I got home, knocked on my host parents door to let them know I'm home and my host dad told me were going to a church dinner. It turns out we weren't going to the local church but one in a nearby farm town. There was a massive party there because an Italian saint named Santa Rita de Cassia forgot her hat when blessing their church 80 years ago, and people have flocked to this holy ground to worship it ever since. They do this now because her day is May 22nd and people go there, many walking, some every day, for the entire month of May. It is over 30km to this town from Iturama and is over six hours walking. The church was closed so we didn't visit the hat but there was a chicken dinner and country concert we went to instead.
I started unpacking on Sunday and found the two boxes of KD my parents brought me. I decided to make a box for my host parents José Humberto and Julinesse for a Sunday night dinner, which they don't normally eat. I wasn't sure if they would but they liked it- and finished off the pot.
After dinner, I went to Telma and Edmilson's house to drop off the key to the apartment in Uberlandia and give Edmilson a t-shirt from the family to thank them for putting us up in the apartment and cottage. They invited me out for pizza so I went and had a second dinner. We ordered the Canadian pizza. It was actually close to the real thing. Except for the palm hearts (core of a palm tree) and egg on top.
I haven't blogged in a while but I'll put up my Quarterly report when it's done and probably write about my family coming to Brazil. Barbecue and pancakes at the cottage, visiting Sao Paulo, Surfing with Taylor in Guarujá- there's a lot to talk about.
Here are videos from the trip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvvaYppp6_Y&feature=channel_video_title
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooj394kN02o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q23qNcLywSE
