The cable guys showed up at 7:50 in the morning, which was earlier than expected! They had assessed the situation on Friday unbeknownst to us, and realized that they needed to do some preliminary work on the cable outside the house. They spent Monday morning doing this, and had told Paul before he left the day before that they would be by on Wednesday to do the installation.
Lori had left for a doctor’s appointment that morning, which left me as the best person for translation in the house. This is bad news for anyone who needs to relay an important message. They said something about a wire and a connection and some type of extension, but truth be told I didn’t know what they were talking about. I nodded, pretending to understand whatever it was they were saying. After an hour the cable was up and running and I spent another hour of my morning getting the wireless router from next door and hooking it up to this system.
Junior also came by that morning to treat the pool, which had grown a familiar shade of green over the past few days. I was blaming this discoloration on the rain and or the fact that the pool had been filled to the brim by William and Eric who had left the hose on all day on Sunday. New chemicals were needed to equalize something or other, and he was going to return later that afternoon after he had the correct supplies.
About eight minutes after the cable had been hooked up for the internet, lights in the house on Lobster Road flickered out one by one. I thought I had put too much power on one circuit when I plugged in either the modem or the router, but an unfamiliar figure on the other side of the front gate made me think we actually had a power problem. I still was the only person who could relatively speak Portuguese and English in the house so I went outside to see what they were doing. It so happens that these two gentlemen were from the power company, and that they had come to cut our power due to lack of payment.
They shut the outside power box and drove off, leaving me powerless to do anything. I told Caroline to call Aunt Lori, who was unreachable at the doctors. Uncle Mark was working on his cabinets some more in the Planalto, and he didn’t know what to do either. Inacia went to work cooking lunch on our gas stove and I settled down with a book on the couch while the kids tried to think of something to do without any TV to watch or pool to swim in.
We took freezing cold showers, and I contemplated using the last 40% of my computer battery to get up to date with my blogs, in which I was falling behind. I decided against it in case the power was off for days and I needed that 40% for something else. Aunt Lori got home and got the rundown from Inacia what the problem was with the power. Apparently Saint Adelmo next door had failed to pay his power bill, and they had shut the power off for both of the man's properties. He had run to the Pharmacy, which is apparently the location where all business is done in Brazil, to pay the bill and we were told the power would be up that afternoon.
We had a delicious lunch of chicken something or other, before Uncle Mark headed off to the cabinet supply place to get what he needed for the job he was currently doing. Aunt Lori had another appointment that afternoon, and the kids didn’t want to go with either parent on their errand. Seeing someone needed to wait for the power guy, and I was a good 8 hours behind on my blogs I decided to stay on Lobster Road and wait.
He came shortly before 2:00 and turned on the power to our house. The kids made up for lost time in front of the television, while I managed to log on to the computer since the first time the beloved cable was installed. I spent the remainder of the afternoon working on my blogs, and still was not finished by the time dinner came along. I watched Bridge to Terabithia with the kids, where I learned the important lesson that it should in fact be “free to pee”. After the movie I went to work answering a pile of work E-mails that had built up during the past few days.
William asked me to transfer some songs from my computer unto his Ipod, and we spent an hour so selecting some music that he liked, or that I thought he may like. I had given him a day planner when I had arrived here the second time and written under the “Thursday; August 23rd” tab was “Go to Beach with Alex”. I thought this was so cute. I had promised him that I would take him at some point during this week, so I planned on getting up extra early the next day to work on some things before heading to the beach for a few hours.
William was asleep by 9:00 that night, and I wasn’t feeling too good. I decided to call it a night, and slipped my laptop under the bed. It felt good to do what I needed to do in the comfort of my own bed. Now I had the opportunity to work wherever on the property I wanted seeing the router was located directly under my bed. When the morning came, I could hear the sound of Dukes of Hazard from the living room. That meant that William was up bright and early, which is exactly what happens every time he goes to bed before 10:00…
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
A Walk to Remember...
I learned something new about myself on Monday night. Apparently, I sit up in my sleep. The night before, I had moved my bed closer to the wall, to restrain me from falling off in the middle of the night. I woke up several times before dawn by whacking my head off of the concrete ledge when I sat up. Waking up the next morning with several small lumps and a headache would be enough to keep my air mattress away from the wall during the future. That wouldn’t be necessary since Paul and Patty’s family was leaving that day and I could move back downstairs with my little brother William for the remaining two weeks of our stay here.
I knew Tuesday was going to be an emotional day for me and I was mentally prepared for the worst. From the moment I got out of bed and took a warm shower, I immediately just wanted to get out of my present location and just go somewhere else where there wasn’t anybody. Paul and Patty’s departure made this difficult to do, seeing as I did not want to be rude and disappear on their last morning there.
Uncle Mark had gone off to the Planalto, where he spent the morning working on making some cabinets for the kitchen at the hall. Paul and Patty spent the morning packing their belongings. They left us a printer to print any photo’s we deemed necessary, and Aunt Lori and I brainstormed how we could use photos to benefit the English Class. We thought about the idea Paul had given us of taking pictures of a room, or a group of items, and labeling the item with the English word. This would give them 4X6 flashcards that showed the object and the word, and they were small enough to on hand.
Paul asked me to give him a brief Facebook tutorial, which I did right before he left. The cars were loaded, and they said their goodbye’s to Inacia. I thought that this would be a good point to leave myself, so I strapped on the backpack that I had stocked with what I may need for my day alone, said my goodbye’s to the family and started off walking down Lobster Road. With my trusty Ipod I just kept walking and spent the remainder of the morning and the early part of the afternoon just walking and thinking.
I treated myself to a 45 minute massage, which cost less than fifteen American dollars here, and then stopped by a supermarket to get a popsicle. It was at that point that I realized how far I had walked. I was about 3 and a half miles from home and still had to go back. I decided to take the bus, since the ligaments on the back of my knees were starting to hurt. I would ask the driver of every bus that came by if this bus was heading to Lobster Road and they kept saying no. Finally one driver said yes, so I climbed on and took the bumpy ride back to Ponta Negra.
The bus made one final stop, and everyone got off. I decided to follow rather than stay on the bus by myself. I then realized where I was. I was at the end of the village in Ponta Negra about two miles from our house. I looked upward to see if I could make out the silhouettes of the two huge condoplexes next to the house. I could see the brightly colored design of the top of one in the distance. This put the bearings in my mental compass into action. I passed out tracts to anyone I saw on the way home, but I was tired, grumpy and hot. I cooled myself off a bit with another popsicle stop before continuing the rest of the way home.
I collapsed on the couch just in time to see Aunt Lori, Caroline and William pull up. They had dropped everyone off at the airport earlier, and while they were there they ran into several Brazilian national athletes. At the airport they also saw Eriberto, the young man at the hall who is good at everything he does athletically. Some conversation had been made with him before the rest of them headed to lunch. Uncle Mark had returned to his cabinets in the Planalto, and after making a few stops to get some necessities for the cooperative and for our home, Lori had returned with the kids.
It was 4:00 by this time, so we went out for an hour or so before returning home. Aunt Lori told me she wanted to take me to dinner so I agreed, and quickly changed. Uncle Mark and the kids relaxed at home for the evening before retiring to bed. Meanwhile, we had a great seafood diner and just spent a few hours talking about some things that were on our minds, some ideas for distribution, Va Livre website topics and other miscellaneous items. We returned home and went to bed. It felt good to sleep on an actual mattress, in an actual room with NO actual sunlight. I had to be up relatively early to greet the cable guy that had told us he would be there before 8:00. It was time to see if these cable guys were more punctual than the ones we have in the United States…
I knew Tuesday was going to be an emotional day for me and I was mentally prepared for the worst. From the moment I got out of bed and took a warm shower, I immediately just wanted to get out of my present location and just go somewhere else where there wasn’t anybody. Paul and Patty’s departure made this difficult to do, seeing as I did not want to be rude and disappear on their last morning there.
Uncle Mark had gone off to the Planalto, where he spent the morning working on making some cabinets for the kitchen at the hall. Paul and Patty spent the morning packing their belongings. They left us a printer to print any photo’s we deemed necessary, and Aunt Lori and I brainstormed how we could use photos to benefit the English Class. We thought about the idea Paul had given us of taking pictures of a room, or a group of items, and labeling the item with the English word. This would give them 4X6 flashcards that showed the object and the word, and they were small enough to on hand.
