Porto Alegre

     Just arrived in Porto Alegre last night, a name which translates to Happy Port. My friend Samir met me at the airport. We met at a retreat in New Hampshire last year. He is learning English, and I am trying to learn Portuguese, so we had a rambling conversation. He took me to a compound where all the pastors of the church he is with in P. A. live with their families. I think there are seven. An older gentleman and his wife have taken me in for this week. Samir returned about nine with a friend named Alessandro (i think) and took me to a Brazilian barbeque place. PA is in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul  (big river of the south), the closest to Uruguay and Argentina. It is the home of the gauchos, Brazilian cowboys, and a lot of beef cattle are raised there.
   The BBQ was rustic with wooden everything. Except for the meat the rest of the food is buffet style where you fill your own plate. The meat is served on long skewers by men who relentlessly return to your table to offer you more of whatever type of meat (many kinds) that you want. Even after you are satiated they keep returning. The highlight was a floor show on a raised wooden platform as follows: 1st phase-  4 women in flowing skirts resembling what you see in Western movies when they go to Mexico, and 4 men dressed in Cossack style clothing with spurred boots. The dance combines the foot work with a sort of polka style music dance.
2nd phase is the 4 men laying down wooden spears on the platform and doing intricate footwork without disturbing the spears. 3rd phase is a dance with swords. 4th phase is the leader whirling bolas - a cord with round wooden ends. These are meant to hit the floor. He twirled them very quickly, one in each hand, with light, then without light. Finally he got a female volunteer from the audience to stand motionless in the middle of the stage. She had fairly straight hair parted in the middle just touching  the place where her neck touched her shoulders. He twirled the bolas around her head very rapidly and finally brushed her hair, once on each side, without touching her head. If one of the ends had struck her it would have injured her severely. Then he had a man stand with something like those thin wooden sticks that go into the end of ice cream bars in his mouth and eventually knocked it out without touching the man's face. Incredible skill.
    Odds and ends:  A Brazilian dentist used ultrasound to cleanse my gums.
First time for me:  Not truly painful but not pleasant either.
  So far I have not been served any free food or snacks on internal Brazilian flights. You must pay and exact change is preferred. I gave six reals for something that cost five and it took a few minutes to receive change.
   Brazilian bathrooms:  So far I have not seen a shower curtain in any home. They all have see through glass for the showers. It also took awhile to find the temperature adjustment, which is not on the wall but above your head on the shower unit itself. Nor do any of them have fans.