Community Garden Underway!

Yayyy! The garden is coming along quite nicely! My big project I choose for this internship was creating a community garden. It is located behind the church on land that is not currently being used. The idea is to involve both church members and the community, giving half of the garden plots to people in our church and the rest to people in the surrounding community. I am hoping to use the garden as a way to connect to others outside the church. I am sooo pumped!

A friend of ours, Region, is helping me construct it, lots of work. Today we leveled out the area we had staked out. I have not worked that hard since last summer. Region can't speak English and I can't speak Portuguese. haha fun times. Anyway so he was worried and I told him not to worry since last summer at my internship with Brickman, landscaping company, I was doing the same work and with a bunch of guys who could only speak spanish. I'm a pro by now. It has been very cool working with him so far. Also he picks me up and we go everywhere on his motorcycle. Love it!!

We are starting off with ten plots and then will expand later if it goes well. I am funding the project which means you are funding it too!! People are excited about it and very willing to help out however. We had a guy level out big piles of dirt for us and then donate the frame for the plots. Oh so that is neat. The frames for the plots are made out of the adobe tiles! I am working with a great team. Region who is incredibly crafty, and Denise is a agronomy major and as owned a plant shop in the past. She has lots of experience with plants of the area and organic gardening. She said I will have lettuce by the time I leave, we shall see!

Regional Retreat

The retreat the youth are planning are for youth in the surrounding area. So proud of them! All of them have been working so hard at planning it all out. They have decided it will be a weekend deal in Itu. Host families will keep the kids at their houses and get them to the daily activities. The theme is relationships with others and God. Besides lessons and break out discussion groups there will be a afternoon of community service. Also they have a huge scavenger hunt planned as well. A few of the guys have volunteered to help teach the lessons and preach on Sunday morning, BIG STUFF!! Debora, my beloved Lar friend is in charge of the schedule and contacting people. Each one of them has really taken it upon themselves to make this event great, so many meetings they have had to discuss everything. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!

Staying in igloos by the beach, what?!

Our youth group has been blowing me away with all that they have been doing! Our hopes for the group were that they would get to the point of pouring into others instead of just being on the receiving end. They have definitely taken on the challenge and are loving it! Here are some events that have been happening...

Mission Trip to Praia Grande: Goal to reach out to new youth group there and encourage them. Mark, Ali, Carol and I planned the trip but got suggestions from our youth. Youth group did multiple fundraisers to help pay for the trip and the activities that would take place there. Some of these fundraisers were... Japanese dinner at church, selling pizzas in the community and making/selling necklaces at the local hippie fair. It was neat watching them design and make the necklaces, each had their own special touch.

We loaded up the cars and a kombi (vw van) and took off. It was near Sao Paulo and a beach town! Once we got there we found out the kids were a lot younger than ours. We all adjusted our lessons and gave our kids some pep talks reminding them that they were once at this stage. Our youth responded wonderfully and bonded with the other youth group. A few bumps throughout the trip but great first step. I really liked watching our kids speak up during discussion groups and sharing all that they had learned so far.

Beach was beautiful and our kids grew even closer to each other! We all had a lot of fun in the waves and just hanging out on the beach. Good bonding time! Two new kids in our youth group found their spot in the group, so happy to see the group coming together and forming deeper relationships. At the end our kids left with the confidence to plan a retreat all on their own!

Part II

Then immediately head to the meeting, which had already started. Realized I forgot toothpaste, ewww dirty teeth. Reached the church and meet everyone, so warm and friendly! The meetings all day were sooo great, Jerry and Gail are kind of like the mentors for these three missionary couples, all from Sao Paulo. A lot of the meetings are about teamwork and leadership qualities, everything I learned in college. You can imagine how excited I was, finally working with something I know. They told me to jump in if I wanted to, and Gail translated for me. One meeting was about the conflict they were having with each other and the 2 couples that were in charge of leadership of the church. (5 couples in all). It was neat hearing about struggles and really being able to see peoples true feelings and personalities.

