Church in the Ala Nelson Costa - Ilheus, Bahia, Brazil

Some of our most memorable experiences during our trip to Brazil were going to church at the Nelson Costa Ward in Ilheus, Bahia and hanging out with the local members.  The LDS church has only been in Ilheus since 1991 and we met many of the first members of the church in the area.  We were able to attend church four weeks and met some wonderful people and created lifelong friendships.  

We showed some pictures of our first week to church in a previous post but it deserves some more description.  We had been getting our pretty well using public transportation so we thought we would ride the bus into town for church.  Some of the locals from our town gave us directions to the building and we had mapped it on the internet and it didn't seem too difficult.  The problem was the rain that had fallen for 3 days straight and the flooding that it created in front of our house.  We had to take off our shoes and wade through 12" of water just to get to the bus stop.  Then we waited along the highway for 40 minutes in the rain for a bus to finally pass by and take us into town.  After a 25 minute bus ride we had a short 1 mile walk to the chapel.  By the time we got there it had been an hour and a half and we were 45 minutes late.  To add insult to injury we were all sweaty and sticky.  Especially Brad, he has very active sweat glands and it took him 2 hours until we got in the air conditioned chapel to finally stop sweating.  After church two wonderful families offered to give us a ride back home in their cars and we excitedly accepted.  It took two cars to fit all of us.  After that experience we decided to rent a car.

We also had the missionaries over to our house for lunch after church one Sunday.  There are 4 missionaries in the ward; 3 Brazilians and 1 Argentine.  Elders Bitencourt, Belko, da Silva, and Ovanco shared a delicious turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy lunch along with 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies.  We had so much fun with them and they were so nice to our kids.  It was fun for Brad to hang out with them and reminisce about his days as a missionary in Sao Paulo almost 20 years ago.  

The members of the ward have welcomed us and treated us like family.  We were invited to two family nights with various ward members and Maile, Hannah, and Carson were invited to mutual night with the other teenagers in the ward.  Many of the members in the ward are recent converts to the church and their stories of conversion and faith are amazing to us.  They are truly special people that have made a lasting impression on our lives.  The experiences we had and the people we met while attending church in Ilheus touched our lives forever and will be memories that we never forget.

January 5, 2014 at the Nelson Costa chapel in Ilheus, Bahia.

Nelson Costa chapel

Derek getting out of the trunk in the church parking lot.

Inside the chapel.

Mingling in the chapel after church.

The missionaries at our house for lunch January 12, 2014.

Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy lunch on the patio.

Elder Belko and Elder Bitencourt with their gift to our family.

Maile and Hannah at mutual on Saturday night.

Three days of rain flooded our driveway and road to our house.

We waited on the road for 40 minutes in the rain for a bus into town.

Walking to church after riding the bus into town.

Water balloon fight, firing squad-style, at mutual.

Family Home Evening at Irma Neide's house.  Denise Longo giving a lesson.  Sandra, Gabriela, Maile, Hannah, the 2 Dereks and Jamilly looking on.

Our Beach House in Olivenca - Ilheus, Bahia

Our house is in a small town called Olivenca about 10 miles south of Ilheus.  The house borders a beautiful beach with clean white sand and warm 80 degree ocean water.  The property has 20 or so coconut trees that are loaded with coconuts and we have taken advantage of that.  We bought a couple machetes for Carson to cut them open for us to drink.  There is a large patio where we spend most of our time eating, playing games, or just talking.  That's something we've learned to do in Brazil...talk to each other! because there is no TV and bad internet at our house and we actually like it and do it for several hours every evening.  We also spend a good amount of time swinging on the hammocks, swimming in the pool, or just staring at the beach and the ocean waves.  There is a covered parking area for our awesome Fiat rental car, 2 laundry sinks, a detached guest suite, and a BBQ.  There are 3 bedrooms and 2 baths in the main house and the upstairs bedroom has an AC unit so we have all taken turns sleeping in the cool, dry air.  Whoever sleeps in that room usually sleeps better and longer because they don't wake up a sweaty mess at 6am.  

