Beach?

Tuesday's Pictures

Where’s the beach? (kind of reminds me of the old 1980’s Wendy’s commercial…) Ken looked for it first heading east (or was it south? We can’t tell directions down here in the southern hemisphere) for a few blocks, only to discover that the body of water in that direction was a lake or lagoon or something not the beach. So after talking to the morning clerk at the pousada (using International Sign Language, of course), we headed out west (or north?) looking for a fabled championship beach where surfing competitions are held. We did find the beach, but it was not the pretty swimming beach we had all been dreaming about. This one was about 10 yards wide, had seaweed and boats just a few feet out, broken glass mixed in with the sand/rocks/pebbles/other material, and smelled like a tidal flat. Disappointed, we headed back to the posada for more information.

By then Pastor Pedro Paulo loaded up everyone into the van and took us to a real beach. Or at least a real beach if you’ve never lived in Florida. I still don’t believe that we found that championship surfing beach, but who knows. After some sand futbol (soccer), I remembered the reasons I have grown to dislike the beach – salt and sand. Oh well, too late now.

After plenty of time at the beach, we headed back to the Pousada for a quick shower and head into town to go shopping. I finally get each child in my kid’s church room a cute little… (oops – it’s a surprise – come back after Sunday and find out). After loading all our stuff back into the vans, we head out for a quick three hour drive back to Nilopolis. Of course we have stop at the same weigh-your-food-and-feel-really-bad-about-how-much-you-are-eating place (it’s even more this time!) for lunch. We arrived back at the Pastor’s parsonage about 5:30PM, with dinner waiting for us. Man, I’ve never eaten so much food! After dinner, a quick game of palma bird, and typing the blog, somehow its become 1:20AM, and I’m headed to bed!

Tomorrow is a big work day back in to Esqueleto to work on the new church.

Only two more days in Brazil (very mixed emotions on that one!).

Mark