"Most people would sooner die than think. In fact, most do." - Bertrand Russell

Yesterday was Father's Day here in Brazil.

I preached at the church in Ibura at their service that starts at 4 p.m. and left with Joe before the service had fully ended to go over to Dos Cordeiros ("two lambs") to preach at their service. Those churches are about 20 minutes apart and each is in a favela, the Brazilian equivalent of a slum. But no slum in the States is as poor as a favela.
That turns out not to matter when you get a bunch of believers together to worship. Energy, joy, and when the preacher gets up, attentiveness.

I confess to especially enjoying the church at Dos Cordeiros. Pastor Manuel is a short (maybe 5'6") wiry man in his mid-50s who works as a carpenter to support his family. He comes to my teaching sessions and is always dressed in a button-down shirt and nice jeans. When he flashes that big warm smile you can't help but smile back. His house (remember, it's a favela so that word is used loosely) is on the back side of the church's tiny dirt parking lot.
Manuel grew up in a rural area in Southern Brazil where his family had goats, chickens, pigs, and a big garden. He told me, through Joe who interpreted, that most days their diet consisted of nothing except what they had grown or raised. Now that he lives in Recife (4 million) he still likes to have animals around. That explains why, when preaching, I looked down the center aisle and out the glass entry door to see a turkey staring back at me. (I know what you're thinking; the turkey was doing the same.)
After church he showed me a picture on his phone of a goat he's raising down on the family plot where his sister still lives. A Boer! just like we're raising. And Manuel is also raising it for meat, except he can't bring himself to kill it because he's played with it since it was a kid. So he has a neighbor do that part of the process.

A week or so ago I included this pic in my post and said this was my creation after Pam used the over-ripe bananas to make muffins. I learned  a friend who's generally fairly clever was driving along days later when it suddenly dawned on her what that pic was about.
Which made me wonder if others missed it, too. 
Sex a-peel. 

Continuing on the food theme, yesterday Joe, his MIL Vittoria, and two of their four kids Bella and Nathan, went to McDonalds for lunch. Of course I found the menu unintelligible, but Joe helped me out. The food was exactly what I'd get in Eugene. The only difference I noticed was that drinks are dispensed by the person behind the counter (a girl who looked all of 13) not by a dispenser out in the dining area. But you still get free refills if you take your cup back up to the counter. 
BTW, the currency here is the real (R$) and the plural is reals. But because of the crazy pronunciation scheme for Portuguese that plural is said something closer to hey-eyes. The exchange rate is just a bit under four R$ to the dollar.

For lunch (their main meal here) Vittoria fixed a rice dish that had saffron in the topping. I don't think I've ever had saffron before. It was good!

It's now 7 a.m. Tuesday and I just got up.
The session finished about 9:45 but Joe & Michelle had to close up the church. We went from there to get some supper at a crazy burger joint that's more like a garage than a restaurant.
They put fried eggs on their burgers here. But it's OK because they also include BACON!!
It was midnight before I climbed into bed and started to wind down. Asleep at 1 a.m.?

Time for a hot shower and some breakfast!
Oh, and they have this unique cheese here that they cut off the block in 1/8" slabs and fry in a pan. I think two slices over a one month period totally clogs every artery in your body, but it is pretty good.