Farewell to Dear Friends

I was reading my Bible app in this wonderful swing this morning when Rosalee asked if I wanted my picture taken. 

 It is their “quintal”(back yard) that I will miss the most of their house.

This little birds make a racket to draw attention if the pan for their bath is empty.

We went for a drive to see more of the beautiful countryside of Espirito Santo. “Agritourismo” is a big thing here—farms, many of them organic, designed to attract tourists, selling things like these incredibly sweet strawberries.

Or this pasta colored with beets, wine, spinach, or coffee.

The Carnielli farm specializes in the Italian foods of the early immigrants to the area.

This weekend is the Polenta Festival. Note the stuffed mascot.

Coming from Italy in 1888, the Carnielli family has worked this land since 1921. They grow coffee and produce cheeses and jerked pork loin, although calling it “jerked pork” sounds really course compared to the gourmet food that it is. They gave out lots of free samples and complimentary cafézinho (demitasses of strong Brazilian coffee). We tasted the three-month-old cheese (Steve remembers mozzarella, I remember Provolone) and the two-and-a-half-year-old version. The difference was tremendous. (I refrained from telling them that Burnett Dairy does a five-year-old Cheddar.)

We met Eunice and Marcus for lunch at a restaurant across the road from a waterfall. Not as much water was falling as usual due to the draught, but it was still a lovely place. At the end of lunch, it was hard to say good-by. Who knows when we will be together again? Old friends are the best to my mind. You share so many memories and don’t have to explain. David dreams of seeing snow someday. I promised him that if he works hard on English, we will find him a family to stay with in Webster as an exchange student so he can spend a whole winter with snow!