My host sister Aline turned 19 yesurday. My neighbor turned 3. Alli got married! I had a good day, but there was this overall bummed-out feeling. I can't believe I missed another wedding. Noel and Alli and soon to be Becca and Jimmy. It's funny to think about possible reasons for all these weddings that I haven't been able to attend because of being here. hmm...
Today is the laziest day. I thought about going into the city or sit in my favorite little cafe. But I'm not sure I feel like riding the bus with my ridiculous sunburn. I am going straight to the doctor when I get home. And will go every 6 months for a skin cancer check. Yesturday Rayanne and I went to the beach. It was by far our most fun adventure at our cute little poor Janga beach. We saw 4 foreigners, which is very rare at this beach. It's probably one of the uglier beaches and has lots of seaweed and you can't see anything under the surface....EWW!! I hate that...Rayanne always has to convince me that I'm not going to get attacked by a shark. She pointed out these 2 Americans that were walking towards us. They sat down in some chairs and Rayanne made a bet that if they were Americans I would give her one Real and if they were European the opposite. 2 minutes later Rayanne is dying laughing. She says, "Megan! She's topless!!" I felt SO embarrassed for this lady. Here, at this beach, and believe-it-or-not at most beaches here you just don't go topless. There are specific places for that. EVERY on was starring at her. She seemed to love it or didn't notice it because she did nothing about it until some lady told her to put her top back on. A few minutes after she became none-topless I went over there. Most awkward conversation of my life. Almost. I won the bet. She's from London...traveling from Sao Paulo up to Recife for a few weeks just to see Brasil. She mentioned how she saw some kids sleeping on the sidewalk and how she didn't know if they were "really starving...I mean, it is just aweful. Aren't there organizations that help this kind of thing here?" Oh man. So then I told her a little bit about this country she was in and how things work here. So ignorant...but I was probably that way when I first got here, too...and probably still am.
You should see my thighs!! RED RED RED! Even the first part of most of my fingers have little red circles on them.
Oh, I forgot to finish our beach adventure. Then there was this 80 yr. old, must have been American, with a one piece bathing suit on, huge belly, and poofy, short, red frizzy hair sticking up a foot in the air who went out way too far in the ocean. We were scared for that one. She must have been blind because the shark warning signs in Portuguese still have a picture of a shark. Easy to understand.
Then we rode our bikes to my house to get some money and then to this restaurant that I always pass on my bike. Delicious. This chicken with some white cheese sauce over it, french fries with parmasan cheese, white rice and Guarana (the best soda ever). We ate until we both got the 'food sweats'. You know what those are? My glass fell of the table and broke. We packaged up the rest of our chicken that we didn't eat and snoock it over to a boy on the street. The owner of the restaurant doesn't allow you to give the food to the kids hanging around the outside beggin people for stuff. So Rayanne snook it over to him and then I see him walking by with this huge thing "hidden" under his shirt. HA! No...not obvious at all...as the waiter was giving me this strange look. hehehehe!
Finally, we rode our bikes back in the pouring rain in the sunshine. It was beautiful and we were laughing a lot about our day.
"Whatever's in front of me help me to sing Hallelujah..."

Mosquitos eat you ALIVE! I slept 30 min. last night.

Rayanne and I went to buy mosquito repellent and eggs last night. We rode our bikes to the store and locked them up outside. I go to pay at the register and the lady is just looking at me a smiling. I'm like, "what?" Then she says something and I didn't understand the words she was using so I called Rayanne over. She told her (and I understood when she was talking to her) that I need to pay for the eggs. I'm like, "Ya! I know! Ring 'em up!" Then she types a few numbers into the register and tells me the price. So weird...I am still confused. Did she think I wasn't going to pay or something? Not my first time at a supermarket in Brasil lady. okaaay...
So then we go out to get on our bikes to ride down the long dirt-mud-large-pond road to her house. I forgot the stupid keys! All the employees are watching us and laughing and we are too. So some guy says he'll watch them for us while we WALK all the way to her house and then back again. Other piece of info- I had gone on a LONG bike ride yesturday morning, rode to the project, after the project rode to the big grocery store about 15-20 mintues away on bike and back...past my house 10 more minutes to Rayanne's. I was tired. So we walk back and Rayanne says, "Megan, we need a camera everytime we go out together. Something crazy always happens and we have a good laugh and I need to show how Americans act. (laughing)"
That is all.

Demorar Muito

My host parents, Ivandete and Nido, his 3 yr old daughter Alana and I left the house at 8 this morning. They were driving to the city for the doctor and I needed to go to the MCC house today so I went along. About 20 minutes of driving we stopped at a gas station. Did you know that lots of cars here run on propane? Well, at least I think it's propane. They call it natural gas, which is the same stuff they use at home for the stove, so I'm assuming it's propane. I know nothing about this kind of thing. Anyway, it's a lot cheaper. We get back in the car. Oh ya, because everyone has to get out of the car when filling the tank with this kind of gas...higher risk of explosion. We try to reverse. All but first gear weren't working. We continue down the freeway in 1st gear with city buses passes us on both sides, cars honking and weaving around us. We go for about 10 minutes when Deborah (their 23 yr old daughter who is married to a 55 yr old...they have money) called. I had prayed a few minutes before this moment for something to work out even if the gears weren't ever going to switch and I felt at peace about our little situation... Ivandete had a doctor's appt. which is really hard to get and she is in great need of surgery. Deborah happened to be on the opposite side of the freeway in the exact same spot as us. Thank you Lord! We parked our car at another gas station and got into her air-conditioned brand new one. They dropped me off in Derby, which is another place in the city where you can catch any bus you need. I asked someone at a bus stop if my bus was going to pass there and she said yes. After standing in the POURing rain for an hour with my umbrella that didn't help much because of the sideways angle the rain was falling and being splashed by the buses that zoom to a halt right in front of the bus stop where there is a foot of water in the gutter, I decided to ask another guy about my bus again. "No, neither of the buses you need will pass here. You need to take this bus back to the city or you can walk there and there and get this bus...lalalalal!" I walked around the corner and jumped into an air conditioned taxi and found my way to the Sede. 3 hours later I've arrived at my destination.

This little boy and his donkey brought my new dresser over that I ended up throwing away because it too had mold.

Packages are the best.

You can ignore my pregnant belly.
So it turned out that all of my clothes were actually filled with...mold! Green and white puffy mold growing on everything. On my belt, suitcase and all the clothes inside of that, my bookshelf that I've been using as my dresser. We threw that away and washed all of my clothes twice. Now I have been sleeping in Aline's room for over a week because everything is being stored on my bed. My host dad took the whole roof off and put a plastic sheet under it so it won't rain inside anymore. I couldn't believe he did that!

Emily and I went to the interior from last Thursday until Monday. It was the longest trip home. Took a taxi to the bus station, the 2 hour freezing cold bus to Recife, walked 20 minutes to the next bus with my 3 large bags sweat dripping into my eyes, and caught my final 1.3 hour bus back to Janga. Then ran to the project an hour late! While we were in Monteiro (5 hours west of Recife) we vaccinated over 100 little chickens. There is this huge Catholic organization that helps in lots of different areas here and one is organic farming/agriculture. Betty, an MCCer who has been here for 24 years, works with them and lots of other organizations having to do with agriculture as well. We bought these huge glass bottles of honey from her. It makes my tea taste so better.