The Halftime Report

Oi! It´s been a few days, so it´s about that time to give you all an update on things here. Time is going quickly - we´re halfways done with our trip! It´s kind of strange. It seems like we just arrived, yet so much is happened! It´s been an extremely valuable experience for the three of us. We look forward to sharing more with you when we arrive back home.

Time to update you on the events of the past few days . . . on Thursday we had our second party. There were many people there! We counted around 40, whereas our last party had around 25. Part of that was because there was an English beginner´s class that Rick was teaching immediately prior to our class, so many of them stayed for the party. We also had a few readers show up as well! We started out by trying to teach the kids Red Rover. It´s really challenging to get them to focus, especially when working with multiple languages. Ultimately Chase and Kavan just grabbed a couple kids and started demonstrating, and then they started to pick it up. After some of that, we went inside for some American style hot dogs! They were a bit confused by them as Brazilian hot dogs are quite different (more on that later) but everyone seemed to be having a good time!

Friday was kind of a sad day for us. On Friday we were able to sleep in. Around 10:30 in the morning, Natasha joined Rick, Kavan, and Chase at Rick´s house with some young guys from the church to watch the Brazil/Holland game. The game started at 11:00. There was much rejoicing and excitement. I wish we had cymbals and tambourines. The first half went exremely well. Brazil was winning, 1-0! The second half did not go as well, and Brazil fell apart and ended up losing 1-2. It was very sad. We had been hoping to see Brazil win the cup as that would be an unforgettable experience. Kavan was even contemplating getting Brazil shaved into the back of his head! Alas, they lost, and there was wailing and gnashing of teeth. Since then, it´s been interesting to see how quiet the place is now and how quickly Brazilians have lost interest in the World Cup . . .

On Friday evening the five of us (Rick, Matheus, Chase, Natasha, and Kavan) joined one of Chase´s readers, Gleyber, for an evening at the local natural history museum. We had a good time wandering around, taking pictures, and making attempts at learning about old dead creatures. Fortunately Gleyber is a biologist of sorts and was able to help us understand what was going on. We also had a light stroll in the garden there. After that, we went back to Rick´s house and had dinner and watched The Notebook. After that was a nice evening going to the men´s and women´s Bible study group that meets every other Friday. That evening Matheus and Natasha stayed at Rick´s house since we all went to  . . .

Ouro Preto! We arrived at this historic town an hour and a half outside of Belo Horizonte around 10:30. It´s a historic town that used to be a center of the gold rush. When the Portuguese colonized Brazil, Ouro Preto was one of their main cities and even served as the Brazilian capital for a while. It is very historic. Much of the Baroque architechture has been very well preserved. The five of them had a great time visiting a couple churches, taking pictures, doing a bit of shopping, and the like. They may go back in a couple of weeks to do a couple more things like go to an old gold mine . . .

Later that night we went back to the church. The three of us stayed for a while at the youth meeting, and then we met up with Jarbas, a local church member in his mid-twenties. He took us out for Brazilian hot dogs! Here´s the deal. Brazilian hot dogs are a bit different. They include the hot dog and then add on cheese, chili, and then a host of other fixings that you layer on yourself - peas, corn, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard, relish, chips, etc. It´s quite different! Once we had those, we realized why they had been so confused at our hot dogs at our party. After the hot dogs, we went and had some ice cream, and then went home. It was refreshing to just go out for a ride with Jarbas and just relax and disengage the mind a bit.

This morning started out early! Today they went with one of Natasha´s readers, Sirlene, to the Hippie Fair! The Hippie Fair is basically a massive open air market that takes up the entire street (probably 3 lanes either way) and goes for several blocks. It´s a little less hippie than we thought it would be, but it´s fun! They have art, jewelry, clothing, purses, food, and more! It was fun to get out, experience the downtown, and get to know Sirlene a bit more as well. We´ve also vaguely recognized that it´s the Fourth of July. Chase wore a red shirt, and Kavan wore a blue one. We´ve told each other Happy Independence Day and all that, but it seems a bit odd to not be doing more for the Fourth.

That´s pretty much where we´re at. We´re having a fantastic experience here! We´re learning so much about ourselves, Brazil, culture, our readers, the church members, and God. It´s hard for us to really convey that to you - these experiences have such a depth that we can´t really get at it in words. Like I said, we´re halfway through. Please continue to pray for us! Pray that we continue to have the strength to continue our mission. Some days are long and exhausting, but it´s worth every minute. If you have questions you want to see answered in the blog, let us know via facebook, email, or leaving a comment on the blog. We´d love to hear from you!

That´s about all for now. We hope that you all are having a wonderful day. Happy Fourth of July and God Bless America!