Day 20

Today I noticed how much my Portuguese has improved since I arrived! I spent most of the morning just in the office at Free Flight working on a book report for one of my courses. It was a little after 11 when I decided to put my brave face on and go say hello to some girls who were playing clapping games nearby. We talked a little bit, said our names, and I asked them if they were going to take any courses at Free Flight (they said no; I think they’re too young), and then we stood in silence for a little while. I said that I was going to go over to the ice cream store (sorveteria) and that they could come if they wanted to, they said yes, so we made our way over to the grassy area near the sorveteria and met up with some other kids who I know and ended up playing some games until lunch time.

The first game was very much like capture the flag, with the safe zone marked off in a circle of flip flops, and the flag being a leafy branch that the kids picked near Free Flight. That was pretty fun, although most games were really short because each side was probably not longer than ten feet, so if someone got a good run then it was over.

The next game was basically Octopus, except that instead of everyone running at once, the kids made teams of two and the person in the middle called them by the name of their team (usually a fierce animal lol, shark was very popular!). Both of these games had been taught to the kids by Canadians who came with former mission teams. Once I understood what was happening, I got to be the lucky It in the middle, and I tagged a few kids before lunch =)

After lunch, I went into the music room with a girl named Michelle – the daughter of Free Flight’s Director, Ivan (whose wife works in the sorveteria and who also has a REALLY cute although also sometimes whiny four year old). Michelle (which sounds like Mishelly) showed me some of what she could play on keyboard, and we both hung out in this unbelievably hot room for probably fifteen or twenty minutes.

(This picture is Michelle and her brother Ian)

In the afternoon, I helped to make ice cream again, had a decent amount of conversation/small talk with Adilho in Portuguese, and then I had my Portuguese lesson and came home. A great day!

(Happy Birthday, Mom!)

Day 19

Today, like yesterday, I spent most of my day at Free Flight making ice cream in the ice cream store :) I have been feeling pretty great about life here this week, and my appetite has been much better, which means I've had more energy and have been able to do more than just watch other people do the hard work of making ice cream. Before, I have mostly helped with making popsicles, which involves more people and is a lot easier and more straightforward.

Yesterday and today it was just Catherine and I, so there was plenty to do but we both had company and the time went by pretty quickly. This morning Ivan (the director at Free Flight) brought a visitor in to the ice cream store to say hi, but the machines were very loud so I had SUCH a difficult time hearing the man's name, but I finally managed to repeat it and say "prazer" (nice to meet you!). This incident sparked a joke between Catherine and I about being an unpaid worker in a country where I don't speak the language. This led us to a conversation about health and safety regulations - we had to bend over a lot when the milk was delivered, because it comes in 200 1 litre bags, and they had to be moved from crates on the floor into a deep freezer. I said that WorkSafe would probably insist that we have tables for the crates so that we don't strain our backs. In order to put our Canadian stamp on the icecream store, we came up with a safety policy that before one person can plug in the machine that freezes the ice cream mix, the other person has to have their hands safely placed on the two corners of the machine, nowhere near any moving parts. This safety policy was little comfort, however, when a man came to fix one of our freezers. I'm not sure what was broken, but fixing it involved some soldering and also propane, and Catherine and I were imagining the news stories back in Canada if we were both killed in an ice cream factory explosion in Brazil.

Anyways, yesterday was a proud day for me because I knocked my first mango out of a tree - other times Brasilians have always gotten them for me. I love mangos... Eu gosto de manga!Today also had a bit of a highlight in that Catherine and I stopped at a grocery/general store on the walk up to Free Flight this morning, and I bought some lotion and nail polish, so my skin feels great and my toenails are painted! Definitely worth the R3.50 :)ALSO I finally have some pictures of horses and carts! I don't know why they make me so happy since I've seen at least one pretty much every day for the last two weeks, but they do make me happy, so I will share :)And lastly, a creature from the walk to Free Flight - Catherine saw it and bravely put her hand beside it so you can see how big and fat it is. Definitely cooler and tougher than the slugs we have in Canada!

The Ministry of Being Fantastic

Catherine and I have a running joke of potential titles for Christian bestselling books that I may write in the future, and as silly as most of them are, they are based on important truths that I think should be shared! (although maybe not necessarily over 175 pages).

