Back to Brasil - Day 6

Recife, Brazil looking towards Downtown

coming from Boa Viagem

Ok I guess I got so blog happy that I had to take a couple of weeks off; or maybe I just wanted for you all to think I was just in Brasil for five days when in reality I think it was 10. I guess we'll know at the end huh?

Today was the first day of the VBS. Apparently, this was the first VBS ever in Recife so I took this as a great advantage because no matter what we did it was going to be new and exciting to the kids. The overall theme was Cars - which I've never seen but we did some cool things like take pictures of the kids as race car drivers and have puppet shows that were race cars etc. The coolest thing for me was getting to hang out with some of the girls we had met the day before at the retreat. Since some of them don't go to the Boa Viagem Church we weren't sure they would be able to make it but sure enough they did.

Now granted they weren't there at 9 -even though Jana talked us into getting there at 8:30. Most of you know I negotiated for the latest time possible and 8:30 was negotiated down from 8:00; but believe me this was the last morning that the number 8 even appeared in the time we got there. I soon put into effect the Brazilian time concept. I think the first kid showed up about 9:15 or so and I think we started about 10:30 even though it was supposed to start at 9:00. I could get used to Brasilian laxadasical (i don't have a clue how to spell that) time!!!

The lesson today was Jonah and so the kids did crafts making big fish out of paper bags and then participated in various activities like fishing in a pond; which reminded me of Fall Festivals at school growing up. Each kid then got a gold fish to take home with them. There were about 20 kids there; which I thought was really great although I did not really have any expectations at all about how many would come.

I also enjoyed getting to know (picture on left in order) Lee, Ricardo, Gilmar, and Danny as well as Ana and Adriana (plenty of pictures of them to come), and the other Brasilians who helped us. It is so easy to befriend people here even with the language barrier. I know I've said that before, but I think the south and Texas are pretty friendly but they don't even match the warmth of the Brasilians.

After all the kids left we went to the School of Bible building where Adriana and her husband Eneias have a cafe and ate some really good Brasilian Strogonof. I say Brasilian because it is really good but not anything like what my mom used to fix. They also had spaghetti which I have really been surprised how much pasta and Italian like food they have here.

Then we headed to downtown Recife to do some sightseeing and shopping. We saw a lot of stuff in downtown including the Marco Zero, a sculpture by Francisco Brennand (a famous sculpurist that was born in Recife and chooses interesting objects to sculpt - I'll let you google him), the high school Jana went to, where Jana used to work when she was a singer and then on a scenic drive through busy streets that reminded me of riding in a taxi cab in NYC so that Daniel and Jana could show us the church that Daniel's parents started in Recife and where they got married. Then at the insistence of us women we went shopping at this place I believe the name is House of Culture (Casa da Cultura) which is an old prison that has been converted to a shopping mall. It was really cool. Each cell is now a store.

We then headed back to Boa Viagem for church and again I was amazed at the warmth of the Brasilians. Yancey, Jenn, and I also ventured out to the beach by our hotel tonight and I could have sat there all night watching the tide roll in with the crashing waves and the stars trying to peak out of the clouds. It was simply beautiful!!!

Marco Zero

The Boa Vista Church in Recefi where

Daniel and Jana got married

This is the baptistry which is

outside and beautiful

The inside of the House of Culture shopping

The outside of the House of Culture

Each window is a prison cell now

converted to a shop

The Lake

Today I can barely move!! Well at least not from the waist up. I think every muscle in my upper body is screaming at me - especially everytime I try to move an extreme amount like get up off the couch or lift something heavy or just stretch - but every bit of soreness was worth the amazing ultimate Lake Brownwood experience.

My friend Mindy invited us to her parents lakehouse and me and some others went and were treated like royalty. We had a blast - played games, had a picnic, had a cookout of hamburgers and hotdogs on an electric grill thanks to the fire band, and the best was riding the tube out on the lake.

The pictures tell all. I don't think I have had so much fun in a long time. I forget how much I love the lake. Just sitting in the front of the boat hopping over waves with the wind slamming into your face. Then of course there is the whole gripping of the tube handles and holding on for dear life while at the same time trying to pull yourself up higher on the tube. And then there is my friend Mindy who has so perfected the tube riding that when whoever was with her would start to falter she would just reach out and grab them and save them. Man it was so fun.

And Mindy's parents are the best. So nice. They had one goal for us to have fun. And even when things kept coming up for them they would have to go take care of or need to tend to they still had one goal through all of that - for us to have fun. Rest assured WE DID!!!

Mindy, Becca, and Me

Me and Becca (and yes I still wear the goggles!!)

Kimberly and Michelle

Day 5 Tuesday Retreat Time

Thankfully today thanks to the rain we did not wake up to a smoke filled city from the corn festival of the night before. It is so wierd that in the middle of a city with 4 million people that people just come outside of their house throw some wood together and build a big fire to roast corn on. Seems so simple maybe we should bring that back to West Texas. Today was a big day because we were going to a retreat with the church members at a camp about 45 minutes from where we were staying. Jana's good friend Adriana's dad pulled up in a big greyhound he drove for us and we loaded up the people and took off.