Paul asked me to give him a brief Facebook tutorial, which I did right before he left. The cars were loaded, and they said their goodbye’s to Inacia. I thought that this would be a good point to leave myself, so I strapped on the backpack that I had stocked with what I may need for my day alone, said my goodbye’s to the family and started off walking down Lobster Road. With my trusty Ipod I just kept walking and spent the remainder of the morning and the early part of the afternoon just walking and thinking.
I treated myself to a 45 minute massage, which cost less than fifteen American dollars here, and then stopped by a supermarket to get a popsicle. It was at that point that I realized how far I had walked. I was about 3 and a half miles from home and still had to go back. I decided to take the bus, since the ligaments on the back of my knees were starting to hurt. I would ask the driver of every bus that came by if this bus was heading to Lobster Road and they kept saying no. Finally one driver said yes, so I climbed on and took the bumpy ride back to Ponta Negra.
The bus made one final stop, and everyone got off. I decided to follow rather than stay on the bus by myself. I then realized where I was. I was at the end of the village in Ponta Negra about two miles from our house. I looked upward to see if I could make out the silhouettes of the two huge condoplexes next to the house. I could see the brightly colored design of the top of one in the distance. This put the bearings in my mental compass into action. I passed out tracts to anyone I saw on the way home, but I was tired, grumpy and hot. I cooled myself off a bit with another popsicle stop before continuing the rest of the way home.
I collapsed on the couch just in time to see Aunt Lori, Caroline and William pull up. They had dropped everyone off at the airport earlier, and while they were there they ran into several Brazilian national athletes. At the airport they also saw Eriberto, the young man at the hall who is good at everything he does athletically. Some conversation had been made with him before the rest of them headed to lunch. Uncle Mark had returned to his cabinets in the Planalto, and after making a few stops to get some necessities for the cooperative and for our home, Lori had returned with the kids.
It was 4:00 by this time, so we went out for an hour or so before returning home. Aunt Lori told me she wanted to take me to dinner so I agreed, and quickly changed. Uncle Mark and the kids relaxed at home for the evening before retiring to bed. Meanwhile, we had a great seafood diner and just spent a few hours talking about some things that were on our minds, some ideas for distribution, Va Livre website topics and other miscellaneous items. We returned home and went to bed. It felt good to sleep on an actual mattress, in an actual room with NO actual sunlight. I had to be up relatively early to greet the cable guy that had told us he would be there before 8:00. It was time to see if these cable guys were more punctual than the ones we have in the United States…
Rain, Rain Go Away...
I had just drifted off to sleep Sunday night when the sound of a car woke me. It was loud and obnoxious and seemed to have stopped right outside of our house. I could tell from the sound of the engine that it was the old 1970s Volkswagen Beetle that resided in a driveway a few doors down. The owner had been puttering with it for a few days and we had seen it make some brief appearances before. On this night however ol’ Herbie was revving its inefficient engine. It backfired several times, and each time that I heard the loud pop, I prayed it was someone putting a bullet through the engine block of the car ending the awful noise once and for all.
Relief never came. The noise continued for at least an hour maybe more. It lightened up for a short period of time, while the owner probably took a bathroom break, before the car resumed its torturous noise. It was loud enough to make even the toughest of soldiers break down to their enemy captures, and we should all hope that North Korea and Iran do not get their hands on a beat-up VW bug or we are all in trouble. The eventual silence of the car gave way to the normal crowing of the rooster at about 3 AM. I tossed and turned on the half flat air mattress, before finally deciding to risk suffocation and sleep with a pillow over my face.
The pillow blocked the rays of sun early in the morning, so I was able to regain an hour of lost sleep. I made my way downstairs at about 8:00. Uncle Mark, Patty and Stephanie had already left to work on the hall. I started working on my blogs, posting the pictures and doing what needed to be done on my end. Every time I left the computer running to load the pictures and go do some other task that needed to be done, the internet would crash and I would lose everything I had loaded. This happened throughout the morning, and I would up having to redo what I had already done four or five times.
There is no worse feeling than having to start over after you put a lot of time into something. When someone tells you that maybe God is having you start over for a reason, the comfort and reality that you should be feeling is quickly replaced by further frustration. By 1:00, neither of the two blog posts I had been working on all morning was finished. I angrily shut my computer and headed off to the Planalto with Uncle Mark to work on the hall.
It had rained pretty hard that morning. Torrential rains which reminded me of my first few days here in Natal back in June were not what I needed to get over my anxiety and irritability. When I left for the Planalto the sun was breaking through the clouds and I was hoping for a nice afternoon. I needed a nice afternoon! Aunt Lori and Paul had spent the morning at the Bible bookstore getting Bible’s for that afternoon’s clothing distribution. William, Caroline and Eric had spent some of the morning packaging some children’s clothes and diapers to be passed out in the Planalto later on that day. Now the time had come to hit the streets with Bibles, tracts and clothes for everyone who was in dire need of the materials.
I got to work as soon as I arrived at the hall. Neto brought me to the bathroom to give me my task of sanding the concrete walls in preparation of Luciano’s plastering job. I worked an hour on that job, getting covered from head to toe with concrete dust. Caroline begged me for pictures of how filthy I was, so I agreed and lent her my camera for the afternoon. It started to rain hard outside, as I took on the next task of washing the roof tiles. Within a few minutes I was soaking wet. It was only 3:30 at this point and I still had a long way to go before I went home for the day.
I assisted the man who Patty hired in the task of re-tiling the roof. He had returned for another day’s work even though Luciano had told him that he would not be receiving any money this time and if he wanted to work for God then he was more than welcome to. So he had returned, and he worked hard even though he stopped for 20 minutes to try and sell me some prehistoric shark teeth. I found them interesting but wasn’t about to shell over 75 Raies for one. I was freezing cold, soaking wet and in a worse mood than before, but the day wasn’t over yet.
In another part of the Planalto, Aunt Lori, Paul, Patty, Steph, Caroline and Amy were giving out clothing, Bibles and tracts to people in need. Shakinjo and Neto had taken them to some needy neighborhoods to make some contacts for the hall. Hundreds of tracts were given out, as well as bags of clothing and diapers and almost 75 Bibles. 500 more Bibles were on order and set to arrive by Friday. Children who had been naked minutes before now had clothes to wear. The group watched as a man ran from a distance to where they were. Expecting him to ask for clothing first they waited for him to open his mouth. While he may have needed clothes or money, the first thing he asked for was the Bible.
The afternoon was a success on all fronts. The rain had slowed progress on the halls exterior, but work had been brought inside. Much of the kitchen floor had been tiled, and half of one bathroom had been plastered. One quarter of the auditorium roof tiles were now painted and re-hung, and Uncle Mark had finished the halls bulletin board and more shelves. Eric and William were soaking wet and playing with the hose in the street. Boys will be boys.
Monday night meant English lessons, and had it not been for the fact that I was soaking wet I would have been looking forward to teaching the Christians how to speak English. I assisted Aunt Lori’s class, and helped a few women with some vocabulary terms for common household items and places. My favorite part of the evening was trying to describe the function of the toilet so they could tell me the word in Portuguese so I could tell them how to spell and pronounce the word in English. One of the women named Liese said, "ahh, the Queen on the throne”. She then referred to Lori as the queen of the toilet, which made us all laugh. Thought I would share a little bathroom humor with you all.
After the lessons were finished we said goodnight to the students and headed home. We stopped and picked up some snack pastries for dinner and then returned to the house. I was still freezing cold. A warm shower felt good, but my relaxation came to a halt when I discovered that my bag and my bed were soaking wet from the rain. The one clean long sleeve shirt I had left was wet. Now I had to decide to go short sleeve on my goose bump covered arms or put on a damp long sleeve shirt. I decided to go damp. I gobbled down a snack and returned to my office on the patio to make another attempt at posting.