The most recent of these book titles is Is God Calling YOU to the Ministry of Being Fantastic? And I think that the answer to this question for every person in the world is yes. What exactly is this ministry and how is it carried out, you may ask. Well, the answer comes from a few trains of thought that I've been having - first: the most important things that most people do in life has to do with day to day things, the encouragement that they give or the integrity that they show and MOST of all the love that they share with people in their lives.

Second: Pastors and others keep trying to convince people that it is not necessary to be ordained or in full-time ministry or have an official title at the church in order to matter and to contribute to the Kingdom of God, to make the world a better place. I am definitely not the first person to think my first thought.

Third: An important verse in my life lately is John 16:27 "The Father himself loves you because you have loved me (Jesus) and have believed that I came from God." God loves me because I love Jesus and because I believe that he was more than a teacher and a prophet, but also God's gift. It is easy to forget how straightforward yet extravagant God's love for us is. I think this is why point 2 keeps coming up, because people don't feel confident to serve God because they don't grasp his love and acceptance of them. Most people have bad habits of remembering all the reasons they aren't good enough and forgetting the promises that God has made them:

• Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9
• Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Psalm 68:19
• I (God) have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built. Jeremiah 31:3-4
• The Lord - who is the Spirit - makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2 Corinthians 3:18

I could go on. The point is that God is with us and cares for us and loves us and changes us through our faith in Christ.

Fourth: We are useful to God no matter who we are, because he made us on purpose and for a purpose - and that is our calling. I think that this universal call is well put in Galatians 6:9-10

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

To some people that means working in a church. To some people, that means letting their kids' friends come over even though they are rude and/or messy and eat all the Oreos. The most important part of this passage to me is that God gives us the opportunities to do good (to love and show mercy and be generous), and he is also the one who brings a harvest from our work. He only asks us for what he has made us to give, and then he does the rest, and as more people accept this call, to be their fantastic self with God's help, then God can do more and more in the world.
(Amen)

Day 16 - An Outing!

Today we had an outing for staff and volunteers at Free Flight as a kind of one-day retreat before the semester starts next week. It was such an incredible day! The retreat centre where we went was a little bit ridiculous to get to because of the conditions in the road, and on the way back we were basically scraping the bottom of the car the whole way because of the pot holes and speed bumps. While we were there though, there were some areas to play sports, a pool table and a mini pool table, and pool, and picnic tables to sit at.
I was a little bit of a non-participator with the pool for part of the morning because I didn't know a lot of the people who came and I felt awkward, plus I didn't want to be cold, and the weather was a little unpredictable so I couldn't count on the sun to dry off. But then I had a little chat with myself to remind myself that I wasn't just at this fantastic retreat place, but that I was there in BRAZIL, and that it would hang over me the whole day if I didn't get over my hangups and go in the pool, so I did, and it was so fun, and I was really happy. I also wore tons of sunscreen and reapplied even though it made me smell really delicious to the flies and bees that were around, so that was stressful, but I think I made it through the day without any bad sunburns!! This is a big accomplishment, but I won't say any more because (as I honestly keep forgetting) most people in Canada are not strategizing to avoid sunburns.

Here is my white self going down the waterslide. I tried to act like I was going to go in with my arms up, but you can see I am about to plug my nose. After she took the picture, Catherine called me rollercoaster Alyssa. We had a devotion today about being the light of the world, and I'm not sure of the spiritual merit that I get for this, but of most people in Brazil I am confident to say that I reflect light better than most =PThis is me playing dominoes, a pretty popular pastime (I just learned how to spell pastime) here.
This is me having some watermelon, because as Catherine reminded me, it is very fantastic that we were eating watermelon outside at the end of January. She used to live in Winnipeg, so it is okay for her to relish the fact that there is no Winter here. One of the highlights of this afternoon was witnessing a cockfight! There were lots of birds (chicken and turkeys etc.) on this property, so sometimes when we were sitting playing dominoes or when Catherine was playing guitar in the picnic table area, these birds would wander through, and this rooster was cracking me up, so Catherine took a picture of it for me. This was not one of the birds in the fight, and I WISH I had had my camera with me to film it because it was one of the funniest things I've seen. We were talking about how we felt kind of like gangsters for watching this cockfight, and then this huge turkey was kind of reffing the match, and sometimes when the birds were biting each other or kicking at each other, this turkey would just cuff one of them with its wing, or lift up its big foot and step on one of the birds' heads. We decided that he was the Godfather of the birds and the fight was to determine who would become his successor, so when he wasn't happy with the fight he would get involved a little bit. It was hilarious and ridiculous, and good to watch and laugh.

