Window Screens

If I were to walk into Home Depot or Lowes back in the US and look for window screens, I could almost positively find it on my own. If not, I would be able to clearly ask for what I was looking for. Not the case here in Brazil. There have been some serious bugs getting into the apartment, so I decided it was time to get some window screens. I went to the hardware store hoping that I could find them on my own and not have to use my very, very, very limited Portuguese. But no. That would be too easy.
So I looked around for the kindest-looking person I could find and said, "nao quero moscas no meu apartamento" (which I am pretty sure means, "I don't want flies in my apartment").
She asked if I needed "tele para janela" or something like that, which I recognized as meaning window screens.
"Sim, sim," was pretty much all I could respond with (yes, yes).
"lajsdgglkj otro lado ba;ksdjhfas," was pretty much what I understood next, so off I went to the other side of the store.
I still couldn't find them. So I found more people to ask. This time I was armed with more words. My mouth said, "tele para janelas?" and my face said, "please help the poor foreigner who doesn't know how to speak your language."
"sl;dfjasdlfkj 108 askdjfhasd" is what I thought I heard.
So off, I went to aisle 108. It was plants. So I just wandered around for a while and eventually found what I needed in aisle 112.
Maybe not the best hardware store experience, but I got what I needed. And hung them up with pretty owl duck tape.

My New Normal

I haven't written lately, because things just seem to be normal. I wake up in time to (hopefully) spend a little bit of time with Jesus and coffee before walking to school. I have conversations with kids that stretch me more than I thought they would (I was told by one student that everything that is bad in the world is because of the United States). I help out with basketball to end my school day. I walk home. I try to decompress. And I do it again.

On the weekends, I have been exploring a little more. I got an early birthday present bike from my parents, so I've been out riding on the highway, which is closed every Sunday. I also went to a market with some friends and have wandered a little farther from home. Things are almost comfortable here. I have done a horrible job of taking pictures. I'll work on that.

We entered rainy season, which is a relief from 90 degree days. I like the rain. Here it rains harder than what I'm used to at home though. It's all good though.

I'm learning a lot. I'm being stretched in ways that I didn't predict. In some ways, I'm not being stretched as much as I thought I would. Things are good overall.