Today was a great day.
Started it all by having breakfast at 10am with Carlos (the trumpet player) then going back to bed for a bit, then lunch with Obie in the hotel lobby at noon which was terribly slow because the guy taking the orders was also the cook, but it was no biggie. After lunch, Kevin (the band manager), Lorena (his wife), Mark and Avion, Chris (our sound guy), Obie and I all went to the mall to do a bit of shopping. Unfortunately the air conditioning was broken in the mall and it was incredibly hot and humid, but still fun.
After a short taxi ride back to the hotel and a short nap it was time for the show. We did a quick photo shoot outside the hotel before leaving and then headed off to the same church that we had our first show, this time we were playing in their service. We didn’t sound check this time, which was nice, and spent a few minutes setting up and then the service started. The house band played a few songs up front and the pastor talked for a little bit, then we took over and Mark gave the sermon for the night. It was fun hearing the english being translated into Portuguese for the couple thousand people there (as well as seeing the Brazilian Sign Language), it was not fun sweating from pores I didn’t even know I had, no joke, I had to wipe sweat from the tops of my forearms. I have never had to do that before.
The service went well and then the pastor and his wonderful family took us to a fantastic Brazilian BBQ restaurant. We stuffed ourselves with beef and yes, I even ate crab, and it was actually ok. The meal was incredible, as was the dessert, which was a chocolate pie/cake thing stuffed with strawberries.
We said our goodbyes to our hosts and headed back to the hotel around midnight and now we’re surrounded by lightning storms, with strikes every few seconds, but since it is so far away, hardly any thunder.
Here’s what it looked like today from our room:
And here’s a link to a video of the current situation.
Now once again, it’s bedtime.