Paul and Patty got organized for their trip home the next day. Paul was still miffed that his FedEx packages hadn’t arrived yet. I managed to get one blog up on the first try, but it took four more attempts to get the same success with the second post. Finally they were finished. I was exhausted by this point, but dad was online and wanted to talk, so I spent some time with him before retreating to my damp mattress on the terrace. The worst news was that the weather forecast was equally as bleak for the next day…
Relief never came. The noise continued for at least an hour maybe more. It lightened up for a short period of time, while the owner probably took a bathroom break, before the car resumed its torturous noise. It was loud enough to make even the toughest of soldiers break down to their enemy captures, and we should all hope that North Korea and Iran do not get their hands on a beat-up VW bug or we are all in trouble. The eventual silence of the car gave way to the normal crowing of the rooster at about 3 AM. I tossed and turned on the half flat air mattress, before finally deciding to risk suffocation and sleep with a pillow over my face.
The pillow blocked the rays of sun early in the morning, so I was able to regain an hour of lost sleep. I made my way downstairs at about 8:00. Uncle Mark, Patty and Stephanie had already left to work on the hall. I started working on my blogs, posting the pictures and doing what needed to be done on my end. Every time I left the computer running to load the pictures and go do some other task that needed to be done, the internet would crash and I would lose everything I had loaded. This happened throughout the morning, and I would up having to redo what I had already done four or five times.
There is no worse feeling than having to start over after you put a lot of time into something. When someone tells you that maybe God is having you start over for a reason, the comfort and reality that you should be feeling is quickly replaced by further frustration. By 1:00, neither of the two blog posts I had been working on all morning was finished. I angrily shut my computer and headed off to the Planalto with Uncle Mark to work on the hall.
It had rained pretty hard that morning. Torrential rains which reminded me of my first few days here in Natal back in June were not what I needed to get over my anxiety and irritability. When I left for the Planalto the sun was breaking through the clouds and I was hoping for a nice afternoon. I needed a nice afternoon! Aunt Lori and Paul had spent the morning at the Bible bookstore getting Bible’s for that afternoon’s clothing distribution. William, Caroline and Eric had spent some of the morning packaging some children’s clothes and diapers to be passed out in the Planalto later on that day. Now the time had come to hit the streets with Bibles, tracts and clothes for everyone who was in dire need of the materials.
I got to work as soon as I arrived at the hall. Neto brought me to the bathroom to give me my task of sanding the concrete walls in preparation of Luciano’s plastering job. I worked an hour on that job, getting covered from head to toe with concrete dust. Caroline begged me for pictures of how filthy I was, so I agreed and lent her my camera for the afternoon. It started to rain hard outside, as I took on the next task of washing the roof tiles. Within a few minutes I was soaking wet. It was only 3:30 at this point and I still had a long way to go before I went home for the day.
I assisted the man who Patty hired in the task of re-tiling the roof. He had returned for another day’s work even though Luciano had told him that he would not be receiving any money this time and if he wanted to work for God then he was more than welcome to. So he had returned, and he worked hard even though he stopped for 20 minutes to try and sell me some prehistoric shark teeth. I found them interesting but wasn’t about to shell over 75 Raies for one. I was freezing cold, soaking wet and in a worse mood than before, but the day wasn’t over yet.
In another part of the Planalto, Aunt Lori, Paul, Patty, Steph, Caroline and Amy were giving out clothing, Bibles and tracts to people in need. Shakinjo and Neto had taken them to some needy neighborhoods to make some contacts for the hall. Hundreds of tracts were given out, as well as bags of clothing and diapers and almost 75 Bibles. 500 more Bibles were on order and set to arrive by Friday. Children who had been naked minutes before now had clothes to wear. The group watched as a man ran from a distance to where they were. Expecting him to ask for clothing first they waited for him to open his mouth. While he may have needed clothes or money, the first thing he asked for was the Bible.
The afternoon was a success on all fronts. The rain had slowed progress on the halls exterior, but work had been brought inside. Much of the kitchen floor had been tiled, and half of one bathroom had been plastered. One quarter of the auditorium roof tiles were now painted and re-hung, and Uncle Mark had finished the halls bulletin board and more shelves. Eric and William were soaking wet and playing with the hose in the street. Boys will be boys.
Monday night meant English lessons, and had it not been for the fact that I was soaking wet I would have been looking forward to teaching the Christians how to speak English. I assisted Aunt Lori’s class, and helped a few women with some vocabulary terms for common household items and places. My favorite part of the evening was trying to describe the function of the toilet so they could tell me the word in Portuguese so I could tell them how to spell and pronounce the word in English. One of the women named Liese said, "ahh, the Queen on the throne”. She then referred to Lori as the queen of the toilet, which made us all laugh. Thought I would share a little bathroom humor with you all.
After the lessons were finished we said goodnight to the students and headed home. We stopped and picked up some snack pastries for dinner and then returned to the house. I was still freezing cold. A warm shower felt good, but my relaxation came to a halt when I discovered that my bag and my bed were soaking wet from the rain. The one clean long sleeve shirt I had left was wet. Now I had to decide to go short sleeve on my goose bump covered arms or put on a damp long sleeve shirt. I decided to go damp. I gobbled down a snack and returned to my office on the patio to make another attempt at posting.
Paul and Patty got organized for their trip home the next day. Paul was still miffed that his FedEx packages hadn’t arrived yet. I managed to get one blog up on the first try, but it took four more attempts to get the same success with the second post. Finally they were finished. I was exhausted by this point, but dad was online and wanted to talk, so I spent some time with him before retreating to my damp mattress on the terrace. The worst news was that the weather forecast was equally as bleak for the next day…
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William and Alison Uno Taking Tiles off the Roof for Painting
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Luciano Working on the Handicap Ramp
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Raimundo and Damião Tiling the Kitchen Floor.JPG)
Stephanie Painting Roof Tiles
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I'm Covered in Concrete Dist from Sanding
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This is the Man that Ran for the Bible
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Lori Puts Clothing on a Boy Who had Been Naked Minutes Before.jpg)
Lori and Patty Continue with Distribution
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Time to Clean Up for the Day
Monday, August 20, 2007
Picture Perfect...
Sunday was meeting day, and unlike normal Sunday’s in the Planalto for those non-fluent in Portuguese, we were going to have some English intertwined. A young man named Denis who spoke excellent English had agreed to interpret for Paul during adult Sunday school in the morning and Gospel meeting in the evening. After the Sunday school kids finished with their singing and vacated the auditorium, Paul got up and spoke about relying in a God who loves you and longs to meet your every need.
It was good to hear some ministry that I was able to understand, even if it was broken up into half sentences. The message was not very long, and even with the interpretation we finished before Luis’s normal class would have ended. This was good thing on this particular Sunday, because Paul had brought his photography equipment to take individual and family portraits of the Saints at the church.
The families lined up, and one by one the photographs were taken. This was the first photo that some of them had ever had taken. For many others, it was the first professional portrait of themselves that they had ever seen. Even though the frames that Paul had shipped still had not arrived, he planed on having the pictures printed and ready for when the package was delivered. As the photos were being taken, I asked Suzete if I could play her soprano saxophone. For the first time in 8 years I picked up the instrument and played a few scales. I was surprised that I remembered exactly how to blow into the mouthpiece and precisely where my fingers were supposed to go. I played “Jesus Loves Me” for Pietro, who was watching me, and then tried “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic. Alison Dos whistled along as I played.
I finished with the instrument for the day and then was called outside to get one final picture of all the young people at the hall. After we cleaned up the backdrop, we loaded the cars and headed to the churrasco for lunch. The restaurant was packed, but we finally were seated and had a delicious meal of many different cuts of beef, pork, chicken and fish. The kids were especially fond of the grilled cheese and the pineapple coated with cinnamon. I was exhausted and was looking forward to a nap that would come the minute I got home. After a stop at the drugstore to pick up some cream for a rash that I had obtained during my last trip to the country, I was home and sleeping comfortably on my air mattress out on the terrace.
I woke up at around 5:45 and took the 15 minutes that I had to get ready for meeting. I was still tired and very quiet. Sunday naps are necessary for me, but I don’t wake up very well. Denis interpreted for Paul again, but the pain of my rear end on the non ergonomic wooden benches made it difficult to pay attention. Before meeting began we had a surprise in store for us. The man that Patty had accidentally hired to work on the hall the previous Friday was in attendance and had told Luis he wanted to be saved. While we are not sure if the man obtained salvation that evening, it can be assured that he knew he was a sinner who needed to have his sins forgiven. He had read the tract that he was given on Friday and decided to attend the service that evening.
