Day 45 - Making Cookies!

This week was Carnaval, so most schools were closed, and courses at Free Flight were cancelled on Tuesday. Catherine and I mixed up some cookie dough on Monday, and we spent Tuesday morning baking cookies with some kids. We bagged them up after lunch and delivered them to people in the neighbourhood in the pouring rain :) I forgot how much I love making cookies! Mm, and they were so delicious (we had to test them, of course!)

The testing!Rolling out the cookies in front of the kitchen. Putting chocolate sprinkles on the sugar cookies :)And our trusty oven operator, Wallace.Catherine and some kids putting the cookies in paper bags for delivery.

Day 44

Today was an unofficial holiday because of Carnaval, so most of the schools were closed and there were lots of people around at Free Flight! I had an awesome day hanging out with kids.
This is me with my favourite baby who still won't let me hold him while he's awake.
This is a backlit picture of a fantastic cheerleading triangle that we made!
I said that I spent the day hanging out, right?
And a fantastic group picture of some of my friends here.

I am working on getting some video from the day to post - the first rain that we had in a week, and some of the breakdancing that happened on Monday, so check back :)

Day 43

Today was complicated - I don't know if I was homesick first and then felt sick, or if being sick softened me up to feel homesick, but I spent most of the morning lying in bed and I didn't have much appetite.

Fortunately, a baby saved the day!

This baby has never let me hold him before, two attempts resulted in only tears and quickly passing him back to one of his brothers. Today though, his brother got him to fall asleep just before Sunday School started and passed him over to me :):):):):) I kept him for Sunday School so his brother could just be 11 and hang out, and little Alaim (the equivalent of Allen, I think?) slept in my arms and then was hardly fussy when he woke up until he saw his brother and wanted to go to him.
I didn't bring my camera to Sunday School this week, so I only have this picture of Catherine holding Alaim to try to show how cute he is!

I am still feeling kind of sick on and off, but my mood has been much much better, and maybe now that he's slept on me Alaim will actually let me hold him!

Day 42 (Feb.21) - A Touristy Day in Brasilia

Today Joyce took Joel and I on a tour of Brasilia. It was a really fun and relaxing day! There is not too much history in Brasilia because the city is less than fifty years old, but there are some monuments we went to, and we saw government buildings as well as the house where the President lives! He has emus in his yard, which we were lucky enough to see running around, and a decorative guard who I got my picture taken with.

Our tour ended at the communications tower where there is a market most weekends. We went up the tower (75m) and saw lots of neat crafts and clothing and art and instruments etc. in the market.

Pictures!!

This is me outside of the Brasilia cathedral. The part that is above ground is actually the ceiling of the cathedral, and the statues outside are Luke and John. Matthew and Mark didn't make it into the picture, but they chill out front of the cathedral too ;)You can see the stained glass from the inside, which is very beautiful, and three angels that hang from the ceiling. They look like stone, and they are a very nice touch in the sanctuary. It is very simple there, with lots of light. I liked it a lot.lThis is a bridge from near where the President lives to one of the mansion districts outside of Brasilia. It is a pretty cool design, with the arches going over the road in different directions.A picture of me outside the entrance to the yard of the President's house with the decorative guard who stands there and his spokesperson :) This is one of some emu that live in the President's yard! And you can see a bit of the end of the President's house. Just imagine like, 12 more windows like that and you get the idea. I was more impressed with the emu!This is a picture of the city taken from the radio tower - Brasilia is built in the shape of an airplane, and this picture is directed towards "the cockpit" of the plane, where the government sits. The tall white building in the middle is where congress sits, and the greenish whitish buildings are the offices for the different ministries. Residential areas are in the "wings" that you can't see - to the left and right of the city's core.

The Market

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!