Days 14-15

It has been an eventful weekend here! On Saturday, Free Flight hosted a film for people from the community to come and watch (Kung Fu Panda), so we spent most of the morning organizing for that, and then the afternoon making popcorn and watching the movie!

On Sunday morning, Joyce and I went into Brasilia to attend an English worship service at a church there. I had such a great time and enjoyed being able to participate in the service so much! We won't go every week, but it was very good for my soul to go, and I got to see much more of Brasilia than I had seen just when Joyce picked me up at the airport.

One of my favourite sights was not anything to do with architecture or history, but instead a fantastic moment of culture on the road with the motorcyclist in front of us, and his friend who was carrying a bicycle (maybe like keeping a spare tire in a car? A spare bike in case the motorcycle breaks down, or the friendship deteriorates between these friends and they decide to go separate ways?).We had heavy rain on Sunday afternoon, so I attempted to take a video from the living room, with moderate success I think! Here it is.

On Sunday night I went to church with Catherine and managed to sing some of the songs, and I journalled a lot during the sermon. God and I were having a chat about Galatians 2:20, which I decided is a fantastic verse! Here is a picture of my journal page, which should open up much bigger if you click on it, if you'd like to see kind of what I was thinking. I wrote out the verse in all capital letters, with my thoughts in between the lines.

Making Popsicles: A Photo Guide

Why Skype is Better than Love Letters

I was talking to Matt today on Skype (it is a program that lets us hear each others’ voices over the internet – it’s fantastic, like a free phone!), and we were chatting about nothing much, both multitasking, when he mentioned that he had meant to email me. He wanted to write me a note just to encourage me because he knew I hadn’t been feeling well and was discouraged about being away from home (home in Victoria AND home in Toronto), and he wanted to remind me of a verse to encourage me: I heard him say Psalm 137:4. I was so pleased that he’d thought of me that I went right to biblegateway.com (a fantastic site for Christian University students as well as everyone else in the world!) to look it up:
“How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”

I was perplexed (of course – this is not very encouraging at all!) and clarified where Matt had said the verse was from. He said Psalm 37, not 137, verse 4, and when I realized what had happened I was laughing so hard that I was crying. The actual verse is:
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
And this is a verse that has meant a lot to Matt and I from the start of our relationship – I even wrote it in a Bible I gave him! (We are sounding like a very typical Christian couple, lol)

Anyways, I was definitely encouraged by Matt’s thoughtfulness, and I also thought it was hilarious that he was only one number away from directing me to a really depressing verse for someone who is “in a foreign land.”

I am deeply grateful to live in an age where a semester of mission does not involve a semester of total isolation from loved ones thanks to email and Skype as well as phone calls and letters. Not only did I not have to spend two weeks thinking Matt’s big spiritual encouragement was Psalm 137:4, we were able to laugh about it together :)

I am also so grateful that I am able to praise God to be here, in spite of the challenges, and that I am as much in God’s hands in Brazil as I am when I’m in Canada. We can sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land or in any circumstance at home when our faith is in Christ because we can be confident in his love and care and provision for our needs. So even though some of the songs I am singing here are in Portuguese, they are all to Lord (even the English songs on the radio that have nothing to do with worship, because they make my heart happy), and he is worthy of everything I have to give!

Day 11

I had a fun day today! In the morning, I went to the grocery story with Catherine and Secorro (who might cut my hair tomorrow =) she is the cook at Free Flight and cleans Joyce’s house once a week). Catherine and I both had to use the bathroom while we were there, but I wanted to wait because Catherine has informed me that finding toilet paper in a public washroom is a plus, not a guarantee, and toilet paper is still high on my list of priorities at this stage, so I was feeling unsure. Catherine was going though, so I went with her to scope it out, and we were both pleased to find lots of toilet paper! It was in a crate outside the washroom, on shelves above the stalls, and on shelves within the stalls. It was a veritable toilet paper bonanza.

Today I learned that toilet paper means more to me than a toilet seat. I got into the stall and realized the situation, and I considered my own situation, and I determined that at least they had toilet paper for me. And I also determined that in future I would prefer toilet paper if I can only have one or the other. Forget paper towel for drying your hands after you wash them, by the way; I have yet to see it in real life.

