Curitiba in a Blur

We arrived at the airport and hugs and kisses were exchanged with Auntie Caroline, Uncle Joao and Lucas. I can't tell you how good it was to see them. Joao and Caroline had made arrangements for us to stay at their friends' house, so we followed them to our new home away from home in our lil' rental car.

Once we arrived, Eduardo, Sheyla and Enrique were still gone, so we all napped and had showers before they came home. At 5:30 they arrived, and we introduced ourselves to the warmest, most hospitable people we have met in a long time. Sheyla spoke English, but Eduardo only knew catch phrases in English and told me if I wanted to make myself understood I could speak Spanish to him. He had such an easy going spirit to him that each time I talked to him, you couldn't help but smile.


For supper we were going to Joao's pastors house (where they were staying as well) to have dinner with all their church friends. Eduardo and Sheyla led the way to the home where we were warmly greeted by the pastoral couple, their daughter and her family, and another couple and their son.

We sat around visiting for a while, some spoke a bit of English, but those that didn't, I did my best in Spanish and listened really hard to the Portuguese. It wasn't that bad at all!

For the meal, well, it was AMAZING. Pastora Bett had made a stir fry with fancy rice, a salad, rolls and pickles and onions and olives on the side. Plus, there was crab that was being boiled outside. The women all gathered around the table with the small kids, prayed and ate while the men just sat outside eating crab. Some of us went outside afterwards to sample the crab. Carl told me that there was so much crab that he ate more than he has ever in his entire life!

After supper came the most amazing desserts and coffee. It is so true that Brazilians have amazing coffee. And of course the main ingredient in the desserts was sweetened condensed milk and chocolate. How could you go wrong?

I ate myself so full. Had I known what the following few days would look like I would have held off a bit.........

The next morning, we woke up early and headed to a feria of all kinds of arts, jewelry etc. It was downtown and by the time we got there, there were a ton of people. Hobson, Josana and their son Samuel met us there, plus Eduardo came too, plus Joao and Caroline. We walked through hoards of people to see all the artwork and I made a mental note of the things I would like to buy. Of course, we tasted some typical food but Joao warned us not to eat too much; we were going to a churrasqueria for lunch.



This was no typical churrasqueria that I was used to. This place was so nice and there was way more food than you could shake a stick at. There was a salad bar 15 feet long. Plus all the noodles, potatoes and rice dishes. Then there was the cheese bar, with rounds bigger than Asha. Then beside that was the sushi bar. My mouth was watering even before we sat down. Pastora Bett's daughter, Lillian, her husband Fabio and daughter Julia joined us for lunch.



As we were shown to our table, servers came around with huge lances of BBQ'd meat. Lamb, pork, beef, beef with bacon, with cheese, with sauce. Every 30 seconds, there was another choice to have cut off and placed on your plate. After a while, I just had to say no.

The visiting around the table was very nice. It was interesting to get to know Joao and Caroline's friends. Once we had stuffed ourselves with the meat and the salads and the pastas, came the desserts.

Remember how I told you the main ingredient yesterday was chocolate and sweetened condensed milk? And that I should have held off a bit in preparation for today?

They brought around fresh pasta (go with me here) stuffed with either banana or coconut paste (made with sweetened condensed milk of course) COVERED in milk chocolate and white chocolate. They had a big huge pot of each. And if you wanted something else, there was also deep friend gnocci that could swim in the bowl of chocolate, your choice of white or milk.

It was amazing. I can't say anymore.....

That afternoon, we went with Hobson and Josana and Joao and Caroline to a few different places around Curtiba. We saw the outdoor Opera House, a few neat parks, of course an ice cream parlor and their house. It was about 8:30 p.m. by the time we finished touring around the city and everyone was drowsy and still full from all the good food we ate.


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The next morning we had planned to go to Palmeira, a small town about an hour from Curtiba. This was the town where Carl had lived in '93 as a SALTer with MCC. We drove up to this town, which reminded me of small town Saskatchewan meets Italy. Carl remembered most of the buildings and navigated us to the daycare where he worked. As we pulled out, Carl said that not much had changed, and smiled.


We came to the office and the staff showed us around. The kids were so interested in who had come to visit. I was so amazed at how diverse the kids were. All colours of skin and hair and hair types. It was like walking on the set of Unite Colours of Benneton. All the kids yelled questions to us in Portuguese and then when we responded in Spanish or English, they looked puzzled, because they just assumed that we were Brazilian. The kids chased after our kids, wanting to have them say English words. For Joel and Asha, it was a bit overwhelming, but Kezia loved the attention. Joao played a bunch of games with the kids, herding them into teams. At least one of us was fluent in Portuguese!
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Afterwards, we went to a nice buffet place and had lunch. Next stop, Witmarsum Colony.

Carl wanted to drive through the colony because it was his regular route during his term. Plus, we had an IVEPer in 2002 live with us in Winnipeg that came from the Witmarsum colony. It was certainly interesting to see a Brazilian Mennonite Colony, which has some resemblance to the colonies in Bolivia, but not much.

Once we arrived back in Curitiba, we quickly went to a mall and bought some things (seriously, it was like St. Vital, only better and I could have stayed there all day....) before heading to Joao's Moms place for supper. We were very excited about being able to meet her and Joao's other Brazilian siblings.

We got to the supper and were embraced by Joao's mom, his sisters, his friend and his wife, a couple of teenage girls.....the house was full! The food was great and of course, we ate way too much, only to realize afterwards there was dessert. Can you guess the main ingredient? Sweetened condensed milk and chocolate; add a few grapes and you have a dessert that is unbelievable!

We visited around the table for a while, and then it was getting late and we needed to go. We exchanged kisses and hugs and gave blessings to the family and friends. It had been a long day and we had to pack up for our trip the next day.

Tomorrow, we head to the beach.