The Scoop on Milk

One of the things I miss most since moving here to Boa Vista, is milk.  I'm a big fan of milk and milk products like yogurt.  But here in the middle of nowhere, far from grassy fields where cow graze, milk is far from abundant or cheap.

As far as I can see, searching high and low, there is no fresh milk available...at all.  I'm not even talking FRESH from a farm, I mean just any kind of milk that needs to be refrigerated.  The options are milk that is liquid in form, but is sold by the liter in a box that sits on an unrefrigerated shelf.  Imagine nonperishable liquid milk.   It looks like this: 

I comes out to $6 a gallon and is ok tasty for coffee or cereal, but not good enough tasting to want to drink a whole glass (except for Elijah who doesn't know the difference :).  But at that price who can afford a whole glass on a regular basis anyway!  

So, the other major option is powdered milk.  It works out to cost about $4 a gallon or so and you have to mix up batches of it to keep in your fridge or by the glassful.  The taste is....well you know if you've ever had powered milk while camping or something.  It's...ok. 

Yogurt and ice cream, they do have them here, but they are very pricey.  Cheese is decently affordable so we do eat that as well so we can get enough calcium

But as much as I am bummed about the lack of milk here in Boa Vista, I can't imagine living in Venezuela.  When we went over the border a few weeks ago (where powered and box milk is usually much cheaper) the city was completely OUT!  Maybe that's why the cereal was so abundant :)

Anyway, so when you pour yourself a large glass of fresh milk with dinner tonight, drink one for us too!

Flights Underway

 This morning three of our pilots and both of our airplanes headed out the hangar doors.  Both were headed to villages to transport native leaders back home after big Bible conferences.  Lauro (left) just went for the day, but Heber and Jeyson will spend several days in this process.  They will be based out of one village and the plane will take off each morning to bring the leaders to various other villages (you can see some of the locations on the map below).

 These Bible conferences are a big deal to the leaders and they themselves pay for the flights to be part of it.  It is exciting to serve them, knowing just how much they get out of being together with other believers, even if just once a year.

Preparing the plane

Meanwhile Elijah and I are holding down the fort in Boa Vista.  Please pray for our safety (as well as for the pilots!) as this our first time alone in this new neighborhood and town.

Venezuela Getaway

This weekend we had a stellar time crossing over the border to Venezuela.  We left Boa Vista Friday afternoon and drove two hours up breathtaking, windy roads to the Brazilian boarder town of Pacaraima.  Friday night we stayed with a missionary couple that we recently met and had a relaxing and encouraging time with them.  It was just fun to get out of Boa Vista and get up to the cooler mountain climate for a change of pace and speak in English!  Pacaraima is incredibly small!  It almost had a mountain village feel to it.  The couple, Eric and Donna, had tons of fun stories to share.  They have 8 kids and several grandkids who live in the US. 

The next day in Venezuela was an adventure!  The culture was surprisingly different than in Brazil and the fact that the government controls many of the industries had an impact on life.  For example, the government controls many of the food industries, which resulted in the entire city being out of milk, flour, coffee, sugar, and other products.  Gas is also run by the government which meant there was only 1 gas station in the whole town.  The good news is gas is SUPER cheap (compared to Brazil especially!)  It was less than $1 per gallon, where in Brazil it is over $6!  So TONS of cars and trucks come from Brazil to Venezuela to fill up.  Many Brazilians even make a living of coming over to Venezuela in trucks with enormous modified gas tanks to fill up on gas to resell illegally in Brazil.  And they just keep getting in the line over and over all day!  So as you can imagine, the lines are SOOOOO long!  You have to wait across the street in a parking lot to even get called over to the gas station.  In the parking lot, there were people walking around selling snacks to people waiting in line.  We came at a good time and were like the 8th car in the diesel line (the gas line had 198 cars in it....really!  The cars were numbered!).  But it still took us almost an hour to get gas since people come with such huge gas tanks.   

Here is the diesel waiting lot

Finally filling up!

Since many of the items in the stores in Venezuela were in short supply, it was pretty wild to go shopping.  It felt like black Friday, except people were diving for packages of laundry soap :)  Almost everything was cheaper in Venezuela than in Brazil so we stocked up on diapers and bleach and spaghetti.

But what was really fun was finding a lot of items we miss from the US that we can't get in Brazil.  Cans of mushrooms, packs of oreos, Heinz ketchup, and boxes of name brand cereal (corn flakes, raisin bran) for cheap!!  There was also a bakery that had lots of pastries like ones Jeyson misses from Ecuador...and donuts!  It was tons of fun just discovering everything.  There were tons of shops we didn't have time to go in and a Chinese restaurant!  But our new friends have made us feel welcome to return, so we definitely plan to!  It was just so much fun to get out of this tiny tiny town and feel refreshed by the cooler climate, kind new friends, and many layers of cultural fun and food!  Definitely a winner weekend!  I am loving living on the border of different countries!

Connected!!!

We're back online and all I can say is WOHOO!!

There is only one internet company in town and they didn't have any lines available in our neighborhood for 2 months!  And, as of only yesterday, we are plugged in!  Internet may seem like a small thing, but only when I was without it did I realize how many areas of my life were affected.  

I wasn't able to:

- Respond to emails

- Send our regular update emails

- Blog

- Talk to my family on Skype

- Look up recipe ideas, and more importantly ingredient substitution info since there are many ingredients we don't have here!

- Access our bank account/keep up with our budget

- See my sister's wedding pictures!

-Research videos to be used in my childbirth classes

To just name a few off the top of my head!  I did a little dance around the kitchen when I got word we were getting plugged in.  Hello world!  We're back!  Now if only I can catch up...