That was just part of my morning though, I also got to join a game of cards with some boys who were playing near the ice cream store. That was really fun – I enjoy cards so much, and it is such a simple way to spend time with people without getting exhausted trying to communicate. We chatted a little bit – one boy asked if my ear piercing hurt, which is always a good conversation piece (although the conversation is MUCH shorter in Portuguese, lol, boy: Did that hurt? me: A little. Conversation over). This card game resulted in my FIRST screaming at a bug :) I was dusting myself off from sitting on the concrete wall when I saw on the side of my hip a big, fuzzy, white hairy caterpillar on my jeans. I had time to realize that it couldn’t do anything to me through my jeans and it was not fast enough to do anything scary (like cockroaches can – they are awful), and yet I was scared to brush it off with my bare hand, and this shriek came out of my mouth. Everyone looked, and by this time I was laughing, and Frank knocked it off and I’d like to think we all bonded over it a little bit, but more likely they just thought I was a weird Canadian. They were really impressed when I shuffled the cards though – people shuffle really old school here.

This afternoon I was in the ice cream shop helping to make popsicles, and then later in the afternoon I read between batches. This is how there came to be a picture of Catherine mopping the floor and me sitting with my hair up reading a book in the background. I told Catherine the picture could only be better if she was fanning me. I felt like I contributed though, because me helping meant Catherine and Frank could be doing other work for their classes coming up that they haven’t been able to do because they’ve been making ice cream all the time, so that was great.

I just remembered this kind of sad story from today, although it is really nothing compared to tons of what happens here, but when Catherine and I were driving to Free Flight in the morning I saw a big black dog drinking water out of a pothole, and I thought it was too bad dogs have to drink muddy water, but as we drove by I kept looking, and I saw every bone in that dog’s spine, and each rib, and the points on its hips.

The dogs and horses here tend to be thin, and a lot of dogs especially don’t get fed well at all – to the point where they are terrible guard dogs because they are too tired to get up, much less bark or attack someone. But that is an expression of the poverty of the people here too, because they have to be concerned with feeding themselves. The mindset here is probably that dogs are dispensable, but children are not, so it is obviously right for them to eat first, and if that’s all there is then so be it. It was a sad moment though because it was a reminder of how difficult it can be to survive.

Still Alive!

Hey everyone - I have had a really difficult last few days and am praying to feel better soon. I think that the stress of just adjusting to life and cultural stuff here is a lot more than I realize and that my body is freaking out, resulting in a crazy fever over the weekend and violent headaches last night and today. I have been really struggling, but I at least have hope that I'll be able to get through it. Please pray for me though.

Me not posting has not been completely being sick though, I have been up to some stuff and continuing with my Portuguese lessons. so there are lots of positive things to say and fun pictures to post!

This is Catherine and I in the ice cream shop =) She is so important to me here!

Here we have some pot holes in paved roads to show what the best driving conditions here are =PIt poured rain this afternoon, but that didn't stop the soccer game going on at Free Flight!

Kites are also a popular past-time here - sometimes they go so high you can hardly see them!

That's all for tonight - I have hopes of having more time for things on the computer, but it has also been really good for me to spend time taking care of myself and being social, so it might take some time to find that balance =)

Days 5 & 6

I haven't been feeling very well yesterday and today - I thought yesterday I had just had too much sun, but today I stayed completely out of the sun and still ended up with a fever tonight. I am feeling better now and hope that I will be even better tomorrow!

Yesterday I learned how to make popsicles in the ice cream shop that Free Flight is starting. We mix, freeze, and package them all in the same place, and it was a fun way to spend the day. In this picture you can see the mixer, the freezer, and the counter where we package.
Today I went with Joyce on a couple of ice cream deliveries, and we got to chat about how I'm settling in, which was really nice. There were tears because I rarely talk about feelings without tears, and I am missing home today especially because I'm not feeling well, but over all I think things are going really well, and Joyce said that I am doing well for trying to talk to a lot of people and practice what I am learning in Portuguese, so that was encouraging to hear.

Last night I went out for dinner with Catherine, Frank, Adilio (Ajeelyu) and Catherine's friend Caroline. The pizza was not that good, but Catherine said we were lucky for the bathroom to have toilet paper, so overall it was a good night out :) After supper we played two games of pool, and I did surprisingly well, especially since it was different from pool at home. The balls seem much less dense, and the pockets are only just the size of a ball so you have to be very precise (or lucky!) to sink anything.

