Brasil!
Oi! That's hello! Ok, I'm going to fill whoever reads this in on what is going on waaaay far over here. On our trip over here on the plane, things went really well. We didn't have any problems with customs, people were really nice, minus one lady who yelled at me cause i didn't understand portuguese. My belt kept setting off the alarm, better that than my hip though, haha, not like i can take that off. :)
We got here and it was raining, it's winter here and rains constantly (for the past month--straight). That is a little annoying but it hasn't kept us from doing too much except going to the beach. Our first night here we went out to this resturant in Recife where we ate goat, rice and beans, tapioca (not like the pudding, it's made from a root called macaxeira), sausages, cooked bananas and just whatever else we could fit on our plate. It was at a really nice buffet type place and it was VERY good. They weigh your plate after you fill it up. They also are very clean people, in the bathrooms, there were dental floss machines. how wierd is that? and in every resturant, even mcdonalds there is a community sink so you can wash your hands before you eat. one interesting thing that definitely took some getting used to was that you can't flush your toilet paper down the toilet, especially here at their house. you never realize how much you actually have to think about putting it in the trash can and not in the toilet. ew, i don't like that, especially when i forget. the showers have one water heater attached to the shower head so the shower head gets really hot...but most people don't have hot water, it's kinda lukewarm, not really cold...
on the way through town yesterday there was a dead body in the road from an accident, they left him there uncovered while they were measuring and recording all the information. they do things here in such a weird way. that was nice though, yeah right...yesterday and today we went to the favela...favela's are the lowest of the low housing, they make their houses out of basically whatever they can find and stack them all up on top of each other, you can have several people living in the same one to two room houses, and the room is about as big as a walk-in closet, it is very sad and i don't know how they do it. yesterday at one favela we gave out pencils to the kids and took their pictures. they looooooove pencils you might as well be handing out money and they beg for you to take their picture, thank goodness for digital cameras and the ability to delete what you don't want, otherwise, i would have already run out of film. the kids are sooo loving and want to hug you and be held and the poverty is just staggering..all the kids are playing in the street, if it isn't raining, and there aren't many parents around....about 50% of the population here in recife live in favela's, about 30% are unemployed.
yesterday afternoon we went to an orphanage for boys, casa lar, rich and cheryl have "adopted" one of the boys there. they have him over for holidays and dinner and just accept him as part of their family. they try to visit him several times a week. most of the boys there if they don't get adopted will just get moved to another home when they get a little older or they will try to get out on their own.
we went to a mall last night and people follow you around constantly the entire time, they have one of everything out in the stores. if you want to try it on, they run and get your size. it's kinda annoying cause they stay on your heels so much, but that's some serious customer service. when we parked our car to go to the mall, we had to get a ticket, not to pay but to have so when we left we could actually get out of the parking lot. they won't let you leave without a ticket.
Today we went to another favela and made salvation bracelets. i explained what they meant and cheryl translated for me, you have to mark their hands when they get a bracelet or they will come back for more. i drew the traditional, emily smiley faces, thank you... then we got to go play with the kids and we went back and looked at these favelas. they were on the river, i don't know how they don't fall in, everything looks like it is about to fall apart, the walkways are so narrow and just have alot of boards overlapping each other. you can see the water through the cracks in the boards and you wonder if you are eventually going to give out. the rooms, again, are tiny, one room had a bed, stove, and fridge in it and maybe 2 square ft max of walking space. 5 people lived in this one home, the name of the girl that lived there was cíntia (cynthia). her and her family all sleep in the same bed. but in the midst of the worst conditions they take pride in what they do have and keep it very clean and keep themselves very clean...i'm not sure how they accomplish that though. it is very sad and it's hard to leave, the kids are hugging on you and it's amazing how you can still communicate with them even though you know sooo little in their own language. you guys are going to love visiting the favela's.
Today the students from the church we will be helping went with us to the flavela's. they are hard workers and are really looking forward to meeting those of you who are coming back with us in March. we showed them your pictures and i told them we would show you guys theirs.
there's so much to talk about just little weird things, like everything being made out of tile and no air conditioning, everything is open air...traffic is scaaaary, how many lanes there are depend on how many cars can line up beside each other...little stuff like that.
the one thing i will say is this culture is so friendly and loving and accepting of new people. i think i've finally met my match as far as how many hugs you can give people. rich was talking about how girls walk holding hands, linking arms, hugging nonstop and i thought, wow, we will fit in GREAT. :)
there is so much to tell you about but this is getting long. i know i can't explain it as well as i would like, i'm not even close but you all will just have to see for yourselves (and in all the million pictures i've already taken).
