Life

Typical southern Brazilian lunch: beans, rice, chicken and okra, Guaraná, and homemade cheese bread

The Coffee Overlook: a bed and breakfast where we spent 4 days with our team resting, planning, and self-evaluating the past year.

Me with goodies from Bath and Body Works, earrings and pictures of Evan!  Many thanks to my sweet mother-in-law!

This is a sweet handicapped boy I met while volunteering with the foster care ministry, Criança Feliz, on Children's Day (a national holiday).  He wanted to show me the presents he received from his Samaritan's Purse box.  With a significant tremor, he held up a picture of Jesus.  And I quote, "He... he lives here [pointing to his heart in a very matter-of-fact manner]."

Mark bought a bug-zapping racket.  It's definitely his new toy and certainly a conversation piece in our apartment.  These rackets may not be available in the U.S. because they emit a 100V shock whenever they touch bugs and/or human flesh! The racket's package actually says Let's Kill Mosquito Together.  This is but one example of some excellent English translations available here!

Update!

Friends, so sorry for my recent lack in postings.  We're excited about looking into website options and having that available in the near future.  Since we began talking about websites I've fallen very behind blogging.

August:

-I began teaching English to 2 coworkers of our friend, Ana Luiza, once a week.
-We began a bible study on campus with freshmen studying various encounters of Jesus in the Gospels of John and Luke.
-Bought a car!

September:

-Justin and Jess came to visit for 10 days.  It was wonderful to spend time together introducing them to the culture, our friends, our church, and our life here.  Though the trip couldn't have been better, we find ourselves missing family and familiarity a little more now.  We wish we could come home for a just a weekend!  One highlight - of many - was getting to watch Alabama's first game of the season with J and J.  Roll Tide!

September/October:

-This month I'm teaching English 2 nights a week and will be going to campus to spend time with a couple girls I met this summer 2 -3 days a week as well as participate in the freshman bible study.  I'm getting closer to Pri and find her to be such an encouragement.  I'm baking more than ever since Brasilians love American desserts and we love having people in our home.  I feel like I'm finding my place on the team and in the community here more and more as time goes by but it still can be a struggle.  Mark and I are continuing to grow in learning to set boundaries too.  Mark's been getting us to plan our weeks on Sunday and to prioritize things that usually get overlooked like planning our sabbath, work out days, and date night.  We can already tell a difference in just 2 weeks of doing this.

I uploaded more pictures on Facebook from Justin and Jessica's trip!  

   
Almost famous! During J and J's trip, I was interviewed by a global news TV station in our state. Click here to see the clip!

Social Action Day!

We spent the morning with a ministry called, Criança Feliz (Happy Child).  The children of this ministry are either orphaned or have been removed from their families because of a temporary or long-term, home-life need.  Our church does many functions with this non-profit, faith-based foster care program.

We had soccer, nail painting, and pool time!  The children called every adult "Tia" or "Tio" (pronounced chi-ah and chi-oh)--meaning aunt and uncle.

Endings and Beginnings

The final investigative retreat of the summer with the Americans from the CCP (mid-July):

We discussed a different parable of Jesus during each discussion group time.  We had 6 groups and divided the students between their campuses.  This is Mark's group.

Gabriel (freshman, 1st CCP), Priscila (PT major), Barbara (freshman, 1st CCP), Lyndsey (from Arkansas), and Weslley (1st CCP)

P.E. students, and the staff and Americans on the P.E. team at the retreat

Last group shot with 5 sweet Americans that spent time with the Phys. Ed. students this summer... and of course Barbara (middle) and me!  

Saying goodbye:

Large turn-out at the airport to say goodbye to the gringos.  Circle time of prayer and last words...

Sweet girls singing a Brazilian song to Katie (right-back) before she left.

Jessica (freshman, 1st CCP) saying goodbye to Charity (right)

Couple we've gotten to know this summer, Leticia and Gabriel.  Thankfully this isn't a goodbye picture!

Spent a whole day at Weslley's house this week.  His mom cooked a delicious Brazilian feast.  We watched a movie, listened to music and looked at pictures of Weslley and his family.  Wonderful day.

Team time:

Priscila, Alan, Mark and me:  The P.E. Team! 

(We spend time with the P.E. majors at UFMG, large public university)

We are truly looking forward to growing with and learning from the Brazilians we met over the past couple months... we'll keep you updated!

The Fourth

My apologies for my recent lack in postings.  It's been more difficult recently to steal away to use Mark's computer for long periods of time.  We've been spending much of our time outside of class with Brazilian students and the Americans at social events and in our home.  Only one more week until the CCP ends and the Americans return to Memphis.  It will be hard to see them go since we've become especially close to the students on our team. (Our team's focus is in the P.E. dept. at UFMG.)

We celebrated the 4th of July at our apartment with the Americans on our team and a couple Brazilians.  We had burgers, mac 'n cheese, sweet tea, a cake decorated like a flag, and ice cream while we watched the ever popular and memorable The Patriot.  The night went well.  Mark and I weren't as homesick as we expected to be since we were able to enjoy a couple comforts from home.

Our rendition of the national anthem...

Making a Home

 Cleaning Tips and Tricks:

• In my humble opinion, newspaper cleans windows better than paper towels.  (And it's free!)  
• Gel alcohol works well for the stove top and kitchen sink.
• To reuse zip-lock baggies: wash them and rub the baggie upside down against the backsplash of your kitchen.  They will stick and dry out quickly.
• We've been washing dishes with coconut bar soap instead of liquid detergent.  It's really sudsy and natural.  For those of you that will come visit, you have to try it!  

Etiquette in Brasil:

• Greet people with a hug and kiss
• Hold any type of sandwich or hamburger with a napkin
• Offer food and/or gum to others
• Open a present in front of the giver the moment you receive it
• Thank you notes aren't necessary (actually nonexistent)
• And above all else, when you'd like to make a friend, bake cookies.  (Brasilians love them!)

Overdue Pictures of Our Apartment:

What a blessing!  Our very own home... We have 1 big, open room (living room, then dining room, then office), 2 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms.  The apartments and houses in the city have tile in the bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms, and marble or granite counter tops and hard wood floors.  These give the apartments so much character (and make the apts. easier to clean too!).  Looking forward to having American visitors one day!

May Pics!

Vivi (our pastor's wife), Marcela, and I made over 500 typical chocolate Brazilian candies (brigadeiro) for Rebekah's 3rd Birthday Party!  Prince Charming and Princess Fiona came to the party.  Marcela, Princess Fiona, another friend, and myself blew up each balloon you see in the background.  I learned a lot about decorating for children's birthday parties! 

Dinner with friends from church, our teammates and friends visiting from the States...

Some kind of political protest in Centro...

"While there is a man homeless, without bread, without education, all progress is false." -translation by Michelle (be generous, friends)  :)  


May has been a blessing.  We continue to take the same number of hours of Portuguese class 3 days a week and go to campus 2 days a week.  We feel like we're still acclimating to life in the city by taking the bus and learning our way around.  The last couple weeks have been especially encouraging for us because of the presence of the students from Memphis that arrived mid-May.  It's a gift translating when we can and relating to Brazilians with the Americans on campus and at events.  It's been busy but fun.