Let the Cross Cultural Experience Begin!

21 college students from Memphis arrived a couple days ago.  Their summer in Brazil is called the CCP (Cross Cultural Project).  The students' priorities throughout their time in Brazil are to experience Brazilian culture, seek to better understand the common world views among the students here, facilitate weekly discussion groups, and love people. 

The Americans help our team tremendously with our ministry to college students by developing relationships with Brazilians.  Everyone wants to get to know the Americans!  Mark and I are helping to translate a little when we're not in class.  It's definitely been a needed confidence booster for us to be able to help people that are a couple steps behind us!  Tonight will be our first discussion group.  The theme for the summer is "What moves you?" 
     
I met a freshman on campus a couple days ago, 30 seconds after meeting me she asked if she could have the t-shirt I was wearing.  The verdict is still out on whether or not this is a normal response after being introduced to an American... we think no.  However, I did manage to trade my old highschool t-shirt for a Brazil jersey.  I'm convinced I got the better end of the deal because now I have something to wear during the World Cup! 

CCP from Memphis

No Feet, Please

A Week in Summary

Sunday:  Belo Horizonte has two local soccer teams, Cruzeiro and Galo.  The tension between the teams is similar to Auburn vs. Alabama, but a bit more extreme.  I went to my first game (Galo played) at the largest stadium in our state--conveniently located in BH.  I've never experienced so much energy with 60,000 excited fans in all my life!  It was definitely memorable.

Monday:  We each gave 10 minute long presentations entirely in Portuguese.  We scored 84 and 88 percent on correctly conjugating our verbs during the presentation!  As you might guess, Mark argued why Brazilian men need American football--how football exemplifies masculinity.  Naturally Mark showcased his wit while still defending his thesis.  I spoke about the importance of nursing in the lives of women.

Thursday:  We celebrated my birthday at our apartment.  I had my first Brazilian cake!  I highly recommend it--strawberries, chocolate, whipped cream, very moist and light.  And we taught Brazilians our favorite card game, Peanuts.  It's called "amendoins" (ah-meyn-do-ings) in Portuguese.

Friday:  Lastly, we had, yet again, another interesting language blunder.  Mark went to the butcher shop to get chicken breasts for me.  When Mark asked for one [kilo of] chicken, the butcher weighed a bag of chicken, explained it was one kilo, and so Mark gave the thumbs up gesture ("It's a deal!").  To Mark's dismay, the butcher then began to take the ENTIRE chicken out of the bag he weighed and began cutting the chicken's toe nails.  The chicken only lacked feathers and a head!  Mark, thinking on his feet, -pun intended- quickly informed the butcher he didn't want the feet.  (At the time it was the only body part he could remember.)  And so Mark came home with Chicken (capital "c").  I can handle a lot of things, but a whole, raw, dead animal is not one of them.  This is a video of Mark graciously dealing with the chicken for me!

Disclaimer: This video is a little boring and for whatever reason I sound distraught.  I really thought this was a funny situation; don't know why my voice doesn't show it!  Watch at your own risk :)

End of April Pics

The picture doesn't do this sundae justice - it was huge!  Very rare to find a dessert so large in Brazil.  Don't worry, the Americans rose to the challenge and cleaned their plates.  We celebrated Anselmo's wife's 11th year anniversary of the day she moved to Brazil.  

I went to a breakfast picnic with girls and students from our church on campus.  I made sugar cookies with chocolate icing.  For some reason, my dessert looked (to Brazilians) like a biscuit type thing with ham.  I kept telling the girls that the cookies were sweet.  I'm sure they thought "Ham... sweet?" until they tried it!  Cookies are special because they're uncommon.  I think my baking confidence increased exponentially that day!   

A little craft during the picnic.  Each flower had a different virtue - specific for women.  I unknowingly picked the shortest, easiest word to say!  I laughed to myself because usually this never happens.  "Faith" is pronounced "Fey."

Portuguese class again... Sam, me, Claudia, and Mark.  Claudia is making us each give a 10 minute long presentation next week!

Why is this big tank of some kind strapped to an ambulance stretcher?  

New Apartment!

We can hardly believe we're now living in our very own apartment!  It's on the 4th (top) floor of a small building with only 7 other apartments.  It's within walking distance to the church, 3 other families on our team, the office, grocery stores, and a bakery.  We spent the night for the first time last Friday and the boxes we shipped from the U.S. arrived the following day (much earlier than we expected)!  I would compare opening the boxes to Christmas morning.

We went to an apartment meeting last week - entirely in Portuguese.  Our neighbors spent close to 45 minutes explaining that recyclable items go in a special bin in the garage.  We have some interesting, not-so-brazilian names in our building too.  One of our neighbors is Gladstone and another Jackie.  Ironically Gladstone is the person and Jackie is the dog.  When I commented that "Jackie" is an American name, his owner said "Oh yes, Jackie Bauer... from 24!"  Mark and I loved to watch 24 before we moved here.  We feel much safer knowing that Jack Bauer lives next door.  

These are the "before" pictures of our apartment.  We've cleaned and organized for the past 4 days.  It looks so much better now.  We plan to have "after" pictures and/or video footage to share soon!

1. Mark humored me by carrying me over the threshold

2. View from the front door of the living room and office

3. Kitchen

4. Putting together our TV stand

5. Hanging laundry to dry 

Easter Weekend

We went to a beautiful retreat center, Dom Bosco, in a small town outside the city for Easter weekend.  Frank and Barbara Barker, Pastor Emeritus at Briarwood, visited this past weekend to teach during the retreat.  Our church has 50 members but 90 came!  The Barkers told story after story of God's faithfulness to their family and church over the past 45 years.  Mark and I were able to spend a good amount of time with them during meals.  It was an encouraging time for everyone.

