We took the Kombi in last week to get a few things done to it. Tinted windows, security system, and we installed a sound system that belongs to some friends of ours who are going on furlough Wednesday for a year. Lucas said it only took him 13 years and moving to Brazil to get his dream car. I must say, it is pretty cool. Anyway, on Friday he left language school to take the bus to the city (Gravatai) where our car was, so, I had to take the bus home with Nathaniel and Jackson without Lucas. I was a little nervous, but we’ve done it enough times now that I knew what bus to take and everything. We’re at the bus stop, and up rolls 721, the bus we had taken that very morning and many days prior. We get on, the kids slide under the turnstile (they are free) and we get our spot to stand. All goes well. Until…the bus does not turn on the street by our house. I’m thinking, you have got to be kidding me!!! Again?!?!?! With the little portuguese I know, I tried to ask the lady next to us if this was bus 721. It was. Then I tried to ask her if it went on a different route. I don’t know the words for that so I think I said, “Bus go different street?”. She again said yes. Then she started moving her hand in a circle like it was going to circle around to the street. I asked her, “Men work this street?” , trying to find out if there was road work. I don’t think that one translated right. (We took the road not travelled last night. It had a whole new blacktop on it.)
Anyway, I held my breath and waited to see something familiar. I did not. Next thing I know, the bus is getting empty, just like last time. Nathaniel looks at me and says “Mom, where are we?”, I knew then I had to try and talk to the cashier. So, here we go…
“Forgive me, I speak a little portuguese. Is this bus 721?”
“Sim”
“Bus go different street?”
“Sim”
“My house, I don’t know”
He just smiled and asked me where I live. I know that phrase!!
“I live on 03 de Outubro (our street name). Bus not go near my house today.”
Again, he smiled. I tried to tell him the name of the street the bus always goes on, but I couldn’t remember the name. So then I just started naming street names. I don’t remember how the “conversation” got there, but we decided the bus driver would take me to a street near my house that has a creek, we both knew that street. We chatted a little longer about where I was from, why I’m here, the difficulty learning portuguese. When I say chatted, I mean choppy sentences related to those topics followed by, “Understand?” in portuguese. He was so, so nice. I am so thankful that God put such nice people on the buses He knew we’d get lost on!! So, we are driving along and I see our neighborhood!!! I think I may have started jumping like a cheerleader, I’m not totally sure. I told him my house was right over there, the bus stopped at the stop where we had gotten on that morning, I thanked him a bunch of times, and we walked home, never to ride the bus without Lucas again.
THE END
We are getting the windows tinted on the Kombi so it is in the shop for a couple of days (I know what you’re thinking-its gonna be super sweet!). It was not the best bus experience we’ve had, nor was it the worst 
We made it home but not without some harassment for from some young boys for being “americanos”. (I want to clarify, it is not the norm to be harassed like that) We get little reminders now and then though that we are the “enstrangeiros” (foreigners) here. It can be discouraging at times, but there are lessons to be learned in everything–more compassion towards “estrangeiros” in the U.S., extra graciousness to those who welcome us, more love towards those who don’t…we are, after all, here to tell people about Christ!!! Aren’t we all estrangeiros in this world anyway??
