My first "Aha!" experience

I had my first "Aha!" experience yesterday. We were having lunch at the Shedd's house, and their maid came up to me and said, "Do you recognize me?"
"No," I answered.
"I'm Dona Cremilda's granddaughter," she answered.
Shivers went up my spine when she said that. I gave her a big hug and tears came to my eyes. Dona Cremilda was very special to my family. She was our family's maid when I was growing up, and she helped raise me. She passed away several years ago (Without going into details, my parents helped D. Cremilda have a secure financial situation, and the Shedds helped this granddaughter with her education. However, the granddaughter's nursing vocation resulted in very difficult work with uncertain pay in Brasil, and she preferred now to work for the Shedds, as it was a better option for her.)
Meeting D. Cremilda's granddaughter was one of those out-of-the-blue events that touched a place deep inside my heart because of the special place D. Cremilda has in my family. Tears are coming to my eyes even as I write this. It was an unexpected gift from God that helped me re-connect with a part of my childhood.

Our First Days

This is our third day in Sao Paulo. We are having a great time meeting various family friends of Felipes. We are staying with one family-- the Shedds. Their daughter, Helen, is Susie´s (Felipe´s sister) best friend. She and her husband Edi have 3 toddlers, all of whom are worshipping Maddie (or Manny or Muddy as they call her). They are a great home base for us. We also saw our friend from Thunderbird, Elizabeth Candia, yesterday; Elizabeth and her husband Ben are quite the international couple. Elizabeth is Bolivian and Ben is half Australian half Indonesian. No wonder we like them. We also ran into a radical Swiss American couple who work in a favela (slum). The husband, John Macy, yelled out ´Cunliffe´ as he met Felipe at a consultation here 3 years ago. Here´s what I (Dana) am seeing even more strongly in my dear Felipe. People totally dig and respect him and he´s very well known. His understatedness belies this truth! Lastly, we spent about 5 hours talking to Bill and Mary Fawcett (Felipe´s pastor here) and their daughter Katherine who is visiting from Chicago. We heard lots of stories over these days. The theme of many stories have to do with being robbed at gunpoint in their homes. They all laugh. They are hearty.

On a lighter note, we love cafe com leite (like an au lait) and panzinahs (yummy rolls, excuse my spelling). The kids have jet lag. We drag their carcasses out of bed each morning. They are very good sports.

Ok. Life is bom. Ciao.

Brasilian Consulate

I (Felipe) went to the Brazilian consulate last week to turn in the visa applications. I arrived there a couple of minutes before 9:00, and there was already a line of more than 20 people. Given the fact that there are at most 2 consular officials at the window, along with the slow nature of Brazilian bureaucracy, I would easily be waiting in line for two hours.

Lesson #1: It pays to be Brazilian. There are two lines at the consulate, one for Brazilians and the other for non-citizens. I went to the Brazilian line, even though I was applying for visas for non-citizens, to see if they'd accept the applications. Sure enough, I was helped right away, since
I was the only Brazilian citizen in the room.

Lesson #2: Brazilian bureaucracy is a stickler for completely filling out every line on the entire form. In particular, none of us had filled out the portion about where we'd be staying in Brazil, and the lady wouldn't accept the applications without that. And I don't have the address of anywhere we're staying! I did the remember the name of the hotel we're staying at on
our way to Rio (after the Ashlocks leave-- this is Hans and Tracy Ashlock who will be traveling with us for 2 weeks), so I asked her if I could use that hotel name and city/state. She said fine (see Lesson #1, "it pays to be Brazilian"). She reprimanded the Ashlocks in absentia for not including their middle names, not filling out their length of stay, port of entry, etc. I filled them out for them, so it wasn't a problem. She did say, "I guess your friends don't like to write very much." :)

Lesson #3: It pays to be Brazilian. There is a $10 application fee if someone else turns in your visa application for you. This $10 MUST BE a US postal money order. The directions explicitly state that you cannot use cash, personal checks, or credit cards. I obviously didn't have money
orders for that fee, but the consular official accepted my cash without reprimanding me. Dana didn't even have to pay the fee, with no reason given, but I guess because she's married to a Brazilian.

So basically instead of a nightmare of waiting two hours in line, getting to the front of the line and being sent to the post office for more money orders, and coming back to wait in line again, I was in and out in less than 20 minutes!

Ok, a little more packing to do . . .

Spelling Bee

We are using the Portuguese spelling for Brasil (which you spelling bee types have already picked up). Maybe it comes across as copping an affect, I dunno, but that's how Felipe and his kin have always spelled it. Perhaps it's like writing "Espana" or "Nawlins" or "Firenze." Well, when in Roma . . .

Today, we opened gifts and later worshipped with our church. Tomorrow, on Christmas Day we are cleaning and packing. Our adreneline is rising and our to do list is decreasing.