Friday, March 3, 2006

I had a few neat experiences today; part of me wants to share them because it illustrates a bit better how life in Brazil is, but part of me doesn’t because I don’t want it to appear like I’m talking myself up, or anything like that.

With that, I’ll get to the stories later…

I was awoken this morning to a phone call from the Cossios. They were wondering what time we were leaving for Tubarão; I told them 14 hours and maybe it was with the company Catarinensse, but I don’t think they understood me. At 12:00 noon, when Dave went to the SRE office to gather the equipment and I stayed behind to shower and get ready, I got a phone call from Dave – the Cossios were already at the bus terminal, waiting for us! It appears they contacted the bus agency Catarinensse and learned that their bus was leaving at 12:45, not 2:30 pm like I had said. Unfortunately, I had told them the wrong agency, because there really was a bus leaving at 2:30, but not on Catarinensse. So Dave and I decided to rush as quick as we could and try to make it in time for the 12:45 bus. Well, we didn’t. We arrived by 1:05 but the Cossios were their happy, smiley selves and didn’t seem to mind the miscommunication.

They are such a sweet, old couple! I’m not sure if I’ve described them, yet, but they are originally from Argentina, and have been living near one of their children in Floripa for the last two years. They still speak with a STRONG Spanish accent, much of the time it’s hard for people w/o Spanish knowledge to understand what they’re saying. They have a number of children who are married and live in the United States and are just the nicest people! They will make great service missionaries.

As I was talking w/ Elder Cossio, a woman who appeared about four months pregnant came asking for food. I knew she was being sincere when she didn’t even ask for money, so I offered to help. I took her to a restaurant on the second floor where you pay by the kilo and I told her she could get R$4,00 worth of food, thinking she’d probably get a little more. As she filled her plate I had my eye on the nearby soccer game; bad idea. Before I knew it, her plate was bulging with food; “that’s at least R$8,00” I told her. And sure enough, the balance read R$8,45. I informed the man I was merely helping the woman and that I’d asked her to get less food; the man took pity on us both and lowered the bill to R$4,00. The woman quickly sat down and ate. The next awkward moment was paying for the R$4,00 meal with a R$50,00 bill. It was all I had for the weekend trip, but to the man I looked like a con-man since I had just talked the meal down from 8 to R$4. ha… oh well.

Dave and I ate a quick bite at a cheaper snack place. Interestingly enough, when I entered the bus terminal there was a crippled man with no legs sitting outside the door. His sunburned skin and dreadlocked hair were a few of the obvious signals that he was homeless. As I passed him, I couldn’t help but think how difficult his life must be. As I finished my snack I bought an extra pastel to-go and carried it out to him. He was very thankful but was still eager to ask for the half liter of water I was carrying.

So we took the 2:30 pm bus from Flrorianópolis, non-stop to Tubarão. Dave paid for our four tickets (which he’ll get reimbursed) and we sat in the very front of the big charter bus. Our four seats were the front of the bus, as the driver’s cab was underneath. It made for quite the view as we drove along the coast. On the way, I worked on my own resumé that I was preparing to sent to David’s mom and as part of an application for a summer internship in Washington D.C. Dave’s mom works in the BYU library and seems to be looking for someone to fill an recent opening.

So we got to Tubarão about 5:00 pm and Richard, an 18-year-old member, picked us up from the bus station and after a quick stop at the chapel, he took us to our hotel – the San Silvestre Hotel. I got cleaned up, Dave checked his email downstairs, and all four of us went across the street to a hotel; not knowing that it was REALLY expensive. Since we were in a hurry, we just bought a few appetizers and split them.

We were trying to be at church by 6:45 pm, since we were informed the course started at 7. The taxi got us there by 7, but to our surprise only two girls had arrived. We were told at least 30 people were expected; by 8:20 there were 12.

But they were a good group and we got a lot done in the 2 + hours of course. Elder and Sister Cossio used the course as a training session and took notes as we went along.

By 11:15 pm we had gotten a taxi and were headed back to our hotel. I was asleep by midnight – exhausted.