The rest of the trip went fantastic! Junior and Patricia the couple letting my stay at their house were wonderful. They treated me like a little princess. One point I wasn’t sure what juice I wanted to Junior ordered me FOUR. By the end of the trip I was calling them Mom and Dad! They showed me the sites, I post most of my pictures on facebook but will try to get a few on here. This blog is a pain when it comes to uploading pictures! Brasilia is known for its architecture and it being a planned city. The city is in the shape of an airplane and is divided up into sections. All the government buildings in one area, all the apartments in another and so on. Also the apartments (just have apartments in the city) can not have balconies and all are off the ground. Cool huh? Each couple made lunch for my at their house, all amazing cooks. Those couples were such an encouragement and so uplifting to be around. I was able to hear their stories and about their life now and wow they are on fire for the Lord! They have been in training for 2 years and are so excited to get things going!

Birthday Bash

Bus trip to Brasilia

I am so glad I was able to come here, it has been really uplifting so far, feeling a bit recharged. The bus ride here was quite an adventure, good and bad. So Phyllis wasn’t able to take me and I had to take the bus from itu to campinas. Ali dropped me off and right before leaving Thomas insisted on going as well. When we got to the bus station he helped me get all my luggage and such to the bus…side note on the way back to Maktub from the Circus Bruno and Thomas insisted on walking us the short way to our apartment. So sweet! Anyway so he takes me to the bus platform and then hands me a little velvet red bag. I opened it up and it was a thin gold bracelet! It was my birthday present! I thought my heart would burst! I couldn’t believe he got me a birthday present awwww. After that great moment my bus doesn’t show until 20 minutes past the original time. haha and then we switched buses twice. The whole time I am so confused but am paying attention to people that seem to be in my group, ended up working okay but I was quite nervous, I admit.

So take the bus to Campinas get off at their big bus station, take the escalator to the shopping/ eating area and walked around, with my rolly bag, the thing 3 times trying to find the bathroom haha. Find it and then stare at the sign for at least 5 minutes seeing how much I have to pay to use it andddd I have to bust out the Portuguese phrase book! embarrassing but little did I know it wouldn’t compare to getting dinner. After handling that I decided to get something to eat and I only have an hour. I look around and the lines are crazy long! I pick an Italian place that has the shortest line. Get in line and after 10- 15 minutes a lady comes up with a menu and asked me what I would like. I tell her I want lasagna. Well it happens to be a place where you pick out every ingredient! Ahhh. We try to communicate, unsuccessfully, and then she just tells me when I get up there to point at things. Oh and by this time everyone in line is aware I only speak English and am holding up the line so I am getting a few dirty looks along with “oh that poor girl” look as well. I get up there and somehow find out they don’t have lasagna! Then the cook lady starts losing her patience and starts speaking very harshly to me. I want to just run away and go somewhere else but by this time I only have 20 min and am to the point of extreme frustration. I am not about to let this lady be rude to me and run me off, I have stood in her line for over 30 min and I am going to get food! haha The woman behind me and the lady who takes the orders in line both help me and somehow I get through the line. It was a horrible experience! Then I get my food and it doesn’t even taste good but I eat most of it knowing I won’t have another chance to eat for 13 hours. haha at this point I just want to cry and hurry and get on the bus. The lady was incredibly mean!

Then I go to get on my bus and you have to go through a little security thing and the guy realizes or guesses I am American so he tries talking to me and makes sure I know where to go. This guy doesn’t even speak English well and I don’t even ask for help and he cares enough to double check that I am okay, goes out of his way. So after that I am able to smile again and be okay. Well I get down and my platform says 14-17, something the guy had pointed out, thank goodness. I had thought I was suppose to go to the number which was actually my bus seat. haha

Wow this thing is long

I end up getting help from a very nice bus driver, he tells me to just look at the sign on the bus to know which one to take and then he winks at me. I love it when people wink at me! He was a cute older man. haha this is so much I know but it just doesn’t end. So my bus comes about 10 min late and I go to get on and a grouchy old man who takes the tickets to board points at a part of the ticket I am suppose to fill out and he won’t let me on or help me/explain. So I get out of line and see some bus drives standing out and one of them talks to the guy trying to convince him to let me on. No luck so he finds someone who speaks English and that guys fills it out for me. So nice. Then the guys taking tickets still won’t let me on and so both of them are arguing with him. One of them pushes me on the bus and the old grouchy man just rolls his eyes and lets me on. O goodness it was a mess. But I was mainly just excited I had people who were taking care of me! They were great.

