Copacabana!

On Saturday I finally went to the beach!! I had a class in Rio de Janeiro so I went a little early and walked along the beach, then returned during the lunch break, and again after the class was over. I couldn't get enough of it!




However I wasn't able to stay long because I had to get back home. Not even long enough to go in the water... But I will be doing plenty of that this next weekend!

And then I saw this... I had to take a double look. I was surprised. I was shocked. I couldn't believe my eyes. What is this? Could it be football? What? This is Brazil! Where is the soccer? A Brazilian stopped by my side just as surprised as me and said they had never seen American football at Copacabana before.

The Best Day

Last Monday was just about the perfect day ever! This is about how it went...

8 am - Wake up to Dallin calling and wishing me a happy birthday (what a great way to start out the day right!)

9 am - A phone call with someone telling me they have a present to be delivered to me...a surprise!

10 am - Walk outside and feel the warm sun! It's back!

11 am - A nice walk to Mantiquira to drink a Guarana

12 pm - Flowers delivered!! Dallin is amazing and sent me flowers again! A beautiful surprise!




1 pm - Fun Moto taxi ride up to Casa do Caminho

2 pm -Seeing children that I hadn't seen in years! (upper left going clockwise) Sandra! I haven't seen her in over a year. Rodrigo (my little buddy, I love this little boy so much!!) over a year also. they both moved out of the orphanage but came back to visit for the holidays. Thiago, over a year. He was moved to another orphanage but is now back! Tainá, almost 3 years! She moved back home with her mom but came back for the holidays. This was such a great gift to see my sweet kids again!




3 pm - Jogos Olympicas! The volunteers at the orphanage organized Olympic games that lasted 3 days! They started on Monday, it was great to see the kid's excitement!




4 pm - Drive the Toyota to town. This was amazing! I haven't driven in almost 2 months! I actually really miss it. So I was able to drive the huge Toyota (which didn't have any brakes by the way) from the orphanage back to town. And since it was just me I turned up the music and sang out loud the whole way! Got some strange looks... but who cares!

5 pm - Açaí! Seriously this stuff is amazing! I get it so often that if I walk past the store that sells it and I've missed a day, the guy starts saying that I've disappeared and that I am abandoning the açaí. I always reassure him, I will always be back for more!



6 pm - My kids here in town wishing me happy birthday!

7 pm - Walk to my friends house in the rain, it was nice actually. I love the scent of pavement when it just begins to rain!

8 pm - Dinner with the Neto Cruz family.



9 pm - So full! and enjoying being with friends. This picture of Graciano is my favorite!

10 pm - relax and think about how wonderful my day was! Thank you for everyone who wished me a happy birthday, it truly was a very happy birthday!!

Santa Bárbara

Last Friday Junior Reis arranged a trip to Santa Bárbara in the state of Minas Gerais. Junior Reis is the Mayor of Caxias's brother, and is the President of Parliament. He owns a ranch in Santa Bárbara and invited 4 volunteers and 4 children from the orphanage to join him on a trip there. I was so glad that Eveline was able to go with me, she is so great to have around. We have a lot of fun together...maybe too much

Saturday afternoon we went to the city, huge city. So big that Eveline and I walked from one end to the other in 10 minutes. We had just begun our walk when we reached the end of the city. Everyone that we met joked about how big the city was. But it was really nice to visit, I enjoyed it a lot.

Later that evening we all went to a party.

Eveline, Me, Bárbara, Junior, Flavio's wife, Flavio, Flavinho

On Sunday morning Bart took a few of the kids out horseback riding. The view is amazing!

School

Last Thursday Eveline and I went to visit a private school here in Xerém. The previous night while giving English lessons and Junior's house the director of this school dropped in and invited us to visit the school.


Seven of the teenagers from the orphanage attend this school. it was really interesting to see where they attend school and see the atmosphere. Apparently they were all late that day. oops!



The director seemed to know every student. As he would walk in the courtyard he would stop and joke with the students or ask how they were doing. This would be normal for a school in a small city. You see I was under the impression that this was a small city but he told me that they have over 1500 students a day in this school. And this school only offers the highest 2 grades of school, or as an alternative a 3 year course for becoming a teacher. Then to make this city even bigger, there are 4 schools like this here. I had no idea it was so big! That is a lot of 15 to 18 year olds!



Look at the size of the school! Yes I mean how small it is. 1500 students everyday. Granted they are divided into morning, afternoon, and evening classes. They have 12 classrooms that have 50 students in each. There is one computer lab with 10 computers. And of course there is a enclosed soccer field out back!

Day at the Park

Yesterday afternoon Cristiane and I took the boys to the park for a little while. They began a game of soccer and had several other boys join in later. It is fun to watch them play soccer, they have so many little tricks. After about 10 minutes the two youngest boys were tired of playing and decided to swing.




The swings are so different here! I can't imagine how they could be comfortable, or even bearable! I don't know if you can really tell from the pictures but they are all metal and have backs so I don't really know how you can "swing" while swinging... but the kids all seem to have fun so I guess it works!



Vitória was at the park too, it was a nice surprise. She is my good friend's niece and is currently my neighbor. She has quite the little personality with more facial expressions that anyone than I have ever met! Here all you can see is her cute, sweet side but she can be quite sassy (which still is adorable), filled will her own opinions. Occasionally she will just walk into my room and say "teach me how to use your computer" or "go get me food". She makes me laugh.

YSA Activity in Petrópolis

While walking down Rua Teresa, famous for shopping, I looked to my right only to find a church building! It was just right there, how random! I was so excited to see it. Jessica and I noticed that the door was open so we went inside to see if I could play the piano.

When we walked in we found 2 women sitting at the end of the hallway. When I went to ask if I could play the piano they said their was an activity going on in the gym and that the piano was probably locked. A few minutes later we went to check and unfortunately it was locked! But as we passed through the gym we saw there was a Young Single Adult activity going on! Of all the days and times to go to Petrópolis and then to find the church, we found it the night there was an activity! We decided to join and stay for a while.

They played volleyball, ping-pong, music and there was some dancing too! It was so fun!

It was such a nice surprise to be able to join this activity. We had tons of fun and it just made the day perfect!

Petrópolis

Saturday Jessica and I went to Petrópolis, known as the Imperial City of Brazil. The skies were clear and the sun was brilliant! We started off going to all the tourists sites, the Crystal Palace, the Cathedral, the Clock of Flowers, Liberty plaza, and more. Jessica celebrated her 14th birthday on Monday so this trip was her birthday present.

The architecture of this city is just breath taking. Every building, including the bank, is so elaborate. I just love all the detail, it makes the overall feeling of the city so peaceful.

Behind this building there was a WW2 museum. It was interesting to see how Brazil was involved and their perspective on the war. It was the smallest museum I have ever seen...

It might be possible that we took too many pictures... but is that possible? Here is a sample of the pictures that we took!