Ice Cream

An ice cream cone Brazilian style, with a spoon. :)

My view early morning on my way to work.

My View

One of the benefits of living on the fourth floor. :)

Note: there is part of a rainbow in the pic.

A Very Different Life

How do I title this picture? I think it speaks for itself. There is so much I could say about this picture and the context that it was taken in, but I shall just leave it at this, a picture for today.

Sights in the city

Its hard to fully describe what it feels like, looks like, and smells like, to walk the streets of Recife, but here are a few glimpses I captured in center city this week after visiting some families in the slums.

 cooking pots for sale

 Coconut water

...we stopped to get a corn dog at this little stand

 

 ...on the way back to the metro station

What do you need? An umbrella? A snack? Headphones? Potato chips? An ankle/wrist brace? Look no further....  :)

 Or maybe some tangerines...

 

 This Sunday I hosted two Canadian friends and a Brazilian for a Lancaster County meal. :)

  

We found this nice lil insect outside my apartment.

 

Finally a post

Whoops, has it really been over a month since I blogged? Sorry about that. Here are some random pictures.

Today I was working with the boys at hope house. I discovered that they have a huge container of legos. I pulled it out and we got creative.

One of the YWAM ministries here is a game room that they open up for the kids in the community. Here they are playing a Swiss version of Dutch Blitz, and therefore probably the original game. I know, I was shocked too. haha! ;) I wonder what my Dutch friends would think of the title of "our" version of the game.

I thought we would be safe from tarantulas in my apartment...considering that they would have four flights of stairs to climb. But I was proven wrong....one tarantula made it! (And I've been told that its not the first one!)

One Saturday I went to the shopping mall. I found a coffee shop (2 actually!), which oddly enough I haven't seen many of around here. Strange considering the amount of coffee that is produced and consumed in this country! So this picture is for all my fellow coffee shop-loving friends. :) A mocha!

And here is a picture from kitchen duties.

Purple cabbage

 

Happenings Here

This week I went with one of the other staff to visit some families in the slums. On our walk from one slum to another we stopped to observe this contrast of riches and poverty in Brazil.

Here is a picture of us hanging out with kids on the streets one night.

When we go to the streets to spend time with the kids we take a bag of things to do, like games and pictures to color. One of the things we take to do with the kids is nail polish! It is a hit among the girls. The idea is for us to paint their nails, but last night I got my nails done by one of the girls. I did not object. :) She did a great job.

Brazilian culture snapshot:

Here is a glimpse of the produce being sold in the center of town.

 

Lost in Translation

I hope that the students did NOT feel lost in translation this week, because I was their translator! It is so interesting to see how God works things out. I had wanted to come to Brazil in time to participate in the Children as Risk school. I was not able to come in time because of my visa, and God did amazing things in my life during the "extra" time that I had at home. Now that World Cup is over the children at risk school classes are resuming, and I was asked to translate for the school! I only committed to trying it out this week, so I was able to be in the classes, and translate from Portuguese to English for the English-speakers in the class. On my DTS outreach last year I had done some translating for my team- some testimonies etc, but translating a 3 hour class was a whole new level of translating for me! It was also a challenge since I am still learning Portuguese. I am thankful for how gracious the English-speaking students were, and also for the help from the teacher (who spoke both languages), and some of the students who spoke both languages. It was a challenge and a stretch for me!

It was a very full week. The week was split between two teachers and two different subjects.

One of the teachers taught on Vacation Bible school for 3 afternoons and a morning. This weekend I helped out with the school and their Vacation Bible school for the the children of the staff and children from the community on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning.

 

 Singing in VBS

Playing games with the older kids

Helping out with some translating during VBS