So I get on the bus and a guy in his thirties sits beside me and he doesn’t smell bad so I am relieved. haha He doesn’t try to talk to me either which I am grateful for, exhausted by Portuguese at that point. The bus ride was okay besides the fact that it is FREEZING! I was in a ball in my seat trying to stay warm. I had brought a light jacket but it wasn’t enough. At the next stop I get one of the guys to get my luggage out from under the bus and I get a long sleeve shirt and another t-shirt. Try to sleep but can’t, I even have my laptop case on top of my legs to help keep me warm and then my backpack leaning up against my legs. I looked quite silly. Around 2 am we stop at a rest stop and I jump off and buy a ski jacket looking thing. Pink by the way haha. not much of a selection, the only one in my size. Good price but I wasn’t too worried b/c I was miserable. Get back on the bus and it helped a lot, still not able to be warm enough but I caught some sleep here and there. Had a conversation with the guy beside me in Portuguese. That was cool, and found out he was freezing too, awww and he bought me a water at one point. Cool guy. Get to Brasilia and Gail is waiting for me. Yay no problems there.

Brasilia Team

April 7th! Birthday!!

Today is the wonderful day I was born and also the FFA land judging contest. Good luck to Texas FFA especially MP and Chapel Hill :) I have to share my birthday with FFA every year since my dad has to take his team to compete. Something came to mind this morning when I woke up, how wonderful it is I have had another year to live. My friend Corey had such a short time here and I am very blessed. It reminded me to make the most of the time I have here. I could go on more but we are off to look for dresses. My birthday party is tomorrow. Girls' night, wear your favorite dress, dinner, and then bowling. Any yes you can go bowling in a dress, I say so ;)

Carnival- Camp

As many of you know, Carnival is a huge deal in Brazil and supposedly a thing that pops into your head when you think of Brazil. In Brazil when Carnival comes around most churches go on a retreat somewhere away from festivities. I have to admit I was a bit sadden to not get to go see Carnival but I trust every single person that told me it is incredibly crazy party and there are lots of things that I would not want to be a part of or see. Soooo we took our youth to a camp about 8 or 10 hours away. The reason I can't tell you exactly how long is because we never made the trip there or back in one solid chunk of time. You know what conclusion I came to? If at least one thing does not go wrong in anything we plan then we would have no idea what to do with ourselves. haha We had about 16 kids go and we took two cars and van which happen to be an old Volkswagen. Hilarious. Okay so if any of you have ever seen Little Miss Sunshine then you can somewhat imagine what we went through. That van broke down so much! So many good times. So the biggest time was the first break down. We were only about an hour and an half out when we smelled this intense burning smell. We ended up having to pull over and the guys pushed the van to this car dealership. There some guys looked at it and told us it was only a small repair, they would call a guy they knew and have us back on the road in an hour. Hahaha yea right! The guy comes from his house and looks at it and tell us he needs to pull us to his shop not to far away. We soon found out he meant to pull us with his little bitty car. He attaches us to his car by a rope and off we go. Somehow we made it to his shop, the rope only broke once but his shop was on a hill so he had to gun it up the slope in order to pull us up into his shop. There happen to be a car sitting by the drive and when he gunned it our van ran into the car and scrapped along it. Thankfully the car the van ran into was already totaled and the guy promised to touch up our van. He said he wouldn't be able to finish before 10 that night so Pe, a intern for the month, called his family who lived nearby and we stayed with them. Crazy, right?! We got to the camp a day late but all was well. The kids had a blast, not at first though. The camp was very conservative. The theme was something about Discipline, not exactly the thing teens what to talk about. Ali and Mark pointed out the importance of pouring into others not just being poured into so the youth took that and changed their attitude. It was a really proud moment of us, seeing the youth make the most the situation :) So many stories but way to long. Some of favorite memories from that camp would be hanging out with a bunch of 7 and 8 year old girls. I had decided to skip a lesson because I was reaching my breaking point with portuguese and these two little girls just come up to me and start talking to me. After realizing I didn't speak Portuguese, they each grabbed one of my hands and took off, from there is history. They were great and their grandmas were cooks so I got extra goodies and servings! We even played soap soccer on a blow up thing which I hope to get some pics of from Carol's camera and post on here. Fun sight, me with a bunch of little girls slipping, sliding, and busting it non stop. It was fun and meet lots of cool people. The director also asked me before I left if I would consider coming to work for his church and their youth after I finished in Itu. He was a great guy and I was honored he asked me to look into it. After a fun filled time at camp we headed back. Had one other big break down with the van. Luckily a guy at the gas station had a used part of the piece that we needed in the back of his car, thank you Lord, and after that we made it back safe and sound. It was such a neat trip though and had good quality bonding time. Yayyy for bonding!

