ANOTHER MONTH WRAPPING UP!

Am I the only one that is having a hard time believe that it is almost the start of October? I can only imagine all the beautiful nature changing back in Indiana where as here it just keeps gets hotter and my face just keeps getting more burnt. :) As much as I hate the inconviences of rain it would be really nice to have a little shower to cool things off!

This past weekend the girls traveled to another state, Santa Catarina, for an event of capoeira. I was originally hoping there would be space in the car for me to tag along and see another city but that didn´t work out so I stayed home for a much needed, tranquil weekend. They didn´t head out until late Friday afternoon so they were there to help with our store at PETI and then work with the English students who retook the test of Saturday. Friday night was the birthday party of our host family´s daughter so I got to be a part of the celebration and meet some family and friends. I also got together with another great friend Marcela, who stayed with us in the USA last year and who unfortunately I have not had the chance to see too much this year.

Saturday morning I administered the English test for our students and I was so pleasantly surprised! It was obvious that they had studied on their own as well and if I was to guess I would say they all passed this second time around- we will see! Saturday afternoon was full of household chores, laundry and sweeping etc. then I got to skype briefly with Maria before spending the majority of the afternoon at our new favorite coffee shop. I had my own little Bible study, taking advantage of all kinds of books the girls have with a scripture followed by a little reflection. It left me with such a sense of peace and love for the Lord- could not think of a better way to pass a day alone! Then to top it all off I headed to church with another great friend, Niza. I have gone with her before and really loved the message and Saturday evening I once again was warmly welcomed by everyone and really enjoy the praise and worship music and message delivered by the pastor. He is very energetic and passionate about his work and he made plans to come visit our kids at PETI in a few weeks with the youth band to talk with our kids about the importance of faith in God- I am so excited about this! The girls ended up coming home early Sunday morning as their driver had to attend the funeral of our friend´s mom. Bruno, a young boy from the gym who does capoeira with the girls, had already lost his dad so please keep him and his siblings in your prayers. After Mass we went to a festival of religious music at the culture house- it was really awesome to hear some great music and see a great turnout of people from the city!

Monday I did English with several small groups focusing on the days of the week. We brought down so many worksheets this year and we are just now starting to use them. They came in handy to switch up what we did in English- a little verbal learning and then some extra worksheets to reinforce what we learned. Tuesday was a special treat for everyone as the circus was in town!! We got cut a deal to take our kids there, both the morning and afternoon groups. It was a smaller, amateur circus with only 4 people doing all the stunts but our kids could not get enough of it! Their oohs and awes made it all worth it. Many of them couldn´t stop talking about how cool it was to go to the circus for the first time. That night many of them returned on their own being drawn in by the contest of the ´ugliest man in the city´ competition! The winner got 5 kg of sausage :) Wednesday I spend the whole afternoon with Lucas again trying to figure out his arm. The doctor took off his cast then requested another X-ray but we didn´t have the proper paperwork to get it done for free so he had another cast put on and we scheduled another appointment for next week- quite frustrating the public hospitals here in Brazil!

Today was my last day teaching English Thursday mornings at the other private school in Imbau. I did not expect to arrive to a dark classroom with kids hiding to surprise me with cards, confetti and hugs.. it was very special! My two months with the students there flew by but I really enjoyed having the new experience- it gave me a perspective of what it takes to teach English as a foreign language but I think my favorite part about it was just forming relationships with other kids in the town! This afternoon we got to see the new baby sister of one of our students. Her name is Gabriela and she was born 6 days again- she was too cute!

Now that my teaching ended, I am looking for a new activity to fill my Thursday afternoons. I am open to just about anything- I am going to check with the Social Center to see if they know a family that could use some extra help with things around the house, with young children, anything really. It is exciting to think about all the ways God could use me for the next two months!

Muay Thai is still going great- leaving me with lots of bruises but I love the change up in my workout. I am actually headed to that class now! Rogerio only came that one day to the program so please continue to keep him in your prayers. His was given the blood test as well and now the government is just waiting for space to open up in a treatment center in Curitiba to put Rogerio and his brother Juliano, as long as he doesn´t run away again. Let´s all pray that this happens soon so that they can get the help they desperately need. The young girls in the family seem to be enjoying life in the orphanage. If you ask them if they prefer to live in their house or the orphanage they will tell you the orphanage but if you ask if they prefer to live with or without their mom, they say they prefer their mom- that is just the way it goes, unfortunately they can´t have both.

I just want to wish a happy 25th wedding anniversary to my parents this week! I could not feel more blessed for the example of a loving, faithful relationship that I have. If only more of our kids were exposed to this kind of love in the house. Wishing you 25 + more years of happiness and love!! Happy start of October to everyone!

Second Half!

