Sweeping the Clouds Away

Today is a bright and sunny Brazilian day! No hint of rain, and everyone is all dried off from the past two days. Yep, things are back to normal here in ol' Recife.

Eliane is my last reader tonight at 5:00p (we end early on Wednesday because of church). It's her final reading session. :( Our work here really is ending. Over the next two days, we'll be saying goodbye to lots of people. Not everyone will show up to the party. (--or will they?!... No, they won't.) I am glad that God has been using us to reach His people here, and I know that His work in their lives will continue, even if our part is done. But it's still sad to say goodbye to everyone!

Okay, enough depression for one post. We went to the beach on our lunch break today. How awesome is it that I can even say that? Saturday is our last day off, and we might just spend it relaxing on the beach with some açai one last time.

If you want to see something cool, go look at Kensey's first post and then the last few posts with pictures of us. You wouldn't even know those were the same people if they weren't on the same blog!

If you want to see something cooler, stay on my blog. It's just cooler overall.

The Final Countdown (Ba-na-naaa-nuh! Ba-na-na-na-nuhhh!)

The past two days have been rainy and slow. Yesterday, it rained all day long! It was the first time we've experienced that kind of rain here. Usually, rain comes for a few minutes, then it clears out. Our rainy days up to this point have been on-and-off with some sunshine mixed in. But this was a Memphis rain. A hard, drenching downpour for hours and hours. Of course, that meant that some of our readers couldn't make it. Not that they didn't want to come, but traffic is so bad here when it rains that it takes some of them hours to get here. But we still did all the work we could, and those that could make it had very good sessions.

Today wasn't rainy all day, but it comes and goes. The sun hasn't come out all day, though, and I think that has stopped everyone from recovering from yesterday. Pray that we have a bright and sunny tomorrow so everybody can get back to normal!

It's really starting to set in that our time here is almost over. Some of my readers only have one session left. It's hard to believe that we have to go back to the States. To me, it seems like we have been here for much longer than six weeks, but in a good way. We have gotten to know several people here well, and we are comfortable spending time with them. We have also gotten used to our living arrangements and how things work in daily life around here. I will have a hard time using water from the faucet when I get back home. I'll also get a sudden craving for suca de graviola or cajá or some delicious Guaraná, but, alas, there will be none to be found.

We decided that our final party on Friday will be a pizza party. We wanted to have a talent show, but everyone's too shy to perform! Hopefully, we can convince Dayanne to play her violin and David to sing, but most of the time will probably be spent playing games and having fun with the group. That's fine with us--last week's party was a lot of fun!

Sunday, the church is having a farewell lunch for us, and everyone is going to see us off at the airport. We are hoping that as many of our readers as possible can come, because we want to see them before we head back.

I have one last reader tonight (Ronaldo), and then it's back to the apartment for dinner and some much-needed sleep. One week from tomorrow, we'll be back in Memphis, Tennessee!

PS- My sunburned arms are peeling. Gross!

Missing Pictures

I know I haven't kept my promise about the pictures, but I have a good excuse. Kathy made an unplanned visit to the States, and she took her laptop with her. That's where I had all my pictures so far saved. I haven't uploaded them again (or any of the new ones I've taken), because I am very impatient. And don't tell me that Kensey has done it, because she uploads pictures three times a day.

This weekend, we spent some time with a few of our readers. Since this is our last full weekend before we leave, it was really good to be able to do that. Yesterday, after our reading sessions to make up for our day off on Monday, we went to a movie with Dayanne and Pietro. We had our first (but not last!) Brazilian bus ride! It was pretty much what you'd expect, except there's a cashier sitting there when you walk on, and the bus flies down the street about 6 inches from obstacles such as other buses and pedestrians.

The movie, by the way, was The Happening (or Fim Dos Tempos, as it's called here--"End of Times"). I know this isn't a movie review blog, but I'll just tell you anyway. Don't go see it. If you want to see it, wait for it to come out on DVD. But if you never see it, you're not missing out. This is coming from a huge M. Night fan. I don't know what he was thinking, but this is is worst movie so far.

Today, we went with Everton, David, and Thalles to their home city, very close to Olinda. We actually rode the bus through Olinda on the way. It was beautiful and historic, from what we could see out of the bus windows. Then we spent the day at Everton's house. His mother made us a delicious lunch, and we went down the the beach. Kensey found two dead crabs. Her hands probably still stink.

