Last weekend, my friend Maria Socorro and her husband, Claudemir, flew in to visit me from Sao Paulo. Maria and I met in California and I had not seen her since the end of February. Since then she is 6 months pregnant. When she came she asked me to be her baby's godmother! How exciting! First thing I told her was that they needed to raise her up in the way of the Lord and if they don't then I will! I can't have my god-daughter not knowing the Lord. 

Us in the airport waiting for her husband (they took separate flights)

  On that Saturday morning we went to Chapada dos Veadeiros in the state of Goias. It was about 3 hours away from Brasilia. I was excited to have a weekend away from Brasilia and getting to see more of Brazil. Chapada has 25 different waterfalls and is beautiful. We did not see all of the waterfalls because they are located all over the place and it was kind of raining. We did go to one part called Raizama and then later some hot springs. We had picked up a guide who was a hippie and that is how we ended up at Raizama...check out the Woodstock stage below. We stayed in a pousada, which is like a rustic inn.. It was nice and it had some cool hammocks out front. I loved getting to read my Bible out there.

At a random road side stand

Travis with the puppy and parrot...so random

The place we stayed


They had some random mixing of religions? Crystals and St. Francis of Assisi?

Yeah, Travis went with us. I like this picture because it shows how we usually look...me smiley and him looking irritated...LOL.  
 
The paved roads ended and we drove on this horrible road for a long time 

Nice....reminded me of Africa?








The one with the kids: the girl is the daughter of the woman who owns the pousada and she was funny.
It was a beautiful weekend!

   Things are still touchy with the school. The school wants to decide by the end of the month who will be the teachers going home. Yikes! Pray for us!

  I have been living in Brazil for three weeks now and time sure does SPEED UP here! It is crazy! I feel like I never have a moment to just do nothing, something always needs to be done. I barely live in my apartment, so if you ask me how I like living alone, I could barely tell you. My apartment is too big for one person, I need to get a maid to come once a month or 2 times a month. But this apartment is temporary until that other family comes, I am just holding it for them.


  Things are going good despite being too busy. I am busy with lesson plans that have to be done every week, course maps and weights, mentor meetings, staff meetings, paperwork for the Brazilian government, etc etc. The single teachers like to have meals together, which is good. Last night we ate at Lauren and Amanda's and then played 'Catch Phrase', but because our week is long, we started to fizzle out at 9:30pm. We are old and tired...LOL. I feel like we spend so much time at the school and then time at home finishing things for school. I barely know the city. I take a taxi or ride the bus to and from school.

The school

Me with my 5th/6th grade class

  The staff at our school is great. I like them all. We had a big staff dinner about 2 weeks ago at the Brazilian steakhouse. Yum! We also had a lunch at a family from our school's home. We almost all attend the international church and I find that church to be a blessing. I attend a small group on Wednesday nights. There is another school here that is called the American school and they have some quality teachers. There is a married couple my same age from where I live in California! How cool is that??? 
   The students in my classes are okay. I love them, but they are very disorganized. I have tried numerous methods and it does not sink in. Hmmm. My students are from all over...South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Spain, US, etc. I teach 5th grade math, reading, language arts, spelling, and handwriting. Then I teach 5th/6th social studies, science and music. I teach all elementary music. I like teaching music and this way I get to interact with all of the kids on the elementary level. I am going to start an after school choir, we'll see how that goes.
  The coolest moment I have had here was Thursday when I got to feed this cute monkeys at another teacher's house! I accidently erased all of the pictures and now am trying to use photo recovery to get them back! So mad at myself.
 Well I just wanted to update xanga, but I do have another blog that is updated more often
http://brasiliablessings.blogspot.com 

Lago Sul-- South Lake

Raquel's bridal shower

Mexican food after church

 

  
   I returned last night from my month of living out of my suitcase. I am glad to be back in my bed and near a washing machine. Yesterday was the last day of Pre-Field Orientation (PFO) in Southaven, Mississippi for Network of International Christian Schools (NICS). It was two weeks full of sessions on cultural differences and values, teaching methods and strategies, TCK's (Third Culture Kids), conflict, personality assessments, small group Bible studies, moral purity, etc etc. We ate such good food and sat all day in freezing rooms, while the temperature outside was 101 degrees. PFO was an amazing experience. There were people there from all over North America going to teach in schools all over the world. NICS/Oasis has schools in Kenya, Ghana, Turkey, Suriname, Korea, China, Brazil, Venezuela, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, Germany, Singapore and Japan. NICS is a great organization, trying to reach children through international schools so these children can impact the world for Christ.
  I learned a lot about myself and my personality. We had taken some tests before PFO and we were given our results there. We met in our school groups to discuss our personality types and what strengths and challenges we have to contribute. I thought that was very beneficial since we will be seeing the same people day in and day out. Through the course of those 2 weeks I met someone who had my same letters for Myer's Briggs, but to a greater extent than myself--it was eye opening! It made me laugh at the girl I was and thankful for the woman that God is making me. God is good.
  During my time there I was able to meet the other new teachers for my school and bond with them. One night the school paid for us to go out to dinner. We went to PF Changs. It was good. While there we shared alittle about our family backgrounds and then had a time of prayer for the school year. We all have some concerns about finances and our visas. We are on the waiting process for our work visas. The school is prepared to start the school year without us there, but I really want to be there for the first day. If you could please pray for that, thanks. Our staff is interesting, but in a good way....well mostly. Travis, is our only single man teacher and he has not given me a great impression of his work ethics. He showed up whenever he felt like it. He skipped sessions so he could swim, play basketball or tennis and go to the gym. What a winner. He is fun to make fun of though.
Us at the restaurant

  We got to spend some time down in Memphis. It was fun. One night myself and some other ladies went on a carriage ride through downtown and we did some karaoke. On a Sunday we went to Neely's and ate good BBQ. We also went to the National Civil Rights Museum, that was awesome. 

   Being at PFO was like week of welcome at Prairie. I was so amp'ed to meet everyone and in awe of the fact that God has called us all to various locations, but that we were together for those 2 weeks. I made some great friends, some Canadians too! On Canada Day we made our own fireworks show. It was fun!
   I am getting excited to be going to Brazil, but would like to know when that is. June as a great month!

  I took too many pictures to post all of them...but these are some highlights (everything else is on fb)

The freshies...Lauren will teach PE and Health, Maggie will teach 2nd grade, me- 5th, Travis will teach History, and Stephanie will teach math and science.

Stephanie and I at the minor league baseball game

The ladies after the game at a waffle house

Our carriage ride

My new Brazilian couple---he barely speaks English

Us at Neely's ...note the nearly empty plate...yum

Civil Rights Museum...where Martin Luther King was assassinated

Graceland!

Us going nuts in a fireworks store...the Canadian is 2nd from the left  

Brasilia International School staff! We are missing 2 current teachers and our administrators