Katie and I are officially here for the next three months! We went to Ponta Grossa, a nearby city, on Monday to have our visas renewed. If you haven´t heard the story about last year it is probably because we didn´t want to relive it, it was a complicated nightmare but thank God this year was problem free and easy! We got everything done in the morning so we got to spend the afternoon shopping and relaxing in the city before catching the bus back.
We had a relaxing weekend starting with a movie night complete with popcorn and cookies on Friday night. Then Saturday we took advantage of Telemaco Borba´s version of Starbucks, a little cafe with all kinds of delicious coffee drinks. We spent all afternoon there sitting in comfy chairs, sipping on frappuccino´s and reading/writing, it was really enjoyable! This weekend we also got to see the PETI kids a lot as Friday night we bused them in for a houda in the gym to get them ready for a presentation that we had Sunday night. It was culture week and they wanted to demonstrate the martial art for the community. Saturday we had our English lesson and unfortuntely only 2 of our students passed the test they took last week :( Just an indicator of how much more we need to study with them throughout the week. Unfortunately to close the weekend I witnessed a tragic motorcycle accident. The young 17 year old sadly past away at the scene but it was unlike anything I have ever seen before in my life. It was hard to see but it gave me a renewed reality about the gift of each day and how much we need to value the life God has given us. I ask that you keep this young man´s family and friends in your prayers as they suffer and deal with the pain that follows such an event.
Tuesday and Wednesday this week were so productive! Tuesday I got back into photography, the project this week being all about colors. The students were to take pictures of many different things, all the same color. I had it in my mind that this was going to be difficult for them but they did amazing and really let their creativity shine through, I was so proud! It was very rewarding to hear the afternoon kids excitedly talk about how this was the first time they had ever used a camera. Megan got really into math this week too- I now think every kid has done a worksheet to assess where their skill levels are at. The older kids did multiplication and the younger ones worked on basic addition. For the most part they were so proud to hear their scores. Amazingly our 2 students who have stopped studying had some of the higher scores! It was nice to see their confidence lift when they heard how well they did. Hopefully we will continue to work a little bit with them each day to help them with memorizing the basics and maybe we will even see some progress?!
This week for the first time I went to Mass last night, Wednesday, so that it frees up my Thursday nights for Muay Thai. The Mass was harder to follow as the responses and music were not posted on the wall like normal because it is a smaller attendence at this Mass but this instead gave me more time for reflection and prayer. I am still really loving the Muay Thai class- I am going to start training twice a week and today I will buy the gloves so that I can get in there and start fighting!
Today Rogerio came back to the program!!! Sadly he is a completly different person- he would not look me in the eyes and seemed to have no interest in being back. My hope is that this will change with time, for now I am just so happy to have him back in the safe haven of PETI as he was gone for months. Today his brother Juliano is being taken back to the health center to do a blood test for drugs. Hopefully if it comes back positive we can send him to a treatment center to get help.
As I look ahead to the next 3 months, I am so excited to see what is in store for the 2nd half of our trip! God has blessed us abundantly in the last three months so I can only imagine what lies ahead. Thinking about how our time is half up is both exciting and saddening- it is amazing how time can fly by so fast yet it feels like so much has happened! We sincerely thank you for all the support and prayers you have sent our way thus far, keep them up!

FUN FIRSTS!

It is hard to recap the fun, adventurous weekend we had on the farm of a coworker this past weekend but I will try and highlight the best parts! We left Friday after work and drove the 1 1/2 hours to arrive at a point in which we had to leave the comfort of a car and mount a horse- one of my bigger fears... this was something I was not aware of when we agreed to this weekend! Thank goodness I was with a real ´cowboy´ who knew what he was doing which really came in handy when we went to forge a river with what I would conisder raging rapids. We made it across the river only getting wet up to our knees and just when I thought I could let out my breath, the horse in front of us with Katie and our coworker, buckled and threw them off onto the rocks. Thank God they were not hurt and were only shaken up a little bit. By this point it was dark and I was able to let myself relax and enjoy the rest of the ride looking up at the beautiful night sky full of stars- we were in the middle of nowhere and the scenery was breathtaking! The rest of the weekend was full of true hillybilly fun- attempting to lasso poles, shooting beer cans off fence posts with beebee guns and just taking in all the sounds of the farm. We had goats in and out of the house, fish heads were popped off by the men and us girls just took the chance to take it all in. Saturday we spent the day down by the river playing in the water and relaxing before heading back to a town near Imbau for a festajuninha- a hillbilly themed party- for the birthday of a friend to wrap up our weekend!

