Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Salvador! About six weeks ago the lights began to appear along the streets. So pretty! They were all blue and white--warm and cool. I loved the sparkly blue....... Tonight we went out to "see the lights". Most of these are a little blurry, but I thought they turned out pretty well, considering I took them "on the fly".......

While driving around, we found a really big park covered with lights........and in the trees. It's so interesting to see them with leaves on! So different! Still beautiful! Lots of people there tonight.

Sharing.........

There are some things I need to share with you before they get lost in the netherlands of time and space........not to mention my mushy brain!

We have two very fine sisters serving in our ward--both from Sao Paulo--though that doesn't tell much about them. Somehow, we had an old, but functioning stove available in the mission. The elders had asked if they could give it to a ward member, but had never got around to it. Well! When these terrific sisters learned about it, they wanted it! Now! Roger and I went and picked it up from the elders, wore out two (and I'm afraid the only) SOS pads I will see here cleaning it up, checked to make sure it worked--totally excited that every burner worked! We loaded it into the back of our car and went to pick up the sisters. The very grateful recipient is the one who lives in the "slot canyon" at the bottom of those scary stairs........I think I wrote about that in another post, early on. The street in front of those stairs is only slightly less steep. But Roger stopped the car--right in the road, because, of course, there is absolutely no where else! The sisters and I got out, lifted the stove out of the back, and Roger went to see if he could find a safe place to park the car. And those two adorable sisters picked up that stove and started down the stairs!! About a third of the way down, a very nice young man offered to help, handed me his grocery bag, and took the near end of the stove from Sister A. There was no help for Sister C. on the bottom end, but she was steadfast and we soon found ourselves in front of B's door! She came to the door about the time Roger showed up at the bottom of the stairs. We moved the stove into the kitchen--pulled the old one out, hooked up the new one, checked again to make sure everything worked--they did! RAH!!! Then! those sweet, stalwart young women picked up that old, worn out, rusted out, greasy stove and hauled it out and UP all those stairs! Sadly, there was no nice young man to help. But they made it all the way to the top. Roger hurried to get the car and those darling girls rolled the stove into it. We drove to where the garbage was piled on the street--waiting for pick up......they still do it by hand here--three men standing on the back of a garbage truck jump down and hand-throw the garbage into the back of the truck. We left the old, well-used stove with the rest of the garbage and we all went home--tired, but with joyful hearts.

 

This is a poor picture of the stairs......but it does give you an idea of what they are like.......and here are a couple of really poor pictures of those heroes...........I really don't know how they did it. Maybe they had angels helping them..........

I'm still way impressed with how hard these people work........and more than a little sorry about it. This is the second time they have cut this area since we got here. And they "cut" it right down to the dirt, raked it up and put it in bags...........

Haven't seen many cement mixers........really, not one till yesterday.......most often the ingredients are dumped on the sidewalk and mixed with a shovel right there......... They do have cement trucks for the big projects...........

These are the goofy elders in our district.....well, till yesterday when we had transfers and three of them were transferred. We are now down by two.......thankfully, we still have our darling sisters. I think it's so cool how this work brings us together from all around the world......here we have an elder from Mexico, one from Cape Verde, one from another state here in Brazil, and two from Utah. We love them all!

Roger had lots of chances to use his new drill........CO/smoke alarms in the new apartments..... curtains and white boards...........

I never tire of the constantly changing view from the windows near the elevators. I wish I remembered what the sky was like for this first one.......why there is no color and such stark contrast. I'm always fascinated by the ships.....what are they carrying? where have they come from? where are they going? what was the weather like during their voyage? how long did it take? How I'd love to have the answers............

 

Addendum

So many things I want to tell you........and pictures to show you.........I might have to do it in two or three posts. I don't know that I can do it all tonight.

The day after our tropical rainstorm (November 27), which did cause some damage in some areas--I was sad to hear--we were on the road again. The rain washed a lot of red dirt and debris into the ocean.....and garbage, I'm sorry to say.........

You can see how dirty and turbulent the ocean is...... I was also interested to see that the cleanup began immediately. There were men in orange coveralls cleaning up along the roads, and the men in green had knee-high boots (like my father used to wear) wading through what little water was left in the "canals" (in Arizona we would call them a "wash") cleaning up the garbage and debris. (I hope the video doesn't make you motion sick. I have to take a lot of my pictures "on the fly").

I was also a little amazed at how quickly the ocean cleared up......... here is it November 28-- Thanksgiving Day. Some places were still a little muddy.......

By the 29th, it was mostly clean.........

And pretty much back to it's beautiful self on the 30th.......

I can hardly believe that I really live close enough to the Atlantic Ocean that I can see it 2-3 times a week! I hope we have a p-day before too much longer so I can wet my feet in that ocean. We are told it is warm! Can you imagine? .......Oh. In the picture above, you may notice what looks like a small island out there on the horizon....... It's a ship!! They are so much bigger than they appear from our apartment building. Just mind-boggling to me....... This picture--below--is looking across the mouth of the bay. There are ships out there, I promise. About eight of them! There were a bunch of them the morning after the storm.

Even the collapsed wall was cleaned up and a metal barrier, fence/wall, kind of thing in it's place. I don't know if it's meant to be permanent or not, but it all looks clean and nice as of yesterday, the 30th. I was so glad to see the backhoe.

Now another, unrelated curiosity............... Brazil has taken "Black Friday" to a whole new level. Or maybe not, now I think about it. I've never been Black Friday shopping, so I don't know what it's like at home. But I know what it's like here! We were crazy enough to go to the mall on Friday!! Never again! Truly, they advertise "Black Week".

These are washing machines here in front

See the red and black flags?

One of the stores we were in had black crepe draped across the ceiling and balloons everywhere. Even Walmart had black streamers everywhere throughout the non-food part of the store and piles of electronics, mostly TVs, and small appliances like blenders, fans, and microwave ovens. I've never seen anything like it! Maybe you have, if you are a black Friday shopper...........