The Way Things Work

So, here we are a million miles from home (okay, not a million, but DaddyHealy is going to have to fill in that number for me later). The company offers us a pretty nice setup. They rent us a furnished house. They lease us a car, and they pay for private school tuition for our children and as many Portuguese lessons as any of us want to take. Our end of the deal is much easier: We enjoy life, make friends, and learn the language and culture. Most importantly, we support our Daddy, who works hard, bringing his expertise and also his awesome communication & people skills to try his best to keep and improve the flow of information between the company in the US and here. He’s doing very similar work as when in the US. He manages a group of Brazilian engineers (who blessedly speak better English than we do Portuguese) working on combine (specifically headers) design.

We are officially here on a two year assignment. However, that doesn’t mean we have a plane ticket home for October 11, 2013. It’s a general time period. We do know our Brazilian visas expire mid-September 2013, so we’ll have to be home by then. Obviously, the company paid our plane tickets here & back, and also one trip home for a visit during our 2 years here.

Believe it or not, the company considers 2 years a short term assignment. Therefore, they recommend we keep our home and personal belongings in the US (and we daily thank God for the blessing of our amazing friends who are helping us maintain it). Since our expenses are basically covered here, it’s a logical choice. In addition to what we brought with us on the plane (which, believe me, was a LOT), the company ships us an air shipment of about 200 cubic feet of items we chose to send. In our case it includes books, toys, computer, clothes, more books, some gifts, shoes, books, craft supplies, bicycles, kitchen items and so on. Oh, and did I mention books? Honestly I’d have to guess about a quarter of our space was filled with books. That shipment arrives between 2-6 weeks, lately it seems to be leaning toward the 6 week end. Until then, we have what we brought in our suitcases, which as I mentioned is an amazing amount.

Our plane tickets allowed us each two 70 lb bags, a carry-on, plus a personal item. That is 20 items total, plus 2 carseats. We brought 20 (knowing it would be all we have to live on for up to 6 weeks). We strategically packed clothes for spring and summer, toys, books, language materials, school supplies, laptop computers, paperwork, work items & documents, diapers, a very few kitchen items, bedding & towels, toiletries, medicines, about 15 stuffed animals plus blankies that are “required” for some family members to sleep, and that about sums it up. At any rate, it took a 15 passenger van to haul our family of 5 to and from the airport!

So now we enjoy what we have and await our shipment. We’ve purchased some things we know we’ll need (and did not ship) such as garbage cans, dishes, cups, utensils and a few pots. Amazingly, we are doing just fine. No one has complained of boredom, or even of missing anything from home. We have no TV and I don’t think anyone has noticed. I’m kind of sorry one is coming in the shipment. It’s peaceful without it. I imagine the Christmas morning we will have when that 200 ft3 arrives.

One of the things I’ve anticipated the most about this experience is the simplicity of life we will experience here. It is not a harried culture. People don’t seem over-scheduled and family and relationships are very important. Everyone is very laid back. Being late (which it seems I often am these days) is never a problem. We will have less stuff….in a good way, and less commitments too. Considering that, a tiny bit of me is dreading the chaos of all the additional stuff once the shipment arrives. We are surviving quite nicely on what we have. Perhaps this feeling of blissful simplicity will wear off just in time for our shipment to arrive. That would be good timing.