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!
Hi Lion, I'm really enjoying your blogs. We've been talking about blogs in the 8th grade classes and they read your blogs, too. It's a good way to connect the names they are hearing on the daily prayer list with the situations they are dealing with.We are praying for Eva and Juliano every day! It sounds like we might need to add some more names to our list. Hearing about all the kids makes me feel like I'm right back there again. Congrats on getting your Visas renewed! Keep diving in!
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