We are back in Brazil! It was a super fast trip only 13 hours to get here. I feel like we just took a long car trip to get here. We want to thank everybody that we were able to see during our trip to the USA, Thank you for being apart of our lives and taking the time to see us and find out what is going on with the Brazil ministry. We had a fantastic time meeting with people and being able to hang out with our friends. Julie Turner now Julie Landrum’s wedding was just perfect and made the trip complete. We wish Julie and Tim all the best as they start new lives together. We hope that you will make your home a “vortex of love” (taken from Julie’s fake vows).
When we got back to our apartment, I had Lindsay wait outside the apartment because she didn’t know that I had bought a futon for our living room (thanks to a donation). When I went to open our wood door the key just melted off into the lock. I barely had even turned the key. I called to Lindsay to stop Gilson (our ride) from leaving. Luckily he hadn’t left yet. It was about 7pm though and everything in town closes at 6pm. Gilson went down to the locksmith places and they were all closed. He took down all of the phone numbers though and came back to us. He went to call them and discovered he had no more credit on his cell phone ( almost everybody has pre-paid phones in Brazil) so thanks to my dad we still had Reais (Brazilian currency) in my wallet. I gave him R$10 and he was able to go to a drug store and buy credit. Thankfully some drug stores stay open later than normal shops. He finally got a hold of someone and then we told Gilson to go be with his wife, because before he dropped us off he dropped off his wife at the hospital because she thought she might be pregnant and had been throwing up. (we do not know if she is pregnant yet) So, Lindsay and I waited outside for the locksmith to show up. Lindsay kept speculating if it was the locksmith every time a car stopped near us. She never guessed right. Ok, to be fair she went to the bakery to get a drink for us when he arrived. The locksmith went up to the door and jammed in this metal key looking thing and started to wiggle it around so fierce that you would have thought he had fire ants on his hand. I couldn’t figure out if he was trying to pick the lock or was just hoping that he would randomly find a combination of moves that would open the door. He finally stepped back and said he needed a different tool. He went outside and walked the 100 feet to his shop to open it up and get this other tool he talked about. Lindsay and I went back outside and sat by the street again to wait for him. The next thing I know he comes walking up with what looks like a 3 feet long screw driver. It only took him 30 seconds to open our door with that monster of a tool. We were very overjoyed. He continued to mess with the lock more until he took the whole part out and said he would go make two new keys for it. R$50 later we were happily in our apartment with two new shiny keys. Gilson showed up again right at the end to make sure we got in. I still made Lindsay wait outside the apartment to make sure the place looked clean and the new futon looked good. When she finally came in she shrieked with excitement that we had a futon.
Today, we have been cleaning our apartment after finding some mold in a few places. We have yet to unpack but plan on doing that later this evening. We are at the Alcance right now, Lindsay is getting all of the updates on how her classes have been going and what they have been doing, (Rachel Winzeler has been teaching her classes) and I have already helped two people with computer issues. We do not have internet at our apartment either because we haven’t paid our bill in a month or because our ISP is terrible. Either way we are switching to a more reliable internet service. But, that means we might not have internet for a week to 2 weeks at our apartment. I will be able to e-mail and such from the Alcance but I won’t be able to talk to people over skype.
Well, I think we will head back and finish cleaning and unpacking. I hope you enjoyed hearing about our adventures of trying to get into our apartment.
