Saturday Dec 12

Hey everybody,

Greetings on this beautiful morning. Temp here is about 65 and it is sunny. We made it through another "grueling" week! Last night we went out to eat with our friends from next door, the Voelkers, at Chili's ... yes, that Chili's. Same decor, similar menu (some in Portuguese), English speaking waiter, U.S. music (which is quite common in many stores and malls), etc.. .. We almost forgot where we were for a while. Except for the prices (higher here), it was a Friday night at home.

Today we went back to Portugal to an outdoor market called the fiera) where we bought slippers for me, Nancy bought some boots (very cool), and some odds and ends like salmon steaks, bread, snack and sweet stuff. We then went to one of the nearly ubiquitous malls for some necessities. Nancy missed her coffee this am so I bought her a cappacino at one of the literally 100's coffee shops that abound in this part of the world. She had not tried one yet. You should have seen her eyes light up! I think I will have to buy more of them for her. Thankfully they only cost about $ 2 here so it is not as bad as going to Starbucks.

Nina is off with her friends, both Portuguese and American, to the mall for the afternoon. Then they are going to walk to downtown Lisbon to see what we have been told are spectacular Christmas light decorations.

Pray for us as we get ready to visit Romania and Kati's birth family (mother and brother plus others) right after Christmas. We are excited but a bit nervous as well. We plan to return to Lisbon Dec 31 just in time to welcome in the New Year on Greenwich Mean Time.

I am going to add a couple of pictures to our Thanksgiving vacation since I have the newer photos to share

Mike

December 8, 2009

Being back in school after Thanksgiving break is always a treat because before long it is time for Christmas break! Just kidding. I really do enjoy my class ... but hey, I enjoy vacation time too.

We spent Thanksgiving in an area of southern Portugal called the Algarve. It is a resort area on the seaside and lovely. We were blessed with 5 days of 60ish weather. The kids even ventured into the outdoor pool a couple of days. This was not just a holiday. It also was a missions retreat for ABWE (Association of Baptists for World Evangelism) which is the group associated with our school, GLCA. There were about 70 of us staying at the resort. Everyday we met at 10AM for an hour or so of prayer and worship and a message from the guest speaker. After that we were free to do whatever we as individuals or families wanted to do with our time. There were lots of teens so we generally saw little of Nina as she was off with her friends. Kati's favorite friend, Tori, was there so she usually spent the day playing with her. They happened upon a litter of stray baby kittens so spent some of their time naming them and then checked each day to see how they were doing.

As lovely as the place was and as much as I enjoyed walks on the beach and a little souvenir shopping and some much welcomed ... sleeping in my favorite part was the morning worship services. It was so nice to be able to have church everyday in Portuguese and our guest speaker was excellent.

There were a few note worthy things I'd like to share with you. The first day when we checked in, Nina and I went up to the room (Mike had gone to help some other people unload) and we found there was no electricity ... this was in a new, modern condo-style motel. I promptly went back down to the front desk to report the "failure". That was when I found out about the unique power-saving "device they use. It seems that inside the door is a little slot into which you must put your keycard to get electricity. Without your keycard in that slot ... the electricity goes into the condo. Once that was figured out, we realized we would need another key because if Mike and Nina were both out with their keys and I was home .. I would have to sit in the dark. Mike decided he would like to have this device installed at home thus saving not only electricity but repeated lectures to the girls about turning off lights when not being used.

Portuguese Another thing is how the elevators work. We were on the the second floor but our room number was 322. That is because the first floor is zero ... so to get to 322 you must push on the 2nd floor elevator. That can be quite confusing until you get used to it.

While we were there we needed to get some Benedryl for Kati ... but since they do not have it, we had to get something else that works in the same way ... try explaining that in pidgin Portuguese. Then there is the interesting way they have to drugstores and pharmacies (pharmacies ).... one has only OTC drugs (none are sold in areas of the grocery stores) and the other has prescription drugs. We had to take Kati to a clinic to have some infected bites looked at and were given a perscription for an antibiotic ... it took 3 farmarcias visiting to find one that had prescription drugs.

There were orchards of oranges and clementines all over the Algarve. One afternoon, Mike came home with a big bag of each that he had bought right at the orchard for just a couple of million ... and they were delicious! One night we went to a Chinese Restaurant to celebrate Nina's 14th birthday, another night to a place where they cooked steak on a hot rock and one night to an American diner that featured memorabilia from the 60s and, of course, hamburgers and milkshakes. If it sounds like we ate out a lot, we did ... we ate breakfast and lunch in our condo and ate out most evenings ... sometimes with just another family or two and other times, with a larger group. One night we went to an Indian restaurant with a missionary who had lived in India until he was 12. There were 15 of us and we let him order the entrees and then shared them all. He did a great job with variety and taste.