I found that learning Portuguese was even easier as I listened to Denis translate for Paul. Because the segments of speech were only four or five words long it was easy to pick up which words in English meant what in Portuguese. After meeting ended we had a snack of juice and cookies again, while Paul displayed his slide show of the afternoon photo shoot on his laptop. I took some pictures and talked with Denis and Neto for a while. Neto invited me to go out with him and the young people for pastel’s (meat or cheese stuffed pastries) and to sleep over his house that night, but I hadn’t brought my clothes or medication so I declined. I told him that the next Sunday I would be more prepared and would be more than happy to hang out with the group there.
I found them to be a fantastic group of young people. Even though I didn’t speak much of their language, and came from an entirely different culture than they did they were still willing to embrace me as one of their own and include me in anything they did. This wasn’t superficial in any way. I wasn’t being invited merely because it was polite, but because they really wanted me there with them. It caused me to think a lot more during the remainder of the evening about how I should really be in my heart with other Christians, not just the Gospel Hall folk. Do I really embrace them, or do I see them as a lesser degree than those of us that break bread in an assembly week after week? One thing was for sure, this group of people in the Planalto knew how to welcome people. Not just people who were helping them physically and financially, but even the visitors who came in week after week who barley had a single raies to their name.
We stopped at the shopping center for some gelado (ice cream), which was the best I had tasted since I got here. This actually had the same taste as actual ice cream. I planned on working on my blog when I got home, but my laptop battery was dead and my normal outside outlet didn’t have any power to it. I caught a weak signal inside and wrote my blog for the previous day. I was unable to post it though due to the fact I could not upload the many pictures I wanted to coincide with the article. I packed up the computer at around midnight, which was only an hour and a half after I had gotten home and headed to bed. I slipped under the comforter, confident that I would have no problem falling asleep. Boy was I wrong…
It was good to hear some ministry that I was able to understand, even if it was broken up into half sentences. The message was not very long, and even with the interpretation we finished before Luis’s normal class would have ended. This was good thing on this particular Sunday, because Paul had brought his photography equipment to take individual and family portraits of the Saints at the church.
The families lined up, and one by one the photographs were taken. This was the first photo that some of them had ever had taken. For many others, it was the first professional portrait of themselves that they had ever seen. Even though the frames that Paul had shipped still had not arrived, he planed on having the pictures printed and ready for when the package was delivered. As the photos were being taken, I asked Suzete if I could play her soprano saxophone. For the first time in 8 years I picked up the instrument and played a few scales. I was surprised that I remembered exactly how to blow into the mouthpiece and precisely where my fingers were supposed to go. I played “Jesus Loves Me” for Pietro, who was watching me, and then tried “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic. Alison Dos whistled along as I played.
I finished with the instrument for the day and then was called outside to get one final picture of all the young people at the hall. After we cleaned up the backdrop, we loaded the cars and headed to the churrasco for lunch. The restaurant was packed, but we finally were seated and had a delicious meal of many different cuts of beef, pork, chicken and fish. The kids were especially fond of the grilled cheese and the pineapple coated with cinnamon. I was exhausted and was looking forward to a nap that would come the minute I got home. After a stop at the drugstore to pick up some cream for a rash that I had obtained during my last trip to the country, I was home and sleeping comfortably on my air mattress out on the terrace.
I woke up at around 5:45 and took the 15 minutes that I had to get ready for meeting. I was still tired and very quiet. Sunday naps are necessary for me, but I don’t wake up very well. Denis interpreted for Paul again, but the pain of my rear end on the non ergonomic wooden benches made it difficult to pay attention. Before meeting began we had a surprise in store for us. The man that Patty had accidentally hired to work on the hall the previous Friday was in attendance and had told Luis he wanted to be saved. While we are not sure if the man obtained salvation that evening, it can be assured that he knew he was a sinner who needed to have his sins forgiven. He had read the tract that he was given on Friday and decided to attend the service that evening.
I found that learning Portuguese was even easier as I listened to Denis translate for Paul. Because the segments of speech were only four or five words long it was easy to pick up which words in English meant what in Portuguese. After meeting ended we had a snack of juice and cookies again, while Paul displayed his slide show of the afternoon photo shoot on his laptop. I took some pictures and talked with Denis and Neto for a while. Neto invited me to go out with him and the young people for pastel’s (meat or cheese stuffed pastries) and to sleep over his house that night, but I hadn’t brought my clothes or medication so I declined. I told him that the next Sunday I would be more prepared and would be more than happy to hang out with the group there.
I found them to be a fantastic group of young people. Even though I didn’t speak much of their language, and came from an entirely different culture than they did they were still willing to embrace me as one of their own and include me in anything they did. This wasn’t superficial in any way. I wasn’t being invited merely because it was polite, but because they really wanted me there with them. It caused me to think a lot more during the remainder of the evening about how I should really be in my heart with other Christians, not just the Gospel Hall folk. Do I really embrace them, or do I see them as a lesser degree than those of us that break bread in an assembly week after week? One thing was for sure, this group of people in the Planalto knew how to welcome people. Not just people who were helping them physically and financially, but even the visitors who came in week after week who barley had a single raies to their name.
We stopped at the shopping center for some gelado (ice cream), which was the best I had tasted since I got here. This actually had the same taste as actual ice cream. I planned on working on my blog when I got home, but my laptop battery was dead and my normal outside outlet didn’t have any power to it. I caught a weak signal inside and wrote my blog for the previous day. I was unable to post it though due to the fact I could not upload the many pictures I wanted to coincide with the article. I packed up the computer at around midnight, which was only an hour and a half after I had gotten home and headed to bed. I slipped under the comforter, confident that I would have no problem falling asleep. Boy was I wrong…
Uncle Mark and A Lot of the Kids Outside the Hall on Sunday Morning
Paul's Family Portrait of Luis, Lillia and Pietro
Suzete and Rodrigo Waking Home
Pietro on the Drum, William on the Guitar and Dudu on the Tamborine
Dune Raider...
I was up and had my backpack organized before any of the other kids had even opened their eyelids. Uncle Mark, Aunt Lori and Paul were in deep discussion about someone staying home in case FedEx dropped off the packages. Aunt Lori called Inacia, who gladly agreed to come over and use the pool all day. Now that we had a guardian to keep an eye peeled for the incompetent delivery company, we were ready to load into the buggys and head north.
This trip we added an additional buggy. Having the Bruno and Junior again for drivers, we also were graced with the presence of a man named Washington who happened to be the big boss of the organization. He was a rather large man with a scared face. I hopped in a buggy with Aunt Lori and Uncle Mark, and the 10 of us headed north toward Maracujau. The tides were different than my last trip, and we were able to make most of the journey north on beaches and dunes. I hadn’t forgotten the thrill of riding up and down the dunes at 50 miles per hour and screaming along the shore at 70, but the excitement gripped me again as the tires sputtered sand into the air.
While the trip had the same destination as my first one, we made different stops and were able to experience different things than before. Our first real stop after getting a snack was the Jenny Papu lagoon where Paul went to work with the camera. While his talent extends through all spectrum's of the profession, his specialty is landscapes, and the dunes north of Natal are perfect for the ol’ telephoto lens. After driving along the shoreline on a beautiful beach, we arrived at Un Lago Corazon (The Heart Lake), which is a natural lake that filled with rainwater in the shape of a heart. After a brief swimming stop we were back on the road, or the sand rather.
My second trip to the dune-side amusement park was different. I wanted to try and conquer the rapid slip and slide, but it appeared closed. I expressed my discouragement to the attendant there, and he put people to work immediately cleaning the sand off the slide, and unfurling the long plastic material. Then, like sheep being led to the slaughter, he sent village children down one by one to clean the remaining grains of sand off of the plastic with only the skin of their bare backs. Paul and I watched as one after another would go down, and after each one hit the water, there would be noticeably less sand left on the slide.
Finally it was my turn. Leaving my camera with Paul to ensure that I got a picture of the slide this time, I shot down the material and into the natural lake. I took the cart ride up, and was informed when I reached the top, that my camera had entered sleep mode before I went down. My heart was still pounding, but I agreed to do it again. This time my body spun on the mat before I hit the water, propelling me head first into the center of the lake. It was a thrilling end to my time there at that tourist trap. Stephanie and William also had a run at the slide, while all of us, minus Amy, went down the zip line before leaving.
