Day 1

Today was my first full day in Aguas Lindas, and it was very relaxing. In Brazil most churches have their worship service in the evening, so we got to sleep in and have a slow morning at Joyce's house. Catherine went to the market, and I might ask to go with her next week because I'd like to see it, and then we (Catherine, Joyce, Frank and I) went out for lunch and went over to Free Flight so I could see it.

Just for introductions and reference, Catherine is another woman from Canada who is living with Joyce and helps teach at Free Flight. She sleeps in the room next to mine, but technically we are kind of roommates because the wall doesn't go right to the ceiling, so if one of us has our light on, the other one can see. Catherine has been here since August, and was here for six months last year too, so she is fluent in Portuguese and is really comfortable around here.

Joyce is the missionary whose house I'm living in. I think most people know who she is so I won't say much more about her, except that she's great :)

Frank teaches courses at Free Flight and lives in the house behind Joyce's house (within the same wall). He learned English through courses at Free Flight and is now teaching English as well as Computer Maintenance and possibly a music class as well.

I forgot to say that Catherine teaches English and French, possibly guitar, and she's been teaching keyboard, which I will probably help her with, because she is getting to the point where she has to teach herself what she is teaching the kids, and I know a decent amount about piano so hopefully that will work out well.

Speaking of learning, I will be starting my Portuguese lessons tomorrow, which is very exciting. I haven't met the woman who will teach me yet, but I met her son and her husband today. Her son's name is George, and he also works at Free Flight having gone there himself when he was younger. He is going to university for English and Portuguese, and he showed me his photo album from travelling to Canada last January. It was pretty cool to recognize sights from Ottawa and especially First Baptist in Orillia where he had visited!

The best thing about my trip here so far has been the weather :) (special apology to those reading this in Ontario) It is very warm but not too humid, so being in the shade or in a house in the middle of the day is fine, and then it cools down at night time - it is a little after 10pm right now and I am wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt, but that is mostly to shield out the bugs because I'd likely be warm enough in shorts or a t-shirt too.

Those of you who know me will probably be surprised to hear that the biggest adjustment so far has not been bugs :P Yes there are flies, especially during the day because the doors are usually open and the windows have no screens, plus there is a lot of garbage out near the street, but I've only really noticed them at meal times and I've toughed them out pretty well. I have a couple bug bites that are hardly worth mentioning, but I'm sure I will have fantastic stories by the end of my trip - Catherine told me last night that sometimes there are cockroaches, so you can look forward to hearing about that when I meet one!

The craziest thing here has been the state of the roads. I remember when I first started at Tyndale thinking that Toronto had some bad roads because the potholes could be brutal. Well, the paved roads that I've seen in Brazil are not bad - there are a few potholes from time to time, but they're really manageable, especially compared to the roads that are not paved, which are the majority. It is the end of the rainy season in Brazil now, so some of the roads are pretty washed out, and some of the potholes are as long and wide as a car. There are also speed bumps everywhere, and some are so high that Joyce's car bottoms out no matter how slow we go, sometimes even driving across them diagonally! Between the speedbumps and winding between potholes and turning onto roads to find them half flooded even after two straight days with no rain, driving around is always an experience!

Also, driving today was very interesting, and I wished I had brought my camera with me on the way to church because there were horses everywhere grazing! Joyce told me that many people here still use horses and carts to do work, but because it's Sunday they have the day off, so the horses just roam free. I even saw a horse with a foal in the road - all of the animals are really skinny (not sick skinny, but skinny) but they are so cute!

I was just thinking that this is probably the end of my writing for today when I noticed a.. creature crawling on the floor. It's all tile floors here because it's easier to clean and maintain (because the doors are always open and the dogs come and go inside the house and we usually wear our shoes... anyways), and I glanced over and saw a black.. centipede maybe? It was about a quarter inch thick and two and a half or maybe three inches long. So I asked Catherine what to do (because it looked Gross to squish). She kicked it with her flip flop and it instantly curled up into a little spiral, so she was able to just kick it right out of the house :)

Oh, another fun fact which may be too much information for some people but.. that's silly because everyone uses the bathroom! The sewage system here isn't the best, so it can't handle anything besides waste, which means that toilet paper goes into the garbage! I don't mind it too much and I haven't forgotten yet, but it makes me feel kind of tough and cross-cultural ;P

Oookay I think that's all for real now - I am going to put up some pictures and probably head to bed soon. I slept a couple hours this afternoon even after a full night's sleep but I'm hoping to get over the jet lag soon. I hope you'll enjoy the pictures!