We are as I type in the middle of The Most Exciting Soccer Game Ever. I know that because there are fireworks going off all over the city, and we can hear the cheering down at the bottom of the mountain, and we're up high in the castle (Castelinho 38) looking out over the valley (through which the city spreads down from where we are through the low part and back up the other side) that then climbs the mountain across from us on the other side. Those who know me won't be surprised at how quickly I'll shift from the excitement of The Most Exciting Soccer Game Ever to other matters, as I have already exhausted my comprehension of the event. Our crowd is watching soccer out on the charming open air terrace, where there's a roof over an open kitchen/bar area, with wonderful Brazilian coffee and espresso, an old fashioned cooler filled with water, soft drinks and beer, a pretty old glass front cabinet filled with very nice Scotch and gin (and anything else we could imagine, but those are my favorites), and then a big table outside the bar, where there's also a flat screen TV. There are several other big tables and chairs on the terrace, some under a sail appropriated from some drydocked Lightning somewhere, tell tales flapping in the wind, and others in the open air. Two other lower terraces with tables are down the mountainside a flight of concrete steps, with coconut trees and other growing things (including ginger -- pretty) that we've been struggling to get locals to identify. There's an open air exercise room on one of the lower levels with Pilates balls and other useful looking stuff.
Services at the Cathedral this morning were wonderful. Inamar gave the sermon from the crossing, which is very engaging and intimate, even without an aural word of Portuguese (I can decode some in writing, but can't hear it at all). Noelle followed with part two, translated from English into Portuguese by the charming Ben Edwards, American expat, whom Noelle introduced in her earlier post. The gospel was Luke 9:18-24, shortened for emphasis here: "Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say that I am?" They answered, "John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "The Messiah of God." Noelle said that it always interested her how the gospel always seems perfect for the occasion, as we have come to Rio to look for God. She went on that we think that we find God in relationship, in the space between you and me, and we have come to experience God by finding that relationship through understanding the lives and experiences of those we meet and helping them to understand ours. I know -- it's freakish she's so good.
The choir in the Cathedral are a keyboardist and a baritone, absolutely charming guys who also have a farm, grew the salad for lunch and bake the most wonderful bread -- all kinds -- you've ever seen or tasted. They share it after church with fantastic Brazilian coffee served in little glass cups and also sell some to those who know they can find them there then. We had a very engaging conversation about bread baking of all kinds at lunch, supervised by Lydia and prepared by others from the church. We had rice, Spanish chicken, gorgeous garden salad topped with fresh kiwi (a festival of different green), pommes frites, and then pomegranate, tangerine and flan for dessert. Absolutely delicious. And Charming Ben Edwards (can't quite figure out his relationship to our bed and breakfast except that it, he and the Cathedral are all within walking distance on our hairpin cobbled streets, and he seems in charge of many things but especially beverages in all of these places) brought several interesting things to try at lunch including Benjamin wine (facetiously claimed to be made in his apartment) and some weird gin and lime mix, which of course was delicious.
Noelle is so right about finding God in between us in relationship. I think that happened today.