Our next stop was going to be Maracujau. Lori and Mark stayed behind while the remaining eight of us loaded unto a speedboat for a trip out to the dive platform. The day had been beautiful, almost too beautiful for someone who thought he was too dark already to be bothered putting on suntan lotion. Even though there were barley any clouds in the sky, which believe it or not was the correctly predicted forecast, the wind was fierce on the ocean. I was skeptical that we would be able to see anything snorkeling, but I hoped we would considering that it was Paul’s’ families first time. After a bumpy ride four miles out, we arrived at the platform and disembarked. Everyone besides me had gotten soaked on the ride out, and I just gloated that I had picked my seat wisely, a comment that would come back to bite me later.
After putting our gear on, we jumped into the warm ocean. There were dozens of people around us, and nobody snorkeling out very far, which I thought was odd. The reason became apparent to me when I stuck my mask under the water and discovered how murky the water was. Last time it had been as clear as could be, and this time I could barley see my hand in front of my face. I dove down, and before I knew it I was staring at a piece of coral inches from my face. I waved my hands in a panic to get away from the jagged rock-like material, but my action did nothing but cause my arm to rub along the sharp edges of another piece I had not seen. With my arm burning from sun exposure, coral burn and the salt water on a recently open wound, I shot upward.
Before I knew it I was face to face, or face to butt should I say, with a large Filipino woman. I moved my head just before impact and broke the surface inches from her gigantic figure. I swam back to where the others were floating. A man on the deck tossed a piece of bait into the water, and a school of small fish was suddenly in front of us. I shot my hand in quick and snagged three of them, and then opened my hand to show the kids. I made a second attempt at grabbing a fish, and caught one by the tail. I brought him to the surface and he flopped around for about five seconds before having a massive coronary heart attack and dying on the scene. Since I was not going to perform mouth to mouth on the cold blooded scaled creature, and there was no defibrillator on hand, I tossed its lifeless body into the water.
The next excitement to happen was the sighting of a baby Portuguese Man of War. After a near collision with the tentacles, I decided to get out of the murky water before I ended up in the hospital. The rest of the group followed me out of the water, where I stopped to look at the dead body of the boneless jellyfish that apparently spoke the language of Brazil fluently. I begged our driver to take us back to the beach since the snorkeling was awful and he obliged. I sat in the same seat as before expecting a dry ride to the shore, but the sea was angry that day. Water pounded over the side of the vessel and soaked me. I couldn’t open my eyes due to the stinging salt water constantly rushing down my face due to the splashes. When we got off the boat, I was the wettest one of all.
We met up with Lori and Mark and got back in the buggys to head back south. We ate lunch about an hour later. Paul, Patty and I had some delicious soup and some grilled fish, while the kids dined on fried shrimp and Uncle Mark and Aunt Lori ate some shrimp soup. It was getting dark by the time we finished, so we took the quick route home. I slouched back in the seat and watched stars as we went through downtown Natal. We arrived home at about 7:00, and I took a shower and shaved the week’s worth of scruff off of. The kids swam for a bit, and I went to work writing my blog for Friday. After talking with Dad, Jill, Shad and Mom for a bit online I went to bed. The next day was after all Sunday, and I had to mentally prepare myself for the marathon that was before me....
This trip we added an additional buggy. Having the Bruno and Junior again for drivers, we also were graced with the presence of a man named Washington who happened to be the big boss of the organization. He was a rather large man with a scared face. I hopped in a buggy with Aunt Lori and Uncle Mark, and the 10 of us headed north toward Maracujau. The tides were different than my last trip, and we were able to make most of the journey north on beaches and dunes. I hadn’t forgotten the thrill of riding up and down the dunes at 50 miles per hour and screaming along the shore at 70, but the excitement gripped me again as the tires sputtered sand into the air.
While the trip had the same destination as my first one, we made different stops and were able to experience different things than before. Our first real stop after getting a snack was the Jenny Papu lagoon where Paul went to work with the camera. While his talent extends through all spectrum's of the profession, his specialty is landscapes, and the dunes north of Natal are perfect for the ol’ telephoto lens. After driving along the shoreline on a beautiful beach, we arrived at Un Lago Corazon (The Heart Lake), which is a natural lake that filled with rainwater in the shape of a heart. After a brief swimming stop we were back on the road, or the sand rather.
My second trip to the dune-side amusement park was different. I wanted to try and conquer the rapid slip and slide, but it appeared closed. I expressed my discouragement to the attendant there, and he put people to work immediately cleaning the sand off the slide, and unfurling the long plastic material. Then, like sheep being led to the slaughter, he sent village children down one by one to clean the remaining grains of sand off of the plastic with only the skin of their bare backs. Paul and I watched as one after another would go down, and after each one hit the water, there would be noticeably less sand left on the slide.
Finally it was my turn. Leaving my camera with Paul to ensure that I got a picture of the slide this time, I shot down the material and into the natural lake. I took the cart ride up, and was informed when I reached the top, that my camera had entered sleep mode before I went down. My heart was still pounding, but I agreed to do it again. This time my body spun on the mat before I hit the water, propelling me head first into the center of the lake. It was a thrilling end to my time there at that tourist trap. Stephanie and William also had a run at the slide, while all of us, minus Amy, went down the zip line before leaving.
Our next stop was going to be Maracujau. Lori and Mark stayed behind while the remaining eight of us loaded unto a speedboat for a trip out to the dive platform. The day had been beautiful, almost too beautiful for someone who thought he was too dark already to be bothered putting on suntan lotion. Even though there were barley any clouds in the sky, which believe it or not was the correctly predicted forecast, the wind was fierce on the ocean. I was skeptical that we would be able to see anything snorkeling, but I hoped we would considering that it was Paul’s’ families first time. After a bumpy ride four miles out, we arrived at the platform and disembarked. Everyone besides me had gotten soaked on the ride out, and I just gloated that I had picked my seat wisely, a comment that would come back to bite me later.
After putting our gear on, we jumped into the warm ocean. There were dozens of people around us, and nobody snorkeling out very far, which I thought was odd. The reason became apparent to me when I stuck my mask under the water and discovered how murky the water was. Last time it had been as clear as could be, and this time I could barley see my hand in front of my face. I dove down, and before I knew it I was staring at a piece of coral inches from my face. I waved my hands in a panic to get away from the jagged rock-like material, but my action did nothing but cause my arm to rub along the sharp edges of another piece I had not seen. With my arm burning from sun exposure, coral burn and the salt water on a recently open wound, I shot upward.
Before I knew it I was face to face, or face to butt should I say, with a large Filipino woman. I moved my head just before impact and broke the surface inches from her gigantic figure. I swam back to where the others were floating. A man on the deck tossed a piece of bait into the water, and a school of small fish was suddenly in front of us. I shot my hand in quick and snagged three of them, and then opened my hand to show the kids. I made a second attempt at grabbing a fish, and caught one by the tail. I brought him to the surface and he flopped around for about five seconds before having a massive coronary heart attack and dying on the scene. Since I was not going to perform mouth to mouth on the cold blooded scaled creature, and there was no defibrillator on hand, I tossed its lifeless body into the water.
The next excitement to happen was the sighting of a baby Portuguese Man of War. After a near collision with the tentacles, I decided to get out of the murky water before I ended up in the hospital. The rest of the group followed me out of the water, where I stopped to look at the dead body of the boneless jellyfish that apparently spoke the language of Brazil fluently. I begged our driver to take us back to the beach since the snorkeling was awful and he obliged. I sat in the same seat as before expecting a dry ride to the shore, but the sea was angry that day. Water pounded over the side of the vessel and soaked me. I couldn’t open my eyes due to the stinging salt water constantly rushing down my face due to the splashes. When we got off the boat, I was the wettest one of all.
We met up with Lori and Mark and got back in the buggys to head back south. We ate lunch about an hour later. Paul, Patty and I had some delicious soup and some grilled fish, while the kids dined on fried shrimp and Uncle Mark and Aunt Lori ate some shrimp soup. It was getting dark by the time we finished, so we took the quick route home. I slouched back in the seat and watched stars as we went through downtown Natal. We arrived home at about 7:00, and I took a shower and shaved the week’s worth of scruff off of. The kids swam for a bit, and I went to work writing my blog for Friday. After talking with Dad, Jill, Shad and Mom for a bit online I went to bed. The next day was after all Sunday, and I had to mentally prepare myself for the marathon that was before me....
