We are starting to mourn our leaving at the end of this week! Everything I do I think "this is the last time I will do..." the brothers are so special and have embraced us as mothers and grandmothers. Many are working with the English far away from home. I was with a brother last week and after our afternoon together he said "I am going to call my grandmother tonight and visit my parents next weekend". I think we have helped to fill a void for the younger ones which is most of the congregation.
We had dinner last week with 2 couples. One night we went to Gabriel and Beatriz 's home. She roasted chorizo sausage at the table with a tiny barbeque dish. Delicious! Claudia and I had to buy one to bring home. How am I going to pack this stuff?! She also made a traditional Portuguese dish, bacalhau, a dried salted cod mixed with corn bread and onions, ect. Kind of like a fish stuffing baked in the oven. We had such a good time.
We also went upstairs to our neighbors, Alvro and Connie. He is Portuguese and she is from New Zealand. They met when she came here to do need great work. They have just been married about 3 months. We had lasagna and salad with them. She is a wonderful cook and he was a perfect host. His sister, Carla joined us along with an American sister, Susan. We played Tumbling Towers...otherwise known as jenga. Must be the Portuguese version.
Such sweet, caring people.
This week we went to Coimbra...about 2 hrs north by train. Another "Claudia and Gloria get lost in Portugal" story.
The website said our hotel was just around the corner from the train station. The problem was the train station is in the middle of an industrial area, with nothing like hotels around. You know how I said everyone speaks english in Portugal? Not true! Apparently everyone speaks english in Lisbon, not Portugal as a whole. Trying to find out where we were took some time and much pantomine. So, there are 2 train stations in Coimbra and we arrived at the wrong one. We deduced that if we followed the tracks eventually we would arrive at the proper station. About 1 mile down the road we found it and sure enough the hotel was around the corner. The hotel was very nice and right in the middle of town. The streets were narrow and winding and often ending up in a church square. There are so many churches in Portugal, one around every corner. We visited the Coimbra University which is one of the oldest in the world. The books can date back 12th century, and the library where they are stored dates back to that time also. It is beautiful.
We took a bus to Combringa which has Roman ruins that date back to before the time of Christ. It has a part of the old roman road that was traveled on in the 1st century. It is mind boggling to think of things this old. I want to talk to the people who lived there and get a feel for what life was like. The city walls were 13 meters thick, so apparently there was reason for fear. Won't it be thrilling to hear stories from the ressurected ones.
On Sat we spent the afternoon and evening with Ben, Linda, Claudia and Daniel. Daniel is the only child in the congregation. The family was asked to move to the english congregation because they had no families. He gave his 1st, #3 talk a week ago. He did such a fine job even tho he said he was very nervous. He is 12 yrs old, I believe.
In their neighborhood they have a petting zoo that we took a walk around after we had lunch. They are such a loving family and we have enjoyed them immensely.
Sun evening after mtg we again were asked to dinner. We had bacalhau again, but made in a totally different way. Sergio and Sandra are a young couple who work full time and spend most evenings in the ministry. The zeal of our brothers and sisters here is a beautiful thing to behold. We were out way past our bedtime but what fun!
Thurs. Evening our sweet Ellie made us bacalhau, imagime that! The best one yet! We were surprised when several from the KH showed up to share dinner with us. It was lovely but brought many tears.
Fri at mtg was tearful also..good byes are hard, but I feel so loved! We have many new sons and daughters. They will be a part of my heart forever.
This past week we tried to make sure we had all our gifts and souvenirs. Over the last six months I have bought things a little at a time. Fast forward and all these small things make a very large pile! How am I going to get all this home? There was no way it was going to fit in my luggage, so off I went to buy another bag. I thought this one would work for you carry on....so Heavy! I got rid of several things...some clothes were a little big so we donated them and I left some shoes behind, but still the cases were over the allowed weight. What to do. I will check 2 of the bags and just have to pay the overlimit fee. We arrive at the airport and go to check in and discover we have no return flight. Apparently because our flight initially arriving in London was late and we could not make the flight to Lisbon and they had to book us a whole new flight the other booking was cancelled. No problem, will have a lay over in London, but thats cool.
All in all another beautiful day in Portugal.
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