Thursday, January 12, 2006

Our home away from home

This is the first look of the house that we had. It's not a very good picture, but I wanted you to get the same image we got at first. We unloaded the bus and carted all of our stuff inside. We live on a dead-end street ("rua sem saida" - which means "street without exit") and our house is the second to last on the right side of the street. The street is very different from most of the streets in our neighbourhood. All of the people who live on our street have the equivalent of a middle class American level of income. So by Brazilian standards, we live on a wealthy street. Of course, the first thing you might have noticed from the picture is the gate and the bars. EVERY house, other than those in the favelas, has bars on every window and gates. Even with the bars and gates, the chances of being robbed is well over 50%. Theft is just a part of life here. One of the biggest adjustments we've had has been getting into the habit of unlocking and locking everything multiple times a day. Those who live in the Maritimes can appreciate that when we lived in PEI we didn't lock anything. When we lived in PEI I had a car key (which only got locked when we went to those theivin' towns of Moncton and Halifax), a house key (which only got used about three times in three years) and a school/church key. Now I have a pocketful of keys that I have to take everywhere - what a pain! Many more pictures of the house are coming, but I wanted you to see this picture first. As good as this looks, it gets much better... (Please click on any photo to see it full-sized)