Here we have me taking a really easy shot that I missed :)

And this is Caroline, Adilio and Frank.

I should get off the computer now, but I have some more pictures to post, so when there is time to upload them, I will put them up - hopefully soon! I can't resist this last picture though with a girl named Andressa and her little brother. She is the girl whose house Catherine and I visited earlier this week. Andressa is so sweet that I hardly know what to do! She is so patient and teaches me words and corrects my broken Portuguese, or if neither of us has anything important enough to try to say sometimes we just sit together :) This is the only picture I have so far with any of the kids from Free Flight, but I am very glad it is with her!

Day 4

Today got off to a slow start and I wasn't feeling well when I woke up, but I think I am still getting over jet lag and that my brain doesn't have a chance to keep up with all of the Portuguese that it is trying to learn. I was feeling much better by lunchtime after I had done some reading at Joyce's house, and I took the rest of the day pretty easy. The kids from yesterday weren't around in the afternoon so I chatted with Frank after lunch until my Portuguese lesson, which was about telling time (dizendo as horas) :) and then we practiced some dialogues. I am getting more comfortable with pronunciation although there are still lots of things to get used to.

I have accumulated an assortment of bug bites over the last few days, but I've hardly caught any in the act and I haven't had any screaming flailing fits over bugs :) I have smacked a mosquito on my foot and on my face, and I grabbed fleas off my stomach and my arm earlier tonight. I have taken a picture of the artistic design creatures have left on my foot for my pleasure. Also, I am without Afterbite because... it slipped my mind to pack any. But they aren't too itchy yet, so this is yet another instance of me being tough!

Tonight after supper Catherine and Frank and I walked up to the drugstore where I made my first purchase in Brazil of everything I need to shower not in travel size :) I took a picture of my change arranged tastefully on my bed so you can see what 33.27 Brazilian Reais ("hay-ice") look like :)

Day 3

Each day has so many things to say about it that it gets overwhelming, and it also seems strange just to write down little moments without anything to tie them together... too many years of writing essays has done this to me!

Today I spent most of the morning with a group of kids at Free Flight - they were children who live across the street and the children of the Director, all really sweet kids who were so patient with my halting Portuguese and who would point and repeat to get whatever they were saying across.

Catherine and I went across the street to visit two of the girls' house - it is built of scrap wood and metal with a dirt floor. It is hard to describe the atmosphere there because it was small and dark, but it was also just their home, and the older girl gave me a keychain, and the younger girl taught me some Portuguese from pictures in an English activity book she had. She showed me their Bible too and sang me some hymns from the back of it. They offered Catherine and I coffee and gave me some bread to eat - it was not long after breakfast and neither of us needed anything, but they were determined in their hospitality and I was really humbled by it.

When we went back to Free Flight we played a bit on a playground there and then the girls knocked a mango out of the tree for me! It was my first real mango I have ever eaten, and it was really good! They showed me how to peel the skin off with my teeth, and they were really shocked when they heard that we don't have any mango trees in Canada.

Later in the morning we played a game on the basketball court taking shots and played UNO with an obviously well used deck of cards - it was the first time I've played UNO in probably five years (which will be funny to the people who were at the last game =P)

That is what I remember most about the day - there was a lot else but the highlights were visiting across the street and eating a mango and just playing games and chatting with really sweet, bright kids who love attention :)

Oh also, Catherine told me that she found a cockroach in her room this morning on its back but still alive, so she threw it out her window... by it's feeler!! I don't expect that I will be doing the same by the end of this trip, but I did take a picture of a cockroach I saw on the wall in the back yard so I will post it and you all can imagine how tough I am just for looking at it!

