Giovana and Emily - People of Brazil

   We were blessed to be able to meet and befriend these two girls at family camp this year.  In the course of visiting with them, we discovered that their grandmother, with whom they often stay, lives in our suburb.  Soon after camp, Omar took our two children to go visit them but they weren't home.  However, a couple weeks later they surprised us by coming to our house and visiting us!

John 3:16 in Portuguese!

      Our kids memorized John 3:16 in Portuguese for their Sunday School class!  This is really a tribute to Tracy's patience and time spent to reach this goal!  I'm proud of all of them!

Diana - People of Brazil

       We enjoyed getting to talk to Diana again at Family Camp this year.  Her sweet, quiet spirit made it a joy to be around her.  Her mother has raised her going to church and we pray that she'll continue to be a sweet young lady for the Lord.  I also posted a picture of her in 2011.

Brenda - People of Brazil

     Here's a little girl from this year's Family Camp.  She has really been enjoying camp along with her four siblings.

Praying Mantis - Postcard from Brazil

     This is actually a tiny baby Praying Mantis that we found here.  It's entire body was hardly half-an-inch in length and so I it was a challenge to get a macro portrait of him, but he finally looked into the camera - not sure if he's smiling or not, though!

Natália - People of Brazil

    Natália is the daughter of one of the faithful families in the church here.  She is a lot of fun and particularly likes to play with Mahalia.

I might just cry over spilled milk....

 Milk is one of the things we miss most. You know, real, creamy, cold whole milk. We can buy milk down here, but it isn't at all the same. Here you buy your milk in boxes...off the shelf...unrefrigerated. Yes, I said "un"refrigerated.

   They "super-heat" the milk so that it kills the bacteria, and then it can sit in a box on your shelf for up to six months before you drink it. Mmmmmm. Doesn't that just sound so appetizing? :)  After you open the box, you have to refrigerate it and drink it within two days.  Everything dairy is made with this milk. You can taste it in the cheese, ice cream, etc.

This is the way we bought milk for the first several months that we were here. We used it, but somehow milk that has been sitting out on a shelf for a few months doesn't have that great of a flavor, and it's actually slightly gritty in texture - not creamy at all.

We finally discovered that some local dairy farmers were selling milk at the weekly market at the town square.  We were very excited.  It comes in these 2-liter bottles. Did you notice that they all have different caps? That's because those bottles were first used for different brands of soda. Because of the "cleanliness" (?) of the twice-used bottles, and the fact that the milk hasn't been refrigerated before we buy it (and it isn't always from that morning's milking), I pasteurize the milk. It does take extra hassle and work, but it's worth it to be able to have good milk every week.

I use a double-boiler to bring the milk to the correct temperature without scorching it. 

 When it reaches the correct temperature, I dump it into another pan that then gets an ice bath.

 Bringing the temperature of the milk back down quickly is better for the life of the milk, and it seems to help it not to pick up any strange flavors.  I stir the milk as it is cooling to help it cool faster. 

I have to do this for each 2-liter bottle of milk we buy. Here is the milk I get for my work. It's six liters of pasteurized milk that will last us (if we use it carefully) a week. In all, it takes about two hours of non-stop work every week, plus the time that Omar has to bike down to the farmer's market early every Sunday morning to buy it.  A bit of a hassle, but worth it to have good milk!