Can you say "carne"... ?

We've reached the midpoint of February and as you can see the days are averagely hot, challenging each in their own small ways, and still God is giving us regular "highs". Day 14. Here goes.

Welcome to every man's dream (unless you are vegetarian):

Freio de Ouro Churrascaria - translation - Gold Brake BBQ

So basically you sit down and your conversation is constantly interrupted by skewers
of meat. It's Valentine's Day so we splurged and had all we could eat for about $40 U.S. dollars. We ate at a churrascaria in the states just before we left for Brazil and paid $99 per couple. This was a steal! We took two buses there and made it just under 2 hours with rush hour traffic. BUT, we paid half on our second bus fare because we figured out how to transfer in a certain amount of time and save money!

We were served a variety of meats: 24 hour ribs, melt in your mouth pork (okay we made that name up), chicken hearts (Maicol ate about 30), beef ribs, filet mignon, roasted chicken, a linguica (facy sausage), and some other things we were so busy engulfing we missed the specific terminology. We swallowed it down with our favorite Brazilian soda (Guarana) and a Coke.

Top it off with roasted pineapple sprinkled with cinnamon! Not to mention the salad buffet and desserts. What a night! And we celebrate with you all this day of loved ones that God has given us.

The walk around the pond...

Three years ago Maicol asked Mandy to marry him! What an exciting day. Three years later we cannot believe we are in Brazil. Time flies! Had our church service tonight at 8pm. We've been having Monday night services for summer with everyone travelling on weekends for vacations. Filled out a lengthy application today and walked over to our bank and rental agency to work out some details with our bills. Another average day. Except for the memories of this day before Valentine's day in 2009! And of course, the beautiful Brazilian Hot Dog you see below. And now we are delighted to introduce you to our favorite food in Brazil...

High: 93F/Engagement Anniversary

T7 and T minus 17

T7 is the bus we took to church today. T minus 17 indicates how many posts we have left for February!

Visited a church this morning in another part of our city and it was so neat! We were so encouraged to meet the other missionary couples building a church here in Porto Alegre.

We are continually praying about our car to be sold so we can purchase a new one. We have a car from Maicol's family we've been borrowing but it is not insured so we try not to use it in unfamiliar places. Next week we will be giving the car back to his family and be totally reliant on public transportation or walking. We've been using the bus and train system more regularly now so we are somewhat accustomed. What makes all of this so neat is that our apartment is located directly in front of the main bus terminal "The Triangulo" (you'll see why in the picture). The grocery store, bank, pharmacy, shopping center, and many other necessary places are within a 10 minute walking distance!

The weekend remained beautiful, sunny skies and an average temperature of 75F.

#11 - Our NYC

Welcome to our smaller version of NYC.

The city is packed and in the process of growing, up, up and away! Everyday while driving we receive adds at the stoplights of the busy intersections for new buildings being constructed. The city is growing and it's very exciting! Carnaval takes place in 10 days! A four day parade/holiday that will shut down the city for four days of people lining the streets for a party.

Today we worked at a property ABWE plans to use as a retreat center. We painted ourselves out but we're very thankful that the weather was PERFECT for a workday. Glad we could help!

High - 85F and sunny/great day for painting projects

It. couldn't. be. COOKIES?!?!

10 posts into February, 19 to go...

YES! It's 69F outside and it's perfect for turning finally on this stove for a delicious treat! Cooking is still quite the task without cabinets or counter tops but the adventure tonight was worth it. Hopefully next weekend we will have the kitchen finished!
Facing difficulties and finding strength in God. One more week of language school for Mandy before the 1/2 way mark! The brain is past tired! Maicol is working hard to finish up projects and the last 9 weeks of seminary as we know it! Walked over to the grocery store tonight and felt drawn to the hot dog guy on the way home. We couldn't help ourselves! Do believe it's time to dedicate a few posts to delicious Brazilian food. Once we get our camera back, be prepared to drool!

Low - 69F (perfect!)/challenges to press on/still without kitchen cabinets for another week

75F and Partly Sunny

Maicol came home from the men's retreat today and the skies stayed cloudy. Got the news that we won't be getting our kitchen cabinets installed now until next week. almost a month here without cabinets or countertops presents a challenge, can't wait for next week!

The Flood

And the rains came... and in three minutes the streets were flooded! The drainage systems aren't the best. It makes for an interesting driving experience. The idea is to drive slow enough through the tire high water that you don't splash too much up into the car, but fast enough to get through it before you loose traction. But not so fast that as you exit the flood, you drench the people playing hop scotch in the sidewalk flood as they attempt to avoid the doozies. And all the while you do need to spend a decent amount of time actually looking ahead of your car so you can see where you're driving through this circus anyway.

Maicol is enjoying some time away on the men's retreat and Mandy enjoyed catching up on some projects. To save money we are making a couch from a twin sized bed. Lots of sewing is yet to come!

How low can we go?

In case you're just tuning in this is the 7th in a series of posts for February and our goal is to blog each day about daily life...

Low: 79F

Today we had a relief of heat after about 4pm. The wind is blowing nice cool air through the window - finally! One thing you may not know about a missionary is your financial records require serious detail, since you basically have to track your spending as if you were self-employed. This task alone requires daily attention and sometimes, hours. of. work. Low = 4 hours doing bills!

Mandy enjoyed a great bible study with teen girls today studying the third chapter of Esther. Next week the girls will sleepover and for bible study hour they teach each other (and Mandy) chapter four! Took a group photo to share , however, forgot the camera somewhere. Low = lost camera.

Maicol is enjoying his first night away for men's retreat planning for the year and discussing important issues on the field here. Enjoyed a day of golf!

The life of a missionary is busy and at times without routine. A job that requires you to be on your toes at all times. Tomorrow we have many plans and tasks to accomplish, we'll see how much gets done!

Superbowl, Super hot, and Super fun

Noticing a theme? Yea. It's hot. It's a reality of daily life here. Americans don't realize how lucky we are when we can set our central air to 69F and feel refreshed most of the day in our home, our car, or at work... Very different here. We wake up sweaty and stay that way between showers! Superbowl yesterday was celebrated among American friends (our Brazilian friends had a really important soccer game to attend to) so we enjoyed traditional superbowl food and fun. Traditional, yet just about every recipe needs tweaking based on available ingredients. Some days you go to the grocery store and they have cream, other days no. There are many items we use in recipes in the states that just are not readily available, staples most people keep at all times! Maple syrup, bisquick, frozen bread dough, cheddar cheese, and sour cream just to name a few. So we learn new things and tweak what we really miss hoping it comes out similar! Last night was fun! Mandy enjoyed cheering for a high school classmate, Jerod Mayo for the Patriots. Today we faced normal challenges as we went to purchase a box for our mattress and found it had increased in price, nearly doubled! Daily life tip: if you find something you need, for a decent price - buy it! Tomorrow it may be gone, and unable to be restocked or the price can jump for no apparent reason! We've learned that the hard way a a time or two!

High:Superbowl/cloudy skies Low:shopping dilemmas