I´m excited because right now I have both time, and that inner motivation to write. The two things don´t always occur simultaneously, so it makes me happy when they do! We´re at Francy Anne´s house in Aguas Claras (a satellite city near Brasilia), and everyone is napping this afternoon, but I can´t sleep even though I´m tired so here goes . . .
The title of today´s post is in reference to my first-ever opera. On Friday evening Francy Anne told us that Angelica had a friend who studies music at UNB (one of the main universities in Brasilia) and that they were putting on an opera for free . . . so a bunch of us went and it was great! It was the students´ culmination of a semester´s worth of work: The Barber of Seville. I have no knowledge of operas, but it made me want to learn more about them. It would have been nice to have read up about the story before we went. When we got there Jess was like, `´Oh no! It´s going to be in Portuguese and I won´t understand anything! Do you think they´ll have subtitles?`` It turns out they did! The opera was in Italian, and they had two screens on either side of the theatre with the entire script going by on powerpoint slides . . . in Portuguese. We didn´t catch absolutely everything, but we got the main idea for sure. I had the strange sensation of not knowing where I was a few times as the opera went on. We were in a very famliar University theater setting (which made me feel like I could be in North America) watching an Italian opera in Portuguese. Hmmm . . .
Okay, I´ve skipped over about two weeks of life since I haven´t really written about our time since we left Brasilia last. We had a great time in Anapolis at Marcio´s house. And I´m not just saying that because I know you´ll eventually read this Marcio :). Marcio´s Mom and Dad, Fransisco and Guiomar travel a lot, but they don´t stay where they travel to for very long, so we got to meet a lot of people and see a lot of different places in a very short space of time. On our trip to Palmas we also stayed over night in Ceres (with blood relatives) and in Uruacu (with Christian relatives). Upon our return we visited Goiania briefly, and then on our trip back to Francy Anne´s house we stopped in at Gama (the same day that the Brasil vs. Portugal soccer game took place there), Taguatinga and somewhere else that I don´t remember the name of. While we were in Anapolis we basically just had a good time hanging out together - talking, trying to fix the internet connection but making things worse instead, watching movies, playing Uno, having in-depth and non in-depth conversation, eating . . . It´s not just the things we did, though, that were important. It was just being able to spend time together that made it so nice.
So, about our job situation. We´re in the process of officially registering everything and applying for the working visa. I´ll spare you the details beause it´s neither intriguing, nor relevant for most of you. Suffice it to say that I´m trying not to be nervous about having to rely on other people to get everything done by our December 15th deadline. I kind of feel like I´m back in university doing a group project that I would rather do myself, but alas, this is real life. Hey, maybe this is why they make you do those projects after all! Anyhow, we´re waiting for a package to arrive within a couple of weeks and I´m trying to trust the Lord that all the people we have to rely on are doing their parts properly.
Which brings me to my key phrase from life as of late: let go and let Him do it. I´ve come to realize that I am constantly (though sometimes unconciously) struggling to control and direct so many aspects of life. It´s become apparent in very simple situations like the one I described in the last paragraph. I get all tied up in knots when I can´t organize things and make them go the way I´d like them to. And even when I pray and tell the Lord I´m giving things completely into His hands, it´s not long until I realize that though I´ve said the words, the ´fingers´ of my heart are gripping tightly to that very thing I told the Lord was His. But He´s won a victory and I just realized it a couple days ago. It´s been two and a half months since I began to pray for Him to take control of one specific thing (during which time I battled Him all the while), but in the end He´s done it. He´s brought me to the point where I can truly say, `Lord, Your will be done` and let go completely. I can see, looking back, that He´s used the people I´ve been with, the situations I´ve encountered, and a lot of time in order to do something in me that neither I nor any other human being could accomplish. There seem to be a lot of situations lately, not only in my own life but in so many people´s lives who I´m connected to, in which the Lord is using time to get whatever it is that He is after in each of us. Which is why I love to be reminded of my Mom´s line over and over again: it´s a good thing we know that Jesus is Lord.
We´ll be in Brasilia for an indefinite amount of time, and I don´t know where we´ll be going next, since everything depends on everything, as it so often does. We will post more pictures as soon as possible. Sorry we haven´t done it yet!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Pictures from Palmas
We travelled with Marcio's family to Palmas to visit his brother, Maurilio, who has been living there for about 6 months. Everyone warned us about the heat we were going to encounter there, but as it happened, the temperature dropped during the time we were there to bearably warm. These are a few pictures from our trip.
