Last Minute Shopping - and Last Integration Night

April 22  Wednesday

Ann warned us about fall and winter weather in Canela - rain and penetrating cold from the humidity.  I don't think we believed it could be that bad. . . but it is.  It is early fall here, and some have told us that the winter could be colder than normal this year since the summer was rather mild.  Merl has resorted to ironing the clothes we have had hanging out to dry for three days.  He also rigged a way to dry his sweater that proved to be successful.

We decided to take a walk to visit two of our favorite stores - probably for the last time - Papelaria and Dauper.  We decided to purchase several notebooks (mostly Superman and Power Rangers) for the grandsons.  We have become good friends with the staff at Papelaria, and they wanted photos to put on their facebook page.  They commented on how our Portuguese had improved during our almost five months - I wasn't drawing as many pictures.  Great people to work with!

Our next stop was Daupers - our favorite cookie and granola store.  We usually shop their upstairs discount section where we could get big bags of cookies for $R6 ($2).  What a bargain - and they are so good.  We will miss the cookies!
 


We bought the big one on the left

Our next stop was the luggage store.  My big suitcase was severely damaged on our trip back home for the funeral, so we left it home.  The zippers on Merl's large bag don't work properly all the time so we decided to pack things in it that we are leaving in Canela (to use when we return).
 So, we were in the market for a new, large suitcase.  We found the store that had been recommended to us and purchased a very large suitcase from some very nice people.  Since we were already carrying notebooks and cookies/granola, they offered to deliver it to our apartment by 2:00 p.m.  What great service!

I finished putting all the Branch library materials together to take to SF de Paula this afternoon.  We had missed two weeks of piano lesson due to the funeral and our trip to Florianopolis.  Today would be our last day to wind things up and encourage our students to do as much as they could on their own.  I made copies of the lesson books for President Marcos to use in assisting those who are serious about playing.  Larissa is planning to continue with lessons as much as she is able. 

We had a load to take on the bus today.  We arrived at the church around 4:30 p.m. and starting organizing our little library and cleaning up.  No one showed up at 5:00 for lessons, so we decided to go to a little pastel shop - which was closed.  We checked out other possible eateries and didn't find much; but we did find a gaucho store where we purchased three big wooden spoons. 

A game the missionaries like to play

We each taught three piano lessons before Integration meeting with the missionaries.  No other leaders were there until the end - they came with refreshments and a car to take us home.  Earlier in the evening, one of the girls had injured her arm playing a game; the missionaries took her to the local hospital for assessment.  After the meeting, Valdazar drove us to the hospital where he dropped us off while he picked up the girl and her sister to take them home.  Next door to the hospital is the Catholic cathedral - seems like each town in the area has a big cathedral in the center.

Valdazar picked us up again (Larissa, Eduarda, Merl, and me) and drove leisurely home - Valdazar now knows that Merl doesn't like him to drive over the speed limit on the winding, frequently foggy roads back to Canela.  We arrived home safely.  One more day gone. . . .