Some Pics of Week Three And Our Festa Junina

We are at the end of our third week here in Brazil and I can hardly believe that our project is half over. It has been so great getting to know my readers and becoming friends with them. Every reading session that I have I am humbled by what God is doing. Some of my readers are really beginning to open up to me and be honest about their beliefs, doubts and fears. I am amazed at how quickly friendships are grown in a situation such as this.

This is my reader Camila. She is 14 years old and she can speak wonderful English. She has been coming and reading 3 times per week. Each week she has brought me a different kind of cake. This was brigadeiro....yummy! She is planning on going to the bilingual camp that the church will be holding next week.

Silvana and I read together while I lived in Itu. She not only participated in LST conversation classes but also in an English Bible study that I lead at a local English school. She and I have been reviewing the Luke workbook so that we can continue on where she left off 2 years ago.

Katie and her reader Daniele.

This is Lucas times 2.

This is my reader Ana. She studies with Camila. She is also going to the bilingual camp next week.

Here is Katie with her reader Ana. Ana's mother, Magda, reads with me and her brother, Matteus, reads with Lucas. I've had the pleasure of visiting with Ana quite a bit and she is an absolute doll!

This week was my turn to plan the party. This weeks party was a Brazilian style party. In June and sometimes into July Brazilians like to have what they call, Festa Junina, which means Little June Party. The long and the short of it is that everyone dresses up like Brazilian hillbillies, eat a lot of traditional food and deserts and play some typical carnival type games like ring tosses and fishing ponds. It is also traditional to have a big bon-fire but as we were having our party in the church building we couldn't easily have one of those. A big thank you needs to go out to my favorite little brother, Victor. He helped so much with this weeks party, buying food and helping me find all of the supplies. Thank you Victor!!!!

Lucas, trying his hand at the fishing pond.

Katie and Fernando fishing away.

Resting after some tiring Festa Junina dancing.

Lucas's readers, Patricia and Luis came dressed up like Caipiras. This is the typical dress for the Festa Juninas.

An Elementary School Visit

A few weeks ago we were invited by one of the church members to come and visit the elementary school where he works and visit with his students. Coleguinha, who now goes by his real name, Rafael, is the one who invited us. This week we were able to go. Coleguinha's class had prepared some questions for the three of us and so we had fun answering their questions and asking them questions.

Coleguinha with his class.

Katie and Lucas answering questions.

Two or three classes were brought together and we were able to go outside and they taught us some Brazilian games that kids like to play. One was a cat and mouse kind of game which everyone really seemed to enjoy. We ended our time outside with something Katie and Lucas have been waiting for since we arrived, soccer.

A group shot of us with Coleguinha and his students.

A Couple Days Off

Every week our team gets two days off to relax and spend time with our readers outside of formal reading sessions. This last week Victor took us to see a soccer game in São Paulo. São Paulo won 2-0 against Vasco.

A post-game photo.

Lucas's reader, Adriana, invited us to have lunch at her house on our other day off. Adriana was my reader for two years while I lived in Itu. This was not my first time meeting her family but it was my first time being at her house. Her mother prepared a wonderful Brazilian meal. I'm getting hungry just remembering it!

Everyone getting ready to dig in.

Adriana's niece , Bhianca, showing me photos of here as a baby.

After lunch we piled in Adriana's car and she took us to see Parque do Varvito. This park used to be a rock quarry where they mined Varvito which is a rock that was formed from the sediment of glacial lakes. If you're interested in geology, visit this site to read more about Varvito in English. I like the park very much, it is a great place to go for a relaxing walk. It was so great to get to hang out with Adriana and her family all day. Brazilians are such hospitable people and love to open up their homes to visitors and they'll bend over backwards to do anything they can to help you.

Katie with a tree in Varvito Park.

Adriana, two of her English students, Lucas and Katie at Varvito Park.

My team in front of some of the Varvito stone.

Week Two

It is so hard for me to believe that we have already completed two weeks here in Brazil. The time is going by so quickly. We all have full reading schedules. We start our days with a devotional and team meeting time at 10 am. Two of us take the 11 o'clock hour to go grocery shopping and prepare lunch. The third one of us spends that time in a reading session. Our afternoons tend to be long. We read from 1pm until 8pm. Each reading session is supposed to last 45 minutes so that we can have 15 minutes between sessions to make notes on our previous session and use the bathroom or get a drink of water and pray for our next reader. I often find it difficult to end my sessions after only 45 minutes. I often find myself having such great conversations that I don't want our time to be up. I know that Lucas and Katie are running into the same problem. I think it is a good problem to have.