After that, we hung out at Everton's house until it was time for church. There were lots of people there, and we went to what seemed to be a service for younger people. Today was their Valentine's Day (Dia dos Namorados) party. We had a couple of people translating for us, and it was fun to watch. They played a few couples games, and some people told their stories of how they met. Everton's sister sang a song she wrote for her boyfriend (awww). She has a beatiful voice, and he was very happy about his song!

Thalles and his dad drove us all the way back to Boa Viagem. That was very nice of them, as it's about 40 minutes from there to here. Now, we're all very tired. Tomorrow starts our last week of work. It's very strange, and it hasn't sunk in that we'll be leaving here in 7 days. I'll let you know when it does.

Happy Father's day, dad! I tried to call, but it was busy. Love you!

Masters of the Universe

This was my reading schedule last week. We have a break in the middle of the day because our readers come in the morning and late afternoon/evening. As you can see, most of mine come later. This wasn't my busiest week, but it's pretty normal. I took a picture of all three of ours, but I didn't want everyone else to be embarassed because they had so little work to do compared to me. Ha ha. Ha.

Actually, we're all pretty busy most days, and our schedule never actually happens as planned. People show up for surprise reading sessions, readers cancel, schedules get mixed up, it rains. All part of the exciting, ever-changing world of mission work!

Yesterday, we had a little bit of a scare about our visas. We noticed before we came here that our visas were only for 30 days. Our trip is for six weeks. In order to get an extension, you have to go to the consulate (or whatever that place is) 3 days before your visa expires. For us, that meant yesterday (since we were in Porto de Galinhas on Monday). So, we went with Lee and Enaus. When we arrived, we were informed by the guard that you can't wear shorts in the building. Guess which two Americans were wearing shorts? William and I waited outside while Kensey went in with Lee.

While we waited, we saw lots of people coming in and out, and none of them were wearing shorts. However, we did see a big American guy with a tank top and lots of tattoos. If you're keeping up with the rules about Brazilian federal buildings at home, remember:

Shorts, unacceptable. Sleeveless shirts, totally fine.

When Kensey came out with Lee, she said, "We have to leave tomorrow." I stared at her in disbelief. Then she started laughing. Yes, that's right. Kensey got us. She played a little prank, and it worked.

By the way, here's a picture of Kensey telling me to turn off the camera.

Anyway, Lee and Kensey explained that it was all fine. Even though our visas from the States said 30 days, they had been stamped for 90 days. Well, mine and Kensey's had. William's customs officer was obviously paying close attention, because his was only stamped for 30 days.
So, he had to go back today (with pants) and get an extension. But he got it no problem, and we're good to go for the rest of our trip!

Right now, we're listening to a CD of songs from Northeastern Recife that João, one of my readers, made for us. It's great! So far, it's what you'd expect if someone told you they were going to play a CD of traditional Brazilian music. We don't understand a word of it, but it's fun to listen to!

My sunburn is slowly going away and revealing the bronze skin of some sort of mythical hero. Okay, it's not much different than it was before, but the burn is getting better. And in case any of you are wondering, no, I have not learned capoeira, and, yes, I am sad about that.

PS- I told William about this and he thought I should put it on my blog. One of my readers was talking about Lazarus and how, after a few days in the tomb, he was starting to stinketh. She was trying to explain how he was starting to decompose, and she wanted to say that we was turning into a skeleton, but she just said, "He will become... Skeletor." If that made you laugh like I did, you had a great childhood.

Not My Type

I complained about using a funny keyboard here, and Paul Skidmore wanted to see a picture of it. This is the Brazilian keyboard at the school. I don't know if they use this all over the world or only in Portuguese-speaking countries or what, but it takes some getting used to. The most obvious change is the Ç in place of the semicolon/colon. That doesn't affect much, though I do use semicolons more often than you'd think. The biggest annoyance is the apostrophe/quotes. Can you find it? It's waaay up in the corner, next to the 1. I don't know how many times I've typed a tilde instead of an apostrophe. A close second place is the return (Enter) key. It's shaped all funny to make room for the extra keys, and you have to stretch farther to hit it.

I can see how it's handy for typing in Portugese, though. It's very helpful when I want to type words like açaí or Guaraná.

Yes, that's really it for today.