Whoop!

Carol is here!!! I've been waiting a month for this girl to get here and God finally sent her my way :) We picked her up from Sao Paulo at 4 am this morning. Oh it was an adventure! haha The hotel we stayed at looked like it belonged in an airplane. You had to back your way into the bathroom, shower was see through, and the shower door opened up right beside the double bed which had a single bed directly over it. Kinda like a bunk bed. It was great and we laughed and laughed! Ali, Manu, and I picked Carol up from the sketch bus station wearing party hats. Manu protected us, no worries. It has been a packed day and now we are off to play pool. I have a roomie tonight, be excited!!

View from my apartment window! 4th Floor!

Mark & Ali- the couple I work under!

My place is right by a hospital so I get to hear sirens all the time haha Also even though I am a dog lover there are a couple of dogs I would like to ship off to the other end of the earth! The front desk staff is so sweet! Btw my roomie gets here late tomorrow night!! Whoop!

The Lar

I'm so so excited to have the opportunity to serve at the orphanage, The Lar, that is about 20 minutes outside of Itu! We went to visit to talk about getting some people from church involved and while we were there I had so much fun. The kids didn't care if I wasn't able to speak Portuguese and they weren't looking to have an in depth conversation, they just wanted someone to love on them, play with their hair or swing them around. That I can do :) After we left I had a strong desire to get more involved than just every few weeks or going with a group to put on a program. I wanted to really spend some quality time there. So Mark and I talked and then set up a meeting with the new director to see how I could be more involved. Earlier in the week before meeting up with the director, a sweet girl, Deborah, came to Sunday school. She spoke English pretty well and I soon found out that she was from The Lar! Her parents are house parents and so she lives at the orphanage pretty much 24/7. We became great friends and she has decided to be involved with the youth group on a regular basis, praise the Lord! Deborah came in this past weekend and stayed with me so she wouldn't miss out on all the youth activities. Fun bonding time!! She has to ride the bus anytime she wants to come to Itu and the route stops running right about the time youth activities start up. It was such a blessing she stayed with me because she had no problem with me picking her brain about how I could serve the orphanage the best and what the kids truly needed. So I came up with the plan to work directly with the houses, rotating every week I go. This way I have a smaller amount of kids I can focus on, help out the house parents with their daily routine or anything to help catch them up and I go straight to them for anything they need me to do. The worry was, even though I want to go to serve it would be difficult to provide relief being that no one would want to give me chores to do. Mark and I talked with the director, he was very excited and said he would meet with house parents and run it by them and let them know I was there not only to play with the kids but help them out. I love it! This Thursday I will be headed to The Lar and Deborah will be showing me around and helping me become more familiar with how things work. Hopefully the director will give me the go ahead :) He just filled the position last week so things are a little crazy around there! I will be riding the bus there and then a guy from the church, who works in that city during the day, will be bringing me back. I'm sure the bus will be an adventure, Mark is going to make sure I can handle it though. We already went over where it stops and such so I'm not too worried :) Keep me in your prayers that it will all come together and to give the new director the strength to get things on track and running smoothly. I know this transition is very stressful for him!

