Monkey Hunting
With ripe bananas now literally falling off the tree in the back yard (avacados are also falling, but that's another story) we have noticed that we seem to be attracting monkeys. None of us has seen one yet (hence, no picture) but we're convinced we've heard them multiple times and we've found what appears to be half-eaten bananas on the ground."Kilah, get out your bow and arrows, we need to do some hunting!"
Going bananas
Shortly after we arrived here, we noticed that one of the trees in our neighbour's back yard was a banana tree, and that it had a bunch of bananas growing over our property. (middle picture) It has been interesting to see these bananas grow. They are now ripe and ready to be harvested. Having a banana tree so close has sparked our curiosity in the fruit, and we have learned that there are many different kinds of bananas--just like there are many kinds of apples in North America. Sydney is holding up a bunch of golden bananas which are much smaller, firmer, and sweeter than the bananas we're familiar with in Canada and eastern USA. On Easter break, we escaped the city again and went to the coast. We passed several banana plantations like the one pictured at the top. This is just a fraction of all the trees in this plantation. There were thousands and thousands of trees all packed together. Bananas are a big deal here, and the combination of lots of sun, warmth and rain seems to be perfect for growing them.
Take me out to the ball game
Coming to this soccer-crazed nation, we wondered how the girls would fare as far as sports goes. Kilah had tried out basketball in PEI and did quite well for a rookie. When we asked about sports at PACA we discovered that among the sports that the girls would not likely be able to compete in was girls softball. Summer tried out for the JV team and Kilah tried out for varsity. Just before cuts were to be made for the varsity squad, it was discovered that Kilah was still young enough to play on the JV team. Both played their first year of softball, and despite being rookies, they both enjoyed playing and being a part of the team.
Amazon rain
I've seen downpours in Florida, and in the Maritimes where you had to pull off to the side of the road while driving because the rain was so heavy. But even though I've seen those rains, I am still in awe of the rain here in Brazil. It doesn't last very long -- usually half an hour to an hour (but sometimes as long as four hours!) but oh what water can come down in such a short time! I just can't take my eyes off it. Even this picture doesn't do it justice. The whitish colour you see in the background is rain coming down so hard you can barely see 50 feet in front of you.
Now that fall is here, the rain is supposed to die down until November or so. We're told that they get a lot of drizzle (which we had today) but I keep telling them that they don't know drizzle until they've lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia!
Our first care package!!!
So what if it was mailed in January, this week we got our first care package--from David and Margaret O'Connor. (A banner week!) While the contents were important to us, I'll not bore you with the details here, except to say that it came just as we had run out of peanut butter from Chile. It really is amazing to see what a lift we get from getting goodies, and even mail from all of our friends in North America. Thank you for your continued support - especially for your prayers.
Heeeeeeere's Johnny!
Our first visitor from North America has come, seen, and left. It was truly a blessing to see Jonathan Barrett on his South America tour. He arrived on Thursday afternoon and left Saturday morning. While here we ended up putting him to work as Cary had charge of the middle school lock-in. Cary used Jon as a judge and as a helper in the Grace-Christian-School-famous "Christians and Communists" game. The poor guy; we might have given him a decent bed to sleep in, but he didn't get to spend a whole lot of time sleeping in it. Cary might have inadvertently led poor Jon astray as he introduced Jon to the online version of "Settlers of Catan" known as Sea3d. If any of you out there are Settlers players, you might want to join us for online games once in a while. I think you'll find both of us playing this game a lot.
My Dad went to Chile, and all I got was...
I guess I've learned a few lessons along the way. While in Santiago, I actually spent the time to pick up a special something for each of the girls. I got Shannon a bag/purse, Kilah got a soapstone carving of an Easter Island statue (Easter Island is part of Chile...I didn't know that), Summer got a Chile baseball hat, and Sydney got a t-shirt. They were pleased with my thoughtfulness (or lack of unthoughtfulness)... 
but they really got excited when I showed them that I was able to pick up some President's Choice food from Canada! Yes, I went to Chile and got President's Choice products that said "Made in Canada." I picked up three items we can't get here in Brazil: peanut butter, marshmallows, and reverse chocolate chip cookies with white chocolate chips. I don't remember how many minutes it took after this photo was taken for the cookies to disappear, but the girls were thrilled that I was able to get them such delicacies. So maybe I'm not such a bad Daddy after all.