In Araguaina, today is the biggest day of the year. It's Cavalgada. The day of "the largest horse parade in the world". Not sure if it actually is but with more than 2,000 horses walking today it's definitely one of the biggest. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to show for it because for some reason I haven't figured out yet my memory card is locked. The fortunate part of this story is that I wasn't even the least bit saddened or surprised. This marks a major milestone in my immersion into the culture here. See, as I might have (ok, actually have,lol) mentioned before, things here usually don't work right the first time around. And issues you'd get fixed once in the States and be done with must be fixed multiple times here and remain in a perpetual state of semi-brokenness. And that's ok. I've gotten a lot of perspective this last week. These last 3 and a half months actually, but specifically this week and so I share...
I watch sermons every Sunday morning on North Point's website, these sermons have been a real blessing to me since I've been here. Last week's lesson was about Romans 5. About how we "Rejoice in our suffering because suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope". I knew coming here was God-breathed. Since I've been here I've actively prayed for God to make me by any means necessary a more patient, less sarcastic, less money-oriented person. I prayed for the hard lessons to not stop coming until I learned them and Kirk Franklin's "Hide Me" became my anthem. I haven't written in a long time because honestly it was just hard to type out what was happening, but this week I can say with certainty that I see myself moving from suffering to perseverance.
What was my "suffering" you may ask? Well, Our fridge has a freezer inside of it. The freezer had accumulated so much ice that the door wouldn't shut. In an effort to thaw my freezer i decided to take a pair of scissors and hack at the ice. One of my brighter ideas I know,lol. As you probably guessed I punctured a hole in the freezer wall expelling all the refrigerant and leaving me with a worthless fridge. For those of you who don't know I am extremely cheap. Always have been. Having to shell out $150 bucks plus the cost of everything in my fridge and eating out everyday for the 2 weeks it took to get it fixed was a major blow. Feeling pretty low, the next day I managed to cause a gas leak in my apartment. Yep.
Michol and I were watching movies on our wall every night. (We borrowed Elisa's projector while she was at a congress) I made popcorn on the stove (which I do often because we don't have a microwave). I went to turn of the gas tank and the switch broke off. I recognize that this may be a bit confusing so let me explain. The stoves here don't have gas in them. Every house has a gas tank on the floor next to the stove that looks like the helium tanks you use to fill balloons. You then buy a $6 handle/hose set at the store. So to cook: gas handle up, light match, turn burner on and the opposite to turn off (minus the match of course). Anyways, the handle with the 5 year guarantee broke off on the floor causing a gas leak so loud all my neighbors came outside to see what it was.
We evacuated the building, called the fire department (who took 25 mins to show which apparently is good timing for them) and waited. After the danger had passed we told our neighbors what happened and they took it well, laughed at us even. Although it had never happened to any of them, it's apparently common knowledge here that if anything like that were to happen you just unscrew the hose cuz the tank itself it sealed for that reason. No one bothered to tell us that so my fellow Fulbrighters if you're still reading take note and pass the info on. Michol tried hard to assure me it wasn't my fault but I still felt like it. I'm still a little scared of my gas tank but I work hard to tell myself that my fear is a lack of trust in God. A downer I know but the story gets better in part 2 :-) (unless you read these reverse chronologically in which case I guess this is it,lol) Toodles
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