An example of a game that we played one night was a soda taste test.  Guarana is a very popular soda in Brazil and we love it!  There are several brands (Antarctica, Kuat, Schin) that we have tried so one night we decided to do our own taste test between the two most popular, Antarctica and Kuat.  The kids almost unanimously chose Antarctica and I think that is also the choice of most locals.

Sunset view of the beach behind our house.  It's pretty dreamy.

We spend a lot of time sitting at these tables on our patio and swinging in the hammocks.

Grilling some meat at our backyard BBQ.

Just enough parking for our fun Fiat.

It's a small pool but the kids are in it all day.  It is a nice break from the sand and salt water.

Derek and his Brazilian buddy Derek (both named Derek and both 7 yrs old) swinging on one of the backyard hammocks.

Carson cutting open one of the hundreds of coconuts on the property.

Brad and Taryn doing the Antarctica/Kuat guarana taste test.

Maile and Derek in the pool.

Maile and Derek sleeping in because they got the room with the AC.

Party in the pool with some friends from the local church.

Derek, Carson, Guilherme, and Derek eating lunch on the patio.

Conveniences we take for granted in the US

Throughout our trip we have had two consistent thorns stuck in our side.  First, internet.  We have had 5 good/reliable days of internet our entire trip.  The good days were in Rio, from there it went down hill.  When we arrived in Garapua we had no internet at all and were continually told that it would be working the "next day".  Well that went on for over a week.  Finally Brad took matters in his own hands, went to a bigger town, found an internet guy and paid to bring him to our house.  For the next five weeks in Garapua we had great internet... when it worked; off and on for 3-4 hours each day.  When we arrived in Ilheus, we thought we would get great internet; we were wrong.  Our house is in Olivenca, which only has internet through a 3G phone line.  It doesn't work at all since the influx in users is go great right now, there is not enough band width to support all the tourists.  Luckily we met a family at church that has good internet in Ilheus.  They set up an account for us and let us connect to their router.  It is a 15 minute drive to their house, but we are so grateful to have the option.  We park below their house on the street, sit in the car and get our work/ social networking done.

Thorn #2, laundry.  We have done our laundry by hand for the past 8 weeks, with two to go.  It is a very laborious job and dependent on the weather.  If it looks like the possibility of rain you can't do laundry.  Our last few days in Garapua,  and the first week in Ilheus it rained nonstop.  We were not able to do laundry in over 8 days, so we lived in our swim suits.  One good thing has come from it; the kids magically don't have as much dirty laundry to since they have to do their own and by hand.  When we arrived in Ilheus we discovered two great laundry sinks with built in scrub board, a real upgrade, but no laundry line to dry our clothes.  We had to go to the store and buy rope and clothes pin to make create a laundry line.  We are actually getting more efficient in the process of soaking, stain treating, scrubbing, rinsing, squeezing as much water out as possible and hanging it on the line.  Still, a huge pain.

Our highly upgraded double laundry sinks; they have built in scrub boards.

That's us parked in the silver Fiat connected to the internet.  The router is on the back side of the white building.

Laundry hanging on the line trying to dry in the rain.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - Ilheus, Bahia

We arrived in Ilheus a few days before Christmas and we were planning on spending Christmas Eve at home.  We were feeling a little home sick because we didn't have any decorations and we weren't going to be with family and friends.  But, at church on Sunday we met some really nice members of the local ward (Ala Nelson Costa, Itabuna Bahia Stake) that invited us to their house to spend Christmas Eve.  We arrived at the Carvalho's house at 8pm on Christmas Eve and after 6 hours of fun and food we left for home at 2am.  Their home, the decorations, and presentation of the food were all so beautiful!  They welcomed us as part of their family and made us feel very comfortable.  We ate soooo much delicious food, had a white elephant gift exchange, and played games.  They even bought gifts for all the kids which helped ease the pain of being away from our typical american Christmas.  We will always remember our Christmas Eve in Brazil and forever remember the Carvalho family.

