Dude, Where's My Luggage?

We're in Brazil! All our flights went well and some of us even managed to get a good sleep on the long flight from Toronto to Sao Paulo. You could feel the difference in the air as soon as we disembarked in Brazil - muggy weather and cool breezes and, once we got outside, even sunshine! Upon arrival, we found out that 16 suitcases had been delayed in transport, but between the rest of us, we're going to be able to get together changes of clothes and so on until the rest arrives, hopefully tomorrow. Luckily nothing more was delayed on our third and last flight.

If Albertan fields, seen from the air, look like a green-and-yellow patchwork quilt, most of the Brazilian ones we saw are like a crazy jigsaw puzzle. Crooked, curving lines along muddy rivers, geometric patterns in green and brown. The dirt is red, startling slashes in all the green.

When we got in to Porto Alegre from our last flight, Roxane, our guide, met us with a smile, lots of hugs, air kisses, and a traditional Brazilian drink something like green tea. We met Michael, our driver, who'll be with us for a while, and then collapsed on the incredibly comfortable seats of the tour bus we get to drive around in. Fernando, one of the professors from Concordia, is our translator, and Roxane promised to try to speak English if we try to learn a bit of Portuguese. We drove through Porto Alegre to our hostel. The city looks like a mix of modern and really old, broken down buildings: graffiti and bright colours, sparkling lake water and lush green everywhere, skyscrapers and red slate roofs. Most of us were on our second wind by this time and could actually enjoy it.

Our hostel is small, the building a bit old-fashioned, brightly painted inside and with a lovely shady patio and back garden where we enjoyed traditional Brazilian snacks for a late lunch before unpacking in our rooms. We met up again for a walk before supper, which Brazilians apparently eat pretty late, after seven-thirty. On the walk to our restaurant, we detoured to see what is apparently the Guinness World Record winner for prettiest city street. It was dusky, so it was hard to see a lot.

After this, we walked through a mall, picked up essentials for some of the people who are waiting for luggage at a grocery store, and then walked to our restaurant, La Carretas. They fed us well! Barbequed sausage, cheese, and garlic bread for starters, and when we were already feeling full, they brought us salads and steaks. As the first sit-down meal we'd had since the trip started, it was pretty fantastic. By the time we finished, though, it was past 9.30 pm and most of us were falling asleep on our feet, so we walked back to the hostel and, after devotions as is usual on choir trips, are getting ready for bed.

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts with us as we travelled!