You can't take me anywhere

      In the US we have a slang (jiria) expression, "Can't take you anywhere." The probable origin is with taking a young child toa nice restaurant. The child makes a mess. This evolved into anyone (an adult) who drops something or makes an accidental mess of some kind. Other people express mock horror and see "We can't take you anywhere. This probably doesn't translate well.
     Monday morning I woke up in the neighborhood of Coqueiral and took an early walk with Gilmar & Junio. Gilmar is one of the few Brazilians i know that likes to walk for exercise. It is not a cultural concept. Afterwards we went to the bakery (padaria) where he picked up about fifty French rolls, a staple of breakfast cuisine. Later we had almoco- the large midday meal. I knew Vinci was coming in the evening so I rested and read in the afternoon. We finally gathered about nine. My host Marcos led us in worship, our numbers augmented by families from Virginia, Scotland, Canada, and the Amazon. Vinci rolled in later and introduced all of the missionaries. Then he taught about common problems that trouble the work of God such as egotism. I understood about eighty percent. Having one person speaking instead of fifty at once facilitates understanding.
    This morning we went to a rented schooner on the river nearby. This was an aged wooden craft that can hold about forty people. With the few cars available our group was ferried to this vessel. Eventually it was standing room only and we went up the river for perhaps half an hour. We had wooded areas on both banks but i did not see any animals. At length we came to a wooden platform anchored in the river that we could use to swim from. I had not brought my swim trunks and did not plan to swim. Eventually i was persuaded. I enjoy swimming and a number of the younger people had swum to the nearer bank. When i got there i discovered that a muddy growth had made this so slippery that ascent was nearly impossible. Unfortunately I made the attempt. I slipped, fell, and cut the side of my foot on the rock. This began to bleed so i swam back to the ship. The skipper had some old iodine, guaze to doctor my foot.
    When i returned to the house i was persuaded to go to a clinic. The doctor was out for lunch so my friend took me to the pharmacist. I thought we were buying medecine. Instead the pharmacist took me to an inner chamber where he gave me shots for anesthetic, dug out the foreign material, gave me eight stitches and throughly cleaned the wound. Finally he bandaged the wound. At the end he declined payment for at least  half an hour of skilled work. He just took enough to cover materials because i was "a man of God." Brazil is amazing on many levels.