Day 2

Some pictures from Joyce's house!
This is the front of Joyce's house inside the gate. As you can see, it is a pretty yellow house, and she keeps lots of plants so it is very nice. The door is usually open when we are home unless someone is going out the gate so the dogs don't run into the street (where there are lots of other dogs and they might get in fights - there are often dogs barking throughout the neighbourhood).This is the view out of Joyce's back door - to the back house where Frank lives. There is a little bit of grass between the houses and some more potted plants as well as a sink and the washing machine. You can also see some socks hanging on the clothes line, and see how big the mango tree is that grows in her back yard (although I haven't eaten from it yet)This is my room! It's pretty simple, and the view is just of the wall between us and the neighbours, but I like it (and it's bigger than my room in Toronto was when I shared with Jo and Laura!). There is a dresser beside my bed just out of view of the camera, and the yellow panel you see on the right is my wardrobe. The wall beside the bed is the one I share with Catherine, which is the picture below. You can see there is about a foot and a half of clearance, but it doesn't really matter because Catherine and I don't spend too much time in our rooms anyways. You can also see that the roof is very simple, just stuck onto the walls to keep the rain out, and the lightbulb hangs in the middle of the room.
Today was another great day - I went with Joyce to run some errands in Taguatinga (tah-gwah-Ching-ga) and spent the rest of the day at Free Flight. I had a chat with a really cute little girl who was sort of following me around when Frank was showing me more of the centre. I asked her how old she was (9) and when she asked me questions I was able to tell her my birthday and that I did like mangoes :)

I had my first Portuguese lesson today, which was also really good. A lot of it was reviewing basics that I had already practiced before I came, and we also worked on numbers, which get very tongue-twisty in Portuguese! Some end in o and some in a or some with s, so it gets very confusing to count, especially in the hundres. 354 would be trezentos cinquenta e quatro. Anyways, I will practice tonight before I fall asleep and again in the morning... Tomorrow we are going to work on telling time, knowing the alphabet (I have most of it down), and I think I will request to learn some body parts! Fun fact: in Brazil they call the neck of a guitar the arm. But they also call the head the hand, so it makes some sense.

I saw my first cockroach tonight - Joyce was spraying stuff in the kitchen to kill them, so a big one ran into the living room to try to escape. I was not impressed, but I also did not freak out (let the record show). I wasn't wearing shoes and didn't have any within reach, so Joyce chased it down the hall and killed it - yuck. At least I have some confidence that if I see them far away I'll be able to handle it and probably even kill some myself, but I am also sure that if one surprised me I would be outside in tears before anyone figured out why I screamed :|

The rest of tonight has been pretty uneventful - Catherine and Frank and I went for a walk after supper, so that was good for getting out in the neighbourhood a bit. The best part of tonight though was dessert! Free Flight has opened an icecream shop and they make their own ice cream and sell little candies too for extra money, and Joyce brought some ice cream back to the house, and it is so good! I forget what the flavour I had is called in Portuguese, but it is coconut flavour with chocolate chunks, so we would probably call it Bounty Bar ice cream. Joyce had cotton candy ice cream, which I might try another time.

Well that's about it - I am going to work on an assignment and practice counting then probably head to bed :) I want to say a big thank you to everyone who is praying for me because things have been going just about as perfectly as I can imagine so far, and I know God is taking care of me. Until next time!

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!

Pictures from the Trip Here

Sao Paulo from the air as we took off for Brasilia.
Flying over some lakes between Sao Paulo and Brasilia

Flying into Brasilia
This was some of the scenery driving from Brasilia to Aguas Lindas. Apparently it is not always so green and beautiful, but because it has been raining a lot the plants love it.
Turning off the highway towards Aguas Lindas... you can see some of the shops and businesses close to the highway and get a sense of HOW different the roads are once you're off asphalt.
This is Joyce's street - her house is a ways down so you can't see her gate in this picture, and most streets look pretty similar in the neighbourhood.

Arrived!

Well I'm here! It was a long trip with a lot of emotions on the way, but I am happy to have arrived and settled in, and I know that my time here will be really incredible.
This will be pretty short since I am sleep deprived, full from a delicious supper, and have the first shade of a suntan from the drive to Joyce's from the airport =P so I will be heading to bed early!

The next door neighbours to Joyce are loving their loud music today - we can hear it in her house louder than I would play music in the same room, but since it is all new to me it made for pretty fun theme music while I was unpacking.

I think that's it for now - I will hopefully not be long to post pictures from today, but I haven't set up my laptop yet, I'm just borrowing Joyce's. So I'm happy to be here and looking forward to some much needed sleep!

Life is a Blur

It is less than a week before my journey to Aguas Lindas, and it is hard to believe that next Monday I will be there! I was so encouraged yesterday as over half of my remaining need for financial support was met by people from my home church in Victoria! I now have $4205 committed to my trip, so although there is still a ways to go, I am very happy and confident that God knows where the rest of the money will come from =)

God bless you all, and if you think of me on Jan. 9 or 10 please pray for smooth travels!