One thing I quickly learned that doesn't really bother me is Brasil time is different than American time. In the U.S. 9 o'clock means 9 o'clock or maybe 9:05 but in Brasil we soon found out that 9 o'clock could mean 9:30 or 10 o'clock or 10:30 or pretty much whatever time you want it to be. I love how laid back that is; although I will have to say most of the memebers of our group did not like the time thing. It just gave me an excuse to sleep in once I figured out that is how things operate here!!!!

So we headed off for the retreat. We had a full day planned for the kids complete with games, face painting, relays and just hanging out and getting to know the kids. The women kind of took charge of the kids while Yancey went upstairs with the adults and had a couple of lessons. Our day with the kids was such a blast. Some of my favorite things was the water balloon volleyball, the relays with the older boys and girls, and the pinata (yes just like in the U.S. they rush like mad people after the candy -however they share here). I also got my first stab at face painting. They should let someone else do it believe me this was defanately Jenn and Lee's area of expertise not mine but I tried. You will see my attempt at a red and black soccer ball; luckily this kid is Jana's nephew and he is young and didn't seem to notice.

Some of the members cooked up fiesta soup similiar to tortilla soup and it was so good. Maybe I can get some recipes and post one day. After lunch we went right outside of the fence to take some gifts to the neighborhood kids. It is a long story here but their parents would not let them come join the fun. There are some bad relations there but these kids have tender hearts and hopefully soon those relationships will be restored.

Two of the people (I have spoken about on previous posts) Danny and Lee plan on starting an orphanage here at this camp. It has great facilities to do that and I hope their dream comes true soon because their is indeed a great need.

Probably the thing I enjoyed most was getting to know some of the young women like Pricilia, Natlia, Natalie, Bettina, Hannah, Gabrielle (and so many more but I will quit butchering their Portugueese names with my awful English). They are so sweet and I look forward to spending more time with them the rest of the week. They are so fun and have such caring hearts.

We headed back grabbed some dinner and then went to decorate for the VBS we were going to help with the rest of the week. They assign me (the asthmatic) and Jenn ( no lung capacity) the task of blowing up to whales. Well let me tell you it took us probably 20 minutes but they will have whales (aka great fish) to walk under the next day at VBS.

Our great big fish!!!

Day 4 Monday - The Beach!!!!

Well the hard bed kicked in last night and sleep did not come that well but that was not going to hide the excitement of our free day where we were journeying to the beach. Now I'm not sure what the philosophy was in planning the free day at the very beginning but the weather was beautiful and we had been told since it is there winter and rainy season that it would probably be cool (that is 85 to 90 degrees to them) and rainy everyday. Well the temperature has run true but so far not the rain.

So we headed off for Porto de Galinhas which is a famous Brasilian beach that when the tide goes out pools of fish are formed that you can go swim in and swim with the fish. Why this is such a big deal in North Eastern Brasil is because of the shark situation. Recife means reefs and these beaches are beautiful because of the reefs but unfortunately somehow in the recent years the sharks have been able to get up to the beach area and have attacked many unsuspecting victims. Just this past week a small girl was attacked by a shark in mid calve deep water. There are signs up that crack me up because they say something about DANGER there are more sharks than average. Well since to me average should be zero I laugh at these signs. Needless to say I am perfectly content with swimming with unaggresive fish in a pool where I can ensure there are no sharks before I get in. The beach was beautiful and we took these flat boats out to the pools and swim. We tried to use the water proof camera but I'm not sure it turned out as swell as we hoped. We haven't gotten the pictures from the other water proof camera developed yet so maybe they are better. We had a blast just being at the beach, walking down the sand, seeing the locals selling their things, and just relaxing. It was like we were on vacation!!!

After we had our fill we headed back to Recife. The drive there and back reminded me of Hawaii with all the sugar cane fields and the rolling hills that dot the landscape before they fall off into the ocean. When we got back we ate at Daniel's favorite restaraunt Costa Bravo after a quick trip to the mall where we just could not resist the tempation to go into Wal-Mart. It was tonight that we got our first taste of a downpoor in Brasil. This downpour filled the city with smoke because tomorrow is a corn holiday which is huge here. In fact everyone gets off work and the night before they build these big bonfires in the road throughout the city to roast the corn. Needless to say I don't think they got much roasting done tonight but the smoke and the asthma are not going well together at all.

Today on the drive to the beach we got to spend some time getting to know Danny - the owner and driver of the van mobile. He has moved here and met a Brasilian woman Lea who we have also gotten to know. This sounds very familiar to the Daniel and Jana story. Maybe I should move here and meet a man!!! Danny has made our trip so enjoyable filling us in on history, culture and all while speaking our language!!!

Here are some pictures of our beach fun:

Feeding the Fish as we swim with them

Jana, Me, and Jenn on the beach

On the boat getting ready to head out to the pools This pool supposedly is shaped like Brasil

you be the judge I think it resembles
The whole gang at the pools

The picture you have all been waiting for:

Me being silly; I don't really know the significance of this chicken just know we all had to take turns taken our picture with it. Everybody was so serious and cute I had to excite this group!!!

How can anyone resist Baby Jack's cuteness? I wander if we get good deals and attention from the locals because of his cuteness.