An interesting aspect of our hunting for a place to live has been the difference between unfurnished and furnished places. The furnished places are outrageous so we've mostly stayed away from those and began to search in the unfurnished places. We were warned before we came that getting furniture here would not be like in the states. There are no goodwills or salvation army's or garage sales. If you bought a couch ten years ago for $200, and it's not trashed, you could still get $190 for it. Basically, goods hold their value here.
What has come as a surprise to us as we began to look at some of the unfurnished places is that unfurnished has a vastly different meaning here. It's not just needing some furniture. When a Brazilian cleans out their place to rent it out unfurnished, they take the major appliances, sinks, cabinets, counters, toilet seats, and light bulbs!!! An interesting aspect of Brazilian culture to us.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
The First 24 Hours
I am not pretending that this will be a daily thing, it won't! However, these first 24 hours have been somewhat remarkable.
It began with an inconceivable reality, we were not allowed to go to Brazil and would not be given our tickets. Apparently the guy at the US Air counter had some little piece of paper print out that said we couldn't come without a return ticket, although we had no immediate plans of returning. If it weren't for my brother-in-law Duane, and his precious technologically advanced phones we would've been in trouble. We asked if we could purchase return tickets and show them proof to obtain our tickets. We had to run to the gate but we were off!
In Charlotte we met this Brazilian lady who lives in Pennsylvania. She was returning to Rio to visit family. We had a good conversation and she ended up being near us on the plane. About 7 am this morning nearing the end of the flight, her daughter Bianca (about 4) had to go to the bathroom. She stands up, turns to the middle aged American man next to her, and asks him to hold her 6 week old while she helped her daughter in the bathroom. She promptly handed the baby over and walked towards the bathroom with little Bianca in tow. MAAmericanM or MAAM as I will forever call him, looked with bewilderment as six month old boy began to cry. I thought he was going to pass out at the unfolding of unexpected events.
This previous story combined with the thirty to forty cases of complete strangers in airports and grocery stores patting our kids on the head would be experience enough to cause some of our closest friends back home to completely stroke out :)! You know who you are!
While we're "normal" enough to see these things as completely odd. We're odd enough to completely LOVE IT! I'm sure as time passes there will be things that grate on us. But I think we're officially in the honeymoon stage and can see the plus side of some of these "oddities". Some of these "oddities" are simply the reflection of God's image through another culture and we want to value them, even if it is difficult.
Much more to come . . .
It began with an inconceivable reality, we were not allowed to go to Brazil and would not be given our tickets. Apparently the guy at the US Air counter had some little piece of paper print out that said we couldn't come without a return ticket, although we had no immediate plans of returning. If it weren't for my brother-in-law Duane, and his precious technologically advanced phones we would've been in trouble. We asked if we could purchase return tickets and show them proof to obtain our tickets. We had to run to the gate but we were off!
In Charlotte we met this Brazilian lady who lives in Pennsylvania. She was returning to Rio to visit family. We had a good conversation and she ended up being near us on the plane. About 7 am this morning nearing the end of the flight, her daughter Bianca (about 4) had to go to the bathroom. She stands up, turns to the middle aged American man next to her, and asks him to hold her 6 week old while she helped her daughter in the bathroom. She promptly handed the baby over and walked towards the bathroom with little Bianca in tow. MAAmericanM or MAAM as I will forever call him, looked with bewilderment as six month old boy began to cry. I thought he was going to pass out at the unfolding of unexpected events.
This previous story combined with the thirty to forty cases of complete strangers in airports and grocery stores patting our kids on the head would be experience enough to cause some of our closest friends back home to completely stroke out :)! You know who you are!
While we're "normal" enough to see these things as completely odd. We're odd enough to completely LOVE IT! I'm sure as time passes there will be things that grate on us. But I think we're officially in the honeymoon stage and can see the plus side of some of these "oddities". Some of these "oddities" are simply the reflection of God's image through another culture and we want to value them, even if it is difficult.
Much more to come . . .
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