We arrived in our new home last week Thursday (November 14) at 11:30 at night. We had spent the day packing/cleaning/preparing for the return of the family whose home we had invaded for the last three months. We also had run out of options for a vehicle, as the vehicle we had hoped to borrow/rent was broken down. So.... we ended up renting a vehicle. Shaun was going to drop me off at the car rental place on his way to the airport to pick up the family. I was supposed to maneuver my way back home and finish packing. There was supposed to be another vehicle left at the airport for the family, as the eight of them plus a large number of suitcases would not fit in their vehicle. Then we found out the vehicle was not left there, as it had broken down on the way to the airport that morning. After much hurried discussion, Shaun dropped me back off at home and headed to the airport. We contacted the car rental place and arranged to pick up our rental at the airport (apparently they thought that was where we were picking it up anyway!). Shaun could drive one vehicle with luggage and the whole family could go in their own vehicle. Anyways, we ended up having supper with them, and by the time we were on the road it was 7:30. It is supposed to be around a two hour drive, but it was the start of the long weekend.... Think gridlock out of the Fraser Valley on a long weekend. Precisely the reason I hate traveling on long weekends and avoid it at all costs. Thankfully we had hired someone to clean the house, however, she had the only key. Her sister is a friend of ours, so we phoned her up and she left the key under her mat (yes.. they do that here too!). By the time we picked up the key and got to our home it was close to midnight. We scrounged around for bedsheets and thanked God for our clean house. It makes such a huge difference when you know things are clean. Especially since in North America we are obsessed with cleanliness, and here there is a somewhat more relaxed attitude towards it. I felt like my whole perspective of the house changed just because I felt like it was clean.
So here is an introduction to our home:
The street where we live. If you can see the sign on the right, it is a church. A church that is open every day of the week. A church that believes that the louder and more dramatic you talk the more you will be listened to. A church that has a female missionary with a slightly off key singing voice that blasts into the microphone, with a beautiful recording of the actual song in the background. Yes... this is what we hear most nights and occasionally during the day. It just seems to be part of Brazil, noise on every street. It's starting to fade into the background already. However, I took a video of it and will attempt to publish it in the future. That way, when you come visit us, you can't say I didn't warn you! Besides, the AC covers the noise in rooms :)
Here's the street in the other direction. Our car gate is on the left, with a wooden gate into our field behind it.
The gate to our home (car gate to the right).
Entering the gate... our front door.
The gate beside the car gate... into an extra piece of property beside the house that we have the privelage of using.
Through the front door... a living area. Overrun by toys. There is no couch or chairs to speak of, but we are happy to have an entertainment unit to the right, which can store most of our books. It does have a TV as well, with a few channels.
Through the living area on to the kitchen. The table and six chairs were provided. They are slightly wobbly with padding coming out of a few of them, and paint splatters over everything, however they will suffice.
The kitchen has a wonderful amount of cupboard space, generally hard to find. The stove and oven also work great and are large. Six burners and a nice hot oven that works.
Our prized possessions. Our friends bought new ones and gifted us with these. This is great because we were using:
This is a fun idea... if you are camping.
A brand new fridge/freezer. Okay, we have more than one prized possession.
One of the most beautiful features of the house is it has a large veranda around the entire house. Adds space to play for the kids, keeps the house slightly more cool.
If you were looking at our front door, this field would be on the left. Not our field. We think this is one of the reasons we have an insane amount of mosquitoes. We have gotten a quote for screens and we know if we get some fans it should help. But they are unbearable. Our bedrooms are okay because we have AC, but when the power went out and we were faced with the prospect of sleeping with the windows open I practically cried. This was the second day we were here and a transformer blew right outside our house right at twilight. Amazingly, the power company fixed it within an hour and a half. We had gone to the store because we had no candles or flashlights or anything and came back to having it fixed.
Our rental car, a Fiat Dublo.
Off the back veranda is my laundry area. This is outside and part of a separate building. To the left is an outside bathroom, and to the right a storage area. The washing machine is also another prized possession.
Past the washing machine and storage area lies a gate into the field we can use.
Looking at the field off of our veranda. When I saw the land, I didn't think it was anything special. Here they don't typically plant grass because it becomes a haven for snakes, so when you see someone's land you see what looks like dirt and weeks. However, on closer inspection this land is a goldmine.
Here's another prized possession. It's the little girl in the tree, can you find her? But besides her, this mango tree is a very exciting find.
There she is!
These juicy mangoes will be ready in February. Apparently last year they had 200!
We have two of these trees that produce lovely berries called acerola.
A vine that stretches for 50 feet at least, all over the yard, has produced one... squash?
Three coconut trees!
A large tree that has one clump of fruit.... some sort of citrus?
A couple small trees that are growing some sort of fruit. When they are bigger they will look like this:
Our neighbour's tree of the same fruit, much much larger. I have no idea if this is good or edible or even what it is similar to, so we will have to ask.
I can't remember the name of this, looks kind of like a passion fruit.
A very sticky sweet fruit you peel a little clump at a time to eat.
So there you have it, an introduction to our house. I have been working on it for a couple days and wanted to include more, but figure this is a good start. Shaun and I currently have to share an internet stick to get internet, which means only one of us can go on the internet at a time. We are thankful we even have that, because we had to borrow from a friend, and are hoping to get some sort of internet box that we can both use at the same time. Peroba doesn't have access to the internet without this.
Well, it is way too late, hopefully I can chat again tomorrow! Have a wonderful Sunday,
Love the Raaps
