Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Hello to all, Live from Brasil!!
Today started off a little earlier for me cuz i joined Carlyn for breakfast at 6. I had toast with guava jelly! yum! We sat around and talked for a while and eventually the rest of the group trickled in (which now includes our translator, Laisa). we headed over to the Grupo CEO building around 730 where the kids were outside waiting for us in the steadily falling rain. We started off our pre-teen time with some line dancing! We helped them learn the electric slide (which was quite the task) and put a christian spin on it by playing the song "Beautiful One". That's when Bill told us that we would be preforming this line dance of ours at church on sunday. woohoo!
Because of the rain, we couldnt play basketball as intended, so we had to think of another game we could play inside. at first we tried to teach them Signs....not so much... we ended up staying inside that small building and played dodgeball (the brasilian way) with one ball, and the kids had a blast! we prolly played about 9 games! (my team lost about 7 of them..) Eduardo also taught me a sort of breakdancing move, so you all better watch out!
Soon it was time for the kids to go to school (some of them have it in the afternoon) so, after i retrieved my water bottle and camera from Joice and Fatima who thought it was a great idea to steal my stuff so I'd have to chase them around, we made our way back to the house for lunch.
That was when Sula and Thiago (now known as James to the Americans) had their showdown! I have no idea what started it all, but the two of them ended up going after each other in the kitchen, and, for the first time, i saw Sula get taken down! Of course, right after James got her off her feet, he ran away like a little girl. It was quite a sight.
Later the second group of pre-teens came and it finally stopped raining for a while! We messed around on the basketball court playing keep away and HORSE and whatnot, and eventually it was time for the kids to move from the court to the playground. "Vamos para O parkino!"
Now for those of you who dont know, let me clarify one thing: this playground is basically a swing set in a huge sandbox! so what better game to play then "let's-try-and-throw-as-much-sand-as-we-can-on-the-brasilian-looking american-without-her-catching-us!" ok, so maybe it wasnt that bad, but i did end up with an unpleasant amount of sand in my hair!
Luckily, the bible study wasnt for a couple more hours, so i had plenty of time to take a shower and hang out with James, Douglas, Patrick, and Carlyn.
Bill Moore Senior did the Bible Study and, from what i could tell from the other side of the language barrier, he did a great job. i had my camera there with me and all the kids kept coming up and doing camera gestures saying "foto, foto!" Benjamin ended up being our photographer. haha.
At that point, right when i was getting hungry, Erika announced that it was time for the Americans to leave and, after again retreiving my Bible and Camera, we went in the house for some brasilian gumbo! it was fantastic! i pulled out my bag of Twizzlers for dessert (strawberry of course, not that nasty, black junk) and it was gone in a span of 10 minutes. Good stuff, those Twizzlers... Ever since then Douglas, (aka Shelby... dont worry about it..), James, and Carlyn have been hanging out in the living room and having a great time despite, and often thanks to, the difference in cultures and languages. God is so GOOD!
He has given me the blessing of these relationships that i have been able to build, so please pray that i can use the infulence i have to further His Kingdom!
Well, hopefully it doesnt rain tomorrow so we can get back out on the court! I'll talk at you all tomorrow night!

Until next time,
Jo

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