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William and His Buggy are Ready for Action
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Paul T. In Action Doing What He Does With the Lens
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The Other Two Buggys Tearing Across a Beautiful Beach
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"De Corazon Lago" (The Heart Lake)
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Back on the Zip Line
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Eric Takes a Turn.JPG)
Worried About Getting the Skin Ripped Off My Back
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Stephanie Heads Down the Slick Slide
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Some Village Children Play in the Mud at a Ferry Crossing
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Eric Points Out the Rough Surf Ahead.JPG)
William and His Sardine, Which He Used to Terrorize a Fat Woman on Deck.JPG)
The Three Buggy's and Their Riders Pose for a Quick Photo
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A Different Angle of the Group
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Just Hanging Around
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The Younger Buggy Heading for Home
Friday, August 17, 2007
Raise the Roof...After You Wash and Paint It...
7:00 AM came very quickly, and I was more than happy to get myself out of the blazing rays of the sun and down to the shade of my patio office. I began my lengthy blog article, while also checking sports scores, financial information and weather forecasts. I happily scanned the forecast for Natal, and completely forgetting the incompetence of Weather.com's meteorologists put a lot of stock in the fact that today's forecast was mostly sunny with only a 10% chance of precipitation. This was great seeing that I was stuck waiting for the cable guy that morning. I might as well wait outside in the sun.
Uncle Mark, Patty, Stephanie and Amy headed to the Planalto before 8:00 where they immediately went to work. Uncle Mark continued making progress on his shelves and cabinets, while the three girls began cleaning and painting the tiles of the roof that Luciano had removed. As soon as they finished painting them, Luciano would take them back up to the roof and put them back in the correct place. Around mid-morning, a man came by pulling a cart with junk piled almost as high as the hall itself. Patty thought that it was Souzetes husband, and she put him to work immediately. Everyone else working around the hall was confused who this man was, and why he was there. No one was present who spoke enough of an English/Portuguese mix to find out exactly what he was doing there, so they just let him work and paid him for his services later on.
Paul and Aunt Lori had gone off to the co-op to do some more photography of the finished product for the catalog. They made some other stops as well to look into the idea of printing the large photos of the fruit for more co-op materials. Meanwhile, back in Ponta Negra, I finished my normal morning tasks by 10:30 and decided to take advantage of the sun that was shining and to catch few rays by the pool. No sooner had I changed into my swimsuit and spread my towel on the patio tile, then the heavens opened up and cold drizzle fell from above. The rain was one thing. I can deal with rain. What I couldn’t deal with was the bitter cold gusts of wind that would tear through the courtyard like a wind tunnel. After patiently waiting out the storm for 20 minutes, I called it quits and found myself editing pictures for the rest of the morning while waiting for the cable guy.
Everyone returned home for lunch as normal, and after a delicious meal of baked fish with rice, beans and freshly cut tomatoes we all headed off to the Planalto by 1:15. Eric, William, Uncle Mark and I went to the hall, while the other six went back to the co-op. There were six or seven boys waiting in the street to play baseball when I arrived, but I told them I wanted to work for a few hours first and we would play at 3:30. William and Eric joined them in the street where they made a jump for their bicycle out of some pieces of scrap plywood.
I took some photos around the hall for the blog before asking Luciano what I should do. He brought me over to pile of roof tiles and told me to paint them. Before I began I asked them if they wanted music, and they all began chanting "Musica Americana". I located my Ipod and speaker system and began cranking out some Tim McGraw and Josh Turner. Most would just tap their feet, and some would cheer when they heard a word they actually understood. I began painting the roof tiles that had just been washed. The task was slow and monotonous, and after about 40 or 50 tiles, there were no more clean ones to paint. The boys who had been scrubbing them with water had taken on a new job of filling the truck that had arrived with dirt, sand and garbage from the front area of the hall.
Within an hour the front part of the lot was level, and looked relatively clean. Neto and Souzete had spent the morning putting the stucco like final layer on the exterior wall of the hall, but they had barley finished one side before both had to leave. I tried to talk Luciano into letting me work on it, but he told me that it would have to wait. I hunted down and finally found a scrub brush to clean the tiles, and then went to work scrubbing year’s worth of mud and grime from the material. I finished about 50 of them before I noticed that it was 3:45. Across the street were 13 boys sitting on the grass, holding their gloves and looking at me.
I decided to call it a day at the hall and got my things together. I left the music with the workers and led the group of boys to the field once again. The slugger Alex who I had met my first day in the Planalto was with us this time, and he didn't waste any time impressing me again. He could hit the ball high, far, right, left, strait, slow pitch, fast pitch, medium pitch, up, down, inside and outside. This was pretty impressive for someone holding a bat for the second time in his life. We played for a while that afternoon, loosing track of time. Several people stopped to talk to me about what we were doing and where we were from. My Portuguese has become pretty fluid in subjects that I have been around for some time, such as baseball, church and construction work,. I was able to tell them that we play pretty much every weekday from 3:30 till 5:30, and that we were from the Christian Evangelical Church in the Planalto. One boy, named Olivar, spoke a little English and I let him know that there are English lessons going on for the next two Mondays.
Patty, Stephanie and Amy joined us at around 5:00 and had a great time playing with this group of kids. By this time there were 21 kids either playing or watching the activity. I let some other kids pitch, and both Alex (the natural athlete) and Herbson had quite the arms. Filipe also could throw the ball quite well, but his catching skills left a lot to be desired. At around 5:30 we called it a night and headed back to the church, where we caught up with Uncle Mark, Aunt Lori, Paul and Caroline.
Uncle Mark, Patty, Stephanie and Amy headed to the Planalto before 8:00 where they immediately went to work. Uncle Mark continued making progress on his shelves and cabinets, while the three girls began cleaning and painting the tiles of the roof that Luciano had removed. As soon as they finished painting them, Luciano would take them back up to the roof and put them back in the correct place. Around mid-morning, a man came by pulling a cart with junk piled almost as high as the hall itself. Patty thought that it was Souzetes husband, and she put him to work immediately. Everyone else working around the hall was confused who this man was, and why he was there. No one was present who spoke enough of an English/Portuguese mix to find out exactly what he was doing there, so they just let him work and paid him for his services later on.
Paul and Aunt Lori had gone off to the co-op to do some more photography of the finished product for the catalog. They made some other stops as well to look into the idea of printing the large photos of the fruit for more co-op materials. Meanwhile, back in Ponta Negra, I finished my normal morning tasks by 10:30 and decided to take advantage of the sun that was shining and to catch few rays by the pool. No sooner had I changed into my swimsuit and spread my towel on the patio tile, then the heavens opened up and cold drizzle fell from above. The rain was one thing. I can deal with rain. What I couldn’t deal with was the bitter cold gusts of wind that would tear through the courtyard like a wind tunnel. After patiently waiting out the storm for 20 minutes, I called it quits and found myself editing pictures for the rest of the morning while waiting for the cable guy.
Everyone returned home for lunch as normal, and after a delicious meal of baked fish with rice, beans and freshly cut tomatoes we all headed off to the Planalto by 1:15. Eric, William, Uncle Mark and I went to the hall, while the other six went back to the co-op. There were six or seven boys waiting in the street to play baseball when I arrived, but I told them I wanted to work for a few hours first and we would play at 3:30. William and Eric joined them in the street where they made a jump for their bicycle out of some pieces of scrap plywood.
I took some photos around the hall for the blog before asking Luciano what I should do. He brought me over to pile of roof tiles and told me to paint them. Before I began I asked them if they wanted music, and they all began chanting "Musica Americana". I located my Ipod and speaker system and began cranking out some Tim McGraw and Josh Turner. Most would just tap their feet, and some would cheer when they heard a word they actually understood. I began painting the roof tiles that had just been washed. The task was slow and monotonous, and after about 40 or 50 tiles, there were no more clean ones to paint. The boys who had been scrubbing them with water had taken on a new job of filling the truck that had arrived with dirt, sand and garbage from the front area of the hall.
Within an hour the front part of the lot was level, and looked relatively clean. Neto and Souzete had spent the morning putting the stucco like final layer on the exterior wall of the hall, but they had barley finished one side before both had to leave. I tried to talk Luciano into letting me work on it, but he told me that it would have to wait. I hunted down and finally found a scrub brush to clean the tiles, and then went to work scrubbing year’s worth of mud and grime from the material. I finished about 50 of them before I noticed that it was 3:45. Across the street were 13 boys sitting on the grass, holding their gloves and looking at me.
