Month of October

October has been such a crazy month in a number of ways which is why I have been unable to stay on top of the blog. You can ask my parents, even a number of limited emails have been sent and I don't think we were able to Skype even once. I will give you a few of the highlighted things that took place and are taking place in our lives here!

We had some really hot weather for awhile. It actually became so hot that a few Sundays ago Megan filled up the baby pool we bought with water and we are both officially got burnt! That same Sunday was also a big day here in Brazil, it was election day. Megan and I could not be more thrilled that all the propaganda and nightly gathering they have been having with fireworks and loud music, are finally all done! We did a pretty good job staying neutral, trying to promote that what we want is just the best for the city and the kids we work with. The candidate that the current mayor was supporting ended up winning in a close race and that Sunday night was the biggest party I have ever seen in Imbau, with loud music and honking cars lasting late into the night. Megan and I are so glad it is all over as these elections even ruined our plans to go to Mass that Friday night, as it was cancelled due to it being the weekend of elections. :( Instead we were able to visit with a neighbor that we haven't seen in awhile and play with the new puppies they just got! 

Us with some of our students at the election party

We have really been trying to work on our relationships with neighbors again as for awhile our lives got super busy and we were lacking on those friendships. One way in which we are doing this is on weekly commitment we have made to eat breakfast with the neighbor across the street who is the owner of the house we are renting. We have decided to take advantage that we stay in Imbau on Thursdays and we can get to work a little later so we just wake ourselves up 45 minutes earlier and go over to catch up with our sweet neighbors. It feels good to be able to keep up our connections with the community in which we live!

Children's day is a special holiday celebrated only here in Brazil and it took place in the middle of October. We were so blessed to be able to find and gather the most random things to provide our kids with a special day and presents that they would otherwise not get. A few weeks before the holiday Megan and I randomly found almost a hundred empty shoe boxes in the trash right near our bus stop, so of course knowing we would find some way to use them, we stole them! They soon became our inspiration and the kids all decorated them, without knowing for what. We worked to get a piece of clothing for each of the kids, a pair of socks, a bookmark, and a lot of candy and sweets that we stocked in their boxes and had them open on the special day. Megan took a video of some of the younger kids opening their boxes and it is probably the cutest thing you will ever see. They are all screaming with excitement, quickly taking off their clothing to try on the new stuff, and comparing with friends in excited voices.. it was a really neat day!

The kids with their shoe boxes, anxious to open them!!

We had a little bit of a scare a week ago that we may be deported after missing the date to renew our visas. Our tourist visas are valid for 90 days before we renew them for another 90 days to stay our complete 6 months. This year our first 90 days expired the 1st of October and since the middle of September I have been calling the federal police to mark a day for us to renew however they were on strike all throughout Brazil and I was informed that we would just have to wait out the strike, without any problems on our end. I continued to call twice a week just to make sure I knew the minute they came back from strike.. Well last Tuesday when I called I was randomly informed that they had been there all along taking emergency cases like ours!! We were informed that is was the fault of lacking information on both ends although I will defend to the end that I was very clear on the phone each time I called about when our visas expired. We were informed that we had to pay $4 every day that we were over our expired day and that we would need to leave the country, with a possibility that we would be allowed back in.. we couldn't believe it!! The next day we went directly to talk with the federal police and see if we could, politely, fight our case :) It was not even necessary; the gentleman explained to us that he would be renewing our visas outside of the legal system and that he was putting his job on the line, but that we could stay until the date of our flights! We could not believe it was that easy!! God took such great care of us; this man had even told us that he had already sent others out of the country for the same reason so we have no idea why he took sympathy on us but we were so grateful!

We received a bunch of used clothing donations from the youth group from our church, so much so that we did not know what to do with everything. The four kids that train capoeira with Megan in Telemaco have a baptism coming up in which they have to pay $70 to participate and receive the first cord. Since none of them can afford this, we decided to have a bazar, selling the clothes really cheaply, for them to raise this money. We had these kids do a lot of the work by making posters to advertise the event, talk about it in the community and school, organize the clothing, and actually work the bazar the day of. It was so good for them to be able to see how a little hard work could help them accomplish things they want in life and that nothing comes for free. Our bazar was so successful with us raising $260, only $20 short of paying for all the kids to partake in the baptism!! The town loved it so much too that the mothers are asking when the next one will be and even went so far as to give us suggestions on what clothing would be a big hit! 

I had my annual Muay Thai graduation on Saturday and I was feeling very little pressure knowing I was not going to trade cords. There had been a little talk that I would fight with this newer girl who is more the size of Megan, with really strong legs and punches, with the only thing making her valid against me being the fact that she started recently. However our teacher told me I was not coming to fight against her the week before our graduation so I arrived relaxed and ready to watch others. When the moment came for people to start fighting in the ring the gym has, the teacher asked for two women volunteers. I was sitting next to this girl, Fabi, and she was really nervous so I convinced her we should volunteer to gain points with the teacher… I really have no idea what I was thinking!! So we were the first official fight of the day with everyone surrounding the ring ready to shout and give their advice. We got our head pads on and the first of 2 two minute rounds began. It ended with both of us exhausted but unharmed. We had a minute to rest in which I had a million people shouting suggestions to me for the second round- it was fun! Well that mood quickly changed when after about 20 seconds in the second round I took a kick to my knee when my leg wasn't firm and my knee twisted in.. it was extremely painful and I knew I would not be able to continue fighting so we had to stop there. The poor girl felt so bad but accidents like this happen. Unfortunately my knee is still swollen and I am unable to walk normally. Luckily the nurse things nothing serious happened, it just needs time to heal. I think my mom will officially kill me :)

Me and this girl getting ready to fight!

