The Grand Tour

Welcome to our tour around Anapolis, Goias. In past blogs I've told you all what's happening here, but you might be wondering what it looks like here. Today we're going to try to show you some of the things we have gotten used to seeing all around us here in Anapolis. Thanks for joining us around the town!

When we first arrived we showed you some pictures of our house, but at that point we were still getting settled in so I thought it might be nice to see pictures of our home all set up now. Above is the outside of our house. We think that from the outside it looks like a warehouse....not so attractive. Fortunately though, that makes it a little safer here, so we're thankful for the house in disguise. We live on the second floor so the door on the left is ours.

Here we are at the top of the stair outside our front door. Here in Brazil hammocks are very popular, so we joined right in and hung one on our porch. We love it!

When you first enter, you come right into our living room.

From here you can see the layout of the house. If you were to go left you would walk towards the bedrooms, straight ahead is the kitchen, laundry room, and eating area. Let's take a look!

Here is the eating area. In the next picture you will see that our kitchen is very tiny - too small to fit our fridge...so this is where we eat and keep some of our kitchen things. Here is where i'm sitting right now blogging!

Here's our kitchen. There are some differences between Brazilian and American kitchens. For example, the stove has a propane tank to run that we keep in the pantry.

Also, the faucet system is very different. Here it is rare to have hot water in your sink, so there is just one knob for the one temperature available. At a certain time in the afternoon the sun seems to warm the pipes just right and we get nice warm water in the sink....a nice little reminder of the States! Then, since even Brazilians don't drink water straight from the faucet, we have a little filter on top our faucet that we use for clean water. Very convenient compared to stories of missionaries having to boil all their water.

Then next to the kitchen is our laundry room. Since our kitchen was so small, it seems to have been made up for here in our huge laundry room...it's even bigger than the picture seems. No dryer, so we hang everything and then iron it to not LOOK like it was just hung.

Back down the other hallway here is our bedroom. Closets are very unusual here in Brazil, so everyone buys these big dressers instead.

Here is our little office/shop where we do paperwork and woodwork at the same time :)

I know it is not very normal to post a picture of your bathroom online, but I thought I would only to point out the different shower we have here. In our bathroom here instead of glass or a shower curtain we have this stone with a hole in the middle that you go through to take a shower. However, in many houses there is nothing, the water sprays straight into the bathroom. When you are done with the shower you use a big squeegee to push the water down the drain. Very different! We are glad that our house came with this to block the water. Another literal culture shock is the shower itself. Since there is no hot water heater in the houses, showers are heated with an electric heater right over your head! Potentially every dangerous if not set up safely, which fortunately ours seems to be.

Moving on, here is our huge porch where we love to sit out and enjoy the sun set over the city.

And the view over the railing....but we better keep moving along if I'm going to show you the city!

Here's our street. The basket is where you put your trash for it to get picked up. This would be tough in the States, where we seem to make much more trash.

Around the corner from our house is this busy street where there are tons of shops, people, cars, and even the occasional house/cart.

First a stop at our local fruit/veggie market. There are also grocery stores where you can get produce or you can go to an outdoor market too, but that is only at certain times. Here is a great spot because the fruit is always fresh and the store is tidy.

Across the street is a bakery where there are TONS of varieties of breads and chickens cooking on the rotisserie.

Then nearby is the butcher's shop to get any kind of fresh meat which some people get fresh everyday.

Nearby is the local pharmacy

And pet shop

And just a good old "everything" kind of store. A man resting out on the street

And another man who works gathering trash and selling some of it for recycling material.

Here's your local home depot :)

And the gas station. Here gas is even more expensive than the States. Gas is about 2.55 Reais a Liter...which is about $5.70 a gallon in US dollars!

Here is the post office, where I just went today to mail a few letters.And on the way home you can pick up a DVD or go in the DVD rental store and pay to use the internet at one of the computer stations there.
Here's a good view of the street. Also on the left you can stop at a little stand and get a snack.

Our next stop is the Bible School where I help teach an English group 2 afternoons a week.

It looks very different than Moody in downtown Chicago!

It is very spacious with lots of houses for students and professors to live.

Here is one of the education buildings - missions.

It is interesting to notice the windows here in Brazil. Since theft is lot more common, here almost all windows have metal grates covering them. The window then slides shut from the inside, like a shutter.

A house at the seminary
Notice the roofs are made out of a clay tile material all stacked on top of each other.


After eating lunch in the cafeteria Jeyson and I usually sit together in this little park before he returns to Asas and I head to the classroom.


The next stop is PETI - the secular kids program where I help. I have shown pictures of the kids before but I just wanted to point out what the actual facility looks like.

Here's where they meet for little courses or to eat snacks.

Here's the kitchen. There is also a cement area where they play soccer and some small classrooms.

Of course our tour wouldn't be complete without including Asas. I have shown pictures before of the hangar so I thought I'd just show you the administration building.

Well that wraps up the tour of Anapolis. I hope you enjoyed joining us for the day, we wish we could show you around in person!