Archive
for Bill & Sue's Journal
Tuesday
morning, September 1, 2009
My
doctor told me not to move around too much so as not to break stitches
after having some spots removed from my chest and back yesterday. So
I’ll sit here this morning and blog.
Three weeks ago about
this time, we’d found Natali at the airport in São
Paulo and were heading for Rio.
We arrived at the airport just as her plane was landing. But we ended
up waiting in the wrong terminal for her. Finally,
realizing our error, we made the long walk to the other terminal to
find her waiting and worried for us. In
the end, it was a happy reunion for all of us!
From São Paulo we had a short flight down to Rio de Janeiro,
I watched out the window as more and more clouds gathered the nearer we
came to the coast. We landed in a downpour with a forecast of rain for
the next couple days. After checking into our hotel, I asked about hang
gliding (which was my main reason for going to Rio).
By phone, I talked to a guy named Hilton and told him that if the
weather cleared at all and was good for gliding to give me a call on my
cel.
Within an hour, the
weather cleared and stayed sunny the rest of our trip. Hilton
called back and sent a guy to pick us up at the hotel.
By
three that afternoon, Natali and I had pretty much signed our lives
away and were jumping off a cliff at Gávea, and gliding –
tandem, of
course, with someone who knew what he was doing - over the Tijuca
forest and golf club, continuing on out over the ocean and finally
landing on the beach. The flight lasted about fifteen minutes, but
wow…was it worth it! An unforgettable experience!!
Check out pictures at http://spoelhof-brazilnuts.blogspot.com/
Sue met us on the
beach where we landed. Hilton
gave us a ride back to the hotel where we cleaned up. By then Natali
was wearing down after all her flying of the past twenty-four hours.
We celebrated our
anniversary – and surviving hang-gliding – with pizza at a sidewalk
café by Lido
Park
on Copacabana beach. Walking back to the hotel, we picked up some water
and snacks. After tucking Natali into bed early, Sue and I meandered
back along the beach and wandered through some of the shops.
The following days,
we toured around Rio.
We
took the cable cars up Sugar Loaf Mountain. That was where on a visit
years ago, when Natali was only two years old, she ran under a chain on
the ramp to the cable car (not much thought for safety back in those
days) and almost fell off. My sister Jewl,
who was visiting us, went under the chain and caught her at the very
edge.
We went along
Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Enjoying the scenery and sandcastles.
Finally we took the
train up on Corcovado with the huge
Christ the Redeemer Statue (now a Wonder of the World).
We
had lunch in Tijuca at a churrascaria – a steakhouse where they
continuously bring around different types and cuts of meat on skewers
which you can eat to your heart’s content. There
Natali got to eat her favorite, chicken hearts.
All too soon it was
time to fly back to São Paulo,
pick up the car and drive back to Bauru. Kind
of spur of the moment, we considered staying a night in São Paulo
so Natali could see the old homestead and maybe some old friends. I
called around and got hotel prices, and then got stuck in traffic, and
decided it was time to just get out of town.
Once back in Bauru, we
started settling in. Within minutes the phone rang, and life here was
going again. It was still fun having
Natali here! We talked and relaxed and
laughed and played games and toured together around the region.
Along
with lots of folks from church, Natali met Suzana (the lady who saved
Sue’s life a few years back) and Mario (who painted a picture for her
one Christmas). Sue and Natali got their
nails and toes done together a couple times, even with little flowers
painted on the nails.
They loved shoe
shipping in Jau – a town about thirty minutes away with huge outlet
malls with just ladies’ shoe stores! I
brought a book along for that trip. They made a haul! A
couple rainy days we wandered around downtown Bauru and even visited the hands-on
train museum. Located in the center of the state of São
Paulo, Bauru
was to be the railroad transportation hub for the state.
We
took another day trip to Barra Bonita for a boat ride on the
Tietê
river. It’s an unusual river which flows inland instead of out to a
coast. In São Paulo,
it has a reputation for being very stinky and polluted, but out here
it’s a clean, grand river with hydro-electric dams with locks for boats
and barges to pass through, and good fishing. I
thought our kids were pretty well-rounded until I heard that Natali had
never gone through locks on a boat. In spite of the cold and wind of
that day, it was a fun trip complete with a picnic in the park.
The
hardest times, as family, to be apart are end of the year holidays and
birthdays, so we celebrated Sue and Natali’s birthdays (which are both
big “0” ones for them this year) complete with chocolate cake and
frosting roses on top just like Mom used to make for every birthday.
All too soon the time
came for our little girl to leave the nest again. On
the other hand, it was nice that none of us wanted to see the end come,
and there were tears accompanying the good-byes.
Ministries
continued on during this time. August was a great family month at
church with seminars, guest speakers, films and all kinds of activities
going on. It was sad to see it all come to
an
end this past Sunday, with the teens leading the service, but so many
commented on what a great help it was for them in centering their homes
on God’s principles.
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