Day 36

The time changed in Brazil today! Catherine and I went to the market this morning with a friend of hers named Mauricio. He picked us up at 10:30, and we walked up to a street that had been closed off and filled with stalls and vendors selling clothes, underwear (!), pirated DVDs, live chickens, beer and bbq, huge dead fish, etc. It was really interesting, and Catherine bought us all an amazing drink, which was like a smoothie of some purpley black fruit, with peanuts ground up in it and granola and condensed milk on top! Delicious.

After wandering around and looking for a birthday present for Andressa (she turned 10 today), we bumped into someone we knew and asked him the time. He told us it was about 10:30. And then we learned that the clocks got turned back last night. This means that when the clocks move forward in Canada, Toronto will only be one hour behind. I don't have pictures of the market because I didn't want to get my camera stolen. Imagine a street packed with Brazilians, some people on bikes, and at least one person carrying a chicken. It smells like bbq'd meat, cigarettes and possible fish, depending on where in the market you are. =)

Today was the second week we had Sunday School at Free Flight. Last week we didn't divide into classes, but this week we did. I was pretty pleased to be able to participate in my group and even read a few Bible verses out loud in Portuguese!

This is a picture of the chaos that was people heading off into their groups. It actually wasn't too bad, but I unfortunately didn't get a picture to really show how many kids came! I would guess that there were around 30.
I also have here a picture of the worship band, including me! From left to right, we are Frank on guitar, Fernando on vocals, Josue on drums (you can hardly see him), me, and then Catherine in the front on acoustic guitar. Sometimes we also have a bass player.jWe play... very loudly. Usually when we practice or play I get headaches, but I am looking into buying ear plugs. We couldn't find any cheap ear plugs at any of the four drugstores we checked today, so I may end up just buying silicon ear plugs for like $15R They will probably be much better than those disposable foam ear plugs anyways.

Oh Andressa's birthday party! This girl is just so cute and sweet. This is her, thinking about something important I'm sure. On the left is Bruna, her step-mom, who did such a great job planning this birthday party for Andressa.What birthday party could be complete without people watching you blow out your candles? I think she had trick candles, because they relit about five times. It was pretty funny.This is a picture of Juliana, Linda-Inez (Andressa's older sister), and me after we ate our cake. It was so good! Man, I am falling in love with bread and cakes and pastry here. Also, I am falling in love with these little girls.

Day 34 - A New Age Has Dawned

Yes, I have killed a cockroach.

It all started when I imagined a bug on my leg. I don't know what kind of bug, but a big one, a scary one... it turned out to be the drawstring on my capri pants. It was a pretty intense moment though, my peripheral vision saw movement and sent a jolt of adrenaline through my body. My heart was pounding, and a muffled, high-pitched gargle escaped from my throat.

And then, realizing that it had been nothing, but still feeling my heart pounding, I saw a real life cockroach walk (it was faster than a walk, but what do cockroaches do? jog? scamper?) into the living room. Not walk, it scuttled. And with my pupils already dilated and my heart rate at 125, I knew that I could kill it.

Did I pick up it's dead beetle body and throw it out? No, Joyce took care of that one, but maybe one day I will. One step at a time people, one step at a time.

Day 33

Yesterday was a really good but exhausting day - Wednesdays and Fridays are filled with English classes, so my brain never really stops working. Joyce took us (Catherine, Frank and I) out for supper to this fantastic restaurant that supports Free Flight with some money every month. We all got burgers, and I ordered the #9 hamburger - a little beef patty (which would not fly in North America) with cheese, bacon, ham, lettuce, tomato and a fried egg. Eating this burger honestly felt like getting a hug - I was so full and content after eating it and a bunch of french fries =)

We had eaten late, and by the time we got home I was so relaxed and exhausted that I didn't have the energy to do anything, so I just went to bed at 9! It was kind of like sleeping in in reverse, and it felt so good! I think that it was mostly the intense language stuff that tired me out, and tomorrow will be more of the same, so we'll see how I do, whether I make it awake to 10 pm.

