Sunday 7 July 2013

A final family day

Day 39 - 7 de Julho: Manaus, Brazil

Time sure is a weird thing. It doesn't matter if you have days, weeks or months, if you're enjoying that time, it flies. I'm having a hard time believing that I've stayed with this family for three weeks, and that today is my last full day in their house! For those of you who know my general schedule, you'll know that I'm not set to fly out of Manaus for another week. This is true, but I won't be in Manaus either - for the next week, I will be living in the Amazon! More about that later though. This morning, being Sunday, was another church morning. We went there fairly early, listening to a morning service. I wasn't catching a whole lot of it, but that's fine - they have a lot of great music and you don't need to be bilingual to enjoy that. Church activity continued until around lunch time. My family had signed up for a big church lunch in the gymnasium, so we all ate there today. They had a large bucket of pasta, with a selection of sauces and fruit. It was delicious, the fruit too! Funny enough, at home i don't really like pineapple, but having it here in the amazon, I'm really going to miss it! After lunch, we went to the supermarket to pick up the food for our big jungle trip out. On the way in, I saw a stand for inquiring about volkswagen so I had to take a picture. It reminded me of back home when I got to drive VWs through the inside of lougheed mall for a display. Anyway, this mall was huge, so I decided to look around for some familiar items to compare prices. After all this time here, I finally found maple syrup from canada - however it was several times more expensive than any topping in the aisle. I know it's still fairly expensive back home, but I thought the R$36 price tag ($17 cad) was kind of steep for 250 mLs. Other than the import items, Manaus' food prices have been very reasonable. The culture of brazil is one that really likes to eat, so they make it very reasonable to eat large portions. After shopping, we had a bit of rest before returning to the church for an evening service. I really have to give it to this family - for them, the Lord's day is really for the Lord. Since Jeffson's bible is in english and portuguese, I was able to use a lot of this time to do a bit of reading. Not only was it good to compare the languages side by side, but I of course find the content very interesting too. I'd like to read more into the books about the history in the old testament, when I have some time to myself. As always, a small food service followed, so we all sat down for a bit more pasta and tapioca pancakes. It was a good snack to finish off the night. When we returned home, it sank in a bit more that I may not see most of my family after tomorrow morning (or maybe even tonight since the girls go to school). I know that they'll always be my friends and one day, I will return to see them. That's the great, but difficult thing about travel - this world is so big, with so many new places to see, but on the way, you meet so many friends that you want to see again. Even if I return, just for a long layover to another destination, it would be good. Or perhaps I'll bring my family to Manaus one day - i'm sure they would love it! I decided to give my gift to them today: a couple little things and a home thermometer. Now they can always know how smoking hot it is outside. Haha, well, I won't be up much later. I have to wake up early tomorrow morning to pack my bags and leave for the jungle. I leave 9am local time and won't have internet until probably Sao Paulo on Saturday night. Therefore, either Saturday night or Sunday morning will be when the massive wave of posts from the Jungle will be posted here. I'll make sure to write everyday and hopefully my phone battery will last the whole time! 

Lunch with my family
VW stand at the shopping mall
Maple syrup!

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