling and staying asleep...