Look at those stars!

I'm not sure why, but about 4 years ago, I really started to love stars.  Some think they're not quite as entertaining because "they're just stars" -cough cough- but there's something about just laying on the ground on a summer night and looking up at the stars that I LOVE.  Sometimes I look for constellations, or make up my own, or watch for shooting stars (not to be confused with lightning bugs... lolz), and other times I just like to lay on the ground, in silence.  I know, sounds glorious right? Laying in dirt getting eaten alive by mosquitoes... what's not to love!?

Anyway, last night the stars here were GLORIOUS! I couldn't stand it.  It was almost making me sick just looking at them because of how beautiful it was!  Last year whenever the stars were especially bright, I would try to take a picture of them.  I always imagined it looking something like this:


Unfortunately, my pictures always turned out like this:   

I even had a pal from good ol' TIU that would "take pictures of the stars" and send them to me..... they were all black screens. Sweet.

Anyway, its been an exciting couple of weeks!
I've been able to have "full responsibility" for teaching the 5th and 6th graders and its been great. I like to call it full "POWER" because it makes me feel like I'm real cool.

My cooperating teacher :)

Last weekend, after a little fender bender, a few other teachers and friends and I went out to Poco Azul (blue well).  After a B-E-A-UTIFUL hike/ walk/ stroll, we got to the waterfall.  We took turns jumping (only off the high cliff because the low cliff is for sissys), "grabbed" some lunch,  walked under the waterfall, practiced skipping rocks with human targets (yes, my friend Dawna actually hit the director of our school square in the forehead), and went exploring.  :)

Pose was my idea... lolz

The trail to the falls :)

Teacher friends after we chowed.

A few days later, all of the staff from school went out to a real-life Brazilian steak house. I don't think I've ever seen so much meat in my entire life.  About every 2 minutes (or less), a waiter would come by with a different type or cut of meat and you can take as much as your little heart desires! Speaking of hearts, yes, I ate chicken heart.  One other thing they had which I've learned to love since being here was sushi, sushi. sushi, out the wazoo! They even had sushi with fruit inside! Even KIWI! "Delicious and Nutritious!"  This was a highly controversial topic at the table because fruit sushi isn't "real sushi," but I still love it. 

Brazilians eat chicken hearts like popcorn... handfulls at a time. (Joking)

Since March is "Reading Month," we had a reading celebration on the last day of the month.  Top readers from each grade got prizes and there was a big celebration complete with water games.  After all the organized events were over, it turned into a mad dash to get every person who was anywhere on school property, drenched.  I lasted about 30 seconds.  This 2 hour water fight ended with an impromptu dance party complete with the electric slide, cupid shuffle and the classic YMCA!

dancing in action

This week we had parent-teacher conferences at school... our first three conferences consisted of four different languages!  

Also, this coming week the high school soccer team will be playing against parents and teachers.... can't wait to brush up on my street skillz. 

"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).