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.