Here is Lucas having a reading session with Jandira. Jandira is a member of the church here. Because there has been such great interest in the conversation classes we have had to stop reading with church members and give priority to non-church members.

This is me and my reader Magda. Magda is a sweet heart! Her English level is pretty good and we have had such wonderful conversations. Her daughter Ana is reading with Katie and her son Matteus is reading with Lucas.

June 16th was Lucas's 20th birthday. Ivan, who works in the church office, celebrated his 25th birthday on the 15th. So, on Friday night we had a joint surprise party for the two of them. There was lots of food and lots of people. I hope that it was a memorable birthday for Lucas.

This is Lucas and Ivan cutting their very yummy birthday cake.

Saturday evening we had our second party. Lucas planned this party. It had a pirate theme. I honestly think that it was the best LST party I have ever been a part of!

Here is the 3 of us, pre-party and ready to go. Do you see the parrot on my shoulder?? :)


Lucas and his sweet crayola tat.

These brothers, Marcos Paulo and Artur won the trophy for best costumes...the trophy was actually a curling trophy, go figure.

Here is Lucas cooking us some chicken in the back area of the church building. This old gas stove makes for an interesting cooking experience.

It has been a busy week which I am thankful for. God is blessing us in so many ways! Every day I am thankful to be here. This place is where my heart lives when I am not here. I have missed it. Please keep us, our readers and the congregation here in your prayers.

A Special Presentation

Back in January when my adopted Brazilian Brother, Victor, was in Canada he came to one of our first LST training sessions. This was before Lucas had started coming and Katie was not there that night. That night we were talking about the whole process of fundraising. Victor, with the great big heart that he has, came up with the idea that the church in Itu should help with our fundraising efforts. Andrea explained to Victor that the host congregations help by providing housing, advertising and a location for the reading sessions to take place. Victor was adamant that the congregation in Itu should get involved. His idea was to get everyone from the church here in Itu to start saving their loose change. Andrea told him that if he spoke to the elders here and that they were in agreement than whatever was raised could go toward our weekly parties so that maybe we could have some food and drinks at them and things like that. When Victor went home he got right on his fundraising plan. The elders were in favor and soon the church was saving all of their loose change in little tin cans. When we arrived two weeks ago we were blown away to learn that the congregations had saved almost 800 Reais in coins to help with the weekly parties.

Victor took this picture of all of the money that was contributed for our LST parties. His mom bought these little piggy banks for him to save his money in. :)

Even more impressive than the amount of money that was raised was the story of a young brother and sister, Izaías Jr. and Ana Luísa Gomes, and the initiative that they took in helping out. These two precious children decided that they would make homemade popsicles and sell them to the kids living on their street. They gave all of the money that they made from their popsicle sales to help with our parties. When Antenor, the preacher here, told me their story I was practically in tears. It has been so wonderful how the congregation here in Itu has gotten involved in the work that we are doing and it was so encouraging and moving to see the great big hearts of these two young children. This is just one of many ways that God has been providing for us and taking care of us. Antenor and our team wamted to honour Izaías and Ana Luísa in some way, we wanted to acknowledge their hard work and big hearts in front of the whole congregation. We made some certificates and I presented them to them on Sunday morning during the worship service.

Ana Luísa, Izaías Jr., Antenor, and myself. Antenor is telling the story of how they sold popsicles to the congregation.

Here I am presenting them with their special certificates of honour.

Brazil - Week One in a Rather Large Nutshell

So Katie, Lucas and I left Regina on June 1st. We flew from Regina to Toronto and had about 4 hours to waste until our flight left for São Paulo. As we were wandering around Terminal 1 of the Toronto airport who should I see munching on some peanuts but Len Sass. Len is a member of the Glen Elm Church of Christ and he was on his way back to Regina from Salvador, Brazil. He had been there for a month visiting his son Travis, daughter in law Alicia and their baby girl Ceara. As I'm thinking what a small world it is to run into Len in such a huge airport who should come walking up but Kevin Vance, the president of Western Christian College. Let the Regina CofC reunion begin at YYZ! So funny!