Sanna and Jess on our motorboat ride in Palmas. We were taken to a little island where we got out just to snap a few pictures. I swam in this water and it was the first time so far that there was no cold shock upon getting into the water. I found out the next day that it´s a bad time of year to swim because of the heightened presence of sting rays. I´m so glad it was the next day that I found out because I thoroughly enjoyed the swim!
Fransisco (Marcio's dad) and their long-time friend, Graciel. At this farm we hiked to a small river and swam near a small water fall (think very small).
Travellin' in the back of the pickup - Jess, Joy, Lidia. I eventually got to drive the truck myself back in Anapolis, at Marcio´s insistance. It was only about a 4-5 minute trip between Lidia´s house and Marcio´s. I was nervous at first, because I don´t have much experience driving standard. I´ve only ever driven Mom and Dad´s car. After just a few minutes it was fun though. For me anyway. Jess was sweating by the time we got home and Marcio told me later that I scared him too!
Sanna and Jess on our motorboat ride in Palmas. We were taken to a little island where we got out just to snap a few pictures. I swam in this water and it was the first time so far that there was no cold shock upon getting into the water. I found out the next day that it´s a bad time of year to swim because of the heightened presence of sting rays. I´m so glad it was the next day that I found out because I thoroughly enjoyed the swim!
Fransisco (Marcio's dad) and their long-time friend, Graciel. At this farm we hiked to a small river and swam near a small water fall (think very small).
Travellin' in the back of the pickup - Jess, Joy, Lidia. I eventually got to drive the truck myself back in Anapolis, at Marcio´s insistance. It was only about a 4-5 minute trip between Lidia´s house and Marcio´s. I was nervous at first, because I don´t have much experience driving standard. I´ve only ever driven Mom and Dad´s car. After just a few minutes it was fun though. For me anyway. Jess was sweating by the time we got home and Marcio told me later that I scared him too!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Playing Catch-Up
It´s been well over a week already since I last wrote because we´ve been on the road again. I´m sorry to keep everyone waiting so long.
I´ll try to catch up to the present as quickly as possible. . .
The Woodfords alerted me to the fact that I failed to communicate properly about the job Jess and I accepted back in October. After re-reading what I wrote, I could see why you were confused, so thanks for letting me know! What I forgot to say was that the job we accepted begins in January, and goes for the duration of 2009, which means that we still have about 2 months of free time, which we´re using to travel around and visit friends in various parts of the country.
We stayed in Brasilia from Saturday morning until Monday afternoon. On Saturday we went out for lunch and had salad. It was wonderful. I hate using superlatives like ´best´too freely, but it´s been a long time since I´ve had the kind of salad that is packed with goodies like this one was. I saved the sheet we used to choose our ingredients, so that sometime in the future we can recreate in similar fashion. After the meeting on Saturday night we headed out with quite a crowd to eat pastels. Mmmmm!
On Sunday, Lu made us a wonderful salmon and spaghetti lunch and invited Francy Anne and Francoise over too, so we had a nice time all together. After the meeting at night,Lu made popcorn in their pipoqueira and we watched Mary Poppins together. Such fun! I didn’t realize how antiquated the movie’s language is until this time, when we watched it with the English subtitles. As Jess put it, we somehow always get the gist of it without actually realizing exactly what they are saying.
I was awoken with a start Monday morning, by Jess, who had awoken with a start to the sound of Carlão calling up from the ground below outside the apartment building. We met Carlão and his family (his wife is Carmen and two daughters) last year during our travels in Africa. They have been in Africa for two years, and now they are moving back to Brazil for a little while, but so far only Carlão is here because his daughter is finishing up her school year in Joburg. Neither we nor he knew we would reunite here in Brazil, and so it was a nice surprise on all sides when we each discovered the other party was here . . . now! Since we arrived in Brazil we’ve met up with almost all of the people we were together with in Africa last year. It’s been kind of a strange sensation for everyone – for us to be with them all again, and for them to see us in their homeland. You go to a little corner of the earth and make friends with people you never knew, and when you leave you don’t know if you’ll ever see them again. It makes the world seem so small.
We’d arranged to spend Monday with Carlão and James, another friend that Jessica spent a lot of time with when she lived in Botswana. When we arranged to get together, however, we didn’t except Carlão to show up outside our doorstep before we were out of bed. Needless to say, it was the quickest out-of-bed-experience we’ve had since we arrived. After a quick breakfast we dropped Lu off at work and then picked James up - Carlão had called him at 6am to make sure he’d be ready bright and early. We had a great time together, walking in the Parque da Cidade (City Park), sitting and drinking agua de coco (they drill a hole in the top of a coconut and you stick a straw in and drink the coconut water out of it), all the while catching up on the last 10 months of life. We had lunch at a Churrascaria (a restaurant where waiters come with different kinds and cuts of meat on big metal spits and serve you whatever you’d like to eat until you cannot eat anymore). It was delicious. My favourite things there were barbequed cheese (I always think of Aeden, my dear little cheese fanatic, every time I eat good cheese), barbequed banana (covered in sugar and cinnamon), and quail eggs (not barbequed - they’re tiny little eggs that are common here, but I’d never had the chance to try them). I always feel kind of guilty about the way I enjoy churrascos here. It’s not that I dislike meat, but besides chicken hearts, I don’t get excited about meat the way I’m supposed to (ie. the way Brazilians do). It’s all the ‘extras’ that make me really happy.
