"oh yeaaaah!"

Today I was just sitting, grading my students' most recent assignment: how-to papers. Working with these students has been such a unique experience. They all have such different personalities, yet they are all such a joy to be around. Yes, they do test my patience, but I've found that it is hard to stay frustrated with any of them.

This past week I guess they had started to feel comfortable around me, because they started to point out things about my teaching style or personality that I do... "ALL THE TIME." One thing in particular that they like to laugh about is how much I say "oh yeaaa!" (Especially when they get a math problem correct). Anyway, I was reading one of the how-to papers written by one of our ESL students about how to play cricket (which is very popular in his home country). I was almost at the end of the paper and was starting to feel frustrated with the multiple grammar and mechanical writing mistakes. Then I read the next sentence where he described the feeling in cricket when you hit the ball, the "fieldsman" doesn't catch the ball and your teammates celebrate, "oh yesss!" (this was his version of my favorite celebration)

Times like this help me see how "a cheerful heart is good medicine..." (Prov. 17:22)

50/50?

This is the amount of days until I will be able to drive again, and eat peanut butter by the spoonful, and wear t-shirts without feeling like a hobo, and not be looked down upon if I forget to shower one morning, and send text messages.

It is also the amount of days until I will NOT be able to teach 11 awesome 5th and 6th graders, and talk about Jesus with them whenever I want, and eat delicious and nutritious fruit that doesn't even exist in the US, and wear skirts and heels to school without feeling overdressed, and show up 15 minutes late and not feel guilty because the event hasn't even started, and play soccer at recess, and learn new words in Portuguese from Raquel that help improve my street smarts, and have so many laughs with my new big sister Dawna, and go running in the middle of the highway every sunday afternoon, and go through red lights like it's my job(or whoever is driving's job), and be able to learn from the love, hospitality, and desire to be a servant that each and every Brazilian that I have met, has had.

Tchau gente!

"GENTE!"

WOWz So much has happened.

Two weeks ago was our "spring break." It was actually the week of Carnivale here in Brazil so we just had school off. Carnivale is a huge celebration in Brazil, (celebrated in Rio especially)

right up there with any big soccer game. People dress in all sorts of costumes and have a parade and dance and do whatever they want as it is right before Lent. When Lent comes around, they ask forgiveness for whatever they did during Carnivale.... interesting.

Because of this great holiday, lots of churches

here offer camps and retreats during this week as an alternative. That's what I did :) I went with two other teachers from BIS... Raquel, the Portuguese teacher, and Dawna, the 3rd and 4th grade teacher. The camp was about an hour away from my house in Brasilia. It was just like any camp in the US, but without the forest, seaweedy lake, log cabins, or endless permission slips.

One thing about Brazilians that I don't understand: their eating schedule. Here's

what a typical day of meals at camp looked like:

9:00am- Breakfast (lots of bread with ham and cheese, cakes, warm chocolate milk)

12ish- Lunch (always a big meal with lots of meat, rice and beans, fresh vegetables, some type of delishh fruit juice)

3:00ish- "Snack" (sandwiches, cake, bread and cheese...)

6:00ish- Dinner (spaghetti, rice and beans, fruit, more bread...)

11 to 12- "Snack" The first night we were there, it was easily after midnight. Raquel (who goes to the church that we were there with), went to talk to some

friends, so Dawna

and I (the two Americans) were just standing around. Out of nowhere, everyone starts appearing with these HUGE hamburgers. I'm talking bigger than I could eat for two meals... and it's after midnight... but EVERY single person is just chowing down. When I saw that burger,

my jaw just dropped. lolzzz

Dawna also brought her slack line to camp. Slack lining is what all the hipsters are into these days, so clearly I love it (sarcasm). It's pretty much a combination

of a trampoline and a tight rope. We set it up over the pool... it was so fun laughing at each other fal

ling off and trying (and failing) to walk across.

Everyone else at the camp was Brazilian. All of the messages were in Portuguese. Some people knew a

little bit of English, but for the most part, I relied on someone translating. I starting feeling very

lost and dumb when people would try to say something to me and I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. I got really frustrated at times because not being able to communicate is such a foreign thing for me (punny... I know). We mostly go through our lives and strive towards independence. Growing up, we can't wait to do things on our own or to move away from home.

I was talking with my host mom the other day

and she said, "so besides your independence, what do you miss the most?" I hadn't really though about it before then, but living in Brazil, I rely on other people for everything. I need rides, I'm staying with a family, eating meals with them, following other people's schedules...
This reminded me how in our relationship with God, we are supposed to RELY on Him. It is so easy to go through life relying on ourselves. We have our jobs, cars, homes, routines and everything else so set that we don't need help from anyone!

I started to get frustrated by the fact that I don't have much freedom, but then I realized that

this is training me not to be dependent on my own strength.
"It is better to trust in the LORD than to trust in man." Psalm 118:8

* Gente... Brazilians use this word as we, in the US would say "guys" or "us." It has become my favorite word in portuguese because it is pronounced jjjench... (facial expressions encouraged to enhance pronunciation).

It's mango season!

The time has come for me to describe all of the delicious and nutritious cuisine, cookery, chow, and confection that I have been consuming. Let me start by saying that in general, the food here is d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. The mom of the host family that I'm staying with is an excellent cook (don't worry mom, I still like your cooking best), and she's put together a few Brazilian food "experiences" for me to try.

The first day I got to Brazil, I had pao de queijo which literally

means "cheese bread." I have no idea how

they make these, but it's bread on the outside with cheese in the middle that's really soft and almost sticky. We have these about every week at each staff meeting at school :)

Pao de queijo

Looks: 8

Taste:8

In Brasilia, they have these places called feiras, (pronounced feta). They're open markets where people can set up booths (or rent out a booth) and sell pretty much anything.

Also, if they see you looking at

whatever they are selling, they can AND WILL come up to you and ask multiple times, in portuguese, if you

would like to try it on/ look at it closer/ taste it. They also have lots of different types of foods there :) The first time my host family and I went to just a small market in the middle of Brasilia and got "tapioca." It's made from the same root as tapioca pudding, but they grind it up and cook it like a pancake and then stuff it with cheese, coconut, and fruity goodness. (The one on the left is plain, the one on the right is cheese, coconut and mango)

Tapioca

Looks: 5

Taste: 8

Probably one of the strangest vegetables I've ever tried.....

It's called chuchu (shoe-shoe). I think it tastes like the "trunk" of broccoli, but it looks like a green brain on the outside before it's cut up! Chuchu is grown here, so it's really cheap and people who grow it in their yards like to give it away to Americans who are afraid of any green food.

(Pictures are before and after it's cooked)

Chuchu

Looks: 5

Taste: 6

I'm not going to get into all of the scrumptious fruits they have here that I've never even heard of because that could take all day and I still have lesson plans to prepare for tomorrow. After all of this, I might just teach them about all of the junk food we eat in the US... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2092071/Stacey-Irvine-17-collapses-eating-McDonalds-chicken-nuggets-age-2.html

Most importantly... here in Brazil, mangos (my fave fruit) are in season!!

Mango

LOOKS: 10

TASTE: 10

#morePLEASE