Say não to Rio

What you don’t see on this blog is pictures of Rio de Janeiro. On Monday we were told that it was too late to make arrangements for training in Rio, which is just fine; it was too rushed anyway. On Tuesday we were informed that it is still possible for training in Manaus. The problem was how to make the needed arrangements. Since we are the first senior couple in the ICS department, no one seems to know the process for travel. Worse than that, no one set up a budget for ATS travel. I guess that comes with the territory of being pioneers in the area.

I've been working all week on developing training in Portuguese for the new Webcast technology (transmitting stake conferences over the Internet to other chapels). It's been a lot of work.

Image being broadcast for Webcast testing

Elder and Sister Romrell come to São Paulo every so often from Sorriso, Mato Grosso for medical treatment. On Thursday  after work the Halls and we took them on a bus ride and two metro rides to Liberdade for a Chinese dinner. It was good food and great company.

At the Chinese restaurant

After many dead ends, we hope we finally have the travel arrangements for Manaus next week. We'll see how it goes.

On Saturday we took a few bus rides. We first went to Praça Benedito Calixto in Pinheiros where there is an antique feira. There were a lot of interesting things to look at, but not practical to buy.

At the antique fair

Potter making antiques

 There was a food court there with some interesting things to eat. One booth had Bahian food. We decided to have some acarujé, a type of bean fritter common in Salvador.

Acarujé lunch

 We then took a walk up Rua Teodoro Sampio. There are about three blocks of music stores on both sides of the streets. We saw a lot of guitars, drum sets, and electronic keyboards.

Guitar, anyone?

Musician playing the cajon

 We walked past the Perdizes Stake Center where it looked like they were preparing for a Junina fest.

Junina in July?

 We also stopped by a fun store with things from Thailand and Indonesia. Diane bought a little fan.

Asian store

We caught a bus home, but decided to take it to the end of the line: Campo Limpo. A delightful young girl talked to us on the way.

Bus ride to Camp Limpo

We walked along the street in Campo Limo before taking the bus back.

Low water in Campo Limpo (not very limpa=clean)

Jaca (jackfruit) for sale

We decided to stop at the candy store to stock up. As we walked up the street we saw a very tall girl - must be from the Amazons.

The giantess throws a kiss

Elder Thompson walked back from the candy store one Saturday (a long walk) and said there was a large feira (like a farmers market) on the way back. They were taking everything down by the time we got there in the afternoon.

Dismantling the feira

It was a nice excursion and a chance to get out in the city.