confessions of a "gringa"

Last night I attended a service for the Youth (ages 18-35; single, married, couples, everything) and it was amazing! I went last week as well and I abosolutely love it! I went with the BIS secretary and her sister. They did an amazing job interpreting! They are also teaching me so much about the language and I feel completely comfortable asking them questions about "frequently heard words". These can be funny times. Last night I asked what "fica" meant...and that means "fling" haha. I'm pretty sure I was getting it confused with "fila" which is a verb for something (can't remember, brain overload). I say all of this to say that they are hosting a conference (which is from what I can tell an outreach ministry to specific sections of the city) and I'm praying about how I can help. I know that they need people to support, pray, and work during the conference which is the last week in September!
The pastor there, his son is at Southern Seminary! The Brasilians were telling me last night that there are two great schools in the U.S -Southern and Southwestern. They said that there were a lot of smart people at Southern-and I whole heartedly agreed with them. My friend said, "They say Southern is the best in the world." Wow. All the way in Brasilia they think this and it is in our backyard. How blessed are we to have such a mighty fortress of believers who won't compromise the word (and teaches their students the same).
And one last bit of news from last night----IT RAINED!!!!! We were all so happy! They announced it at the end of church and we all rushed out to see the sprinkles on the sidewalk. We haven't had any rain in over 100 days. Everything is dead and dry-you can see the dust on your skin at the end of the day. Maybe I'll no longer have to perform my ceremonial feet washing in the sink before I crawl in bed everynight. I wear shoes and it is almost as if I never even put shoes on my feet. It feels like fall in Kentucky-cool, breezy, a bit of rain. I LOVED it! The Brasilians are walking around freezing and I am loving the familiarity of it all! Thank you, Lord, for the early (very very early) start to rainy season-I was getting tired of the nose bleeds!

In School this week (3rd week):
We are learning about Days 4-6 in Creation. They get stuck on one day and forget about the other days. It's difficult sometimes, but we go to the "Creation Station" (there's a paper for every day showing pictures of what God created) and talk about each poster.
I had a most interesting conversation with one of my kids. I was asking him to speak a bit of Portuguese to his (Portuguese only) classmate.
"I no want to."
"You don't want to? Why?" I asked.
"Well, I just don't."
We bantered a minute about languages and finally I said,"How many languages do you speak?"
"I have three." "Portuguese, Spanish, and the one I'm speaking now."

I could only laugh. If you could see his sweet face......ahh Kindergarten. It is such a challenge for some students because many of them know more than two languages. One of my four year olds knows 3 languages (see above :) ) and the other one is fluent in 3 (Spanish, Portuguese, and English) and can speak in 2 more (Greek and French). Talk about insane?! At four years old?! I usually give directions about three different ways for these students in hopes that they will understand or follow someone else. I can't imagine trying to dig through my brain to find the English words when there are 4 other languages floating around in there....

My students are so wonderful-and-they are now accustomed to walking in the line! They can do it! "Bubbles and Bunny Tails" It's pretty hilarious to watch, but the 1st grade teacher is getting ready to recruit me to come and show her kids how to walk in a line!

Culture:
Yesterday I got my first haircut and I went by myself. Why? You ask? I just wanted to see if I could do it. So-bravely, I found a salon that was seemingly friendly, yet cozy. They are a dime a dozen here (worse than in the states) so I just walked up and down the Quadras until I found a hair supply store and the salon was underneath. I slowly walked downstairs and showed them the word for "trim" to which they asked one of the girls (Amanda as well....) to translate. So-in just a few minutes, I was getting my hair washed and cut. Graca (Grasa) did an AMAZING job! I was so nervous but she took her time and asked questions when needed. I made a couple new friends and an appointment for next month with her. Oh-and I love the complimentary coffee and water that is served as you get your hair done!!

Also-I started to notice about the culture is that both men and women wear gold engagement rings on the right hands (until they are married). Most of the younger couples (like my generation) they also wear silver rings when they start dating seriously. I asked my friend why the men wear them and she said, "We want EVERYONE to know that they are taken." Which I thought was hysterically funny. She will be getting married within the next year-depending on when the government calls her fiance into a job (He scored very high on a test to get into the Supreme Court-but now he could wait up to 2 years to get a job). These jobs are few and far between and many Brasilians try and fail the tests every year. They study for days, hours, months at a time once they apply to take the test. You basically have it made if you get one of these jobs-many want-few get. They give you a VERY nice salary plus food, gas, and GREAT work hours. Anyway-there's a little Brasilian culture for you.....