Today was a great day too - I started a new knitting project, which looks one million times better than my half-coaster because I'm actually following a pattern. I am also pretty excited because I think Catherine and I have figured out how to knit a cable (a twist in the fabric), so a whole new world of "Knit Dishcloth Sampler: twelve nifty pattern stiches" (the actual title of the pattern book I'm using) has opened up to me like a nifty flower. Knitting takes way longer and stabs your fingers way more than crocheting, but there aren't crochet needles or patterns here, and knitting provides a perfect excuse not to read assigned books, as well as a new life skill. I hope that Matt is as pleased as I am to anticipate our future kitchen filled with nifty dishcloths in lots of nifty colours!

Seriously though, when I come back to Canada, I just might invest in a pair of knitting needles and some balls of cotton yarn for long trips on the subway, or a more productive way to watch TLC (the TV channel that runs hours of shows I love all in a row from about noon until 5pm).

Knitting turns out to be pretty fantastic, but the real highlight of today was getting Frank's old bike fixed up (he has a motorcycle from Free Flight that he uses to get around), so now I can ride it! This makes life easier since Joyce doesn't have to take me to Free Flight in the morning and pick me up at the end of the day, and Catherine and I can easily stop by the supermarket on the way up or back to pick up fruit/snacks/cookies/shampoo. I won't be going on any errands/leisure trips by myself, so don't worry! Catherine has a bike too, so this just means that we can get around faster than walking.

My hope is to have an awesome picture of me on my (the) bicycle soon =)

Beautiful Pictures

There is an incredible pink flower that opened up on the lawn across from the ice cream store, so I wanted to post pictures of it, and then when I was at the same lawn this afternoon knitting over lunch, there were some butterflies flying around, and one kept landing on flowers, so I broke out my camera and am going to post pictures of that too :) Enjoy!

Day 31 (one month!)

This week is going well so far - I have an idea of the class schedule now and am doing a pretty good job of pacing myself between helping in classes, reading for courses at Tyndale, and playing clapping games with some girls =)

I am also, after a month, getting used to the fact that every day has about three days' worth of weather, and dressing appropriately is impossible. Most days start out coolish and then get quite warm (so, capris and a t-shirt maybe would be good to wear) until some point later, sometimes before lunch or sometimes not until the afternoon it gets cold and windy and starts to rain (bring a jacket). It seems like the warmer the clothes I wear, the later it is likely to rain, and if I boldly wear a skirt or shorts or if I forget to bring something with long sleeves then the rain rolls in before 11 and lasts all day. All I'm saying is that the weather is unpredictable; I am not complaining; I have yet to regret not packing a toque or a scarf or a coat!

Here is a picture of Catherine and I having been caught in the rain walking home after band practice. =)

Here also is a picture of my knitting project, which I started today after I learned to knit!What is it going to be? It is... not only an experiment in knitting and purling, but also potentially a coaster. How functional!

Still Kickin' ;)

I have gotten into a bad habit of not bringing my camera with me places, and that was the case for Sunday School today. It was pretty fun, although also a little overwhelming and therefore stressful. I had a great time playing keyboard with the worship band, and I even got a little solo (to the glory of God!). There were between 40-50 kids I think, and the lesson was about the Battle of Jericho. There was also a game and some snacks, and all of the program took about two hours.

The low point of the day was when a little boy stepped on my infected toe, which hurt so much that I didn't know what to do, and he said sorry, and I think I said "you're welcome" and then I turned to go and stubbed my other big toe on some concrete and split my toenail, and it started bleeding, so then I just gave up and cried.

On the very bright side, I think it is close to two weeks since the last cockroach incident! I know that they are still around somewhere, but as long as I am not seeing any, life is good!

Day 25 - Wednesday is my New Favourite Day!

(Don't miss the quiz on Day 24!)

First of all, how could I almost forget! Last night, Catherine and I made guacamole from a giant avocado off the tree in the backyard - it is so delicious! The only down side is that we don't have any tortilla chips here, so Catherine made really flat biscuits, which were delicious, but we got so full because we had to eat SO much bread to get to this guacamole! It was definitely worth it though (as you may guess from all the exclamation marks!).

