Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Why is there no milk in this list?


Ever wonder what missionaries pay for things? Some of our things are cheaper, others more expensive then in the USA. There are some things you have we just can not get. THere are some we have here, you can not get there.

I tried to convert our prices and quantities to those of the United States. For example all our oil is in 900 mL bottles. Many of our containers are smaller than there. The standard for ketchup is just about 9-10 ounces. Prices can vary quite a bit depending on the quality of the item. Rice for example, can be bought a little cheaper, but the grains will be broken. Availability varies soem also. Frozen vegtables are only available in some groceries, generally only corn, peas and brocoli.cauliflower are available. Sometiems you buy them only to discover they probably have been unthawed and rethawed and are bad.

Cost of food

Rice 33 cents a pound
Brown Rice 90 cents a pound
Beans 40 cents a pound
Sugar 37 cents a pound/1.83 for five
Flour 33 cents a pound/1.63 for five
Oats 1.55 a pound
Coffee 93 cents a pound /3.92 for five
Crackers(like saltines) 83 cents a pound
Oil Soy 1.02 per liter
Oil Canola 2.85 per liter
Laundry Soap 1.46 per pound/7.30 for five
Ketchup 1.68 for 16 ounces
Spaghetti Noodles 58 cents a pound
Tuna 1.55 for 6 ounces/2.07 for 8 oz.
Canned Corn 93 cents for 16 ounces
Frozen Peas 2.55 a pound
Jelly (cheap strawberry)1.42 for 8 ounces/2.84 per pound
Coke 1.45 for 2 liters
Tomato Sauce 1.20 for 16 ounces
Potatoes 3.22 for ten pounds
Carrots 33 cents a pound
Onions 2.10 for five pounds
Eggs 1.37 a dozen
Pineapple 56 cents a piece
Raisins 1.45 for 16 ounces
Brazil Nuts 4.28 per pound
Hamburg 1.20-1.70 per pound
Hot Dogs 1.48 per pound
Filet (as in beef) 3.43 a pound
Bread 93 cents a pound
Fish 1.61-4.30 a pound
Mozzarella cheese 3.45 a pound
Cheddar cheese 5.40 a pound
Margarine 73 cents a pound
Butter 1.30 a pound



A few Other things:

daily newspaper 50 cents or 1 dollar
500 piece puzzle about 20 dollars
4 duracell AA batteries 3.85
21” Television 365 dollars
29” television 670 dollars
Basic CD player with radio 143 dollars
Smallest Microwave-18L 150 dollars
Refrigerator(basic medium) 1142 dollars
Basic washer (clothing) 748 dollars

Gasoline 4.70 per gallon

Why no milk? Because we do not get fresh milk here. All our milk is either dried and we need to mix it up or what they call UHT milk. UHT milk has been specially treated (hence the T) with ultra high heat (hence the UH) to kill all the germs, then sealed in boxes. These boxes do not need to be refrigerated. We buy UHT milk in 1 liter boxes and pay about 2.60 a gallon. Dried milk is similar in cost.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

What? No Starbucks in Brazil?


It had to happen sooner or later in one of the worlds largest coffee producing and consuming countries. Starbucks just announced they would open there first store in Brazil in November.


Although they did not say in which city, it will most likely be over 2,500 miles away in Rio or Sao Paulo.


After lunch it is 95 degrees out and the humidity is so high it fails to register a percentage on my humidity indicator. But there I was in the kitchen making hot coffee for our guests. At first it was hard to drink hot coffee when it was hot out, but now it seems normal. Iced coffee is unknown here.


I am not sure that the Brazilians at the house we were visiting believed that Wayne really was going to drink his coffee black and without sugar. Coffee here is served very hot with lots of milk and sugar. On the other hand, although I satisfied them that not all Americans were crazy when it came to coffee for I like a lot of milk and sugar, they just couldn't understand why I would drink a mug full when a rather small cup is the norm. Definitely, my average sized American thermal mug (which are not available here) was a curiosity, both for its size and function.


Brazilians drink it morning, noon and night. Adults and children alike drink it. Called cafezinho, which means little coffee it is always served in very small cups, very hot and with a lot of milk and sugar.


Wonder how Starbucks will adapt their grande?

A few facts about Coffee and Bazil:


Annual per capita consumption of coffee exceeds that of the United States.

The world's largest coffee producer is Brazil with over 3,970 million coffee trees and 30-40% of the worlds total output. Two of the trees are in my backyard.


By 1816 there were 1 million slaves in Brazil, comprising 1/3 of the population, more than half of them working on coffee plantations
from dawn to sunset, eating once a day.


The coffee crash in Brazil occurred only a few weeks before the 1929 economic crash. Some claim Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas committed suicide over coffee politics in 1954.


Brazil, the world's largest-volume producer of coffee, has seen steady growth in its coffee consumption and now is the main consumer of the coffee it produces. Coffee here costs about 75 cents a pound (3.75 for 5 pounds) and is generally only available ground,vacuum packed in about one
pound bags.