In the afternoon Carlão dropped us off at the bus station with our luggage, and we headed off to Anápolis where Márcio and his parents were waiting to pick us up in the pickup truck that would soon become very familiar to us. More to come on that, and more pictures to come soon.
One last thing before I go is that Luciana gave us a cell phone (thanks again!) so now we’ve got a number if you need/want to reach us. If you want the number, send me an email and I’ll send it to you.
I´ll try to catch up to the present as quickly as possible. . .
The Woodfords alerted me to the fact that I failed to communicate properly about the job Jess and I accepted back in October. After re-reading what I wrote, I could see why you were confused, so thanks for letting me know! What I forgot to say was that the job we accepted begins in January, and goes for the duration of 2009, which means that we still have about 2 months of free time, which we´re using to travel around and visit friends in various parts of the country.
We stayed in Brasilia from Saturday morning until Monday afternoon. On Saturday we went out for lunch and had salad. It was wonderful. I hate using superlatives like ´best´too freely, but it´s been a long time since I´ve had the kind of salad that is packed with goodies like this one was. I saved the sheet we used to choose our ingredients, so that sometime in the future we can recreate in similar fashion. After the meeting on Saturday night we headed out with quite a crowd to eat pastels. Mmmmm!
On Sunday, Lu made us a wonderful salmon and spaghetti lunch and invited Francy Anne and Francoise over too, so we had a nice time all together. After the meeting at night,Lu made popcorn in their pipoqueira and we watched Mary Poppins together. Such fun! I didn’t realize how antiquated the movie’s language is until this time, when we watched it with the English subtitles. As Jess put it, we somehow always get the gist of it without actually realizing exactly what they are saying.
I was awoken with a start Monday morning, by Jess, who had awoken with a start to the sound of Carlão calling up from the ground below outside the apartment building. We met Carlão and his family (his wife is Carmen and two daughters) last year during our travels in Africa. They have been in Africa for two years, and now they are moving back to Brazil for a little while, but so far only Carlão is here because his daughter is finishing up her school year in Joburg. Neither we nor he knew we would reunite here in Brazil, and so it was a nice surprise on all sides when we each discovered the other party was here . . . now! Since we arrived in Brazil we’ve met up with almost all of the people we were together with in Africa last year. It’s been kind of a strange sensation for everyone – for us to be with them all again, and for them to see us in their homeland. You go to a little corner of the earth and make friends with people you never knew, and when you leave you don’t know if you’ll ever see them again. It makes the world seem so small.
We’d arranged to spend Monday with Carlão and James, another friend that Jessica spent a lot of time with when she lived in Botswana. When we arranged to get together, however, we didn’t except Carlão to show up outside our doorstep before we were out of bed. Needless to say, it was the quickest out-of-bed-experience we’ve had since we arrived. After a quick breakfast we dropped Lu off at work and then picked James up - Carlão had called him at 6am to make sure he’d be ready bright and early. We had a great time together, walking in the Parque da Cidade (City Park), sitting and drinking agua de coco (they drill a hole in the top of a coconut and you stick a straw in and drink the coconut water out of it), all the while catching up on the last 10 months of life. We had lunch at a Churrascaria (a restaurant where waiters come with different kinds and cuts of meat on big metal spits and serve you whatever you’d like to eat until you cannot eat anymore). It was delicious. My favourite things there were barbequed cheese (I always think of Aeden, my dear little cheese fanatic, every time I eat good cheese), barbequed banana (covered in sugar and cinnamon), and quail eggs (not barbequed - they’re tiny little eggs that are common here, but I’d never had the chance to try them). I always feel kind of guilty about the way I enjoy churrascos here. It’s not that I dislike meat, but besides chicken hearts, I don’t get excited about meat the way I’m supposed to (ie. the way Brazilians do). It’s all the ‘extras’ that make me really happy.
In the afternoon Carlão dropped us off at the bus station with our luggage, and we headed off to Anápolis where Márcio and his parents were waiting to pick us up in the pickup truck that would soon become very familiar to us. More to come on that, and more pictures to come soon.
