I'd like to tell you again that I still get around town on the back of a motorbike. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..........!!!!!!

The other night there was a frog on the steps to my room. Now I know the word for frog - sapo. Kind of a fun word really. I had the opportunity to say it again last night too, in the kitchen.

Last night Sandra encountered a spider that, with legs, was 6-8 inches across. I heard a scream and the sound of whapping, went down to check it out, and this spider (by now without legs) was big, definitely big and black. Even she had never seen one like that before.

These animals might be out in force (or rather, in?) because of the RAIN we recently had. Yes, it rained, here in the Sertão. I thought it wouldn't rain the entire time I was here. It was pretty unusual, and pretty neat. (Except that I had my laundry out to dry that day and had to sleep without sheets....)

On the way back from Malta yesterday, I took public transportation (go me!). It's called a Varaneio (that might be how it's spelled), and is like a very old SUV, like an International Scout or something, or one of those that big families had in the 60s, 70s (in movies) to go camping and stuff. I got to sit in the front seat by the window, which wasn't good for the hair but was the best view. It was right at that time before dusk when the light rays are long and golden, and it was either this or the recent rains that made everything look beautiful. The dry things were golden and the green things were downright verdant.

Yesterday also was the 103rd anniversary of Patos. So last night Sandra and I went to the parade. I was looking forward to some traditional dancing, but it was just bands. Many, many bands. One of the military bands I had actually heard before, because they were practicing on the street nearby our house at about 6 or 6:30am the other morning. Sandra said she knows a guy with a dancing school and maybe I can go to their rehearsal sometime to see some traditional dances.

Oh, I have to confess to anybody who's noticed this phenomenon around the world: I have now added to the number of children who know how to yell at an American across the street "Hello! How. Are. You?"

The last time I was in Malta, Claudia turned on some Steven Curtis Chapman. She asked me what he was singing about. Ha ha... really the only words I could hear were the first line of the chorus, which is "Saddle up your horses"... that was pretty funny, when she found out this song that she thought was all spiritual turned out to be about horses.
But then we found the lyric pamphlet, and I looked up the word 'metaphor' in my dictionary, and explained it was about the adventure of life with God. But ha ha....

I now have shared with my hosts the American food of macaroni and cheese (my favorite, sent to me by my thoughtful boyfriend), and my family's traditional Dutch Baby. Jango and Sandra liked the dutch baby (they didn't have the mac'cheese), but their 10-year-old son really didn't care for either. That kind of hurt my feelings. Sometimes I wonder why I have to be all culturally sensitive and no one else has to.

I have some pictures to upload soon, and I'm trying to take more. It's a discipline, you know, and not fun, but for you, anything.

I have tried many methods to avoid being eaten alive by mosquitoes and no-see-ums, but still they get the better of me. I'm afraid I'm going to come back with scars, as if this is a 3-month case of the chicken pox.

Oh! Last week I found the library in the church, and it has a whole bunch of books in English! Hallelujah, because I was running out quick. And I also got a DVD about Jeremiah, in which Patrick Dempsey (from Grey's Anatomy) plays Jeremiah. Crazy.