Thursday, January 7, 2010

Group effort in the country

How many adults does it take to erect a portable awning?

I’m certainly not the first to say that nothing in Brazil is easy. Everything is more difficult than you think it should be. How about arranging for a little extra shade and shelter from the rain, for example?



When we moved here Luiz and I brought with us an “EZ Up” style awning (pictured above) that goes from in-the-bag closed to fully up and shading in about one minute. Four people, grab a corner, pull out, click it in place. Done.



Ah, but this is Brazil. As a group we bought a portable awning for the house in Boa Esperança. Perfect idea for growing the space a bit. If only we could figure out how to put it together!



Five adults, two kids and a photographer.



The instructions got passed around until finally snatched up by the frustrated physicist among us. Leadership!



Just a few more finishing touches.




Nearly 30 minutes later…



I knew we could do it.

3 comments:

The Reader said...

hilarious! Glad you finally got it up!

(it's okay, you can laugh. I fully intended that last statement to send you a chuckle.....)

Fabio Bossard said...

In Brazil you have to call it: TRY2FIGURE-ME-OUT. My quastion is: The ones you have in the US are easier to set up?

Jim said...

Fabio - the one we brought is SUPER SIMPLE to put up. It is already all put together. Even the fabric over the top is already on. It is like the top photo in the post. Notice the acordian style criss cross of the metal frame. It just expands to open and collapses to closed. No assembly required. And it is WAY more sturdy. (And it cost LESS!)