(Semi)-Settled In

Hello Everyone,

Somehow it seems like a lifetime ago we were in Canada, yet it was only 5 days ago!?  Wait a second, did I count that right?  Wow.  I guess my limited Portuguese is a good reminder of how long we've actually been here.

The trip went so great, despite somehow having to collect 11 pieces of luggage approximately 70 lbs each, go through customs and recheck them, all the while dragging along our overwhelming amount of carry-on bags.  Oh, and trying not to lose any children along the way! all within an hour and a half in Sao Paulo.  However, that is said and done, and the two oldest enjoyed the 10 hour overnight flight with their personal tvs and selection of movies and games.  Lyla had a spaz in her sleep here and there (nothing abnormal for her) but she did sleep the majority of the flight.  Her restlessness kept Shaun up the most.  Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers, they were definitely felt!

We stayed overnight the first night at one of the missionary family's homes in Recife.  It was wonderful to catch up with them.  Then the next day it was off to our new home!  A two hour drive down to the coast.  We were worried about traffic for Carnival, but it ended up being good.

We are very excited with our new home.  It is on a lot with 4 homes, the one in front of us lived in by our friends Hermes and Thacianne, and they have two children as well, so it is so nice to have them there.  The house is smallish, mainly meant for weekend rentals, but it does have 3 bedrooms and some furniture, which we are very happy about.  Two of the rooms have double beds, and the third has a set of bunk beds.  It is unbelievable how much stuff we were able to bring with us.  So much that it is lying around with no place to put it.  As it is a vacation rental, it is not designed for storage.  The kitchen has an old small stove, and the fridge is quite large by Brazil standards, with a small icebox up top.  There is an open plywood shelf under the sink that I don’t think will ever look clean, and a couple cupboards with drawers that are super difficult to open which complete the kitchen.  The counter space is pretty decent, I must say.  I was told there had been a housecleaner in before we got here, so I was quite disappointed to find toothpaste in the sink, the shelves had obvious dirt on it, etc.  It made me feel like I had to redo everything, because I couldn’t tell if anything had been done.  I started by cleaning the kitchen cupboards, and found mould on the backs of the drawers.  I couldn’t decide if this was something to expect so I just shoved my utensils in the top drawer (no mould should be able to fall in it, right?), and cleaned as best I could.   We are slowly assessing what we need, and so far my conclusion is some type of wardrobe or dresser.  One of the bedrooms has 3 large shelves, the other bedroom has one shelf out of the wall, and in another bedroom there’s a small cabinet.  Also maybe some plastic shelves for the bathrooms (as there is no place for towels), and a bookcase.  And odds and ends like a toolbox if I don’t want the random assortment of Shaun’s tools lying on our limited counter space.  It is a bit frustrating looking at all the little items strewn about our home with no place to put them, but hopefully we’ll get up to Recife again next week to do some shopping.  Right now we're making due with our rubbermaid containers and suitcases, and the shelves.  I was so excited to find that the mirrors in the bathrooms had medicine cabinets!  Especially as I took along pretty much every medication in my house, as well as first aid supplies.  

That reminds me, it even has two bathrooms, one off the master bedroom!  Unfortunately neither has warm water (yet), and actually we arrived to fairly cool temperatures, so a cold shower is not so appealing yet.  If you don't know how the showers work here, there is no hot water tank, but at the shower head there is an electrical current that heats up the water when you turn it on.  Another side note is that you don't flush toilet paper here in Maragogi (or Recife), you put it in the garbage can.  I'm not sure if that is a Brazil-wide thing.  And I can't tell you why, whether it's the sewage system, or the toilets.  Most bathrooms have a little sprayer to clean yourself off before you wipe.  Ours don't though, and our bathrooms sorely lack ventilation, so it's not too pleasant in there.  Well, especially ours, because we have kept the bedroom doors closed in an attempt to keep out mosquitoes.  

That's the other exciting news, the rooms have air conditioning!  So great!  The only problem is we can't hear the kids at all in the night.  Lyla was screaming last night and Shaun somehow heard her, and she was wet through.  The night before Hazel woke us up to tell us Lyla was calling us.  We currently have Seth and Hazel on the bunks and Lyla in her pack 'n play in a different room.  The two rooms are actually connected by a little square hole in the wall (just big enough for a kid to crawl through) and a fan at the top, as the air conditioning unit is in one of the rooms and it fans it to the other.  We are toying with the idea of putting all three kids together (like we had at home) and taking Lyla's room.  This is so we can hear them, and also so we only need to run one air conditioning unit at night.  We'll see what happens over the next few days.

One more crazy thing.  On Friday afternoon, it started to rain.  And rain.  And rain.  Torrential downpour tropical rainstorm.  Just like the last time we got here.  I wonder if it stopped raining in BC when we left, and just followed us here.  Then our roof started dripping.  The kids' rooms were fine, but wow, our bedroom was not.  Fortunately it was beside our bed, so we set up a few containers here and there.  It was so rainy our roof in our kitchen leaked and all over the dining and living room area.  Everything was damp.  Anyways, our friends in front of us are actually managing the property, and on Saturday it was quickly fixed after we let him know.  

We aren't sure how long we're going to stay in this house, but for sure we are renting it until June.  Anyways, I know this is a super long entry, but I thought I'd just catch everyone up on everything if they want to read it all!   We are all still on BC time, but that should change over the next few days, as we had to get up early for church this morning.  We took time out from unpacking to head to the beach Friday, and actually that's where Seth and Shaun are right now.  The beach (that we can see from our house) is a 2 minute walk down our street.  It is gorgeous and clean.  A little busier now with Carnival this weekend, and actually quite dirty with the excessive rain, but next week should be much better.

I'm going to leave you with a couple comments from Seth: 

I caught a Lizard.   I also caught a Frog.  I have 17 MOSQETO bites.  I have a sunburn. We almost caught a crab.

Seth

Talk to you all soon,

Brenda