Week 6 - Feb.15-20

I have had a fantastic week this week! Monday night a man from England arrived to stay at Joyce’s house and volunteer at Free Flight for about three weeks. His name is Joel, and he has been lots of fun to have around.

Also, I have been continuing to ride with Catherine to Free Flight most days. She lent me this hat to shield my face :)
Safety note: I don't actually ride with my purse on the handlebars - I stuff it in the basket on Catherine's bike usually under a sweater or something. But we were right outside of Free Flight for this picture, so I hadn't given her my purse yet.
Tuesday I had a very fantastic Portuguese lesson – I read the book of Jonah out loud in Portuguese, and then we talked about it. I really enjoyed our talk, and I love having learned enough of the language to even be able to have that kind of discussion.

Wednesday… I think Wednesday was the day I bought a new pair of sandals. The pair that I brought with me is very flimsy, so I can feel rocks through the soles, and they’re just not great, so I bought a sturdier pair that I think is so cute! But, ehem, also sturdier.

It was either Thursday or Friday that I climbed a tree with Linda Inez. It was kind of ridiculous how scared I got and how inept I was - Catherine gave me a leg up to get past the first branch, but at least I didn't have to resort to climbing down the tree from the second floor! It was fun once I got up there though - I totally understand why kids here love climbing trees!
Thursday I burned my feet playing basketball. I had been neglecting reading because I’m getting pretty bored with my book, and as important as it is to keep up on school things, I didn’t really come to Brazil to read, so I will catch up on that later. The point is that I ditched reading to watch some people break dancing, and I’m making friends with some of the guys, so they asked me if I wanted to play basketball. The thing is, the last million times I’ve agreed to play basketball, it has actually been 21 that I played. I figured it was kind of tomayto tomahto. This time it was not 21, but in fact 3 on 3. As sturdy as my new sandals are, they are still sandals, so I figured I’d be tough and play barefoot. Between the hot pavement that had been accumulating heat all day long and my attempts to run/pivot/defend, my feet were in a bad state after about 20 minutes. I hobbled to the sidelines, and I hobbled for the rest of the night because I had blisters over the balls of both my feet.

So Friday I didn’t run around at all! I helped in English classes in the morning, and I watched a little bit of soccer between my Portuguese lesson and another English class. After classes were over I joined a game of 21 that was in progress, and then Free Flight closed up and everyone went home. I was disappointed to be so crippled, but Friday is usually a pretty busy day anyways, and it reinforced the lesson that not only should I not be playing basketball against Brazilians (or anyone really – being tall doesn’t help that much without also having strength and coordination!), but I should not, under any circumstances, play without shoes. Fortunately, I am decent at 21, and I can wear sandals to play, so I think it’s my game!