As we made our way to our departure gate I felt like I had already arrived in Brazil. We were definitely in the minority on that flight. Arriving in Brazil it was even more obvious. The line at immigration for foreigners included us and about three other people while everyone else on the flight was in the line for Brazilian citizens. My adopted Brazilian father, João, picked us up at the airport. The first thing I saw when I walked out of the security zone was him waving his arm in the air to get our attention. What a long awaited sight! It is about an one hour drive from the airport in São Paulo to Itu if traffic is good. It was fun to watch Katie and Lucas taking in the sights and sounds of São Paulo and the lush greenery that is the countryside of Brazil.

Lucas and Katie on 10 hour flight from Toronto to São Paulo.

During that entire first day here I kept feeling like it was all a dream and that at any moment I was going to wake up in my bed back in Regina. I am so thankful that it isn't a dream and that I really am back in Itu. Seeing my Brazilian family was something that my heart has been longing for since the day that I left almost a year ago.

The church building where we are holding our reading sessions. This building is for sale and they are constructing a new building close to the shopping mall.

I was so excited to worship with the congregation here Sunday morning. I have missed them all so much. Sunday evening we held our information meeting. About half of the people who had signed up for classes showed up at the information meeting. Each of us signed up an average of 10 readers. As the week progressed we signed up more and had a few drop out when they realized that these conversation classes are really designed for people who have some previous knowledge of English and have the capability to understand and be understood. Right now I have 14 people signed up for reading sessions with me. We can have a maximum of 15. Ivan, the church secretary has told me that the phone is ringing constantly with people calling, wanting to sign up for conversation classes. We have a waiting list and are contacting new readers as space in our schedules open up. Something that is extremely exciting for me is that there is a handful of people that used to read with Salena and a handful of people that used to read with me who have come back and are reading with either myself, Lucas or Katie. It is so great to see them again and see how God has been working on their hearts and to know that more seeds are being planted.

Thursday was a holiday here in Brazil. Corpus Cristi. It is a tradition that each year they shut down some of the streets and make "carpets" out of wood shavings, eggshells and coffee grounds. In the morning we went down town with some of our readers to see the traditional carpets. This is the 4th time I have experienced Corpus Cristi here. It was fun to watch Katie and Lucas experience it for the first time.

Making the carpets or "tapetes" in downtown Itu.

Last year I met a wonderful Brazilian girl in Regina. Her name is Leticia. She was in Canada for a short time but while she was there we did FriendSpeak together. She lives in São Paulo and I had been hoping that I would get a chance to visit her there while I was in Brazil this summer. I hadn't been checking my orkut (Brazilian version of myspace or facebook) very often and so she did some detective work and got my contact information here in Itu. On Wednesday she called the church office while I was here and asked if she could come to Itu to see me on Thursday because it was a holiday. I was so excited. So Thursday afternoon she and her boyfriend Mauricio came to Itu. A bunch of us then went to "Chocolate da Fazenda" or the "Chocolate Farm" to spend the afternoon. Chocolate da Fazenda is one of my favorite places to go to relax in Itu. It really stirred something inside of me that Leticia went to so much effort to get into contact with me and then came all this way to spend the afternoon with me. She is a good friend and I hope that I will be able to see her again before I leave.

Leticia and Mauricio at Chocolate da Fazenda.

Friday and Saturday we were back to work with our reading sessions. Saturday evening we held our first LST party. Each week of our project we will hold a small party. The goal of these parties is to offer more opportunity for English practice and even more importantly try to help build relationships between local church members and our readers so that there can be continued contact after my team and leave. Our first party was an ice cream sundae party. We had fewer people come than I had hoped for but we still had a pretty good turn out. There were 11 readers and 19 church members present. The party went pretty well and we had tons of left over ice cream and toppings.

This is my reader André and his son, my reader Eduardo, and Lucas's reader Mateus, all getting their sundaes ready.

Readers and church members visiting while eating yummy hot-fudge sundaes.

Trying to find ice-cream related words in English and Portuguese.

More people working on the word search.

After the party we went to Vitinho's cousin, Michelle's birthday party. Michelle lives with Vitinho's family here in Itu. She and I were roommates last summer and once again this summer. She is a very sweet girl! Her family lives about an hour away. It was good getting to see them again!

