i have been meaning to put together a list of names of everyone at the school–so that you could pray for them by name. it has been a long time coming…but here it is:

Preschool: (teachers: Wilma and Pricilla)Camila, Glaucio, Joyce, Maria Luiza, Davi, Maria Clara, Christopher (Tele’s youngest son),

Kindergarten: (teachers: Fernanda and Karol) Livia, Mariev, Socrates, Nicole, Gabi, Artur, Hannah, Francisco, Larissa, Mario Henrique, Wirlane, Julia, Julianne, Mateus, Iolanda, Luiz Esteven,

1st Grade: (teacher: Roseane) Milena, Victoria, Davi, Roderigo, Carolina,

2nd Grade: (teacher: Lenilda) Mateus, Ana Beatriz, Ana Carla, Amanda, Wallace, Eduarda, Eloisa, Gabriel, Lucas, Rafael

3rd Grade (once in third, they don’t have teachers that stay with them, instead, they rotate to classrooms): Johnny (Tele’s next youngest son), Luiz Mario, Nicole, Luiz Guilherme, Carol, Neto, Lukas

4th Grade: Daniel O., Daniel L., Adrielly, Debora, Guilherme, Nalim, Samara, Alana

5th Grade: Eduarda, Mariana, Adna

6th Grade: Hugo, Gabriel, Kaio, Manuelly, Lucas, Lorena (Pastor Assuario’s daughter), Rebeca,

9th Grade: Tiago (Pastor Assuario’s son), Igor, Jonathas, Raquel

Cleaning ladies: Si and Ninha
Kitchen crew: Sylvia, Silvania, Bitania, Nadya, Dilma
Guard (and soccer teacher): Airton
Handyman: Duda
Director: Tele (and family: Heather, Karine, Alyssa, David, Johnny, and Christopher)
Coordinators: Dona Lucia and Roberta (who also teaches math)
Art: Roberto
Receptionist: Carmen
Librarian: Eliane
English teachers: Emily, Rachel and LINDSAY–come back soon!!!!
Gym: Edson
Personal Defence/Karate: Junior
Bible: Ivana (and Dance classes)
Music: Val
Portuguese: Israel
Computers: Anselmo
History: Andreia and Paulinho
Geography: Manuella
Science: Paula
Math: Luiza
Chemestry: Josie

and i am sure people are left out. bleh. but this is a good start.

So this is my first time in Brasil for Election time. this is their off time for president, so it is just city elections. but that’s enough. people paint their houses for these things. blank cement walls are covered with candidate information. each candidate makes up a song, ditty, whatever to get stuck in everyone’s heads. the song says something about how wonderful they will be, and then their number. they pay kids to ride around with loud speakers on their bikes and blast this song out EVERYWHERE. you randomly hear yourself singing “vote for 652895″ or something like that.

flags are everywhere. (i like that part, because the flags here are not ugly, just a color and number, and then are put on bamboo poles bamboo poles make me happy.) Since i have friends that work in the mayor’s office, i get the inside scoop. three main choices: bad, worse, or worst. i forget names, so that is why they have numbers:

14: is the bad one. but at least his wife really likes the Living Stones program, so she will keep it in progress. he is yellow.
45: he is worse. but not as well known, i guess he would be like the third party candidate. he is blue.
15: he’s the worst. people in the mayors office tremble at the thought of having to work with him again (aparently, he was a mayor in the past). i personally dislike him because when he was in office before, he took out the whole PETI program (which Living stones is a part of) and replaced it with a bowl of soup. that was it. the whole help for all the children…once a day, they lined up for a bowl of soup. disgusting. and it was bad soup from what i hear. he is red.

i personally like the current mayor. he has nice, kind eyes.

and this…my friends, is the extent of my political knowledge. but i guess it does come down to you finding what issues matter to you…and then voting for the one who is closest to that? it is a sad day when you have to vote by process of elimination, rather than chosing someone you believe in. but i guess it is too risky to believe in anyone these days.

i try to look up politics on the internet once a week or so. it isn’t working very well. my previous formula was asking my mom what was going on in the politics world, and that worked much better for me. my mom speaks plainly. i am beginning to hope that being out of the country is a good enough reason to not vote. but then again…

Happy Anniversary!
happy 27 years of life together!

thank you for showing me faithfulness, loyalty, and fidelity.
thank you for showing me how a family works, and doesn’t work, and then apologizes, talks it through, and works again.
thank you for showing me that a promise is a promise.
thank you for having me 11 months after you got married.
thank
you for having a vision for me, and giving me an education which meant
learning how to think and find information on my own.
thank you for
wanting and encouraging one thing for me: that i would find God’s will
for my life and pursue it. i am here in Brasil because of God’s grace
and your blessing.
thank you dad, for being there. for hugs and i love yous and twirling a little girl around and telling her she is beautiful.
thank
you mom for being with me. by my side as i learned cursive in
kindergarten to the passengers side as i happily drove you places.
thank you for creating a place i can come home to, and know i will be spoiled by lots of ice cream and omlets.

i love you both,
Rachel

“Something is broken inside me, and i don’t know how to fix it.”

