Wikipedia – Anápolis

The entire state of Goiás—and the Federal District, which is completely enclosed by Goiás—uses 220 volt electricity instead of 110. Fortunately, more and more equipment is "bi-volt", meaning that it can handle any voltage between 100 and up to 240. (This can be quite handy when there is a brownout!) Bus service, both local and interurban, is excellent. For just over $10 I can get to Brasília in a few hours, and then go wherever I need to by catching another local bus right around the corner. And in Anápolis itself, all buses wind up in the central terminal, where you can get on another bus without paying an additional fare. (To walk into the terminal, you pay the equivalent of one bus fare.) This is very convenient; one can travel just about anywhere in town and back for the cost of two bus fares.

As for seasons, even though the words exist and are used, most people do not think in terms of summer and winter. Rather, they think in terms of rainy season and dry season. Rainy season is just that: rainy. Think "thunderstorms". At times, very heavy storms, with a lot of lightning. Lightning protection for electronic equipment is a fact of life. And wet. Before rainy season, the (dirt) road in front of our office is in very good condition. But toward the end of rainy season it can get so bad that you almost need a four-wheel drive vehicle to get there. And things get green. You have to cut grass regularly. During rainy season it is nearly impossible to envision…

Dry season. Think "brown". Grass withers away. Things stop growing. Dust rises. Day after day the sun slides across a clear, blue sky. Then, out of the blue, a cold front pushes up from the south and you get a day or so of chilly drizzle. Just enough to maybe settle the dust. Then it's back to dry. The dust rises again. And on and on. It's hard to envision rainy season…

Being located so close to two other major cities, Anápolis is not noted for being a place where you can "find everything". Instead, people tend to travel to Goiânia for major shopping, and to get items unavailable locally. Buses leave every 15 - 20 minutes and are inexpensive. Phone service is pretty good; now that there is more than one company offering service, competition is bringing improvements, as it always does. Internet is pretty good, although to be honest, as technology advances, Internet access is improving dramatically everywhere.

Overall, it is not a bad place to live—for a city. I still prefer life away from large cities. But with cheap public transportation and the availability of two large cities to visit for serious shopping and other necessities of life, it's pretty good.
 

The Anápolis office is our administrative headquarters here in Brazil, in addition to supporting several translation teams. As a result, we have offices for both the directorate and language program support. Our main accounting department is also located here.

The office is a single two-story building located at the end of the street, two blocks from Avenida Brasil. In addition, we have constructed a storage deposit next to the main building. As with nearly all structures in Brazil, this mini-complex is surrounded by a wall, for security. Two phone lines come into the building; one for FAX, the other for phone and Internet. In addition to the one regular phone line, we have a VoIP system, with 3 virtual lines in the U.S. with calling capabilities in the U.S. and 34 other countries, including Brazil, for one low monthly fee. As added protection against power failures, we have our own transformer connected to the main high-voltage lines.

Unlike back when most of us lived together on the Cuiabá and Porto Velho centers, each of us has his or her own home in town. A few of us live fairly close, within easy walking distance. Others live further and have to either drive or else take the bus. And still others—approximately half of our number—actually live in the small town of Vianópolis, about 50 kilometers away, where there is a New Tribes mission school for their children.

The main purpose of our office is to coordinate and facilitate the work of translation teams working with the indigenous peoples of Brazil. These days we provide considerably less direct support than we did back in the earlier days when we had large, full service centers. The reason is that these days, just about every service needed can be found locally. This growing trend—along with the completion of many of our translation projects and starting fewer new ones as be begin to see the end of the task—was one of the main factors leading to our considerable reduction in number of members in the Branch. The entire face of SIL Brazil is changing. But the goal remains the same: The scriptures translated into the mother tongue of all the peoples of Brazil.

Oh, before I forget I must mention that although our facilities do not include a soccer field—which is a "must" in Brazilian culture—our New Tribes neighbors have one that is readily available.

The second picture on the left shows my work room, which is the room closest to the east end of the building. This is the place where I fix computers, install operating systems, store equipment, and in general do hardware work. If you look closely you will see a very nice workbench in the rear, with a partially open computer on top and tools and other equipment on shelves in back. I had to build this bench shortly after moving here. Even though I'm not by trade a carpenter, at times I have to do work outside of my specialty area. My main concern was to make it durable. I had a very good bench in Cuiabá, which facilitated my work greatly, and wanted the same thing here.

One nice thing about having the everything in one building is that we no longer need to "daisy-chain" buildings together on the computer network. Instead, we have everything coming together in one location. This provides great flexibility. During the initial phase, while we were still setting things up and before we had the iPBX working, we were able to use the rack as a manual "switchboard", moving the phone to various locations and connecting it by simply moving a plug. Even now we are hoping to be able to use the network to enhance the flexibility of a couple of other electronic items. But probably the most important flexibility issue is being able to separate the VoIP network from the data network, which will make for clearer and more reliable telephone communication. With the daisy-chain system we had in Cuiabá, this would have been impossible.

Another nice thing is having the office kitchen right outside my door. Any time I get thirsty I just go out and get a glass of something to drink!

And although we no longer have a large public computer room as we did in Cuiabá, we still have a public computer for guest use in a cubicle upstairs. We also have a small room where visitors are welcome to plug in their laptop computers—after I make sure that they have current, working anti-virus software installed!

In the past I used this section to describe my Brazilian home. However, since my home is no longer a part of SIL and I will almost certainly end up living somewhere else when I return, I will simply direct you to Current Billiard, where I describe whatever home I am currently living in. After furlough, it will no doubt change to reflect whatever new house I end up living in.

Another thing that has definitely changed is that I no longer have a dog. I have always been an outdoor dog person, and while that was easy to manage in the rural setting of a center, it is a lot more difficult in the city.

At this point, I have to confess that I am new enough to this location that I really haven't discovered things to write about. Hopefully, as I become accustomed to living here, that will change, and I will expand this section with more interesting stuff for you to read!

After the walk I take a shower and have breakfast. Following breakfast, I take care of the occasional odd or end, then spend some time in the Word of God preparing myself for the day. I find that when I don't do this, I get irritable much more easily, my mind wanders into thought patterns best avoided, and so forth. So it is always good to "charge the spiritual batteries".

Office time starts at 8:00. I go down and get started—usually reading and responding to email—except on Mondays when we have a special prayer meeting held by the Branch Director, when we pray for Brazil-related items. Either way, once in my office I work until 10:00 coffee break.

"Coffee break" is a loose term. For me, it should be more accurately referred to as "drink break", since I prefer tea or cold drinks over coffee. Either way, it is a time to take a break from sitting in front of the cathode ray tube and visit with other center personnel. Following break, I return to the office (about ten feet away from the break table!) and work until noon.

Of course, I do not always do my work in the office. At times, needs will take me to various parts of the building, or even into town if I have to go buy equipment or supplies.

At noon I go home to eat, except for Monday, when I go to town to eat out and do my weekly grocery shopping. After lunch, I return to the office and work until 3:00 coffee break, and afterward work until 5:00. At 5:00, unless I am in the middle of something that I want to finish, I go home.

When I get home I usually read a bit just to relax, then make supper. One thing I still miss about life back on the center is the group sports activities, although as time passes and I become more "at home" in Anápolis, I may end up finding something similar to do after work. But for now…

Evenings vary. On Wednesdays we have our regular prayer meeting over at the office. At this point, I don't go out anywhere near as much as I did back on the center; again, as I become more "at home", that will probably change. For now, I tend to spend evenings reading, doing odd jobs, and working on my writing on my computer.

And at around 10:00, the day behind me and a new one ahead, I hit the sack.