I decided to call it a day at the hall and got my things together. I left the music with the workers and led the group of boys to the field once again. The slugger Alex who I had met my first day in the Planalto was with us this time, and he didn't waste any time impressing me again. He could hit the ball high, far, right, left, strait, slow pitch, fast pitch, medium pitch, up, down, inside and outside. This was pretty impressive for someone holding a bat for the second time in his life. We played for a while that afternoon, loosing track of time. Several people stopped to talk to me about what we were doing and where we were from. My Portuguese has become pretty fluid in subjects that I have been around for some time, such as baseball, church and construction work,. I was able to tell them that we play pretty much every weekday from 3:30 till 5:30, and that we were from the Christian Evangelical Church in the Planalto. One boy, named Olivar, spoke a little English and I let him know that there are English lessons going on for the next two Mondays.
Patty, Stephanie and Amy joined us at around 5:00 and had a great time playing with this group of kids. By this time there were 21 kids either playing or watching the activity. I let some other kids pitch, and both Alex (the natural athlete) and Herbson had quite the arms. Filipe also could throw the ball quite well, but his catching skills left a lot to be desired. At around 5:30 we called it a night and headed back to the church, where we caught up with Uncle Mark, Aunt Lori, Paul and Caroline.
From there it was to Luis and Lillia's for supper, where Paul immediately got to work removing Trojan viruses from their computer, a task that would take much of the night. Sick of hearing only Portuguese, the kids were more than happy to slide Happy Feet into the DVD Player and watch a movie in their native language. I was exhausted and so was Uncle Mark. The night wore on. We had good conversation, but I just wanted to get home, shower, do what I needed to do and then head off to bed. We left shortly after 9:00, and got home by 9:30. Everyone else headed off to bed right away due to the fact that we had to be up by 7:00 the next morning to go on the buggy ride. I worked on some things online before retreating to bed myself before 11:00. I don't think I even made it through 3 songs on my Ipod before I was fast asleep. One thing is for sure, a trip to Brazil and hard work is just what the doctor ordered to cure my case of minor insomnia. By the way, that cable guy never did show up…
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Everyone Doing Their Designated Jobs
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Alison Uno Painting the Roof Tiles
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Luciano Putting the Painted Roof Tiles Back
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Uncle Mark Explains How It's Done.JPG)
A Craftsman at Work
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The Boys Anxiously Awaiting the Chance to Play
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On Our Way to the Field
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We Had 21 Kids Playing by the End of the Day
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At Luis and Lillia's for Supper
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The Kids Hypnotized by Happy Feet
Trouble in the Planalto...
It probably didn’t help that I was already laughing at the episode of Scrubs that was on my computer screen, but the sound of the rooster crowing at 1:00 in the morning had me rolling on my air mattress. After the 10th crow, everyone was awake and muttering under their breath. What made it funnier is that Aunt Lori and I had been discussing the section of Proverbs earlier that dwells upon the roosters and how they should be admired. Our consensus had been that it is a creature that can solely decide what time that the day should begin. Even a rooster with a below average mental capacity would realize that the sun was not up, therefore it should not crow. However we seem to live next to a rooster that not only was not blessed with the normal prune sized brain of a chicken, but also seemed to be suffering from a case of altimeters.
As if these medical conditions were not enough for the bird, he also seemed to be suffering from the consequences of smoking three packs a day for 10 years. His crow was raspy and ever-changing as he would express those five syllables that we had all come to hate "COcK-a-DoO-dlE-doO." After the third crow, he had woken and confused every other rooster in the neighborhood. Reluctantly they would begin crowing, following the lead of the moronic leader, probably curious why it was this day that the sun had refused to shine. I continued to laugh until the crowing subsided and the noise of a sleepless Natal street filled the air.
Reason two why it isn't too great to sleep on a balcony outside: Sun exposure. While sunlight can be ignored by putting a pillow over ones head, the hot rays of the sun's direct contact with the skin of the shoulders and arms can leave an unaware sleeping victim sun burnt and uncomfortable for days to come. This is why it is best to bow to the will of the sun, and get out of bed before it reaches its maximum temperature at about 8:00. I had a quick breakfast, and immediately went to my patio office to blog.
At about 10:30, I knocked on the gate that separated our house from the Casa de Adelmo. Dona Lucia led me to the computer again, this time sputtering non stop in her native Portuguese. Up until this point I had managed to say one or two words to her, or maybe a simple sentence here and there. She looked at me waiting to answer the question that had been intertwined with her three minutes of banter, and I looked at her like a deer caught in headlights. "No Mais Portuguese" (Not Much Portuguese), I said to her and she doubled over laughing. She had thought that I spoke the language fluently, and just was a man of few words. Needless to say, I fixed our computer problem quite quickly and then went back to publish the blog that had been written in Microsoft Word.
Mark, Paul and Patty had gone to the Planalto, where Patty took pictures of the work on the hall for a little while. She then got her hands dirty and began painting the grates that protected the windows. Uncle Mark built storage shelves for the co-op while Paul continued to use the camera as a tool for God. Aunt Lori spent the morning handling some things that needed to be finished as well, primarily looking for another project for the cooperative, which had been moved to Souzete's house during the period of hall renovation. The group all returned in time for lunch, which is exactly when Aunt Lori got a call from FedEx about Paul's shipment that had been stopped by customs.
He had sent a box of picture frames and a box of lights in order to take and distribute family portraits and pictures of children to families in the Planalto. Neither had arrived yet and Paul is set to leave on Tuesday, making this issue very time sensitive. Inacia came into the dining room and told Lori that Giselle wanted to see her and her brother, who she thought was me. I decided to make myself scarce and head to the Planalto with Uncle Mark. My plan was to breakup the day by working on the hall, breaking to play baseball with the kids and then returning to hall to clean up.
Uncle Mark picked up where he left off with the shelves, while Eric and William threw a football around on the road. Patty was given the task of applying the okra colored primer to the outside of the hall, which I wanted to do, as Luciano gave me a quick tutorial of applying cement to a wall. This was a new concept to me. I had done some cement work with a patio or a wall, but never with something that ran perpendicular to the ground. It was basically crack filling, but these cracks were not small, running floor to ceiling and probably three inches in diameter. I got the hang of it quick, and finished my first task within an hour. I cleaned out what would become the drainage system next, before leading the anxious kids to the field.
This time we picked up some other kids by the field and had 11 of them taking batting practice in no time. Just after the final one took some swings, Alison Uno came up to me and gave me some rather distressing news. Using his eyes, he directed my attention to young man on the top of the hill overlooking the field. "Vaminos Pronto" (We Leave Now), he said to me.
"Por Que" (Why?), I asked him. He then began explaining to me that the man was a robber who was known in the Planalto for killing many people. I could see out of the corner of my eye that this man was watching us, and Alison Uno's information made me a little nervous. I gathered the group together and packed up our gear. As we started up the hill I noticed that the man was gone and I breathed a sigh of relief. This was short-lived when I saw him standing at the top of the hill ahead of us. He held a birdcage in his hand, and looked harmless enough as he smiled at us. Still, the information I had received was enough for me to clutch the aluminum bat in my hand tighter, and open the "Mike and Shelby Knife" that was in my pocket. He looked right at me, as I casually positioned myself between Alison Uno and Eric. We passed and I called to the other boys where were straggling behind to catch up. When we finally became one group again, we headed back to the church.
I grabbed a roller as soon as I got back. We had about an hour and a half left before it got dark, and I wanted to do some painting. I applied the primer to the walls in preparation for the final product the next day. Patty continued on the trim work, while Luciano finally made a decision about what color he wanted one section of the wall to be. At 5:00 Luciano and his Comvee full of workers headed home, while those of us that remained cleaned the hall.
Paul and Lori had been at the farmers market, which had been turned into a tract and Bible distribution center over the past few weeks. Paul took close-up shots of the fruit, while Neto, Chiquinho and Lori translated and distributed tracts. They arrived back at the Planalto at about 5:30 and we headed home. Paul reviewed his pictures, sharpening and focusing each one until they were exactly the way he wanted. I showered with the intention of getting the yellow paint splatter off of me, but my attempt was in vain. Soon we were all changed and ready to go to dinner at the all you can eat pizza place located down the street from our home.