Christmas day we woke up at 11am and recovered from the party the night before.  There wasn't any rush to wake up early because there was no Christmas tree and no presents waiting to be opened.  It was a beautiful day and we played on the beach and swam in the pool.  The kids received their gift of a box of Garoto chocolates and were surprisingly happy with them.  Annette made a great turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy which made it feel a little like home.  It was a great Christmas even though it was different than any other we have had.

Bashford Family, Christmas Eve 2013 Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil

Gift exchange.

Beautiful Home of the Carvalho Family.

The food and decor were amazing.

The mulheres (women) of the party.

The homens (men) of the party.

More amazing food.

Turkey dinner on Christmas day.

Arriving in Ilhéus, Bahia

Friday Dec. 20th we arrived at the Valença bus station at 7:30 hoping to get 9:00 departure bus tickets to Ilhéus.  We were shocked to find out that all the bus tickets on both bus lines were sold out for the day.  After exploring our options we decided to buy tickets to Itacaré and hope to get a bus from there to Ilhéus.  It was a pain, but after two bus transfers we made it to Ilhéus by around 5:00 pm.  We took two taxi's to our house and arrived to a lake of rain water as a driveway; it had been raining here for 5-6 days.  The taxi drivers waded through and we finally made it in.  The house is great, but small.  Derek and Taryn sleep in the family room and everyone else has a bedroom.  Brad and Annette were thrilled to have their bedroom air conditioned, and it worked!  The house sits on a large ocean front lot and has a pool.  We are very excited to finish our Brazil trip here.  Saturday was spent in a taxi going down town to find an internet modem, grocery shopping, and a quick stop at the airport.  Originally we had planned to take a bus from Ilheus to Salvador to catch our plane back to the US, but after our bus fiasco on Friday we decided to buy airline tickets to Salvador instead and avoid the 9 hour bus ride all together.  It was still raining all day on Saturday; we watched the lake grow bigger and bigger and wondered how we would get through the water to catch the bus for church Sunday morning.

Our house after all the rain

Sunday morning: getting to the bus stop is our only way into town.  We took off our shoes,
rolled up our pants and went for it.  After this experience we decided to rent a car for the three weeks we are here.

Almost there. Once at the top we waited, in the rain, for 40 minutes until a bus finally came by.  The only thing that kept us from giving up was the thought of having to walk back through the water.  Two families from church gave us a ride home.

Carson trying to get situated.  The boys put their socks on once they got on the bus because there was no place to sit down.  By the looks we were getting by people passing by, seven americans in church clothes on the side of the road in pouring rain must not be a common occurrence.

Once we got off the bus we had a five minute walk to the church.  We were only 30 minutes late.  

                             

Final days in Garapua, Bahia, Brazil

Garapua will have a special place in all of our hearts forever.  There is nothing like it and really no words to describe this simple village that seems to be stuck in time.  We gained many friendships and learned life lessons from a people that at first glance may seem uncivilized.  They accepted this loud, funny sounding family from America with open arms.  When asked when we were coming back it was difficult to answer honestly. Even though we will probably not see our friends in Garapua again, we will remember them for the rest of our lives.

Good bye Garapua

One of the fishing boats parked at low tide

Carson all saddled up, he rode up and down the beach

Derek with Giovanni and Giovanni's cousin

Local transportation

Local fishermen pulling in their net

Julien taking Taryn for a ride on the beach

Derek hanging out with Pipoca, we loved his ice cold Guarana and Coke Zero.  The first few weeks we were in Garapua Derek said he loved to hang out with Pipoca because he would give him a Guarana whenever he asked for one.  Needless to say, our tab at the Kiosk was quite large.

A friendly family tournament of modified tennis/ping pong???  Brad won.

Taryn's friends

More village transportation

Hannah's favorite find.

The credit card steps on the back of Pipoca's kiosk.  To use your credit card you have to climb the stairs and finalize your transaction on the roof; it is the only spot where an internet signal comes through.  No one thinks twice about it; so funny.

Carson and Gabriel

Our luggage stacked on the boat to Valenca, Derek asleep on the bench.  Once in Valenca we will catch a bus to Ilheus.