swings

Parent teacher meeting–in Portuguese. meeting with each parent.

The health and nutrition song. they were so cute.

The reaction of the kids when it was time for the Easter egg hunt

i like this picture. Mariana and Juliana are in front…
Daniel and Adna are behind…

i love copy and paste. rather too much. i read this on Grace-Emma’s xanga and thought it would do ANYONE some good to stop and read it. so do.

It’s a contemplative night with much weighing on my heart and mind….

Life
has settled somewhat and it’s a new kind of reality that I am faced
with. One that seems so foreign and at the same time freakishly
familiar.

For some
reason, my mind plays time tricks on me. You see, in a second I can
forget that 2 years have gone by. I hear a familiar song, smell
something or reunite with someone and all of a sudden days, months,
years and even decades have ceased to exist. I am, again, 6 or 8 or
even 11. No time has passed at all and I am, again, the chubby 4th
grader that stands up to injustice, I am still the competitive
8-year-old who hates to lose, I am still the girl who fell in love for
the first time, the one who knows pain, betrayal and rejection. I am
still the timeless me, even though I am aging outwardly.

Perhaps, I
see glimpes of myself in the youth that I have just begun to work with.
Perhaps I see my sorrow in their brokenness, my glory in their success,
my disappointment in their failure, my humor in their smile. And maybe
I learn to live again through their youth, their vibrance, their
passion. I see greatness in their resolutions, I see strength in their
courage, and I also wish them the very best of life: The love, the
victory, the change, the grace, the inevitable pain and the strength
necessary to be themselves.   

Talked to the Disneyland people. was accepted and all…if i’d get there by June 21. i could by a ticket and be back by then…i haven’t bought my tickets yet…but i wanna be here in Brasil more. wanna stay until August. Then i want some time with my family. so–guess i won’t be doing it. and…i am very…very fine with that. suprisingly not disappointed or empty or whatever about it…especially after all my thinking and imagining about it…funny how that goes. i am glad i applied. i woulda kicked myself some morning when i woke up and thought “WHY DIDN’T i at least try to do they disney thing?”

brown water is better than no water at all. seriously. i can’t go jogging because i dunno when i’ll have a shower–we were completely out of water for about 24 hours this week, now we have a minimum supply…and now i found out that many Brasilians live like this (which explains why so many houses here have these huge water reserve containers). They get running water like once a week, and fill ‘er up, then live the rest of the time without it. My gosh, i had wondered why random times at random people’s houses their faucet wouldn’t work!

not having water makes it like impossible to do anything. and suddenly, i feel dirty and like i will scream if i don’t wash my cruddy feet. and washing my hands from a waterbottle just doesn’t cut it. and here i was going to start complaining about cold showers…not no more.

Heitor gave me a chocolate heart. Cecilia gave me a chocolate bunny. Juliana gave me a chocolate candy thing. noting a pattern here? yuck. Karine, David, Alyssa and John are all calling dibs on my chocolate, knowing i am never going to eat it…i refuse to give in, because i like looking at the chocolate things…it was so sweet of them…

i survived my first PTA meeting completely in Portuguese. pictures and stories will follow. today we had PACE training–completely in Portuguese…and heh–i did good–almost as good as Karine.

someone asked me today if i was right or left footed…things like that only happen in a futebol obsessed country…

random things i learned:
* Colds are not spread by mouth germs, but nose and hand germs. so kiss your honey–just don’t hold their hand.
* There are 15 million eunuch in India
* They are scared to put OD warnings on Tylenol because in the past it has led to more suicide attempts (the power of implied suggestion)
* Brasilians import African coffee beans to make instant coffee because they believe it is to beneath them to use Brasilan coffee beans for such a desecration

the joys of an education…

Me: i want to know the future. But doesn’t it ruin things to know what is going to happen next? (after reading Deuteronomy 31:16-21)
God: You already know what is going to happen in the end (Revelations) and does that ruin things for you?
Me: Actually, i forget and don’t really take it into account when i am in the middle of things. But you don’t forget.
God: No, but i love, and love covers things.
Me: so loving in a situation is better than being all-knowing about it?
God: yep.
Me: so when you love someone, even if you know what is going to happen and it isn’t good–you still go to it?
God: love walks through the pain. Love even walks directly to the pain. love trumps all-knowing and goes directly where the knowledge says to flee. Just because you know what is going to happen doesn’t change anything–love changes everything. and that is why i give you love, instead of the gift of “all-knowing.”
Me: when i know what is going to happen, it makes me either afraid or controlling and proud…love gives peace, is humble, and gives all. So is there anything good about knowing stuff?
God: The good thing about my all-knowingness is that it always knows just a little bit farther–to the end–where it turns out right. The part you already know about (Revelations).

i went to Paudalho and visited the “Creche,” a place that Dilma works at. She invited me there. it turns out she used to walk around the area, and had a heart to volunteer at someplace. one day the director asked her to help out at this place. Then the director had to go visit the US for three months, and left Dilma in charge. That was 11 years ago. Dilma is still in charge. i believe the lady is still in the US. heh. They are located in a bad part of town, near a big favela (ghetto). Pricilla (Dilma’s daughter) was telling me that it really wasn’t that dangerous…and as the words came out, we walked past a bar where a man took a brick, smashed it on another guy’s head, got a couple of good blows in and then ran off down the street. Pricilla changed her mind and said it was a little dangerous. we carefully stepped over the shards of brick…

they have about 25 kids in each class…2 and 3 year olds come from 8-11am, 4 and 5 year olds come from 1:30-5pm. They give them each two meals and a snack–for some of them, it is the only things they will eat that day. They had a big room, and when i arrived, we blew up balloons and played with them and danced around to music. After my classes on children and malnutrition and abuse and all…i was able to see a lot of symptoms. goodness. some of the kids huddled in corners, not knowing how to socialize. When they were given candy, many of them simply started chewing on the bag they were in instead of opening it to get to the candy. i sat down on the floor with them and was licking a lollypop with them when the kid next to me grabbed my hand and suddenly put my lollypop in his mouth. sticky hands were everywhere, asking me to open candy (they’d already started chewing) or giving me to eat (after i saw them drop it on the very, very yucky floor). i am rather dirty. but happy. and sad. Dilma proudly showed me the wall surrounding the building. They often have shootings, and it protects the kids. To get it, she personally went places and asked different construction stores around the city to donate the supplies. That is how things get done and bills get paid. Dilma also has a youth class that comes once a week. She teaches the Word of Life curriculum in the public schools around there. i guess during her spare time? There is only three workers to run the whole thing. And they love it. she loves it. i have pictures. soon.

The city is out of water. dunno why, it is still pretty rainy recently…we have a reserve, but most of it is brown. makes it very…unmotivating to brush my teeth…