WOW, what a lot has been happening here!!!
Dave has had his birthday, which was a nice relaxing day. We also celebrate birthdays here with all of the team (usually with a special lunch). After the special lunch, Gideon and I had to dash off for his first day at Brazilian school!!! He has now been at school for over a week, and is still loving it. He has 12 in his class, including someone who speaks really good English, for those moments when he really doesn't understand.
We also had a major storm here, and lightning struck a telephone line, just outside 'Luzeiro'. This lightning 'fried' 5 computers, including some parts of ours. So, we were trying to work out how to resolve some of these problems......Dave decided to try to buy another laptop (as shipping in parts can often be heavily taxed), and had a rather strange experience doing a deal in Portuguese. However, this laptop then kept crashing, as it had a hardware fault. So, back to the shop to try to get a refund.....BUT in Brazil they won't give refunds, just an exchange. After a lot of arguing, in Portuguese, without a translator, he came away with a better laptop for the same money. It used a lot of time, was quite an unpleasant experience for all, but Dave says he learnt (and practised) more Portuguese in that hour than in the last few months.