One last thing before I go is that Luciana gave us a cell phone (thanks again!) so now we’ve got a number if you need/want to reach us. If you want the number, send me an email and I’ll send it to you.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Chegamos
We (Esdras, Rodrigo, Jess and I) were a little rushed to get to Sao Jose do Rio Preto last night, but we made it to the bus station about 10 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave. Thankfully it was an hour late, so we bought our tickets and headed out to grab something to eat, knowing we had to be back before 9:30, the new departure time. We got back in time, and it turned out that the bus had already left. Somehow in the time we left, the man who sold us the tickets forgot he´d about us and told the driver to go ahead because there were no more passengers. So the company called the bus to wait, and put us in a taxi so that we could catch up with them. Never a dull moment!
We arrived in Brasilia at 7:30 this morning, after a night of fitful sleep trying to ignore the barulho made by the snorer next to us. The wheel on Jess´suitcase has stopped rolling again, and so she had to carry it through the station. I had to use the non-extendable handle on my suitcase (which forces me to hunch rather awkwardly as I pull it behind me) as I gently pushed our small suitcase (I´m pretty sure one of its wheels is on the way out) in front of me. It was pretty slow going between the two of us, and we had to stop now and then so Jess could rest her arms. There´s no doubt about it. We were a spectacle as we moved. People stared. Shamelessly. The upside, we laughed about later, is that if anyone else tries to take off with our luggage, they´re in for a surprise.
Lu and Marcelo were there to pick us up, except we were waiting where they weren´t and vice versa. So it took us half an hour to meet up. We had breakfast at a bakery and ate the best misto quente (ususally a ham and melted cheese sandwich) I´ve ever had - peito de peru (turkey breast) and queijo minas (a fresh, white cheese). We´re at Lu´s house now, resting and catching up on lost sleep. I´ll keep you posted as things unfold here.
We arrived in Brasilia at 7:30 this morning, after a night of fitful sleep trying to ignore the barulho made by the snorer next to us. The wheel on Jess´suitcase has stopped rolling again, and so she had to carry it through the station. I had to use the non-extendable handle on my suitcase (which forces me to hunch rather awkwardly as I pull it behind me) as I gently pushed our small suitcase (I´m pretty sure one of its wheels is on the way out) in front of me. It was pretty slow going between the two of us, and we had to stop now and then so Jess could rest her arms. There´s no doubt about it. We were a spectacle as we moved. People stared. Shamelessly. The upside, we laughed about later, is that if anyone else tries to take off with our luggage, they´re in for a surprise.
Lu and Marcelo were there to pick us up, except we were waiting where they weren´t and vice versa. So it took us half an hour to meet up. We had breakfast at a bakery and ate the best misto quente (ususally a ham and melted cheese sandwich) I´ve ever had - peito de peru (turkey breast) and queijo minas (a fresh, white cheese). We´re at Lu´s house now, resting and catching up on lost sleep. I´ll keep you posted as things unfold here.
Friday, October 31, 2008
And We´re Off (Again)
Today marks 8 weeks since the day Jess and I arrived in Brazil. So far we´ve been in 5 different cities and lived with 3 different families. Even though our lives aren´t incredibly busy day-to-day, it feels like so much has happened in the past 2 months. It´s been incredibly interesting to observe another culture from the inside out. Right from the start I noticed that my mindset was different than it´s ever been before when I travelled to a foreign country. Deciding to live somewhere makes you look at everything differently. You stop looking at things in terms of ´them´and ´us´ because you´ve decided to become ´them´. That doesn´t make you ´them´automatically, of course, but it sure does change the way you look at things.
I have a distinct feeling lately that I have no idea about anything. I have come to many strong conclusions in my life, and have gotten to the crux of many matters. Yet after the events of the past two months I feel like, `I don´t know´ is the safest answer I can give if I am going to be honest about things. My strongest feelings and my most logical thoughts, both of which I´ve come to trust over the years, simply aren´t trustworthy. And I can´t depend wholeheartedly on other people, because when it comes right down to it, nobody knows anything for sure. Except Jesus. I can only depend on the Lord. Feelings that I´ve been sure of for so long, it´s like they´ve all gone down the drain and I´m not sure of anything. But I´m sure that I can trust Jesus. I´m sure that He´s in control. And I´m so glad because I am so incredibly changeable, I scare myself. I can only depend on Jesus. Wow.
It´s the time to say good-bye again and this is definitely the hardest so far. We´re leaving the Spagnol family in Barretos after having stayed with them for three weeks. I didn´t know it was possible to understay your welcome, but that is definitely the impression I´ve got about leaving. We´ve gotten attached to the family, dog and cat included. Sigh.