Claudia translating

The retreat center, Dom Bosco

Quaint room!  The musty and scratchy blankets were a slight inconvenience for Mark's allergies and my stomach.  Mark woke up with bad allergies and I with little bug bites on my stomach.

Dr. Barker and our Pastor, Raul

Yum. Rice and beans

I made a popular Brazilian dessert (really easy and only 3 ingredients) a couple days before Easter weekend - Passion Fruit Mousse (Musse do Maracujá).  I learned about the passion fruit flower from our Portuguese teacher, Claudia.  I had no idea the flower was named after the passion of Jesus.  In the 1500s, Spanish missionaries used the flower to teach indiginous people in Latin America about the passion and crucifixion.  There is a lot of symbolism!  If you get a chance, look into it.  It's fascinating.

This is the passion fruit I used.  It's so good!  They even have passion fruit milkshakes at the mall.

Passion Fruit Flower

Click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passion_flower

Day by Day

We've made progress getting settled this past week.  We received our Brazilian CPF number (their version of a social security card) and we made an offer on an apartment!  I turned in our documentation (a novel's worth) to the apartment rental agency today while Mark went to campus at UFMG (large public university) to meet students.  We should hear something by early next week - whether or not we've been approved.  The thought of having our first real home is very exciting to say the least.  If all goes as it should, we could potentially get the keys by the end of next week!

City-life...

Another view from our temporary apartment

The sky was so beautiful, I couldn't resist.

The hill we climb each morning on our way to Portuguese class

You can't tell from the picture, but it is very steep and LONG!  Even though walking in this city isn't without challenges, we love it.  One day last week, we walked for well over 4 hours downtown!

"Oi" phone booth, "E" parking sign, "Pare" stop sign, "Ipatinga" street sign, and "lata de lixo" trash can

This is a typical street corner.  Random observation: most people use plastic grocery bags as trash bags (I think so their trash actually fits in the tiny basket)!

I had a little incident with the pressure cooker a couple nights ago.

Don't worry, the bean juice came off of the ceiling easier than expected.  I tried to make Brazilian rice and beans for the first time with a pressure cooker and didn't secure an important valve that releases steam/pressure.  No one was injured.  I'll let you know what happens the next go-round... hopefully, success.

Padaria...

I've been having weekly breakfasts with the girls at a bakery close-by, Pão e Companhia. It's becoming a Monday morning tradition. I think it's the Belo Horizonte version of Panera... I thought I'd use these pictures as an opportunity to introduce you to some of the girls on our team.  There are 7 couples (including us) and 5 singles on staff in Brazil.

Vivi, Fabiana, Marcela, Diana, Grace, and Monicke

Vivi is Raul's wife (our pastor) - they have a toddler named Daniel. Fabiana is on campus staff at PUC. Marcela and her husband, Sam, work with the church; they've done anything and everything to help us establish our lives here. Diana organizes and overseas the ministries at church. Grace Bailey is Kent's daughter (the International Director for Campus Outreach). And Monicke is a nurse and goes to our church.

Claudia and Michelle 

Claudia is our Portuguese teacher.  She teaches English full-time, and Portuguese to Mark, Sam, and myself Mon.-Thurs. each week.  She and her husband are heavily involved with the ministry and church.  Michelle and her husband, Anselmo, are on campus at PUC - pronounced "pu-kie" - a private university in BH.  Michelle is from GA and is a twin too!  She's been in Brazil for over 10 years.

Jo and Margaret

Jo is Kent's wife and Margaret is their other daughter.  The Baileys will move back to Birmingham at the end of April.  They've been in Brazil since the very beginning (1998, I think).  It will be hard to see them leave.  It's been great for us to get to know them.

"Marknmichelle"

Since we've arrived, Sam and Marcela have helped us tremendously. We currently live two blocks from each other-- it's very convenient. Marcela was our Portuguese teacher when we took classes in Birmingham; they moved here at the end of October of last year. They have a 2 1/2 year-old little girl named Rebekah, pronounced "Hebekah." Well... before Sam and Marcela picked us up from the airport (when we arrived), Sam taught Rebekah to chant "Mark and Michelle." It's really cute. She gets excited to chant it and jumps up and down... Funny how certain things stick, especially in this case because for the past two weeks Rebekah continues to think my name is "Marknmichelle" and that Mark's is "Marknmichelle" too. Today was a turning point, she said only "Michelle" for the first time. We'll see if anything changes!  

Today Sam helped Mark and I ride the bus downtown to get more documentation. At the post office, we picked a number... waited a couple minutes for them to call us... had our passports and papers ready... excited about checking another item off our list of things to do... We get to the counter and find out we must pay for this particular document with cash, and realize none of us have what would total 110 reais (pronounced "hey-ice"). So, we walk a couple blocks, end up going to two different banks, pay a pretty hefty international ATM fee to withdraw cash, and I get stuck in the metal detector inside a revolving door at one of the banks. The security guard tried to give me instructions, and I just stood there, clearly confused (it was an embarrassing moment for me to say the least). As we return to the post office and try to pay the teller 110 reais, we find out it only costs R$5.50 per person, R$11 total! I'm sure she must have thought it was ridiculous when we left her the first time to withdraw R$11 from the bank!

"Hebekah" (my new bilingual friend) feeding the "passarinho" (little bird)

Michelle Repolles, her son, Dawson, and me at their apartment.   Mark and I looked at an apt. above theirs...the search for our own place continues!

 

Typical evening routine, Mark studying Portuguese and doing his "para casa" (homework)

The first meal I cooked in Brasil!  Pasta, chicken, a brasilian version of spaghetti sauce, and "batata" (potato) sticks on top. I kind of tried to add a little brasilian flair to the dish with the potato sticks - Mark liked it!