Clarify

Okay guys, especially a great uncle of mine who loves to pinch me, if you look at the map I don't live by the beach. The beach pictures are from a weekend I went with the Yuppies (young professionals group) to the beach. So Uncle John you get an extra pinch from me next time you see me. I heard about your comment ;) I do love you!

Beach Pics

Beach group, most of them, plus fanny pack pic!




The view from outside my window

Questions from Stephanie...

My roomies from last semester each chose a day to write me every week. I know, they are pretty fantastic! One email I got this week had a list of questions and I thought they would be great to blog about.
1) how are you? Well Im doing great! No health problems except a slight sunburn at the beach, mom and dad dont kill me. I actually used the 70 sunscreen or whatever ridiculous strength, and the Brazilians thought I was so cool. They had never really seen sunscreen you can spray on. I re-applied all throughout the day just as you have taught me. But... being that I did, I ran out the second day. I was able to cover half my body and borrowed some the rest of the day and made sure to stay under the shade. Unfortunately it didn't quite do the trick and I got burned. Ouch. Just wanted to make it known to everyone I did indeed try so no nonsense when you see my beach pictures. okay good :)
2) are you having fun? I am having a great time. At the beach this weekend it fully hit that I am in Brazil! I am fulfilling the dream that I have had since high school. I am incredibly blessed to have this opportunity! wow
3)who is your best brazilian friend, and why? My best friend is Pedro. He is a close friend of Mark and Ali's and an engineer. It is interesting to hear how his mind works. His way of working things out is very different than mine. Grandpa Jim I am better understanding you ;) P, as we call him which sounds like pay, will be interning for this month at the church. Exciting. Some projects he will be tackling are putting together a website, making a video for our ministry fair and making a CD of songs to pass along to other beginning churches.
4) would i like them? Steph you would love him, very real and intelligent. haha Also sarcasm is not known in Brazil at all, but Ali has been introducing it to him for the past year so he is pretty much the only Brazilian you can be sarcastic around. He can dish it out too. haha very much you!
5) what is your favorite brazilian food? One of my favorites is Asai, which I don't know if I spelled that correctly, but it is a slush time drink. You can add basically anything you want to it, like powdered milk, any fruit, peanut butter type stuff (peanut butter is not common here) or chocolate. Tons of things. Another thing that makes it my favorite is that it is purple!
6) how cool am i? ummm uber cool. You make me laugh so so much and are the only person I know that takes 30 min showers.
7) what do you do in your free brazilian time? I usually try to spend sometime by myself. It is probably the thing I miss the most. Every day I am around someone at all times which is good but everyone needs a little time to themselves. Other than that I try to catch up on my budget, emails or talking on skype!
8) what does your typical day look like? Because I love what I am doing it is kinda hard to separate free time from working. I get up and Mark makes me eggs. For you those that know me, you know I hate eggs so huge deal that I eat his. Every day is different. We worked on the calendar today. I can give you a brief summary...
Sunday- church, do Sunday school, sports in afternoon with youth and go to Sao Paulo for a college bible study.
Monday- day off! weekends are crazyyy, last weekend we had 5 people staying at the house not counting the people who just hang out.
Tuesdays- drug rehab place, and bible study in a dentist office. also Tutor Tuesday for the youth!
Wednesday- business day, and play pool with some people from the english school
Thursday- Youth day/ devo at night
Friday- team meeting, planning for upcoming week, orphanage starting up in March
Saturday- always different! weekend is whatever our guest want to do or help out with

9) what is your favorite thing about brazil? My favorite thing would be the friendliness of the people.
10) name three things that you have learned while in brazil. They would be... how important it is to hand things over to God, you can love on people without communicating and everyone here loves Obama
11) name every single way that i can be praying for you. Okay first off to have an open heart and mind for how God wants me to serve him, being positive even when things get tough, leadership in our youth, and an ear for the language. Just to name a few ;)
12) do you miss me like i miss you? Of course! I love my updates, silly ones or not
13) free-write for 5 sentences. I had no idea how looongggg this blog would be. If you read the whole thing than way to be champ! It has been raining like crazy all day, love the occasional rainy day. My new favorite music right now is Coldplay. Lately I've been obsessed with finding out as much as I can about the Holy Spirit and am going to start reading The Holy Spirit by Billy Graham. Last but not least, I love you all!

