Busy days

Feliz Pascoa! Happy Easter from Brazil!

Today I had traditional barbecue from Brazil including leg of lamb, beef and grilled bananas. Need portion control police for meals here, the food is very, very good. For sure the next time I go camping I am going to grill bananas. We also had a bread with a cream cheese in the middle with adobe spice. The spices here are very good and Lisette is giving me some to take home. We have been sharing different candies, ideas, and gifts with one another and Brazilians generosity is unbelievable. They gave me a chocolate easter bunny and a blanket made out of the fiber of a coconut. I may have an opportunity to host their daughter when she comes to vacation in the United States and am very excited about staying in touch with a new group of friends and community family from Santa Maria. I know I keep promising pictures, but connection has been sketchy to download photos sometimes, promise I will keep working on making time to post photos. We went to the municipal cemetery today where many honor their loved ones on Easter with flowers on their gravesites. Some of graves have a plaque on a wall that goes around the cemetery with their name, maybe a picture and their dates of birth and death. They have shelves in which many put plants or flowers or statues of Mary or Christ. Those that have some money have a granite plaque that goes in the wall, the sad part was those that could not afford write their names on cement plaque in paint. There were also many above ground vaults that often times were tiled in granite or other material. Very elaborate are very expensive. This cemetery was existing in at least 1918, so it is very old.

We later went to the mall where stores are closed on Sundays, however, the shopping mall food court area is a very large social place for the Brazilians in Santa Maria. They hire very good musicians to play in the malls here (musicians had even put out popular compact disks). We snacked on Pastelli´s which are very common in Brazil, they can contain chicken, beef or cheese, and are deep fried bread on the outside. They can be either shaped in a half circle or as a rectangle.

The world is even small in Brazil. On the way out of the mall, I ran into one of the interpreters from Sao Pedro (about an hour and one half away) and we greeted each other. Goodbye for now, I can not wait to here from the others about their day - excitement and growth in many areas for all of us. Hello Team from Brazil who is in Bismarck right now.