Monday at the program we were able to do English with all the students which I have missed. It was nice to see how fast some of the new students have picked up on the basics and it never ceases to make me laugh that quite a few of them are unaware of what we are saying to them each morning when we ask ´How are you?´- they will get there! Monday night I got to see Sister Frannie for the first time as she has been in the USA since we got here in June. She is the 3rd sister that lives in the house with Sister Rose. It was good to catch up with her and hear all about her long vacation visiting her family. Tuesday morning was full of all kinds of activities... Katie was running around doing a few errands, Megan was doing computers with a few kids- something that she started last week and has been going really well- and a few of the girls were in the kitchen doing culinary with the other teachers. This is a new aspect of the program that we started a few weeks ago where the older girls, and sometimes guys, help out with lunch by preparing some aspect of it whether it be cooking the meat or preparing the pasta. It is so fun for them and it has given all the other kids a chance to branch out a little bit as they have tried some exotice recipes! So I was left with a few kids that were not doing anything. It was really nice to have some one on one time with a few of the students- I have missed that! I got one boy, Isaac, hooked on sudoku.. he was so proud when I told him he was the first kid I had seen comprehend the game! He took my book home to do more and share with his family. Katie and I left early on Tuesday thinking we had to go the bank to pay early for renewing our visas, something we planned to do today but luckily we called and discovered they were not helping foreigners this Friday for whatever reason so we scheduled an appointment for Monday. Then Tuesday night I had Muay Tai for the first time with a new friend Michelle- I could not have loved it more! It was right up my alley. I found it challenging but not impossible. My plan is to start doing it 1-2 times per week!

Wednesday I spend a large part of the afternoon with our student Lucas in the hospital here in Telemaco Borba as he injured his hand a month ago but did nothing about it so when he hit it again earlier in the week it made his whole hand/arm swell up. In Telemaco he was given an X-RAY then we talked with a doctor who said nothing was fractured or broken but still proceeded to wrap him up in a full arm cast?! We scheduled for him to come back in a couple weeks for an update. Last night we had our second parent meeting in the evening with the theme being ´drugs´. Our guest speaker cancelled the day before but we were fortunate enough to find a police officer who works with a program I would consider similar to DARE in the States. It was a small turnout of our kids and their families but it went really well! Those that were there we have to trust were the ones that needed to hear the message the most. It is always nice for us to feel like we have more of a connection with the parents as well.

I hope everyone is happy and healthy and enjoying the start of fall! Keep those prayers coming for all our kids and us!

Answered Prayers

We spent the whole weekend praying for Eva and her situation in another city, Londrina! We have a friend that we met last year who moved to Londrina, the 2nd largest city in Parana- the state we are living in- and so it was our perfect connection in the city. He speaks English and took such great care of us for our fun, spur of the moment weekend getaway. We went to a large farm party on Saturday night that raised money for a charity as it was a requirement to bring a canned food to enter. It was a lot of fun to dance the night away with our favorite kind of music, sertanejo or country! Then the next day before returning we went to Mass in the beautiful chapel in the center of the city and we went ´swimming´ in some dirty, knee deep water to wrap up our short vacation! I always love how close I feel to the girls after little travels that we take together and it is always nice to get to know other cities in Brazil!
Monday we arrive at the program only to discover that Eva had decided over the weekend that she was not ready for marriage!!! We were told she created the idea to avoid returning to the orphanage but we also heard that her mom was forcing her into it- either way our prayers were answered and she came to her senses! She seemed back to her old self and happier than Katie had seen her on Friday- it was amazing. It never ceases to amaze me how God takes care of everything in His time. We spent a lot of time Monday with what we think is the equivilent of Child Protection Services here in Brazil, and I am wondering how we have gotten anything done without them thus far. They get things done so quickly and seem to be on top of every situation we presented them with! They are working on getting Juliano´s two younger sisters, Rosangela and Daniele, out of their mother´s house and back into the orphanage. Still not a great situation but I think they are much better off there than staying in that house and being exposed to so many things that little girls should never see. Hopefully next they will work on Juliano and Rogerio, who are now both missing both school and PETI- please keep them in your prayers. We also went with these women to the house of one of our new students, Taina. Another heartwrenching story, she is one of five girls and when we arrived the mother was hand washing clothes in a tank full of brown water. Taina´s little sister was wearing pants ripped from the thigh to the toes on one side and all of them had the dirtiest little bodies and faces you could ever imagine- we are looking into what more we can do for them so keep them in your prayers as well!
Tuesday night we went to a BBQ with a lot of people from the gym as Wednesday was Independence Day here in Brazil so everyone was off work. We went thinking the BBQ was to celebrate this holiday only to discover it was both a goodbye party for someone moving the next day and also a belated birthday party for someone else.. oops! But it was a fun night getting to know everyone from the gym a little better. I even met a women who has been wanting to try the martial art Muay Tai, same as me but I was too scared to do it alone, so we are going to give it a whirl on Tuesday.. yikes!!
We spent the holiday catching up on skype sessions, organzing things for the program and just relaxing. In the evening we went to a carnival/concert that reminded me a lot of the state fair. It was very hill billy, with rides and a live band and all kinds of cowboy gear for sale- lots of fun!
I know I mentioned a lot of keep in your prayers in this blog but I want to thank you for your continued prayers as they obviously help tremendously as you can see with the Eva situation. You guys are making a bigger impact in the lives of these kids than you can ever know! I also want to remind you that we do morning prayer each morning here and we would love to include your prayer requests in return. Feel free to email me at lzatkulak@yahoo.com so that we can do that!