I miss you all sooooo much, this is turning into more of a letter than a lj entry but that's ok. God has already tremendously blessed us and just shown us the multitude of opportunities here. the cool thing is we will not be coming in, doing some nice little work and leaving them hanging, there will be the local church we will be working through and the missionaries still here to follow up on whatever we do to help them out. i encourage you all to start praying about whether this is something you would like to do next year. it's pretty amazing. ok for the hundredth time, i looooooooove you and miss you guys. email me if you can at my yahoo account and i will try to get back with you! :) tchau (that's bye :)
We got here and it was raining, it's winter here and rains constantly (for the past month--straight). That is a little annoying but it hasn't kept us from doing too much except going to the beach. Our first night here we went out to this resturant in Recife where we ate goat, rice and beans, tapioca (not like the pudding, it's made from a root called macaxeira), sausages, cooked bananas and just whatever else we could fit on our plate. It was at a really nice buffet type place and it was VERY good. They weigh your plate after you fill it up. They also are very clean people, in the bathrooms, there were dental floss machines. how wierd is that? and in every resturant, even mcdonalds there is a community sink so you can wash your hands before you eat. one interesting thing that definitely took some getting used to was that you can't flush your toilet paper down the toilet, especially here at their house. you never realize how much you actually have to think about putting it in the trash can and not in the toilet. ew, i don't like that, especially when i forget. the showers have one water heater attached to the shower head so the shower head gets really hot...but most people don't have hot water, it's kinda lukewarm, not really cold...
on the way through town yesterday there was a dead body in the road from an accident, they left him there uncovered while they were measuring and recording all the information. they do things here in such a weird way. that was nice though, yeah right...yesterday and today we went to the favela...favela's are the lowest of the low housing, they make their houses out of basically whatever they can find and stack them all up on top of each other, you can have several people living in the same one to two room houses, and the room is about as big as a walk-in closet, it is very sad and i don't know how they do it. yesterday at one favela we gave out pencils to the kids and took their pictures. they looooooove pencils you might as well be handing out money and they beg for you to take their picture, thank goodness for digital cameras and the ability to delete what you don't want, otherwise, i would have already run out of film. the kids are sooo loving and want to hug you and be held and the poverty is just staggering..all the kids are playing in the street, if it isn't raining, and there aren't many parents around....about 50% of the population here in recife live in favela's, about 30% are unemployed.
yesterday afternoon we went to an orphanage for boys, casa lar, rich and cheryl have "adopted" one of the boys there. they have him over for holidays and dinner and just accept him as part of their family. they try to visit him several times a week. most of the boys there if they don't get adopted will just get moved to another home when they get a little older or they will try to get out on their own.
we went to a mall last night and people follow you around constantly the entire time, they have one of everything out in the stores. if you want to try it on, they run and get your size. it's kinda annoying cause they stay on your heels so much, but that's some serious customer service. when we parked our car to go to the mall, we had to get a ticket, not to pay but to have so when we left we could actually get out of the parking lot. they won't let you leave without a ticket.
Today we went to another favela and made salvation bracelets. i explained what they meant and cheryl translated for me, you have to mark their hands when they get a bracelet or they will come back for more. i drew the traditional, emily smiley faces, thank you... then we got to go play with the kids and we went back and looked at these favelas. they were on the river, i don't know how they don't fall in, everything looks like it is about to fall apart, the walkways are so narrow and just have alot of boards overlapping each other. you can see the water through the cracks in the boards and you wonder if you are eventually going to give out. the rooms, again, are tiny, one room had a bed, stove, and fridge in it and maybe 2 square ft max of walking space. 5 people lived in this one home, the name of the girl that lived there was cíntia (cynthia). her and her family all sleep in the same bed. but in the midst of the worst conditions they take pride in what they do have and keep it very clean and keep themselves very clean...i'm not sure how they accomplish that though. it is very sad and it's hard to leave, the kids are hugging on you and it's amazing how you can still communicate with them even though you know sooo little in their own language. you guys are going to love visiting the favela's.
Today the students from the church we will be helping went with us to the flavela's. they are hard workers and are really looking forward to meeting those of you who are coming back with us in March. we showed them your pictures and i told them we would show you guys theirs.
there's so much to talk about just little weird things, like everything being made out of tile and no air conditioning, everything is open air...traffic is scaaaary, how many lanes there are depend on how many cars can line up beside each other...little stuff like that.
the one thing i will say is this culture is so friendly and loving and accepting of new people. i think i've finally met my match as far as how many hugs you can give people. rich was talking about how girls walk holding hands, linking arms, hugging nonstop and i thought, wow, we will fit in GREAT. :)
there is so much to tell you about but this is getting long. i know i can't explain it as well as i would like, i'm not even close but you all will just have to see for yourselves (and in all the million pictures i've already taken).
I miss you all sooooo much, this is turning into more of a letter than a lj entry but that's ok. God has already tremendously blessed us and just shown us the multitude of opportunities here. the cool thing is we will not be coming in, doing some nice little work and leaving them hanging, there will be the local church we will be working through and the missionaries still here to follow up on whatever we do to help them out. i encourage you all to start praying about whether this is something you would like to do next year. it's pretty amazing. ok for the hundredth time, i looooooooove you and miss you guys. email me if you can at my yahoo account and i will try to get back with you! :) tchau (that's bye :)