la di da

This is normal. You see a lot more than couches a lot of the time.

One of the girls at the project borrowed my camera for a bit and was taking pictures of everything! She was saying I need to show my friends Brasil. She did a good job taking pictures of random things that me, being white, would look so obviously touristy like if I were to take the picture. She was calling out to people as they passed asking them to smile for a picture!! ha!



This one should go with the picture of the view in Olinda. I saw this guy. He is neat
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Courtney- this is for you. I look sick. But I love the book. THANKS! check out the speedo in the background.



This is a Colmbi. They are everywhere...VW buses. They act as buses and tourist vehicles and, well, like this one- for music. MCC had one for a while when I first got here...but we sold it cuz it was always breaking down.



Douglas on the left...forget his name on the right. Douglas- I love this one! Look at the little beauty mark. We eat lots of mangos from our mango trees.



This is a bad picture of me playing the drums at my church in Janga.



This is the most beautiful place. Everywhere you look you see views like this. It's a view of Recife from "the top" of Olinda. I like how you can see the cute colorful buildings before the view of the city.



Here is a big frog in the interior.



And a little one!



After riding in the back of the truck in the pouring rain just cuz.



This was our roof for a few nights in the interior. My roof now is similar. They neighbors made this light for us while we were there....no electricity normally.



THANKS MADI!!



Mamao (papaya). He's our drunk neighbor friend who sits there at night cuz he doesn't have electricity and reads the kids palms. He funny-cute...always offers to go buy our bread every night.

Sick

We had a unit meeting for all MCCer's in Brasil that started on Wednesday. We drove 4 hours out to Camibinha (sp?), the smalled town ever, and had a huge Thankgiving dinner that night. It was really good. There were 6 of us girls staying in a house. No one lives at this house, but there are a ton of beds. So we squished 4 into one room (wall to wall). Everyone had gone to sleep and we decided to go for a walk. This town reminds me of the Flinestones. There is really nothing there including lights. OH- our house had no electricity but somehow the neighbors wired a light bulb over there for us. So we went walking...SOO DARK. The stars. Oh my gosh. The stars. It was a good time...joking around about the cobras that were gonna get us and listening to the death calls of donkeys and cow bells on cows wondering by. We get back in our room to go to sleep and I lye down. This is officially the first time I have gotten sick in Brasil. I felt so naucious. It only lasted for an hour but BEING SICK IN ANOTHER COUNTRY SUCKS! After I threw up in the toilet that doesn't flush and splashed it all over my legs, oh the relief I felt.
This is all I wanted to tell you. I'm at Priscilla and Solonge's house right now. This is probably my favorite house to be at. Art all over the walls...hand painted. The best food. A padio with a rocking chair. mmmmmmmm

pineapples

Not sure how to get captions right under the photos..so they are here.

Photo 1- Emily, me, and Marta our Portuguese teacher in her house the last day of class. She bought us coxinhas and kuat! mmm!

Photo 2- I think me sitting on my bed in Lagoa. Or maybe it's the pineapples

Photo 3- Look at number 2.

Photo 4- Lagoa Encantada. My home for 6 weeks during Portuguese class. I love it there.

Janga and Bus People

This is my 7th night in Janga. I moved here last Monday. After we dropped Emily off in Olinda at her new home we started for Janga. As we were on our way I was getting more and more excited- the view the whole way was A-mazing. Like the PCH for 30 minutes or so. Passing through Olinda was beautiful, too. Lots of old-European style buildings and more of a small-town feel compared to the huge city of Recife. My house couldn't be better. We live on the second floor. It only has two floors and they have a garage downstairs. Kind of an odd setup, but if you sit on the balcony you can see the 12 story or more old apartment buildings standing behind the dirt road in view. The whole house it really open (very similar to my house in Lagoa). People people people are always here! Eva- the mom- has like 14 siblings. Needo (sp?), the dad, is so fun to be around/always joking. The children's project I work at is about a 8 minute bike ride from my house. It's on the same grounds as the church, but in a building behind it. I've met all the kids already. They are beautiful. I start teaching tomorrow...not exactly sure what I will be teaching...guess I should've planned that already! eiiI! The beach is a 5 minute walk down the street. I know I know. Crazy.

While I was waiting for the bus to come back to Janga from Lagoa today this guy walked by with a huge clock hanging around his neck holding a huge bottle of orange Fanta. I thought he had some purpose for this. I get on the bus and the first bus stop we come to he gets on through the back door...didn't pay. He stood by me for a while. I was holding onto my bags tightly. About 2 minutes later I realized he must be schitzophrenic. I continued watching him. Mental disorders intrigue me. So sad for this guy...20 something years old and alive but living in a make believe world. What are we supposed to do for these people? He got off shortly after and continued talking to his "friends." I kept watching out the window because, well, that's what I always do...you see some pretty interesting things. Today, though, I saw more than I usually do. I saw 3 guys, all different locations, laying part way in the road and sidewalk just rolling around in their drunken state. We stop at another bus stop and I see this woman getting on the bus who appeared to have just ended an arument with her husband who wasn't going to get on the bus. Right before we take off he gets on. Nothing happened...just more drunks today than usual. Maybe it's Sunday's. No one works and everyone gets drunk.

I am tired. I just ate 2 coxhinas and maracuja. Boa Noite!!