Every Day´s Been an Adventure

I have the feeling I may end up saying nothing in what I write today, because I have to much to say, and so little time. Here goes . . .

We´ve started our training. It´s been pretty intense: 9am-5pm every day since Tuesday, and we´ve had lectures and workshops all about the neurological bases of learning. All in Portuguese. Put that together with lack of sleep, looking for a new place to live, learning how to take the bus and you´ll understand that we´re pretty exhausted. I´m totally impressed by the school atmosphere, though. It´s so much more than I was expecting. The other teachers are so positive, it´s an environment I´m looking forward to working. It looks like I´ll be teaching grade 2 this year, as an assistant teacher, and Jess will be doing grade 3 half the day, and other repsonsibilities the second half of the day.

Yesterday we hit our low. Being immersed in technical Portuguese had tired us out, and then we were supposed to have prepared a two-minute presentation on some aspect of the lectures to be evaluated by the other teachers on our presentation skills. Well, it´s one thing to be able to understand when the lectures go by. It´s another thing to retain the information to be able to speak it back. We had no access to materials to do research (we get home too late every night to be able to go out to use the internet). So we had nothing ready to say. And we felt sick all day. It´s incredible how quickly you revert to childish ways when you become a student again. We were DREADING the presentation all day long, and on our walk back after lunch Jess started making jokes about finding a fire alarm to pull. As three o´clock drew near, we seriously considered getting up and leaving (because technically our attendance is mandatory). I have to give Jess the credit for being the strong one to keep us from leaving. Anyhow, we did what we had to do. We just said we didn´t have a presentation and observed the others in our small groups. And thankfully, in my group I wasn´t the only one, and on top of that, everyone was really understanding. It was such a relief.

Anyways, after all the accumulated stress, we went home and did all things Canadian: ate maple fudge, made banana pancakes for supper, made ourselves mugs of raspberry tea from home, and crawled into bed early and watched part of Pride and Prejudice. It was a good end to the day :)

Today we´ve been invited over to one of the other teacher´s houses for dinner. She´s Canadian but she´s married to a Brazilian and has been here for 7 years. She´s a fantastic person, and we´re planning on bombarding her with all kinds of questions about how to access the things we need here in Sao Jose. Should be lots of fun.

Well, I´ve got tons to say, and only 1 minute and 30 seconds left. If you wrote me an email and I haven´t repsonded, it´s because I can´t get into hotmail for some reason. It´s driving me curiously crazy because I can see I have 6 messages and can´t read any of them. So I´ll write back when I read them. Bye for now!

Pictures from Our Place

Here´s what home looks like for us for the next little while. The house we´re in is an apartment above a bakery/corner store. We live with a lady and her two young sons (age 7 and 9), and I think her sister lives there too, but I´m not certain about that. She´s really nice, and the kids are cute and fun to talk to. The house is in a busy neighbourhood, and every time I look out onto the balcony all I can think of is, this is classic Brasil. There are bare-footed kids playing soccer in the street and flying kites that have the strings wrapped around old cans (and they don´t seem to worry about the fact that there are telephone wires everywhere). People sitting on the curb chatting. Bikes, buses, cars, busyness everywhere. As you walk up the street you can get access to pretty much everything you might need in day-to-day life - butcher, baker, candlestick maker :)

I kind of knew when we arrived that it wasn´t going to be the best location to go to bed early. The noise from the street at night is loud enough that it´s impossible to sleep without earplugs, although things seem to settle down before midnight. There wasn´t a working light bulb in our room when we first arrived, so once the sun went down we didn´t have a whole lot to do and so we tried to sleep early. It didn´t really work.

I´m so thankful for all the life-experiences we´ve had up until now, because it´s making the settling in process so much easier. I can´t imagine being here and not knowing Portuguese, or never having lived away from home, or never having had to live with other people, or never having been in Africa. Things are cozy already. We thought about moving the beds around so that we could have a bit more personal space, but then we realized that we both felt sad changing it!



Our place after unpacking. It feels much roomier now that the suitcases are off the ground. Jess took the picture standing in the very corner of the room, just so you get an idea of the size of the room.





Here´s the view from our balcony, up one end of our street. You can see the door from our room behind Jessica´s shoulder. The sign at the right is for the bakery below us.





Here I am with the view up the other end of our street.

Not that much is happening right now. We´ve gone grocery shopping (which made me both excited and sad all at once - both feelings eminating from the fact this was for REAL and not for fun.) It´s kind of fun to grow up, and kind of sad. The Lord has been so sweet since we arrived. He seems to be in so many places, speaking, teaching, and opening our eyes and our hearts to see more of who He is. He is so beautiful. Here´s a quote I got from a book I bought in Boston just before coming, which seems very appropriate for now:

In the One you are never alone.
In the One you are always at home.
Dag Hammarskjold

We´re Here . . . For Now

This is going to be really quick, but I just wanted to write for the people checking to let you know that Jess and I arrived safely yesterday in Brazil, and we´ve moved into the house (or room, rather) that we´ll be in for the next month. Jess´ precise words after we saw our room were: ``Can the beds get any closer?`` In fact, they can´t.

In order to be able to use the main door, the closet doors, and the balcony doors, the two single beds have to be right beside each other in the centre of the room. We´d been told that they were finding an apartment for us to share, so we were a bit surprised to find out that we´re living in someone else´s house, far, far away from the school we´ll be working at. Anyhow, over lunch we reminded ourselves that everything IS the best that it can be, no matter how it looks to us. And we also took the opportunity (realizing what close quarters we´ll be sharing) to apologize ahead of time for all the things we´ll say and do to hurt each other this next year, and to let each other know that we are already pre-disposed to forgive each other for all the said things that will happen :)

It turns out, however, that the two guys that picked us up from the airport and took us to our place failed to mention that our current lodgings are only temporary. It was only when we went to one of their houses to pick up a new mattress that his mother filled us in on all the details (thank the Lord for moms, even when they aren´t your own!). It looks like they had an furnished apartment arranged for us, one that was near the school, but everything fell through at the last minute and they had to come up with something until they can find a better place.

Okay, I´ve got to run, so I´ll continue later.