We are now working hard to get two field trips planned before we leave in less than two months, one for the older kids to go camping and one for the younger kids to come to Telemaco and ride on the cable car, visit the zoo and walk on the avenida. Please pray for us as we work to get all the details worked out and we negotiate prices to make sure we can afford these trips. Thank you for everyone who prayed for our visa situation, I am positive that those prayers made all the difference in allowing us to stay here! I am so jealous of everyone enjoying the changing fall weather back at home.. we have a Brazilian friend who is currently visiting the States for one month and he took a picture of my street with the beautiful trees and it made me wish I could be there, just for a day to experience it all. I continue to pray for everyone back home knowing that you all are doing the same for us! Sorry again for the delayed update! God Bless! 

ONCE AGAIN!

We had all day Monday to catch up on sleep from our trip and to get caught up on laundry and all other things we were behind on from the weekend. Monday night we were notified that there would be no PETI on Tuesday as well because of a parent meeting. We took advantage of the rainy day by going to Telemaco and I was able to do an afternoon Muay Thai class. The kids were not able to come to capoeira class in the evening with Megan as we had not left money for them but on Thursday we had all four of them again. 

By the time we were back at PETI on Wednesday it had been a week since we had seen the kids. I don't know what happened with the weather but it became FREEZING! It was impossible to get out of bed on Wednesday; even though there was sunshine, there was a bitter wind that was unbearable. I had to search to the bottom of my clothes to pull out my turtleneck and scarf! With this cold weather we ended up staying indoors most of the day, first doing our partnered reading and then doing capoeria in the classroom. Megan and I provided quite the entertainment when we were balancing one another on our backs and somehow toppled over landing in very funny positions! It was good to be back with the kids and get back into our schedule. 

Thursday we made ourselves get up early so we could go over and eat breakfast and visit with our neighbors from whom we are renting our house. We have been really busy lately, especially on the weekends, so we thought it was important to catch up with them again. From there we went to PETI and got some older kids to take to the computer house. We found a great website that teaches the basics of typing and teaches the kids about keeping their fingers on the primary letters.. these kids did a great job although after 30 minutes we had a few complaints of hand cramps as they are not used to having to keep their hands in a fixed spot to type! :) In the afternoon the computer house is closed so we ended up just hanging out with the kids and making some string friendship bracelets. I had the chance to really get to know one of the newer children, Luiz as we worked together on bracelets. Sometimes I get discouraged with not really having a connection with the new kids at the Imbau PETI because being there only one day a week does not give us a chance to build too many bonds, so this was the perfect afternoon to lift my spirits and make me realize they are still reachable!

Thursday all day my head had been itching like crazy and Megan thought it might have something to do with the change in weather and off schedule of showers.. who knows where she came up with this, but I decided to have someone check at the gym Thursday night and they were pretty sure I had lice!! :( I woke up Friday morning and ran 3 loads of laundry to get all my stuff clean just in case and then at PETI I had the teachers take a look- sure enough I somehow got lice for the 3rd year in a row… I luckily caught it early and immediately put the shampoo in my hair that kills it but we are putting ourselves at risk every week with two of the kids that come to do capoeira with us. The brother and sister that normally come on Tuesdays both have extreme lice, their whole family does, and even though we immediately wash all the sheets and pillowcases they use each week, the risk is still high that we might get it again. Luckily Megan avoided it this time; I just seem to have the bad luck with this! 

Friday we had our store once again and thanks to the large package our parents sent down, we had all kinds of wonderful new toys that were really popular with the kids! Quite a few of them saved up a lot of their money for the next store in the hopes of combining with a friend for $35 to 'purchase' a sleepover at our house. Our weekends might soon be filling up with these overnights with the kids :)

After a relaxing weekend in which I got to Skype with both my friend Erin and my family, we were back to work Monday with a regular schedule. Monday was successful English classes, giving tests over pronouns with almost everyone passing on the first try.. I was so impressed. We then combined the pronouns and the verb 'to be' with feelings so that they could begin formulating sentences such as 'I am hungry'.. it was really exciting! Then on Tuesday we split our time between math classes and decorating shoe boxes that we plan to fill up with goodies next week when we have a little party to celebrate Children's Day on the 12th! It is a surprise; the kids think they are just making these boxes as storage but little do they know they will get stocked up by special 'secret' friends!

I am so happy to hear that my new cousin Will is home from the hospital and doing well after being born on the 19th. I'm sure his big sisters are so thrilled along with his parents! I also continue to ask for prayers for my other cousin Callie as she is also expecting and due early October! Please let us know any prayer requests that you have- lzatkulak@yahoo.com