Today was a really fun day, and it had just about the right amount of everything! I sat with Catherine's 'Intro A' English class (the beginners of the beginners), which was really fun. Everyone learned "Hey, how's it going?" "What is your name?" and "Nice to meet you." We also went over the alphabet, and then learned "See you later" so that everyone could say bye to us when they left the class :)This is a picture from Catherine's class - there are lots of students! There probably won't be this many throughout the entire semester, but it is a good start, and it seems to be a very sweet, outgoing class, which is great because it is much easier to learn when you are willing to take a chance and make mistakes!

The class with Catherine was also briefly interrupted this morning with a visit from New Zealand's ambassador to Brazil! That was really cool, and hearing Portuguese with a New Zealand accent was just about the most fantastic part of my day. The New Zealand embassy donated funding to pay for the electrical wiring at Free Flight when there was a different ambassador there, so this guy came to kind of follow up and also become aquainted with the project himself. It seemed like he was pretty impressed :)

After Catherine's class I went to join Frank's more advanced English class (for students who are in the second half of their second year), which was much smaller, with only three students. That class was tons of fun too! We did some grammar (which I rocked at, obviously, so I tried to translate the sentences from English to Portuguese, which was trickier, but I learned the word for 'store manager' lol: gerente), and then we practiced asking and answering questions about each other. It was lots of fun, and they were all really good!

Over lunch, Catherine and I sat and chatted with some of the kids, which was really relaxed and fun, and then I had my class for Portuguese, and then I helped a mid-level English class at the end of the afternoon. It was a full day, but it was very good.

Also, there have been no cockroaches to report for the last few days, which I love!! I think that's it for today, except for...The director of Free Flight, Ivan, and his family, getting ready to head home on the motorcycle! Another great moment brought to you by Brazil. :)

Day 24

Today was pretty uneventful - I ran some errands with Joyce in the morning, and I played Octupus for a little bit on the lawn before lunch :) I had my Portuguese lesson in the afternoon, and when it was over I read my Bible (2 Peter 1:1-10 - fantastic. I can finally make sense of vs.5-7, so that was really cool), and then I went into the computer room and worked on a book report for one of my classes.

While I was in there, Andressa (there is a picture of us at the end of Days 5&6) came by and we listened to my mp3 player for a little bit, and then she discovered the recording feature and that was the end of that! She loved recording her voice and sang a few songs, and we went across the street to her house and she played everything for Bruna (her step-mom) and her brother and made a recording of her brother and her talking and singing and all kinds of stuff. It was good times lol.

This is Andressa and Linda-Inez's house, by the way.

One highlight of the day was Andressa's younger brother (not the baby) learning to ride his bike! Yesterday apparently he wasn't able, but Brazilian kids are way tougher than Canadians, and this boy's dad didn't hold his bike up or give him training wheels. Instead, apparently, he watched and encouraged his son that "falling down helps you learn to stay up". Today Leiyilton (??) was biking all around Free Flight and proudly dismounting, although also wobbling sometimes or driving into walls, lol. The Cutest moment was when Catherine and I were chatting in some shade and Leiyilton rode past us and tried to bike over a big rock that was sticking out of the ground. He fell right over, and Catherine and I both probably gasped a little bit and asked if he was okay. He climbed out from under his bike and said (in Portuguese), "it's okay, I'm short." This kid is my hero.

On the walk home, Catherine and I saw a really big dog in a yard, and I think it looks like a panda bear. What about you?

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Please vote, so that I can not only be validated for discovering this panda-dog, but also so that I will feel validated that people read my blog :) Although, please also just vote once, because if the truth comes out that only two people read my blog, I'll just have to handle that.

