I Look Brazilian

I have found that Brazilians come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. It's very interesting. The other Latin American countries I've been to, the people of those countries have the stereotypical Latin American look. Granted, I've only been to Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica, but that was the norm in those countries. Here (where we are right now anyway), it is more like the U.S. as far as being a melting pot of looks. So, I actually fit in just fine. Nobody comes up to me and knows that I'm American. People always come up to me and start spouting off Portuguese. :)

Today me and Priscilla rode the bus downtown with Magali after lunch. It was fun. We did a little shopping, mostly the window kind. It was a good time though.

Also, as of today we are the proud owners of a car of our own. We bought a 2000 Volkswagen Gol (we don't have those in the states). It has 2 bucket seats in the front, a back seat, and then a trunk that can be open and accessible from the front of the car. Not much room as compared to a mini-van (very tall people shouldn't come visit us...or, just know that you won't be able to sit up straight in our car :) ), but really all that is available here without paying an arm and a leg. It will be a good first car here. Joel took it to the mechanic today before he bought it and the mechanic said that it was a great car in great condition.

Crazy story...the guy that we bought it from is now in the states. Our friends from Louisiana (Rayville), Thad and Wendy Cooper, are in Michigan doing some training in order to be missionary pilots. Joel met Thad while out in Dallas getting his flight instructor's license. Thad is the one, during that brief encounter, that started Joel wondering if we were really supposed to go with MAF. So, in a weird way, Thad is slightly responsible for us being here in Brasil at Asas. The funny thing now is that Thad is now looking for a place to go himself. They came to visit us in Saline when they were home in Rayville around Easter. At that point they thought that Asas might sound like a real possibility. Then they went back to Michigan and met a guy...from Asas!! Hello.

We got down here and some people were telling us about this car that a guy from Asas was selling...a guy that was in the states now, in Michigan. Such a small world, isn't it?

Anyhoo, we are very glad to have a car. We should be able to go pick it up in the morning.

Exactly 2 more weeks until we can move into our other house...and have internet...and post pictures. I'm ready, although I'll miss this great neighborhood...it's been really fun living here.