Getting Into A Groove

Last week we closed the week of deficiences by returning to APAE on Friday for a parade with our kids and the kids/teachers from there. We walked through the streets of Imbau and each time we passed by a school, the children would join the crowd! I heard some complaining from our kids but once they were reminded about the small sacrifice this was compared to the big sacrifices some of the kids from APAE have to make each day for the rest of their lives, they quickly kept up and stopped with the whining. We all had balloons that we popped together when we made it to our final destination, the bus station. It was a really neat morning and in the afternoon we had a beauty day, full of doing nails and hair with all the girls! I actually couldn´t tell you where all the boys were but it was really enjoyable for all us girls to get dolled up and I could tell they all left that day feeling beautiful and confident!
I had the special opportunity on Saturday to skype with the not only my immediate family, but so many other members of my family as they were gathered for a wedding. I had the priviledge of meeting the groom for the first time over skype and I even was lucky enough to be taken via computer into the bride´s dressing room where I got to see the beautiful, smiling bride getting ready for the special day! It was so amazing to get to be a small part of the family gathering. I can´t wait to see pictures!
Sunday was Megan´s 24th birthday! To celebrate we had a BBQ at Lourival´s family, where Megan is staying, during the afternoon with their whole family. After eating a bunch of food their, we headed to another girl´s birthday party- someone from the gym, where we got to listen to a free band and enjoy some more food! We ended the night with a beautiful Mass and then headed back to Lucas to eat some more cake before calling it quits.
Monday is the day we do English with all the kids and in the afternoon I experienced a really special moment with 2 of our students, Lucas and Isael. I pulled Isael aside to do a little one on one English and I discovered that he had studied at APAE up until this last year which helped me understand more why his Portuguese was so gramatically incorrect and I also discovered that he had a speech impediment where he put an ´s´ sound on the end of each word that he said. Lucas, one of our advanced English students who studies each Saturday at PBF, came over and helped Isael master saying ´hi´and ´bye´then we worked forever on getting him to ask ´What´s your name?´ without putting that ´s´ sound on the end of each thing. It was such a special moment to see Isael smile with pride after successfully learning a little English and I was filled with love for Lucas after seeing all the patience he had with his peer. It was one of those moments that left me smiling the rest of the day!
On Tuesday I had all the photos printed and the ´photographers´got so excited to see if the other kids were able to guess their pictures. It was a lot of fun to have the kids come in and here some of their ideas of what the photos were, but in the end the majority were able to guess at least one so I started marking how many they were getting correct so that the top 3 were given prizes. It was so fun to have a competition to get the kids excited about what we are doing in photography this year!
We continue to do our individual things on Thursday. This Thursday marked the halfway mark on my teaching English at the private school, I now have one more month. So far it has been very enjoyable for me but I think in a month I will be ready to return to PETI. Katie continues to pray the rosary with an elderly woman in the church community and Megan this week started visiting an older student of ours who has been studying English extensively for longer than the others. He unfortunately had to stop coming to PETI because his mom has a disease that is slowly leaving her blind so he has to stay home to take care of his younger siblings and nieces/nephews while his dad works. This means we are not able to spend time working on his English so Megan plans to make the trip to his house Thursday mornings to get some extra practice in and help out around the house where needed. It is so great for us to go our separate ways and reunite in the afternoon with all kinds of stories!
Special prayer request, something recent that we actually just discovered today. One of our students, Eva, whom Katie has known since her first year working with the program, was recently taken out of the orphanage and returned to her mom. Not even a week later, she is now engaged to someone 6 years older than her and she has decided to stop coming to PETI, stop studying and stop with the English course she is doing with us. Katie went to visit her today to see if this was true and she returned saying she didn´t even recognize the girl she talked to- she has lost all interest in life and has resorted to a life of marriage at the tender age of 14. The sad part is that her family is on board and actually encouraging the union between them. It was a rough, heartbreaking day in which us 3 girls had to lock ourselves in a classroom and pray.. pray for Eva, for us that we can accept that this may be out of our hands and just a prayer of trust that something good with come out of this. So we ask that you all keep Eva and this whole situation in your prayers.
May this upcoming month of September be one in which we all stop to appreciate the beauty of God´s nature as the leaves start to turn colors and the weather becomes a little cooler.. there at least. Here it will be heating up! I am bummed to be missing fall once again this year as it is my favorite season. Thank you for your constant prayers and support of the work we doing down here, we gather so much strength knowing we have so much love in the States!