Adventures in Brazil: Part 16

Several relaxing days in Vila Velha, neighboring city to Vitoria in the state of Espirito Santo. My hosts are incredibly hospitable. They live a few blocks from the beach and I have several enjoyable jaunts there, the last with one of their adult children, who speaks good English although we spoke mostly in Portuguese. We covered such topics as tatoos, self-defense, whether the people of God go directly to be with the Lord after they die or at some subsequent time. We also drank coconut water out of a real coconut, always available on Brazilian beaches. The day before had done a similar walk with another Brazilian friend whom i first met in the US. Tonight i go to a wedding. Brazilians are not exactly restrained so i assume i will finally get to sleep about five in the morning. The night before there was a house group meeting with about twenty people, many young adults. My host is a avid, serious student of the Word of God who also plays guitar, and who has some major handyman/fixit skills. Upon moving into his present home he redid most of the interior. After this meeting several of the young people approached me with some questions which i attempted to answer in a mixture of English and Portuguese. As always i was impressed by how rapt their attention was, and their willingness to interact with someone much older than themselves. One of the questions had to do with the spiritual state of the church in America. Last night i was invited to the home of people who hosted me last year as well. We had Brazilian pizza. They lived in the Atlanta area for seven seven years with their two daughters. Both of these young ladies are amazingly fluent. The younger is the most fluent English speaking Brazilian that i have met in my three visits to Brazil although now she has some serious competition from several brothers in Porto Alegre. The parents told me about a little farm that they have purchased in the mountains that they hope to show me on my next visit.