Just have to add

Okay so in Brazil fanny packs are in! Wow i could not believe it, fanny packs, really... every time i see one it makes me laugh on the inside hahaha

My Supervisors ;)

Alright everyone, I have officially met the couple I will be working with 24/7, Mark and Ali! Anddd they are fantastic! Both of them are fun, incredibly passionate about the church and the youth, up for change and new ideas, and all about mentoring/ encouraging the interns. Today we just bonded and Ali and I are kind of having a girls night. Yay! I'm crazy excited about the next six months. I love seeing how God works things out for you and knowing he really does have you in mind.

Things in Brazil that are like Texas/ The Thompsons
- People are incredibly friendly
- Brazil Church is the same size as MP Church
- People run at least 30 min late. gotta love Thompson Time
- Love to eat ice cream
- Itu is known for big things (gift shops sell objects that are 10x their orginial size); bigger and better in Texas
- People wave to each other
- Brazil considers themselves very different than the rest of South America
- Dinner is around 8 or 9pm
- Uno (the card game) is very popular

First Few Days

So I am here in lovely Brazil where the temperature is just right for me and everything is green. I arrived with no problems and Ali and Mark's (my missionary family) best friends were there holding a sign with my name on it. They of course were incredibly sweet and fun to be around. Barbara spoke a little bit of English but she was the only one. Not too bad but I was definitely wishing I had more time in the States to learn Portuguese. After picking me up we went shopping in Sao Paulo, craziness! The streets were packed! It was fun of course and we only stayed for a couple of hours. For lunch we had a traditional/popular sandwich, kind of like a warm ham sandwich but in french bead, very yummy. I was so exhausted though. My flight from Dallas left the 14th at 5:30 am, meaning I got to the airport at 3:30 am haha that was rough. Then arrived in Houston at 6:30 for my 14 hr layover. My friend Stuart picked me up and we played around downtown Houston and met up with some of my girlfriends, fun stuff. The plane to Sao Paulo had two little boys sitting behind me without a mother right there, you can fill in the rest haha no it wasn't too bad. Anyway I was oh so tired and feel asleep with my head hanging out the window. It was great! That evening I met about 8 of the youth group.  They were so nice and tried to translate for me when they could. They were all silly and full of laughs, I already love them :) Now I am at Ali's parents house, which is beautiful. They live in a gated community, security cameras, tall walls with barbed wire at the top, security guards driving around so I was able to go on a short run this afternoon.  All in all I love it here!! Ali and Mark come back from their vacation either Tuesday or Wednesday and then the work begins! I can't wait!!

Panic Attack

I completely forgot to finish about my panic attack until Juan called to tell me he was still waiting. Haha oh what will my life be like without Juan, a little less exciting :) So on to the panic attack.  So I'm sitting in her office, looking at Morgan's desk and 50 billion quotes when I started to freak out. Its a little desk in a little office with another girl about a foot away and if she sneezed without covering her mouth, you would probably feel it. Gross. Then as I'm examining everything I realized, Morgan spends at least 8 hours of day in there, 5 days a week, facing a wall. Thats when I flipped out for a second, picturing myself in her situation. Wow sitting in an office that long looking at the same old things, I think I would explode or become a very sad person with no spunk or creativity. I am going to do everything I possible can to avoid working at a job that includes working in a tiny office that you have to stay in alllll day long. Morgan does get to leave and meet with clients, go to happy hours, and you know fun things, so thats not so bad. I know there is a possibility I will have a job like that, you have to suck it up sometimes, but hey I'm gonna do all I can to prevent it. And if I do then my office is going to look like a rain forest and have a mini trampoline. haha