A Few Last Pics From Fortaleza

Here are just a few last pictures from Fortaleza...and then I'll move on, I promise. I just had these posts on Brazil partially done and wanted to finish and post them.
Here's a sweet picture of one of the city beaches of Fortaleza taken by me, of course. They actually have quite beautiful beaches right in the city. This place is four blocks away from my parents' house. It is where my mom and dad go walking most nights. My mom for exercise and my dad for socializing with his "friends" that sell stuff on the boardwalk and for buying the street vendor food.

Due to my parents' frequent visits of grocery stores (see post below for details), they have made quite a few friends at the grocery store that is closest to their house...Pao de Azucar. My dad makes friends easily at the store due to the fact that he talks to everyone everywhere he goes, and my mom makes friends easily at the grocery store due to her inability to fluently speak Portuguese...I mean who wouldn't love a cute little lady trying her hardest to ask you in broken Portuguese where the ricotta cheese is?

They actually have had two people who work at that grocery store come over to their house for lunch and to meet the missionaries and be introduced to the gospel. While I was there they had this nice girl named Fernanda over. She is such a great person...I hope she joins the church.

Here's me with my parents' maid Irene. She's great. She doesn't speak a bit of English so it is always fun seeing she and my mom try to communicate. Sometimes I was able to help out with my Spanish though. It is really weird that my parents have a maid because it seems so snobby and uppity. But it is super common in Brazil. In Brazil it is said that you either are a maid or have a maid because there isn't much of a middle class at all. Actually in Brazil I think they call them Empleo (Employee) or something like that because really they do anything the people want...not just cooking and cleaning. For example buying the groceries, walking dogs, picking up kids from school, etc.

Some people there really treat their empleos poorly. It makes my dad so mad when he sees people at the store with their empleos and they are bossing them around and talking down to them. But, luckily my parents really like Irene and treat her great!