It's like pulling teeth!

Brazil has a national holiday on my birthday - Tiradentes Day (pulling teeth day). Joaquin José da Silva Xavier (called Tiradentes because he was a dentist) was a patriot of the Brazilian independence movement. Each year they celebrate the day he was hung, quartered, and had his body sent to the four corners of Brazil. They call it Tiradentes Day which is easier to say than Joaquin José da Silva Xavier Day.

Several in the office took Monday off as well, so we decided to do likewise. We went to Livraria de Cultura (bookstore) to see if they had any good books. We got a São Paulo tour book and a new dictionary (ours is well worn).

Sample a book before you buy

We surprised everyone by going to the office later in the afternoon since we had Family Home Evening at 5:30 there.

Tuesday was Tiradentes Day so we went to the zoo as a group of senior couples. Getting there involved watching reflections of buildings while waiting for a bus ride, a bus ride, three metro rides, and another bus ride. 

Modern example of Cubism art form

Bus ride (with the Hales)

Metro ride (the uncrowded leg of the trip)

Another bus ride

 Because it was a holiday all of the 22 million plus inhabitants of São Paulo were going to the zoo. The traffic was worse than San Jose, California during rush hour (why do they call turning a road into a parking lot a rush hour?). While we were on the bus we had a real downpour. Once we got there (3 hours after starting a 20-minute car ride on a normal day) the rain had stopped and we had a nice day.

Rainstorm on the bus

We really had a good time. We had lunch and saw a lot of nice animals.

Turtles and crocks

Monkeying around

Behold the hippopotamus 

Bengal tiger

A Mormon Missionary

The fish was this big!

 As part of the zoo we had a dinosaur exhibit with animated dinosaurs.

Watch out! It's the dinosaur's hatchday

Do I dare go in there?

Sure, it's no big deal

Unless he eats my companion

 It took a lot less time returning home after the zoo. My birthday dinner was "pomanha" a typical Brazilian dish made out of corn meal wrapped in corn husks.

Have some pomonha

 We also had a Brazilian version of strawberry-banana pie (tastes better than it looks).

This is not a birthday cake

My brother, Richard sent me some gluten-free licorice that arrived in time for my birthday. I also got some American Cheetos (they have gluten in them in Brazil) and a Meet the Mormons DVD from the family.

Birthday gift

I also got a birthday card from the grandkids and a lot of Facebook birthday wishes.

My birthday card - crazy bunch!

On Thursday Elder Hall came by with a request. He was asked to give the devotional at the CTM next week and asked if we could make a Power Point out of a talk by President Hinkley. I turned it over to Diane to do. By the end of the day she had it ready in three versions - English, Portuguese, and Portuguese with no quotes so he could choose the version he wanted to use. His response  to her email with the Power Points was "WOW". He was so surprised how professional it looked and how quickly she did it that he said he cried. I have a great companion who can do anything!

On Friday we took off a little early and went to a produce market down the street to get some fruits and vegetables. We then got an invitation from the Hales and DePaula's to see "The Avengers" for dinner and movie night. It was sold out so we saw "Fast and Furious" in 3D which started earlier, then ate at a pizza buffet afterward (I couldn't eat it so I got a regular buffet for half the price). 

On Saturdays, after cleaning the apartment, we like to go out and explore the city. The goal this week was to see Liberdade (the Chinatown of São Paulo). Actually it is where more Japanese live than anyplace outside of Japan, but if I called it Japantown no one would be able to picture what it is like - and there are plenty of Chinese there too. There were crowded streets and even more crowded arcades selling all kinds of "stuff". It did have an Asian flavor to it, but nothing like Tokyo and Beijing.

Everyone wants to buy something (except for us)

We waited in line for a quick photo in a small garden

This is São Paulo - busy streets and tall buildings

You are now in Liberdade

 We decided to go see the Municipal Market. We passed Sé, the main cathedral on the way. The praça was even more seedy than when we visited a few weeks ago.

Cathedral Sé

 We passed by a house of a wealthy Portuguese family, now a museum. It was fun to walk through.

Museum of early São Paulo

Internal courtyard

A guardian of the streets of São Paulo

 We stopped at another museum that was the actual founding site of São Paulo. We looked in it, but because of time we left it for another day.

Museum of São Paulo

Courtyard by a restaurant

 We walked along 25 de março (they don't capitalize their months), a street known for it's Middle Eastern markets. It was very busy and crowded with people selling all kinds of things on the street as well as in stores on both sides of the street.

Approaching 25 de março

We finally got to the municipal market, which is another busy and crowded place with a lot of wild foods. Everything is indoors. By this time we were peopled out. Maybe all 22 plus million people of São Paulo went to the zoo on Tuesday, but they were all downtown on Saturday. Such is big-city life.

Municipal Market

Does she look like she has had enough?

One section of the indoor market

 It was nice to get home in our peaceful apartment complex. As we entered we saw a man at the top of one of the palm trees pruning off the branches.

Look out below!

Sunday is a nice, peaceful day in our neighborhood. We can even find breaks in the traffic to walk across the street without fear of getting run over.

View of our apartments (left) taken from the temple

With shops closed on Sunday we get a full art exhibit on the way home from church.

Greetings!

 Everything closes down on the street next to our apartments

A row of closed stores

Tonight we had a stake missionary fireside. Current missionaries and former missionaries were asked to attend and wear their name tags. They went around and had everyone tell their names, what mission they served in, and what years they served. We were very impressed with all of the returned missionaries in the stake. Most of them served in Brazil. The church is in good hands in Brazil.