Closets

Can you do something for me? Take a walk around your house and count how many closets you have.

How many did you come up with?

My guess is you have roughly one closet per room, maybe more. I am also guessing that most are built into the house (as opposed to free-standing).

I had noticed in the past that Brazilian households tend to have fewer closets. The implications didn't really hit me until we hauled our stuff down here to Brazil and settled into our house.

Then I counted the number of built-in closets in my house. Zero.

This was not a fact that I took note of when we were looking at buying the house and it was full of other people's stuff. I am, however, happy that we decided to purchase a beautiful, enormous, free-standing, solid wood closet that belonged to the previous owners.

Over the last year or two I have grown accustomed to living out of suitcases and boxes. But two weeks ago I'd had enough. I was sick and tired of having ugly grey shipping crates taking up space in my living room, holding all the things that don't fit in our bedroom closet or in the office.

We went closet shopping.

Part of our ugly grey box collection.

If you know me, you know I won't settle for anything but a stellar price. Fortunately we found that stellar price, and quickly. It was on sale for a price I had never expected! So we bought it on the spot. All in all, a relatively painless experience.

Three days later it was delivered. We were told, though, that the people who set it up were a 'pretty busy'. That was a week and a half ago.

And here I sit, looking at my ugly grey boxes. If the set-up guys don't come soon, I might just have to put my handy-hat on and tackle it myself. I've already put together a couple of night stands. How much harder could a closet be?

I guess this is just one more thing that I have taken for granted my whole life - Closets.

I'm hoping that once the closet is set up and the ugly grey shipping boxes are stacked away out of sight that my new house here will feel just a little bit more like home.


ADDENDUM: I wrote this blog on November 14. Today is November 29. I am pleased to announce that after a significant amount of patience and persistence on Karl's part, our closet is now set up! It only took 29 days, and probably 8 hours of Karl's time to sort it out. Let's just say that even though this was not directly the store's fault (they contract a guy to set up furniture), we won't be shopping at that store for a while.

Kim's Embarrassing Language Stories Part 1 of....

I'm still learning Portuguese. I'd like to think I have come a long way, but I know there is still a long road ahead.

For the most part, I have no problem understanding people, and I can communicate effectively, even if it means talking around what I want to say at times. Every now and then, though, I just make blatant mistakes. So I thought I might share some of the funnier errors to lighten up your day.

Here are the two words you need to know for this one: ESPERTO = clever or smart. ESPETO = skewer or spit (like for a BBQ or shish kabobs).

I learned the word for skewer first. And what is a skewer? It's a sharp pointy thing. So when I heard someone describing a clever person, I thought I had heard the word for skewer, and equated it to the English word sharp. A skewer is sharp. So maybe a person can be sharp too. Neat.

Fast forward a week or two, as I brag about how SKEWER my dogs are. After a bit of confusion and a good long laugh, I finally understood that they were two completely different words.

Guess that wasn't too ESPERTO of me, now was it?

As silly as I felt, I do feel the need to recount my father-in-law's epic language slip when he was first learning Portuguese here in Brazil. (Sorry Dad, but it's a great story!)

Key words: CENOURA = carrot. SENHORA = lady. The only difference is the nh in senhora makes a 'nnyyyaaa' sound, rather than a simple n.

Suffice it to say, the guy at the produce market gave him a strange look and pointed him down a sketchy road when he went looking to buy a senhora.

Shifting focus

It feels like we are on the cusp of change. We have finished the renovations for our guest suites. We how have six rooms furnished and ready to host people. We have painted like crazy and everything is sparkling clean. Even the stone around the pool has been scrubbed - tile by tile. The last week or two, our physical labor has been concentrated on our backyard. We are nearly finished building up a large garden area and creating a fire pit area, complete with palm trunk benches. There is still lots of cleanup to do, mostly hauling dirt and debris from all the construction, and we are hoping to finish building a workshop/storage shed in the near future as well.

Mentally and logistically, Karl has let his creative juices flow and been busy with advertising and marketing. About a week ago I posted the pamphlets he made. That's been a great start, and we are working hard at handing them out to people. Our website will be launched soon - there are just a few more tweaks needed.

We have also had an interesting opportunity fall into our laps. The city we are part of (Caucaia) has decided to put on a business expo! The timing is perfect for us. We are hoping to start 2013 off with a bang and jump into business, and we see this expo as a fantastic way to get the word out to people in our community. It will run every evening for an entire week, starting tomorrow (Monday, November 12). Every night they not only have all the business booths set up, but local schools are running their Social Studies and Science Fairs right there as well. Plus there will be a free concert every night. We hope this will be a chance to show our face to the public, plus it will be a great opportunity to get to know other business owners and government agencies at their booths as well. In a country where it is all about who you know, these connections could turn out to be invaluable.

So if you live in the area, come check us out! We would love to chat! We want to take the opportunity to showcase a little bit of what we are all about, so we will have board games and other interactive activities going all night, every night! It will be a chance for people to practice their English, or just learn some new games.

Our excitement is growing as we transition from physical labour and facility work to marketing and (hopefully soon) hosting people.

Check Out Our Programs!

As we continue with finishing touches around our property, we are also stepping up our marketing. I thought I'd give a little taste of what our advertising looks like. 

Our website will be up and running shortly. You can check it out at www.kakibrasil.com.br. 

We will also keep you up to the minute via Facebook. So far we have a Rental Page as well as a Yak English Immersion Page. 

The following images are pamphlets for the services we offer. As of right now we have not translated them to english, so I tried to provide a brief summary below each one to give you a taste of what we are all about. 

If any of these programs catches your eye, or you would like to learn more about what we do, we would love to chat with you! You can email us at info@kakibrasil.com.br, find us on Facebook, or give us a call. For international calls, dial 011-55-85-9734-2273.

Discover - Go Beyond

DISCOVER is our Cross-Cultural program. We give you the opportunity to explore another culture. We offer opportunities for people to discover Brazil, Canada and beyond. We facilitate, plan, prepare, and accompany people on an adventure. With us you will experience the culture, history, food, language, politics, entertainment and values of your cross-cultural destination.

Quest - Grow Yourself

QUEST is our Leadership Development program. We offer events that will grow both the individual and the group. Working together with businesses, schools, churches and other organizations, we create a personalized events for teams, volunteers, students or clients. We use interactive workshops and activities to reach your goals of personal development, conflict resolution, youth leadership, health and well being, teambuilding, communication, and more.

Yak - speak... think... know... English

YAK is our English Immersion Program. The best way to learn a language is to be immersed in both the language and the culture. We bring an international experience to Brazil. Offering events and opportunities for immersion in the language with native English speakers, we use a variety of activities and games to help you learn. At our events, you will speak, think, and know English. 

Facility Rentals

We also offer our property for group rentals. We have 2500 square meters of well treed space, including recreation space, 6 suites, a pool area complete with Brazilian BBQ, and a fire pit. We can host up to 20 people, linens and towels are provided, we provide healthy, flavourful food. If you like, we can also organized activities for groups, as well as table games. Our place (called Recanto das Palmeiras, or Palm Tree Nook) is located just 5 minutes from the beach.