September 12, 2005
-
Washing clothes is not for the faint of heart. Nita, the maid here, was showing me how (even though i have been washing my own clothes this whole time, i never had any tips or anyone really show me how) to wash my clothes. i had no idea there was so much involved. no wonder my clothes never really smelled good afterwards! hehe. when she was showing me how to wash my jean skirt, i wondered if there would be any left when she was done…she´s quite vicious! i would not want to meet her in an ally at night after seeing what she can do to those stains.
i thought i fried my CD player. yikes. when i brought my cd player, it was an afterthought because it was almost broken anyways…it turns out to be quite a blessing to me and others at the Alconce (CD players are alot more expensive here). i ´plugged it in here and heard a zzzzd and freaked out. i guess i was using a converter that was only good on hair dryers and stuff. so i prayed GOd would bring my CD player back to life, and i am happy to report that with my new converter (the proper one this time) it works.
i went to Carpina to make some copies and saw a guy selling osterage feathers on the side of the road. i guess he wanted to prove that they were real osterage feathers, because he brought the whole (dead) osterage with him and had it sitting next to the stand. yuck. (note: Karine said to make sure you know that this is NOT Africa, and she was just as surprised to see the whole osterage as me. i guess they have weirdos here too.)
Thursday i taught the English class at the Alconce and it went well, but then i did not have a ride back to Timbauba. So i stayed the whole day and then Tele brought me back to his house where i ended up spending the weekend–as the head of the house–OHHHH, ahhh–aren´t you impressed? yep, yours truely. Tele and Heather went to a wedding, and the rest of us partied. no, just kidding, but we did have a fun time and cooked lots of neato stuff that i had watched my mom do, but never really knew for sure how to do–like fried potatoes, green beans, and merange. i also did my two famous things–herb noodles and snickerdoodles. i say, i was craving snickerdoodles. You should have seen us all in the kitchen, rummbling around–Karine figuring out how to convert F to C or C to F–i can´t remember–Alyssa cutting up the garlic (because i hate doing this), Johnny trying to sneak a chair up to the counter to put his fingers in the batter, and David turning on some music for us to crazy sing with:). it was great. I was a bit worried about the snickerdoodles, because the sugar is alot different, and so is the margarine–but they were declared a success and Alyssa can´t wait for us to make them again. i feel so at home there.
Sunday was Carpina´s anniversary (the city) and so they had this huge celebration. alittle weird to be celebrating on 9/11. We saw the parade (again, Brasilians know how to party–it was forever long–and showed no signs of stopping when it started to rain) and the best part was the little girls in the marching band. they dressed up 6 year olds in tutus and gave them batons…and they did what little girls do best–show off.
Today i went to school again, this time armed with toilet paper and books to study during class. good thing because today had two biology and two physics classes. i showed up…but Raquel never did! it was alittle interesting to be there alone, but the rest of her friends helped me out and were so sweet. Flavia took care of me the whole day. I went to find MAriana to head home but couldn´t find here anywhere. it turns out they forgot me…i waited with Flavia at the front and about 10 minutes later she came. it was funny. perhaps i have too much faith in people, but i wasn´t worried at all:). Some of the guys have now decided to practice whatever cuss words they know in English for me. but most of the class is really great.
`The believer is in spiritual danger if he allows himself to go for any length of time without tasting the love of Christ and savoring the felt comforts of a Savior´s presence`–so get busy and savor!:)
`G.K. Chesterton thought that everybody ought to get drunk once a year because if that didn´t do you good, the repentence in the morning would.` (no, i am not getting any ideas because i mess up enough without getting drunk)
those were from The Journey of Desire notebook. gotta love it. `While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. for the things which are seen re temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.`2 Corinthians 4:18 `Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.` 2 Corinthians 5:9
