Domestic Bliss

My travels brought me to Brazil and I had time to visit my longtime childhood friend Jennifer and her family. We were in grade two together, that was a long time ago.

It was a great visit, not only did I get to see a part of Brazil I wouldn’t have otherwise but we went away for a few days as well. I had a holiday tour as the Brazilians do. It was wonderful!

Jennifer and her husband Agnaldo were terrific hosts!

This adventure for me has been all about seeking out new rough-edged adventures but the best part really about visiting Jennifer at her home was lying by the pool with a cocktail. They have a great home in a gated community just outside of the city of Campinas. I was able to run and swim every morning, lay by the pool & read my book. It was wonderful, I’ve never had that kind of a holiday before.

The community that Jennifer’s family lives in is new and still under construction. It was fun watching the progress on some of the homes daily and it was also great that many times I was the only one at the pool! The pool has a lifeguard and a snack bar. I even worked out one day with the lifeguard, it was tough. She was fun – I think we could have been friends if we spoke the same language! I liked the music she was playing as well, even though I couldn’t understand the words. I wanted to try and download some of it but I never got a chance. It was nice just to enjoy being outdoors in a beautiful setting!

The construction was neat to see – so different from home! Not just the way the home were built but what materials they used and the different styles. The men rarely wore construction hats or boots. I saw some with bare feet and often some smoking.

Jennifer and Agnaldo have two beautiful children, Chiara and Luca. They are amazing and it was great for me to be able to spend time with them other then a couple of hours once in a while at Christmas. Luca let me have his bedroom for my visit, which was very generous of him.

I was even able to spend the morning one day at Jennifer’s school. I spent a couple of hours with the librarian at her school, nice to see how other schools do things sometimes.

I will miss them as I continue on but I am grateful to have been able to visit with them, have some down time, see a little of Brazil and a snapshot of real life in their part of the world!!