Abby, Zoë and Enzo

Today for lunch daddy prepared a tomato sauce with eggplant, onion and garlic to be served over grilled polenta (prepared), that Nonno Ernie bought for us during his visit, and mozzarella.  The girls enjoyed lunch and went right down for nap so they would be ready for their afternoon movie with friends.  While they were sleeping, Daddy did the dishes, swept and dusted the apartment, and cleaned the table to make our apartment presentable.  We don't have many guests, so we want to make sure it is somewhat tidy and clean.

Our guests arrived just before 3 PM and brought us some soda.  This is a special treat for the girls, as they don't usually drink it.  Chris started the show, and then he and Richard went up to the roof to look around and take photos.  The girls all enjoyed the Strawberry Shortcake movie/episode and then played a few games of word bingo while waiting for Daddy to return from the roof.  Our guests had some errands to run before dinner and left us shortly before 5 PM.

Later we got a message from Raissa that she could be over around 6 PM.  We held the girls off from eating so we could go to Açai again for dinner.  We tried a few items we hadn't before, like Pastels.  One with chicken and cheese and the other with ground beef.  The chicken and cheese was much better.  The pastels are a type of deep fried shell, almost like an egg-roll dough, around some filling.  They are rectangle about 4 inches by 8 inches and maybe up to a half inch thick in the middle.  Here is what we ordered and the prices (total R$16.40 = US$9.11):
1 Coxão de Frango (Large Chicken Bomb) R$3 = US$1.67
1 Coxinha de Frango (Regular size Chicken Bomb) R$1.70 = US$0.95
1 Pastel de Carne (Beef Pastel) R$2.20 = US$1.22
2 Pastel de Frango com Queijo (Chicken and Cheese Pastel) @ R$2.20 = US$1.22
1 Tigela de Açai Pequena (Small bowl of Açai) R$3.50 = US$1.94
1 Suco de Laranja (Glass of Orange Juice) R$1.60 = US$0.89

This is the third time in Brazil that the total price was below what we expected and in our favor.  Chris made sure they adjusted the total price in their favor to the correct amount before paying.  The time before this, the taxi gave us more in change than we paid him for the fare, and Chris told him, too much, too much, until he rechecked and gave the correct change.  I think this behavior has caught the merchants off gaurd with Chris's honesty and integrity.  Raissa commented that most would have just paid the bill as it was and left, with the mistake in their favor.  This was very inexpensive karma for Chris. (R$4.40 = US$2.46)

We didn't stay out long.  We didn't wait for a table this time and the food arrived quicker than last time.  We only sat for about 50 minutes and then made our way back to the apartment.  We arrived close to 8 PM and I started to get the girls ready for bed, teeth brushed, faces washed, etc...  They were in bed but not sleeping before 8:10.  Raissa, Chris and I payed a couple card games before she had to return home.  Her ride was unavailable to pick her up, and she thought the bus might not be safe enough, so we called our regular taxi guy.  Chris walked Raissa downstairs to the cab, said hello to Zé Carlos and he said, wait, I bought a present for you.  He got out of his taxi, went to the trunk, and got out an alphabet booklet, and a notebook.  He wants to schedule some time to exchange language lessons.  He is interested in learning English and will help us and the girl learn some Portuguese.  Raissa called when she got home, and told us that she helped Zé Carlos the whole trip home, and that she would also be interested in getting together for this lesson as well.  Maybe he will want to trade a ride to Recife for lessons?