The pizza was light with a crust that had the similar weight and texture of a piece of pita bread. Because of the light weight of the pizza, it was easy to just keep on eating it. I tried several varieties, while passing on others. We talked about the events of the day, with Paul relaying to us the events of the meeting with the Gazelle. He had talked her and Adelmo into getting cable internet for our house, seeing they would be moving in within the next month anyway. He and Lori also explained the thinking behind the pictures of the fruit, explaining that they wanted to blow up the photos, and use them as the designs for several cooperative projects. After eating some chocolate covered dessert pizzas, we headed home. I answered several work E-mails, while Paul and Patty began printing pictures for the co-op catalog, orphanage and of the fruit.
Paul joined me outside after an hour or so, and we talked for a bit as we each worked on our computers. Darting through the sky was a bat that swooped to pick some insects off the ground. I had never seen one fly so close, and with each pass it came closer. I directed Paul’s attention to the creature, in time for him to turn and see it fly by and miss his face by less than six inches. He made a rat tail out of the towel draping on a nearby chair and the next time the bat did a flyby, he swung at it, nearly missing it and causing the creature to retreat. Paul went to bed shortly thereafter, and I was soon to follow.
I had a brief online conversation with my dad before cleaning the patio area and heading to my balcony. There were no sounds of roosters, horses or soccer games. The night was quiet, and within minutes I had drifted off to sleep...
As if these medical conditions were not enough for the bird, he also seemed to be suffering from the consequences of smoking three packs a day for 10 years. His crow was raspy and ever-changing as he would express those five syllables that we had all come to hate "COcK-a-DoO-dlE-doO." After the third crow, he had woken and confused every other rooster in the neighborhood. Reluctantly they would begin crowing, following the lead of the moronic leader, probably curious why it was this day that the sun had refused to shine. I continued to laugh until the crowing subsided and the noise of a sleepless Natal street filled the air.
Reason two why it isn't too great to sleep on a balcony outside: Sun exposure. While sunlight can be ignored by putting a pillow over ones head, the hot rays of the sun's direct contact with the skin of the shoulders and arms can leave an unaware sleeping victim sun burnt and uncomfortable for days to come. This is why it is best to bow to the will of the sun, and get out of bed before it reaches its maximum temperature at about 8:00. I had a quick breakfast, and immediately went to my patio office to blog.
At about 10:30, I knocked on the gate that separated our house from the Casa de Adelmo. Dona Lucia led me to the computer again, this time sputtering non stop in her native Portuguese. Up until this point I had managed to say one or two words to her, or maybe a simple sentence here and there. She looked at me waiting to answer the question that had been intertwined with her three minutes of banter, and I looked at her like a deer caught in headlights. "No Mais Portuguese" (Not Much Portuguese), I said to her and she doubled over laughing. She had thought that I spoke the language fluently, and just was a man of few words. Needless to say, I fixed our computer problem quite quickly and then went back to publish the blog that had been written in Microsoft Word.
Mark, Paul and Patty had gone to the Planalto, where Patty took pictures of the work on the hall for a little while. She then got her hands dirty and began painting the grates that protected the windows. Uncle Mark built storage shelves for the co-op while Paul continued to use the camera as a tool for God. Aunt Lori spent the morning handling some things that needed to be finished as well, primarily looking for another project for the cooperative, which had been moved to Souzete's house during the period of hall renovation. The group all returned in time for lunch, which is exactly when Aunt Lori got a call from FedEx about Paul's shipment that had been stopped by customs.
He had sent a box of picture frames and a box of lights in order to take and distribute family portraits and pictures of children to families in the Planalto. Neither had arrived yet and Paul is set to leave on Tuesday, making this issue very time sensitive. Inacia came into the dining room and told Lori that Giselle wanted to see her and her brother, who she thought was me. I decided to make myself scarce and head to the Planalto with Uncle Mark. My plan was to breakup the day by working on the hall, breaking to play baseball with the kids and then returning to hall to clean up.
Uncle Mark picked up where he left off with the shelves, while Eric and William threw a football around on the road. Patty was given the task of applying the okra colored primer to the outside of the hall, which I wanted to do, as Luciano gave me a quick tutorial of applying cement to a wall. This was a new concept to me. I had done some cement work with a patio or a wall, but never with something that ran perpendicular to the ground. It was basically crack filling, but these cracks were not small, running floor to ceiling and probably three inches in diameter. I got the hang of it quick, and finished my first task within an hour. I cleaned out what would become the drainage system next, before leading the anxious kids to the field.
This time we picked up some other kids by the field and had 11 of them taking batting practice in no time. Just after the final one took some swings, Alison Uno came up to me and gave me some rather distressing news. Using his eyes, he directed my attention to young man on the top of the hill overlooking the field. "Vaminos Pronto" (We Leave Now), he said to me.
"Por Que" (Why?), I asked him. He then began explaining to me that the man was a robber who was known in the Planalto for killing many people. I could see out of the corner of my eye that this man was watching us, and Alison Uno's information made me a little nervous. I gathered the group together and packed up our gear. As we started up the hill I noticed that the man was gone and I breathed a sigh of relief. This was short-lived when I saw him standing at the top of the hill ahead of us. He held a birdcage in his hand, and looked harmless enough as he smiled at us. Still, the information I had received was enough for me to clutch the aluminum bat in my hand tighter, and open the "Mike and Shelby Knife" that was in my pocket. He looked right at me, as I casually positioned myself between Alison Uno and Eric. We passed and I called to the other boys where were straggling behind to catch up. When we finally became one group again, we headed back to the church.
I grabbed a roller as soon as I got back. We had about an hour and a half left before it got dark, and I wanted to do some painting. I applied the primer to the walls in preparation for the final product the next day. Patty continued on the trim work, while Luciano finally made a decision about what color he wanted one section of the wall to be. At 5:00 Luciano and his Comvee full of workers headed home, while those of us that remained cleaned the hall.
Paul and Lori had been at the farmers market, which had been turned into a tract and Bible distribution center over the past few weeks. Paul took close-up shots of the fruit, while Neto, Chiquinho and Lori translated and distributed tracts. They arrived back at the Planalto at about 5:30 and we headed home. Paul reviewed his pictures, sharpening and focusing each one until they were exactly the way he wanted. I showered with the intention of getting the yellow paint splatter off of me, but my attempt was in vain. Soon we were all changed and ready to go to dinner at the all you can eat pizza place located down the street from our home.
The pizza was light with a crust that had the similar weight and texture of a piece of pita bread. Because of the light weight of the pizza, it was easy to just keep on eating it. I tried several varieties, while passing on others. We talked about the events of the day, with Paul relaying to us the events of the meeting with the Gazelle. He had talked her and Adelmo into getting cable internet for our house, seeing they would be moving in within the next month anyway. He and Lori also explained the thinking behind the pictures of the fruit, explaining that they wanted to blow up the photos, and use them as the designs for several cooperative projects. After eating some chocolate covered dessert pizzas, we headed home. I answered several work E-mails, while Paul and Patty began printing pictures for the co-op catalog, orphanage and of the fruit.
Paul joined me outside after an hour or so, and we talked for a bit as we each worked on our computers. Darting through the sky was a bat that swooped to pick some insects off the ground. I had never seen one fly so close, and with each pass it came closer. I directed Paul’s attention to the creature, in time for him to turn and see it fly by and miss his face by less than six inches. He made a rat tail out of the towel draping on a nearby chair and the next time the bat did a flyby, he swung at it, nearly missing it and causing the creature to retreat. Paul went to bed shortly thereafter, and I was soon to follow.
I had a brief online conversation with my dad before cleaning the patio area and heading to my balcony. There were no sounds of roosters, horses or soccer games. The night was quiet, and within minutes I had drifted off to sleep...
Damião Patching Up the Base of the Hall With Cement
Luciano and Neto Working on the Kitchen Area
Uncle Mark Working on His Cabinets
Alison Uno Using a Sander
Making the Outside Windows Both Secure and Stylish
Patty and Amy Working on Painting the Window Grates
Aunt Lori and I Waiting for Supper
Aunt Lori and Uncle Mark After Dinner
The Kids Pose on a Lion Statue at the Pizza Place
Fancy Running Into this Little Boy From the Orphanage Outside the Pizza Place
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