Thursday we spent all day shopping for groceries to take to Jurema for the next 2 weeks when the mission team from Auburn will be here. But that day does not even compare to what happened on Friday….
Friday we had to take all of the groceries to Jurema, which is a 3 – 3 1/2 hour drive from Recife. Imagine driving from Knoxville to Nashville…only on much rougher roads. Not only did we have tons of groceries, but also suitcases, pillows, pots and pans, dishes, silverware, etc…oh and a mattress. Here’s the van loaded down….

And here’s me sitting in the back with Samuel’s mom (who is behind the mattress)…..

Sad face 😦
Keep in mind, there were 3 people (including the driver) in the front seat and this picture of the back was taken before we added another person along with her suitcase and 3 bags. This was around 8:00 a.m., and was the start to a very looooong day.
So, off we went…. On our way, we stopped on the side of the highway to buy pineapples…like we needed to put anything else in that van…

Brazilian pineapples are the BEST!!
As you can see, this isn’t the “city” anymore…

Since we stopped, we did a little rearranging in the van, and then were on our way again.

Much happier now 🙂
We went through a tunnel…

Tunnel
….saw lots of pretty scenery….

….and stopped for lunch.

Then it was back to driving…


…until we hit construction….

Construction

They were paving the road, which needed to be done, but it slowed us down. As we say in the U.S., you can’t go on a trip without running into roadwork somewhere…and that seems to be true even in Brazil.
We finally got to the little town where our pousada (little hotel) is at. The town is called Panelas, and it’s about a 25 minute drive to the location in Jurema where we will be working.

So we kept driving….



….until…..POP!

We were soooo close to making it when we hit a rock on the washed out dirt road and busted the tire.

😦
Thankfully, Lucenildo had another tire, so while the men were working…

…..I took pictures!

Jurema


I don’t have photos to document the rest of the day, but here are the basics: We finally made it to the daycare, which has a kitchen that Samuel’s mom will use to cook for the team. She and her friend will also be sleeping there, and we will use it for VBS during the day. When we got there, nobody was there to meet us with the keys to the kitchen (though they knew we were coming). Lucenildo took off on foot to the Pastor’s house because nobody ever gave us a phone number to get in touch with him. They finally returned with the keys and we unlock the doors to find a dirty kitchen which Samuel’s mom and her friend had to clean. We also found no oven…which we specifically asked about ahead of time and we were assured there was an oven at the daycare. After making a phone call, they found an oven which we can borrow for the 2 weeks, so we’ll see if it makes it there…. Eventually, Bill, Lucenildo, Samuel and I left to go back to Panelas to verify that everything was taken care of at the hotel. Thankfully, things went much more smoothly there. We then headed back to Recife, where we stopped at the supermarket to buy a pizza and then finally made it home around 8:15 p.m. What a day!