Finally got settled in. I'm renting a room from a lady and her husband. They have 4 other guys who live here but I've rarely seen them. It's a good ways outside the central part of the city, at least without my own transportation. If I had my own vehicle, it would be very easy to get to the central part of town.
I have my own bathroom and it's very airy. It doesn't have air conditioning but I really don't need it. I thought I would but it feels really good in my room. It's in a house that has a front porch and a place in the back, not a back yard because it has all bricks. They have a clothes line out there where I can hang my laundry. It reminds me of Mom having a clothes line when I was a kid. The lady was excited to know that I'm a Christian. She is also and so is her family. She took me by her family's house which isn't too far on Sunday and introduced me to them. They were extremely nice as well.
The only negative is that it's so far away from the two churches that I visited. A friend that I met through a friend of mine in Rio skyped me Sunday to tell me he would pick me up and take me to church if I wanted. Sure nuff. It was really good praise and worship and the people were so friendly. Afterward, he invited me over to his family's house and they had some leftovers for us and it was so good.
Yesterday the lady I'm renting from took me downtown to get a phone. For some reason, the phone I had in Rio won't work here. The electronics in general are very expensive in Brazil and I didn't want to pay a lot. She told me about a place where they have a lot of cheap things. My kind of place. It was huge! It didn't look big from the outside but it seemed like it kept going on the inside. I got a phone that looked like a blackberry with fm radio, mp3 player, tv, camera and 2gb of memory for $R55 which is less than $40 in the US. I love that place, I'll be going back for sho.
Today my mission was to drop off my resume to some schools and get some business cards made. I wanted to take the metro because that's what I was used to in Rio. It doesn't go to as many places as it does in Rio but I wanted to try it out. I definitely got my walking in. I got lost so many times I think I set a record. I was able to find the place where a friend told me I could get some cards made, which are pretty awesome. A little old lady walked with me to the place because I had asked her for directions. Very nice! I got lost another time and I was asking for directions and a lady overheard me asking and told the lady that she would show me because she was going that way. They are so friendly here, it's great.
A guy at the place where I had my cards made took one of my cards and said he was interested in class along with a couple of others. The one school I finally found said she isn't hiring but said she would pass my resume on to other schools she knew and if she had students who wanted classes at work or in their house she would send to me. She was very helpful.
I went to a mall close to where I live with the purpose of asking some of the stores if I could leave my business cards on the counter. I was nervous about this because I really don't like going up to people and asking for something. I had to do this even if I got shot down to prove to myself that I could. God is so good! Every person I asked was very nice and allowed me to do it. One guy who worked at a restaurant lived in Connecticut for 12 years and said his boss was wanting someone to teach the employees English and was wanting this guy to do it. He said he would pass my card along to his boss. It was a very positive experience today except for getting lost and walking around for about 6 hours but it's part of the learning curve.
Every day is a new adventure now. I like the new challenge. I feel like I'm in the right place.
P.S. One thing I forgot to mention about sleeping in the bus station was when I was walking around, probably after Barney Fife woke me up, I was charging my phone. As I was standing there, I heard some whistling. It was a familiar tune but I couldn't place it. Finally it dawned on me, it was an old hymn I heard growing up "Are You Washed In The Blood of The Lamb?". I kept listening because I thought that it couldn't possibly be but even when it got to the chorus it followed the same tune. I looked around but I couldn't see anyone whistling. There weren't that many people there so it shouldn't have been hard to see somebody whistling. Besides, how many times do you hear an old hymn being whistled at 3 am in a bus station in Rio de Janeiro. I'm not sure because it was my first time. Just thought it was an interesting thing to share.
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