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.
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