We are now back to the dynamic trio we had last year as Megan arrived on Monday afternoon! She pretty quickly pulled her funds together and got down here just in time for her upcoming birthday this Sunday. We are excited to see just how much more we can do with another Portuguese speaker around. Before she arrived we had our first "lojinha" on a rainy Friday. It must have been enough motivation because our numbers were up and a lot of kids arrived with pants soaked at the bottom! It was a lot of fun to see their faces light up as they walked through the store, received their money and went to make their purchases. The other teachers loved the idea and have even been getting creative about what they can contribute to the store so we don´t have to use as much money buying things.
After English lessons with our kids Saturday morning we had a delicious lunch with the Sisters which gave us a nice chance to catch up with them. Sister Franny, the 3rd nun living with them, also American, will return from her long stay in the States in early September. Then later in the afternoon we had 30 or so kids from PETI bused to Telemaco Borba for a capoeira houda. They all looked so cute playing on all the park equipment before we got started and then all of them in their matching white pants and shirts (the capoeira uniform) playing in front of the church. It is great to see how far so many of them have come since last year and to see some new kids really getting into the sport!
Saturday night we went to the birthday party of our friend/trainer from the gym, Bubbles. It was a lot of fun with all kinds of different bands which led to a lot of dancing but then when it came time to sleep we were all in tents and cars. It was freezing and we awoke the next morning to frost on the ground.. with few blankets I was able to sleep next to none. The next day we stayed for lunch before returning so I could skype with the family. It was so great to talk with them even though I almost fell asleep! Mass that night was beautiful.. there had been a retreat for the youth that weekend and we welcomed them all back at the start of Mass. It was amazing to see them all with big, confident smiles wearing matching tshirts- it reminded me of all the retreats I have attended/led and just how content and close to God I feel at the end of the weekend.
Tuesday I got back into photography with students, this time our project being to take up close photos of objects that later the other students will have to guess what it is. This is something you can find a lot in magazines in the USA but something new to these kids. It was so fun for me to see them getting extremely creative and really thinking about what they could take pictures of to stump the other students. We have made it a little bit of a competition. If no one can guess what their pictures are, they will receive a prize but if someone guesses correctly, that person wins a prize. This made the kids really think before snapping away. I had such a fun time having the kids run around the store and them returning asking me to guess what the picture they took was. If I could guess it they quickly erased it and ran off to take more! I will print the final pictures this weekend and the guessing will begin next week.
This is a week celebrating deficiences so yesterday we took all our kids to APAE, the school for handicapped children here in Imbau. I was so impressed with how well our kids behaved and interacted with the children from this school. Sometimes it can be hard or akward but they did a great job involving them in playing soccer, dancing and just engaging in conversation with them. I met a young boy named Douglass who captured my heart. He is 14 years old but at the age of 6 a disease that I don´t know the name of began to eat at his intestines and at first he walked with his feet turned in and now he is in a wheelchair, unable to walk and has now lost all ability to move his arms too. He is able to barely turn his neck and the day that this disease reaches his heart, he will unfortunately die- this disease has a history of taking people at the young age of 15 and sometimes they make it to 16. He was so intelligent and full of live, always cracking jokes and all our kids loved him! At one point I made a comment about the beautiful girl on the background of his cellphone and when I asked if they were just friends he winked and said "for now at least" and that followed with him saying she was only A LITTLE prettier than me! :) His true passion is singing which he does quite often in his church and he has recorded 2 CDS. He didn´t have time to sing for me but I did buy one of his CDS as a memory of this special kid, a true example of a loving child of God- I will never forget him.
Today is National Banana Split Day in the United States so we are planning to get some ice cream here to celebrate although it is not that warm! Sending out a lot of love to my family as they all gather this weekend to celebrate a wedding in the family- I am so disappointed that I will not be there to enjoy this occassion with you guys. May the tradition of ridiculous Zatkulak weddings continue this Saturday!
Until September...
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