While everyone at the temple enjoyed a large cake before being bussed home (see previous post below, dated 12/21/2014), we slipped out, called a taxi, and were taken to Curitiba's largest bus station, or "rodoferroviária" [ho-do-feh-ho-vee-áh-deeah]. We rode nice busses, first to Mafra and then to Canoinhas [kah-no-éen-yus], city of 50,000, where we planned to spend two days with Elder and Sister Brown (Larry and Kay), who are also senior missionaries serving there, in the Curitiba South Mission. After having to take an alternate route, we arrived in Canoinhas about midnight. We planned on taking a taxi to our hotel. But! We couldn't rouse a taxi after midnight. So, we walked 1 1/2 miles through the rain, in the wee hours of the morning, through a dark and strange city, to our hotel, arriving there about 1:00 a.m. Phew! Another experience!
The next morning, the Brown's met us at the hotel, and for two days, we talked non-stop while walking all over their town, midst the hustle-bustle of Christmas shopping, and enjoying unique Christmas decorations in their parks. All of the displays are made out of wired-together parts of 2 liter plastic soda bottles. Even hanging lights, bush decorations and walkways are decorated using tops, bottoms, and sides of the bottles. The creativity of the figures and decorations was amazing.
We did some fun shopping, including a few grocery items we can't find in Bocaiúva (pictured below left). Kay gave us the BEST gifts: Mapleine flavoring and two packages of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing!! We relaxed in their new apartment, toured their church building (former police station), which has an above-ground (??) baptismal font built into what used to be the garage. We attended their branch's Family Night activity and had almoço (lunch) in a restaurant with the Brown's and their four Elders (incl. district and zone leaders, below--both are trainers). It helps us to know that their experiences are similar to ours.
We learned that Canoinhas is THE CAPITOL OF ERVA MATÉ! Maté is an herb that the southern Brazilians love to drink as a tea, or chimarrão [shimah-hone], in their maté cups, or "queias," which are hollowed-out gourds. They drink hot or cold thru a silver straw called a "bomba." I will soon post a section about chimarrão-drinking in Brazil. It's a topic with a history.
It rained almost the whole time we were there, but with our trusty umbrellas ("guarda chuvas"), we were prepared and had a ball! Our 2 days with the Brown's was re-energizing for us, and we're looking forward to the next time we can get together. It helps us a lot to know that many of their experiences and challenges are similar to ours. They are our only American peers, as the Thomas's and the Brown's are the only senior couple missionaries ("casals") in each of our missions.
We were pretty proud of ourselves when we left Canoinhas. We took a 3-hour bus back to Curitiba's big rodoferroviária, a taxi to Cabral terminal, a bus to Guaraituba terminal, and a bus home to Bocaiúva. We walked the mile home in a light rain and arrived after 6 hours travel, before 8:00 p.m. Yeah! Our maiden voyage through the maize of the Curitibus public transit system was a success!! |