It’s been a
little quiet over here on our blog…
We made our
move to São Paulo on April 18th, and have been living here in our new city for exactly two weeks now. Ever since we arrived we have
been SUPER busy adjusting to life in a new place and also unpacking and fixing
up our new home. It is coming along VERY
VERY slowly, but surely.
Eventually, once we get more settled and finish a few painting projects, we will share some photos of our lovely new place. After traveling for a little over 5 months, we are extremely thankful to settle into our very own home!
Today I
thought it would be interesting to share several things about our
adjustment back to life in Brazil, and specifically our new city, São Paulo.
A Colder, Warmer, and Rainy City
São Paulo is colder, warmer, and more rainy than our former city, Belo Horizonte.
São Paulo city has cooler temperatures in the winter and hotter temperatures in the summer when compared to the temperatures in Belo Horizonte. Here in São Paulo, temperatures can reach the 90’s in the summer season, and can get as cold as the low 50’s in the winter season.
We are coming into the winter season now so it is feeling very chilly at night!
Typically São Paulo is also known as a rainy city, and carries the nickname of "a cidade da garoa" which translated is, "the city of drizzle." It drizzles quite a lot here and has already rained a few times since we moved here.
Water
Talking about rain... there has actually been an extreme water shortage in São Paulo due to lack of rain. Just before we moved here it rained A LOT so the water situation has improved significantly, but still Felipe and I are trying to do our best to economize our water supply (and to help keep our water bill down). We save our leftover laundry water and shower water and use this extra water (that is really very slightly dirty and soapy), to flush our toilets, clean our outdoor patio areas, and mop our floors.
"The window is open, and so's that door!"
(If you know Frozen - you will get my reference.)
So here in Brazil most people do not have air conditioning/heating systems in their homes. Our AC is simply opening the front door and the windows to allow fresh air to blow in.
I am really enjoying our open windows and doors here in Brazil!
I am really enjoying our open windows and doors here in Brazil!
Cooking Brazilian Style
Back to Brazil, back to
eating rice and beans!
In Brazil the daily lunch is fresh rice and beans with some sort of side of protein/meat and a vegetable. There are sometimes other food items in addition to this, but simply put, this is the main meal of the day!
In Brazil the daily lunch is fresh rice and beans with some sort of side of protein/meat and a vegetable. There are sometimes other food items in addition to this, but simply put, this is the main meal of the day!
I officially have my very own
kitchen again. Yay! I am now devoting more of my time to cooking rice and beans and preparing other fresh foods daily, as is common here in Brazil. I am especially enjoying all the yummy fruits and veggies that
Brazil has to offer at reasonable prices.
Our Hammock!
I just wanted to share one of my favorite spots
in our new house.
I am so happy to have our hammock hung, and it is situated in our cozy little back patio area.
I am so happy to have our hammock hung, and it is situated in our cozy little back patio area.
Internet and Phone in São Paulo
Felipe has had quite the adventure in trying to sort out the phone and
internet services for our new home. We have never had to deal with this before as we have always lived in YWAM base housing where everything was already organized for us. We are currently having some challenges with extremely slow internet, and we are still trying to fix
that.
I think the most interesting challenge though was our telephone landline. One day a worker installed our landline on a
nearby powerline, while we just happened to be out. Once we realized the phone company had
already come by and installed the phone line on the power line, we were informed that we were responsible for
getting the phone line (on the power line) to connect to the inside of our
home. Different huh?
Felipe was researching how to install the line himself. He bought the
electrical line and all, but then by chance (with God’s favor and help) he ran
into a guy who offered to help him.
The phone problem was solved within the day. We are thankful!
Our cat was poisoned!
Yes, you read that right. Our resilient cat Buzz, who survived our
absence for 5 months (staying at his Brazilian grandma’s house), and then traveled
wonderfully by car with us to São Paulo, was poisoned upon arrival in our new
city.
We are not sure if someone gave him the poison
or if he found it himself. After he got
poisoned we learned that a few other cats in the neighborhood were recently
found dead, and unfortunately it is common in some areas of the city for people
to purposely poison cats. Isn’t that sad?
Due to our all-natural “open doors and windows”
AC system here, it is very challenging to keep our kitty as an exclusively
indoor cat. He ventured off one morning,
but quickly returned vomiting and convulsing.
In a matter of 20 minutes he was increasingly
becoming more weak. Our neighbor told
us, “He has been poisoned. This is what
it looks like when an animal gets poisoned.”
Felipe rushed him to the vet and miraculously
Buzz survived because we were able to get him medical attention so quickly. The vet was even surprised he survived with
no side effects. She even commented, “He
just used one of his nine lives!”
Now Buzz is very hesitant to wander away from
our front patio area. I think he learned
his lesson, and I am praying he will not be poisoned again. We are thankful he survived!
What's Next for the Matias Family?
This Monday
we will happily begin working with kids in a nearby slum. We are partnering and volunteering with a
ministry called the Sower House. Click here to read more about this ministry.
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Robert, the leader of the ministry, leading Bible study with a group of boys. |
The Sower House attends about 80 kids a week,
but has a waiting list of almost 60 kids who want to enter into their program. We hope to help out with this ministry as we
prepare for and work towards starting our own similar ministry in this general slum region. Together with the Sower House we
hope to reach out to kids living in the slums of São Paulo with the love and hope of Jesus Christ!
God bless you and thanks to many of you who have been praying for us as we have begun this new advernture of living in the city of São Paulo. Overall, we are enjoying our new city, and we are extremely happy to have a home again! God has been good to us and we truly see His faithfulness through the care and support of the body of Christ partnering with us.
Thank you and God bless!
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A fun family selfie as we drove from Belo Horizonte to Sao Paulo! |
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