Michelle blowing out the candles. Zezé, Michelle's mom (They definitely look like sisters!) and half of her brother Rafa.

It has been a great first week. God is blessing us in so many ways here in Itu. Please keep praying for Lucas, Katie and I and for our readers and the congregation here in Itu.

Beautiful Cadence

I arrived home from Abilene on Sunday May 27th which left me with 4 days before leaving for Brazil on Friday June 1st. I spent those few days madly packing my life into boxes so that I could move everything to Saskatoon to store at my dad's place. On Thursday I took a little road trip to Saskatoon with my life packed into the trunk and the back seat of Joyce's car. I arrived in Saskatoon at around noon and went and had lunch with my mom. We had a really nice visit. I also had a good visit with my dad while I unloaded my stuff at his place. On my way back through Saskatoon I stopped at Lisa and Paul's. Cadence and I got to hang out while Lisa was teaching a piano lesson. Then all three of us got to visit for a while. It was so good visiting with Lisa and Paul and of course playing with my beautiful little niece. I can't believe how quickly she is growing! While I was there Lisa told me that she loves when I put pictures of Cadence on my blog. I told her that Cadence is the most interesting thing that I have to blog about. I may do a lot of things and go a lot of places but Cadence will always be my favorite blogging topic!!!!

She wasn't so sure about me when I first got there. She didn't cry or anything but she also wasn't giving out any big smiles.

She pushed her foot up against mine and I snapped a comparison shot.

This girl likes her thumb!

Now the smiles are out! I can't believe she is so big!

This is not only a great smiling pic but it shows a good view of her two bottom teeth.

The happy family...although Cadence doesn't look all that happy.

Catching up on what I should have written while in Abilene

Life has been slightly busy over the past few weeks and so today and tomorrow during my "days off" I am going to try and get caught up so that I can write about what I'm doing now...I know you all want to know how things are going in Brazil. So let's take a step back in time to while I was still in Abilene...

Tuesday evening after class Mike Coghlin picked me up and took me over to his and Trina's place. Trina and I graduated from WCC together in 1999. Mike came for college 1 or 2 years later... I can't remember exactly. On Wednesday May 16th, Trina gave birth to Rebecca Grace Coghlin via c-section. I was pretty excited to be the first of their Canadian friends to get to meet miss Rebecca. It was so nice to visit with Mike and Trina. Their two year old, Jesse, has grown so much since I saw him last in Regina. Children really are amazing. Mike and Trina were busy getting ready to start their journey back to Canada the next morning. They will be spending the summer with family in Canada. They are either really brave or just downright crazy to attempt a trip like that with a two year old and an infant one week after a c-section.

Me holding Rebecca.

Jesse looking completely adorable!

I think it was on Thursday that I had lunch with an old friend of mine, Shelley Doremus. At the time that I met her she was Shelley Prather. It is kind of a long story to tell but Shelley and I met through a mutual friend back in 1999. She was going to school at Oklahoma Christian University and I was attending the World Mission Workshop there. We spent the weekend getting to know each other a bit but it was once I came home that our friendship really started to flourish. Shelley and I became what you might call email pen pals. Since that first meeting in 1999 Shelley and I have spent a lot of time visiting and sharing stories but all through email. It was only last month when I came to Abilene that we were able to see each other again. The day we had lunch Abilene experienced a torrential downpour and so we both look a little like drowned rats in this picture but we had to record the occasion!

Pamela and Shelley looking a little water-logged

My trip home was somewhat of an adventure. It began with simply trying to find the airport in Abilene. My new buddy Andrew offered to give me a ride to the airport. I was very grateful but never really stopped to think about the fact that neither one of us are from Abilene and so have no idea how to get to the airport. Thanks to a visit to Google maps we only got a little bit lost before eventually making our way to the airport. My adventure continued when I got to Dallas and discovered that my flight to Memphis was delayed. They had already started rerouting people with connecting flights by the time I made it to my gate. With no options to be able to get me home that night the airline put me up in a hotel and I flew home the following morning. My luggage then met me a few days later...oh the joys of air travel!

I really enjoyed my time in Abilene. I met a lot of new people and got to visit a lot of old friends. I thoroughly enjoyed my class and learned a lot of useful things for my future cross-cultural experiences. The trip was long but totally worth while!