Day 23

Today was the first day of classes at Free Flight. I sat in on Catherine's intro to keyboard class, which was lots of fun, and very helpful for improving some of my vocabulary. It was also very funny to Catherine and I because it was pouring rain during the class, so the roof was leaking in a few places and I had to make a couple of trips to the kitchen for jugs and pots to catch water so it wouldn't splash on the floor or pool on top of the keyboard covers. It wasn't actually that funny, it was just a good Brazil moment for Catherine and I to share unspokenly, as she lectured over the sound of the rain crashing on the asbestos tile roof. Ah Brazil.

I also had a great foreigner moment this afternoon - the rain had passed and it was very hot - hot enough that the grass dried, so I was sitting in the grass with some of the kids at Free Flight, and two of them I hadn't met before, Pricilla and Gabriel, and they clapped for me when I counted to ten in English, and they asked me questions about Canada, and Gabriel kept saying, "say something in English" so finally I told them about talking to my mom over the internet on her birthday, and this kid Gabriel was so excited and thought it was so funny that he could hardly stand up; it was incredible. I'm really pleased to say that my Portuguese is getting so much better that even when I don't understand everything people say, I can usually catch some, and when I don't know how to say something, I am more and more able to talk around it and get the idea across. It is great!

In more of a cultural punch in the guts, I found out today that Linda-Inez' step-mom, who lives across the street from Free Flight in a house made of scrap wood and metal and tarps, who has a four year old and a one and a half year old and two step-daughters who are 11 and 9... her name is Bruna, and she is a couple months younger than my brother. Her birthday is September 2, 1990. Catherine thinks that the dad is older, probably in his mid or late twenties... so I am baffled, floored to imagine this girl's life, becoming a mother and step mother to girls who could be her sisters when she was at the age to be starting grade nine in Canada.

I don't really know what to say about Bruna - I don't know what I think. This is one of those things that is probably way more complicated than a young girl getting pregnant and raising another woman's children as well as her own, but it's also really shocking to think of all the heavy things that are so common among families here. It definitely makes me think of what a charmed life I've had.

This reminds me of a joke that I failed to make with some kids last week though - we were chatting, and I asked them how old they were - 11, 8 and 7. I said that I was twenty, which received the appropriate response of being impressed, and so I said (in Portuguese), "yeah, soon I'll be a grandmother" with high hopes of a little laughter and a new topic (favourite colours, maybe!). Instead there was a puzzled silence, and Linda-Inez whispered to Michelle "ela tem filhos?". Michelle shook her head, and I said that no, I don't have any children, and I think that the nods and half-smiles were acknowlegments of something along the lines of "Canadians are weird" also "you are cool because you are old and speak English and are from far away, but you are weird." That night at supper I asked Joyce for the best way to explain in Portuguese that something was a joke, just in case I forget myself and make some other offhand comment about who knows what.

Confusion is definitely a better response to a failed joke than offense though, so really, of all the possible failures this one hardly even counts. I was thinking about it after though, and I realized that 30 year old grandparents probably happen more often than I'd think.

Anyways, it was a full day here, and I'm sure that the rest of the week will continue to be full between classes and kids and language (and God too! We've been having lots of chats). If the weather where you are is getting you down, just think how much you would rather shovel snow than start a family before high school :)

love from,
Alyssa

A Note About Advertising in Brazil

It is a sunny Sunday morning, and all of us are feeling more or less sick (Catherine more, me less, Joyce in the middle I think). As we are all doing our different things around the house (me, for example on the internet and thinking about Matthew 14, while Catherine is mostly in bed waiting for death to come), our ears are occasionally taken captive by a Brazilian advertizing technique called Sound Cars. These are basically radio announcements that you can't turn off or change the channel to because they are played by cars and motorcycles with huge speakers on the roof or the back, driven by people who are paid to drive them and not allowed to go any faster than 30 km/h. Sometimes they are used to disseminate political messages or to announce where the cheapest and most delicious popsicles are being sold. These vehicles just tour around the neighbourhood (usually keeping to the paved roads) and blast their words at top volume for all to hear :)

Now you know!