“Where does it hurt?”

“Right behind my eyes. it makes my nose tingle and my throat tickle. i
swallow alot. sometimes it hurts up high almost to my neck, but then it
seems to go so low i am sure it is below my knees. it makes me take
shallow breathes.”

“When did this begin?”

“Sometimes i beleive it was always there. maybe from before i was born.
and then other things happen and make it worse. or re-agitate it.”

“what do you want me to do about it?”

“Make it go away. make me forget all about it. whipe everything clean
and then let me start with everything fixed. let me know that things
are right and all the wrong was just a misunderstanding.”

“there is no medicine for that.”

“Then tell me what i can do.”

“you can pretend. pretend it is all fixed. if you try hard enough, you
will beleive it. you will forget the pain. it will bury deep and some
days–you will be as free as if you were fixed.”

“and then what?”

“Then, sometime later in your life something will happen and you will
see you are broken again. then you have to choose what to do from
there.”

“Do i have any other choices?”

“You could have surgury, but it will leave a scar.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“Yes. the surgen makes no deals. He opens you up completely and you have no say on what he will do and what will happen next.”

“That doesn’t sound so good.”

“But that’s what you got.”

the internet has been unusually slow lately. which means no myspace, no facebook, no xanga, and maybe hotmail. if i am lucky.

i love potatoes.
with barbaque sauce.
which is what i am eating for dinner.

i made granola today. from Mom’s recipe. it tastes delicious! i even lit the stove and the oven all by myself (no automatic-turn-the-knob kinda things here). i feel so domestic when i cook.
which is probably why i don’t do it very often.
and eat leftover potatoes and bbq sause instead.

more homework from college–an alagory from Plato’s Republic, no less.
so i had to translate the text into English, write my responce in English, translate it into Portuguese, have my friend correct it in Portuguese, and then finally, copy out a final responce (in Brasil, you don’t have to type anything. handwritten lined paper is normal).

i had a good week teaching, with lots of adventures with Max the whiteboard marker and Donna the eraser. we have a big test next week, so that scared the kids into studying. i have found that the older the student, the more i like them. maybe it is the maturity level. maybe i am messed up.

Since we changed the program around, in the afternoons i teach Geography. with ALL the grades–first through ninth. but this week i rediscovered the magic to working with first and second grade–wave around a couple merits before class, and tell them you are watching their every move to see WHO will get the merits. bribery. in all it’s glory. i gladly succumb. and then proptly forgot to give the merits at the end of class. but they forgot too and all was happy.

i get along much better with one of my 4th graders now that i know he was diagnosed with bi-polar something…i forgot the name. but we’ve worked out a system together.

So we are doing a special theme on the Industrial Revolution. Emily came up with the brilliant idea to watch “Newsies.” oh…that girl is amazing. we have also come to that glorious time of the year when we have to start planning the christmas play/production. any ideas anyone? i wanted to do “the Best Christmas Pagent Ever” which, goes down with “The Little Prince” as top Re-reading books, but…it is alittle too complex.

oh, i read Shel Silverstine’s “The Giving Tree” and “The Missing Piece” for my adult English classes…they love it. see? Brasilians have great common sense.

i read “Pagan Christianity” by Viola and Barna…
had conflicting emotions.
apparently, that is normal.
i battled with myself.
i enjoyed the church history.
i cringe at critical things. whether i need them or not.
i loved the parts talking about organic churches. some parts inspired me.
and in the end…
i am not leaving my church.
but i am glad i read it.

“There is perhaps nothing worse than reaching the top of the ladder and discovering that you’re on the wrong wall.” –Joseph Campbell

“A true radical must be a man of roots. In words that i have used elsewhere, “The revolutionary can be an “outsider” to the structure he would see collapse: indeed, he must set himself outside of it. But the rdical goes to the roots of his own tradition. He must love it: he must weep over Jerusalem, even if he has to pronounce its doom.” John A.T.Robinson

so change. change will come. and that is that. walk in the light you have today. that is what God asks us to do.

September 7 is Brasil’s independence day. i am trying to learn the national anthem. my word that thing is a gazillion verses! When they print out the anthem, they don’t even add all the verses. they don’t ever fit. the children laugh at me when i sing during flag raising. uh huh. i was asking about the meaning of the words and one word the kids kept giggling when i said it. apparently, it is something formal like “embracing freedom in your bosom.” i dunno. “bosom” makes me giggle too.