On Thanksgiving Day everyone brought potluck (the usual trimmings) to a party room at the resort. Of course, the Portuguese do not celebrate Thanksgiving, so it was an all-American event with the ABWE missionaries from Portugal and from Spain. Several people had prepared turkeys so we enjoyed the full benefit of "stuffing" in the traditional American way. What a good time.

December 2, 2009

Walking out to the car this morning in the misty rain I realized that winter here in Portugal smells just like early spring in Illinois...the main difference is that in IL when the damp chill penetrates to your very bones, you can go back inside to a warm cozy house. Here, since the homes do not have central heat and are made of stone and tile, inside the house is often more chilly than it is outside! But hey, I hear that by February winter is over...so I will not complain.

We had an interesting trip to Morocco, Africa. We drove the 7 hours from Lisboa to Spain (Espanha) and there caught a ferry to Tangiers. The 45 minute ferry ride was uneventful except for standing in line two different times to get our passports stamped. We arrived to overcast skies as evening approached and caught a taxi (two actually since there were 8 people in our party) to the bed and breakfast (Dar Nilam) where we had a reservation. We were greeted at the door by our host, ushered into the reception area and given a tall drink of some type of fruit nectar. After
registration was complete we were shown to our rooms and asked when we would like to have dinner. We had made arrangements ahead of time to dine with the host family who owns the B&B.

If you haven't seen our picts from Morocco try to view them. It is hard to explain the oppulence of the decor at Dar Nilam. Every imaginable color and pattern could be found in the tile, the curtains, the rugs, the furniture, etc. Overstuffed cushions and decorative throw pillows abounded. Lush velvets, filmy guazes, shiny silks were everywhere. Our host told us that the home had been his family home until his parents wanted to downsize. Since our host (Rachid) and his wife (Fatima) had both been trained in hospitality and hotel management his parents gave them the home and asked them to try to make something out of it...voila...a bed and breakfast!

At seven o'clock we followed our noses (the smells were fabulous) and assembled downstairs for an authentic Moroccan dinner. It started with bread and various pate type spreads which was followed by the most delicious chicken and vegetable couscous. During dinner we discussed politics, religion and history with our host and hostess. They are Muslim but have some knowlege of Christianity. They asked questions and we answered and then we asked and they answered our questions. It was quite an interesting exchange. After dinner their two young daughters (6 and 18 months) joined us as we feasted on fresh fruit.

The beds at the B&B were beautiful although not that comfortable, but, since we were pretty tired after our long day, we slept well. The next morning we were served a huge breakfast of all kinds of rolls and breads and coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.

After breakfast we were off to tour Tangiers. We had arranged for our taxi driver from the night before to pick us up at 10AM for the tour and in a misting rain we headed out. We saw the summer home of the king of Morocco and many palaces that belong to wealthy Arab families. Most come to Tangiers only at certain times of the year when the weather is too hot in other parts of the continent. We saw gypsies hawking their wares and berbers selling their farm produce. Our guide whisked us through the market place too fast for our liking. We wanted to "shop" and bargain but he had other ideas. We ended up in a bazaar which we figured was owned by his family...he wanted us to shop there...perhaps he was getting a cut.

The sun came out and in no time we found ourselves rushing to catch the 2PM ferry back to Spain. As we headed for the ferry merchants ran after us trying for a last minute sale...I ended up buying two bracelets and 2 t-shirts literally on the run. It was actually pretty fun.

By the time we reached the ferry we were all ready to relax and take a "chill-pill"...I settled for a bottle of cold water.
Nancy

Thanksgiving

Hello all,

Well, we had quite a week off from school. On Saturday before Thanksgiving, we got up very early and headed south to the bottom of Portugal and then east into Spain. We passed quickly through Seville and then turned south again to Tarifa near Gibraltar. There we caught a ferry to Morocco. All this was required as we are allowed to tour in Portugal for 90 days and then we have to leave the European Union. What an interesting way to spend a weekend. We arrived at our Bed & Breakfast in Tangiers just after dark. Dar Nilam (Blue Diamond) is about 5 minutes from the ferry port and a world away from familiarity. We were greeted by our host and given about an hour to get ready for dinner and what a dinner it was! There were 8 in our party counting Noah who is about 18 months old and will not remember much. Our host family prepared a wonderful traditional meal for us (main course was chicken with couscous and vegetables) and joined us for interesting conversation. We covered religion, politics, social issues, and religion again. Great contrast between believing by faith alone in Jesus as the Son of God sacrificed in our place of atonement for our sin and the belief that good works might be enough to save us. Anyway it was a great experience in a beautiful place. We "toured" the next day a bit and one of us will blog about that and the rest of our week soon. Mike