After swallowing a small army of brown tablets to combat the pain in my head, I lied back down on my bed and waited. By 7:00 it was clear that this pain was not going to go away and I decided that I was not going to make it any worse by listening to Portuguese for three hours at meeting. William hopped in the shower, and a few minutes later shouted “who turned the lights off?” We had experienced this problem in our room before so I got up to check the circuit breakers. After seeing that our breakers were not tripped, it was evident that the entire house was out of power.
Everyone else prepared for meeting while I tried to fall back asleep. Closing my eyes was the only thing that eased the pain behind them. They all piled in the car to leave until they realized that the gate we had was electronic. Uncle Mark forced it open, only to learn that it wouldn’t close. They left anyway. I got up to get some juice and noticed that all the cheese balls that had been served for breakfast had been left on the table. Fear of a return of the insects that had been killed and captured the night before gripped me and after I finished a mouthful of Maracuja, I cleaned the kitchen.
As I was finishing this task, I heard the door open and Aunt Lori and William come in. They had decided not to go and leave the gate open seeing as they had been warned by Lillia, Salomão and Inacia about the dangers of leaving this vital security feature open. With no power, and little sunlight due to the pouring rain outside, everyone went back to bed. Caroline instructed William that he couldn’t sleep in my room due to my headache and directed him to the hammock on the small terrace porch. Meanwhile, I had fallen asleep and woke at about 12:15 to the strangest of noises…nothing. For a minute I thought that they had gotten the power back and went to meeting, but a sight of the white Volkswagen "Wormwood and the Gol" parked in the driveway proved me wrong.
A little while later they all came downstairs one by one. First was William, followed by Caroline, then Aunt Lori and finally Uncle Mark. Aunt Lori made a delicious lunch of the Nioki pasta that had been sitting in the fridge for two weeks taunting William every time he opened the door. After lunch I took a walk around the property to see if I could find a main circuit breaker anywhere. I found something that looked like a breaker near the gate and flipped the switch. I heard Mark bellow from inside the house “We’ve got power”, and could see in the window as the kids danced around the living room. I boiled some water to shave, took a shower and then went about my business for the day.
My headache had mostly subsided by about 5:00 after I sent reinforcement brigade of Advil past my gullet and into my digestive system. We all left for meeting shortly thereafter. Before Gospel meeting this week, the kids who are enrolled in the music school taught by Suzete played their recorders in front of all of us. They played “Here I am to Worship” while Paulo sang the song in Portuguese. It is not often down here that I actually hear a tune that I recognize, and by now I could make out some of the words of the song to compare the lyrics in English and Portuguese.
After the first song was complete Caroline got up and sang with Paulo as the kids played another tune on their recorders. Paulo sang the first and third verse in Portuguese while Caroline sang the second and fourth verse in English. After the kids had finished, the Gospel meeting began. Many of the kids in the music school are from the neighborhood, and it is a great opportunity to get their parents out to meeting. Luis spoke for an hour, and by the end of meeting my rear end was begging for a cushion. We visited with everyone for a little while and then headed to the supermarket to pick up some much needed groceries.
We got there as the store was closing, but we managed to shop for most of what we needed while waiting in line to be checked out. I believe that Brazil has the slowest cashiers on the planet. We got home at 11, and I wanted to just get to bed. William was exhausted also and he was basically asleep by the time I had finished brushing my teeth. I wish I had the sleeping power that this kid has…
Everyone else prepared for meeting while I tried to fall back asleep. Closing my eyes was the only thing that eased the pain behind them. They all piled in the car to leave until they realized that the gate we had was electronic. Uncle Mark forced it open, only to learn that it wouldn’t close. They left anyway. I got up to get some juice and noticed that all the cheese balls that had been served for breakfast had been left on the table. Fear of a return of the insects that had been killed and captured the night before gripped me and after I finished a mouthful of Maracuja, I cleaned the kitchen.
As I was finishing this task, I heard the door open and Aunt Lori and William come in. They had decided not to go and leave the gate open seeing as they had been warned by Lillia, Salomão and Inacia about the dangers of leaving this vital security feature open. With no power, and little sunlight due to the pouring rain outside, everyone went back to bed. Caroline instructed William that he couldn’t sleep in my room due to my headache and directed him to the hammock on the small terrace porch. Meanwhile, I had fallen asleep and woke at about 12:15 to the strangest of noises…nothing. For a minute I thought that they had gotten the power back and went to meeting, but a sight of the white Volkswagen "Wormwood and the Gol" parked in the driveway proved me wrong.
A little while later they all came downstairs one by one. First was William, followed by Caroline, then Aunt Lori and finally Uncle Mark. Aunt Lori made a delicious lunch of the Nioki pasta that had been sitting in the fridge for two weeks taunting William every time he opened the door. After lunch I took a walk around the property to see if I could find a main circuit breaker anywhere. I found something that looked like a breaker near the gate and flipped the switch. I heard Mark bellow from inside the house “We’ve got power”, and could see in the window as the kids danced around the living room. I boiled some water to shave, took a shower and then went about my business for the day.
My headache had mostly subsided by about 5:00 after I sent reinforcement brigade of Advil past my gullet and into my digestive system. We all left for meeting shortly thereafter. Before Gospel meeting this week, the kids who are enrolled in the music school taught by Suzete played their recorders in front of all of us. They played “Here I am to Worship” while Paulo sang the song in Portuguese. It is not often down here that I actually hear a tune that I recognize, and by now I could make out some of the words of the song to compare the lyrics in English and Portuguese.
After the first song was complete Caroline got up and sang with Paulo as the kids played another tune on their recorders. Paulo sang the first and third verse in Portuguese while Caroline sang the second and fourth verse in English. After the kids had finished, the Gospel meeting began. Many of the kids in the music school are from the neighborhood, and it is a great opportunity to get their parents out to meeting. Luis spoke for an hour, and by the end of meeting my rear end was begging for a cushion. We visited with everyone for a little while and then headed to the supermarket to pick up some much needed groceries.
We got there as the store was closing, but we managed to shop for most of what we needed while waiting in line to be checked out. I believe that Brazil has the slowest cashiers on the planet. We got home at 11, and I wanted to just get to bed. William was exhausted also and he was basically asleep by the time I had finished brushing my teeth. I wish I had the sleeping power that this kid has…
Paulo Sings "Here I am to Worship" in Portuguese
Suzete Introduces Caroline Who Sang in English While Paulo Sang in Portuguese
Caroline Poses with Pietro as He Keeps Beat With His Drum
Pietro Showing Me a Thing or Two About Playing a Tambourine
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