Hello - Here's a little update of the happenings during our third week here in Brazil.
Contentment - This week was better than last week, mostly because I started reading a book by Mary Ellen Edmunds about Contentment. It's title is 'You Can Never Get Enough of What you Don't Need: The Quest for Contentment." I've only read the first two chapters, but I give it thumbs up. I think the key for me to being content is Gratitude, thinking of things I'm grateful for and not getting upset about things that are not important. Scripture of the week is Alma 32
A Clean House - Several times when I've gotten after the kids here for messing things up, I realize it must just be out of habit and not for any rational reason, cause the reasons I used to have do not apply to us here. For example, in Virginia, our townhouse had white walls and cream carpet, so during out time renting there I would regularly freak out when the kids colored on the walls or had bathroom accidents (especially #2) on the floor. In Virginia it required me a great deal of cleaning and usually wouldn't all come up until after several rounds of scrubbing. Here, we have an all tile floor house and cement walls that are dirty. We've had several accidents on the floor, usually in the bathroom, and I have gotten upset the same as in Virginia, but I get to clean it up with a hose from the shower, a squeegee, and floor cleaner, and can just push it all into one of the two drains right on the floor. It's actually quite easy, so I've started to try and train myself to relax and not loose my temper. No biggie to clean, I should be happy!
And the kids also painted on the walls last week with some watercolor paints. That would have been a really big deal in Virginia with our flat paint that absorbed moisture and color, luckily they never did that there. But here, after I freaked out, the kids were able to wipe it off quite easily. So then I said sorry for freaking out, and then looked around at how dirty the walls are and asked myself why I even raised my voice at all. The walls are really dirty! Seems like people here religiously keep their floors swept and mopped, but walls are never washed. For example, there are lots of dead bugs in the ceiling corners or stuck on the walls that people must have squished but never bothered to wipe off. When Corey and I kill a mosquito, we are always sure to congratulate each other for our high standard of cleanliness by actually throwing the dead bug in the trash or washing him down the sink. "Way to go the extra mile, sweetheart!"
Family Health - Most everyone that saw or held Wesley at church our first day commented on his stuffy nose. The following Sunday he still had it, and then he started coughing on the drive to church. Now I was really feeling pressure to take him to the Centro Medico cause people kept telling me to. We still didn't have a car, so I was thinking I'd just feed him some acerola juice (from the acerola tree in our yard, it's looks like a cherry, only is bright red instead of dark red. We've had various reports from the locals as to the amount of vitamin C it has, from "the same amount of vitamin C as 25 oranges" to "...100 oranges.") So I've been giving that to the kids, but also a nice lady named Anna in the ward, who went to BYU and lived in the US for 9 years, spent last Monday being my translator at the Public Health Office and at the Drug store, where after 6 hours of waiting and running back and forth and stuff, the consensus was reached that Wes officially had a cold, ...but I really needed to do something about all those bug bites!!! Those darn ant bites still hadn't cleared up, and each person that saw him told me I needed to get some bug repellent and some ointment to help him. So at the drug store we bought some Dimetapp and bug repellent. I'm proud to report that as of today, his cough and runny nose are gone and his bites are pretty much cleared up - the ant bites are mostly gone but he has a few mosquito bites, but overall he looks much better.
Hyrum was sick yesterday with the runs - I cleaned out of his underwear probably 10 times, plus last night I was woken up by a prompting to go check on him. He had a fever last night and so we let them keep the fan - I was totally hot and uncomfortable, so maybe that was actually what woke me up. So I went to check on him to see if he was still hot (so I could take back the fan!) and found he was all soaked with what I though was #1, but as I got him out of bed and took him into the bathroom to clean him off, I found it was runny watermelon #2 mess, on his sheet too. Oh I wish I had a washing machine!! So I hosed him off in the shower while he screamed cause his bum is sore, then I didn't get him dressed, I just wrapped him in a towel and sent him to our bed with Corey. Hyrum slept with us in the buff, I finished cleaning his clothes and underwear, took his sheets outside and cleaned them in the outside sink, cleaned my hands, and when I was all finished went and got the fan and brought it into my room! Since Hyrum was in our bed now I didn't feel so bad, although I always feel a little bit of guilt, like I'm being greedy in snatching away the fan so Corey and I can be comfortable, and leave the kids in their toasty room where there are 5 little bodies producing heat. They don't complain though. I try to dress them in cool clothes and have starting putting bug repellent on them before they go to sleep (or go in after they are asleep and spray any parts of exposed skin I see on their bodies.) But even though I try to help them be cool, Joseph and Ethan both sleep under their fleece blankets cause they are afraid of bug bites, ...Joe is also afraid of bats eating his feet, from something he heard at school about bats in the Amazon in Brazil. I've tried to convince him not to worry, but there he is all tucked under his blanket every night just the same. Melodie doesn't care about bugs or anything. Every morning we wake up and find her alseep on the cold tile floor, she's all about being comfortable - who cares if the floor is dirty or if there might be bugs and lizards crawling by, the floor of tile is cooler than the mattress on the bed, so there she is every morning.
So health wise the kids are getting better, but Corey and I aren't feeling that great. I have a cold I think, it might be allergies though, I don't know since they don't seem to have seasons here in tropical climate weather? As for Corey... as I was typing the last paragraph of this email he startled me as he jumped up and ran for the bathroom. He is now taking a shower. If he has ever felt close enough to any of you to share with you the story from his mission where he thanked the Lord for bidets, it seems to be a similar situation as that one was. Maybe the water is catching up with us...
We have a "Car" - Oh, so this past Thursday we got a car, it is a 4 door hatch back 1994 Volkswagen Santana (also know as a Passat) - kinda looks like a station wagon. The locals all say it's a big car - Big for Brazilian standards that is. People are excited about the car in general, "That's a great car!" We just kinda shrug our shoulders, it's not that great. It cost us $5,500, and have arranged to sell it back for $4,750, so we'll loose $750 on it but that is cheaper than renting a car for 4 months. I was pretty surprised by how much it cost though, and was not that impressed when I first saw it. The same car would go for about $2500 in the US. I was even more un-impressed when Corey couldn't start it in the morning the next two days! He was supposed to drive to Barao Geraldo to get a ride down to Sao Paulo, but had to call our friend Flavio to come get him cause it wouldn't start. Same thing happened the next morning, and Corey said some funny things as we ate breakfast and talked about the car... "American's expect things to work with a minimal amount of effort. The car might in reality be 99.9% fixed, but to me, it's broken. If they would have told me it has to warm up for 15 minutes every morning... that would have been a serious decision making factor! It's not even cold (as he looked around with shrugged shoulders, as if to say "where's the snow?!?" So we were thinking it was pretty funny, Corey said he felt like he was living in the twilight zone, and kept wondering aloud, "who lives like this?" I guess a lot of people do though, right! Yes, here we are in Brazil, and Corey says it seems like people just wake up and wait to see what the day brings. In the afternoon on Saturday, when Flavio dropped Corey off after their morning GMAT class in Sao Paulo, Flavio came and showed Corey the secret to starting an Ethanol car. Also our friends in the ward Antonio and Juliana came over, and the three men (maybe just Antonio and Flavio, with Corey as their apprentice) were able to figure out why the accelerator wasn't working.
...I must say, though, that I thought it was great to see Corey under the hood of the car.
Tau - (T makes a CH sound, so I think this might be how you spell it? I still don't know much Portugues) - Well, I can't see right now, my eyes all all watery and I need to go blow my nose. Hope you are all doing well, drop me a line. Corey makes phone calls on skype sometimes, but I think this is it for communication from me. Love you~ Tiffanie