Esdras will drive us out to Sao Jose do Rio Preto this evening and we´ll take an 11 hour overnight bus ride to Brasilia. Luciana and Francy Anne will pick us up, and we´ll stay with Lu for the weekend. I´m not sure when I´ll get the chance to write again, because apparently we may be travelling with Marcio (yes, he´s back in Brazil!) and his family to Palmas on Tuesday. For an indefinite amount of time. We´ve had very little details about the plans. But we´re used to living on very few details :)
I have a distinct feeling lately that I have no idea about anything. I have come to many strong conclusions in my life, and have gotten to the crux of many matters. Yet after the events of the past two months I feel like, `I don´t know´ is the safest answer I can give if I am going to be honest about things. My strongest feelings and my most logical thoughts, both of which I´ve come to trust over the years, simply aren´t trustworthy. And I can´t depend wholeheartedly on other people, because when it comes right down to it, nobody knows anything for sure. Except Jesus. I can only depend on the Lord. Feelings that I´ve been sure of for so long, it´s like they´ve all gone down the drain and I´m not sure of anything. But I´m sure that I can trust Jesus. I´m sure that He´s in control. And I´m so glad because I am so incredibly changeable, I scare myself. I can only depend on Jesus. Wow.
It´s the time to say good-bye again and this is definitely the hardest so far. We´re leaving the Spagnol family in Barretos after having stayed with them for three weeks. I didn´t know it was possible to understay your welcome, but that is definitely the impression I´ve got about leaving. We´ve gotten attached to the family, dog and cat included. Sigh.
Esdras will drive us out to Sao Jose do Rio Preto this evening and we´ll take an 11 hour overnight bus ride to Brasilia. Luciana and Francy Anne will pick us up, and we´ll stay with Lu for the weekend. I´m not sure when I´ll get the chance to write again, because apparently we may be travelling with Marcio (yes, he´s back in Brazil!) and his family to Palmas on Tuesday. For an indefinite amount of time. We´ve had very little details about the plans. But we´re used to living on very few details :)
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Going with the Flow
We went to the post office (Correios) today to mail a letter, and I had been told that you could buy envelopes there. So Jess and I walked into the air-conditioned post office which has permanently open doors, and asked if we could buy an envelope. The lady said, yes, where are you sending the letter. When I said, `Canada` she said, that, no, sorry, we couldn´t buy the envelope there but we could go across the street to the nursery to get what we needed. So we walked across the street and past all the potted plants for sale, wondering why the nursery had the special envelopes for Canada, but it turned out it was the opposite. What we needed to buy was a non-special plain brown envelope - 25 centavos each.
There are lots of things I don´t get, but to quote Kiran, I just go with the flow, because the flow keeps changing.
Just to let you know how hot it is here in Barretos, last night we went out for acai just before midnight, and all of us were commenting how fresh and cool it felt. It was 27 degrees outside!
There are lots of things I don´t get, but to quote Kiran, I just go with the flow, because the flow keeps changing.
Just to let you know how hot it is here in Barretos, last night we went out for acai just before midnight, and all of us were commenting how fresh and cool it felt. It was 27 degrees outside!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
It´s a Girl!
There´s a new name I say just to make myself smile now: Sophie Joy. My youngest neice was born last Wednesday and I think it´s so amazing that it´s possible to cry because you love someone you´ve never even met before. It must be incredible to be a parent, because the feelings associated with being an aunt overwhelm me again and again. This is my eighth neice/nephew. It appears that no matter how many you have, there´s always room for one more in your heart.
Which reminds me of a cute story about Nate, Sophie´s 3 year-old brother. A couple of weeks ago I got to talk to Nathanael and he was pretty excited about something. He built up the anticipation with, `Auntie Joy, um, me and my dad, and my mom and Ava . . . we have something to tell you´. Since Hannah´s due date has only a couple weeks away, I was thinking that maybe he was going to break the big news to me that the baby had been born: ´. . . um, we went on vacation and it was really fun!´ It was apparently a vacation never-to-be forgotten.
Which reminds me of a cute story about Nate, Sophie´s 3 year-old brother. A couple of weeks ago I got to talk to Nathanael and he was pretty excited about something. He built up the anticipation with, `Auntie Joy, um, me and my dad, and my mom and Ava . . . we have something to tell you´. Since Hannah´s due date has only a couple weeks away, I was thinking that maybe he was going to break the big news to me that the baby had been born: ´. . . um, we went on vacation and it was really fun!´ It was apparently a vacation never-to-be forgotten.
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