Taking off

So tomorrow I'm heading off to Rio de Janeiro!!! I'm super excited to go, but will miss our little family here in Maceio! Luiza is going to Joao Pessoa for her class tomorrow, as well, so old man Toby is going to be one sad little poodle. Anyway, I don't know when I'll have internet access, so for all you hard core followers out there [aka, Ma and Pa ;)], don't lose hope! I will post as soon as I can! And fear not, I will be safe: I promise to wear a helmet when I hang glide if it is required. ;) Ate logo!!

Amigos, Gaubi Vaz

Kelson's childhood friend, Gaubi, is officially one of the most accomplished people I know. And one of the funniest. Dinner with him, his wife, and their friend was fun and lively with lots of talk, food, and laughter. We showed them pictures of this summer, and played online with google earth, the blog, and skyped with Murilo.

One of the things Gaubi showed us was a video of him on youtube (oh, did I tell you he wrote and released a CD? because he did...). You've got to check it out - he wrote the music (I think... I know he wrote all the songs on his CD, Amigos), that's him singing, and it is filmed in Maceio right along the area where Kelson had his jet ski accident, so you'll get a little sound and sight of Alagoas! Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVKtMRHyXrY

Here's also a link to a blog that talks a little about him and his music: http://musicadoceara.blogspot.com/2008/09/gaubi-vaz-amigos.html

According to Muri, he's also phenomenal on the guitar... maybe by talking with him I'll get better... or maybe I should practice...

What IS life without condensed milk?!?

Today was a busy day! In the morning I went to the gym, Toby and I went for a walk (and then he took a bath and now he is all fluffy... hahaha), I went to a couple more english classes, and tonight I get to meet the famous Goubi (Kelson's best friend). I'm trying to look really nice for this dinner with him and his wife because the last time the wife saw me I was dying in the hospital and toting a blue sheet around, not unlike like Linus.

A couple days ago I asked Zaira and Luiza what they vendor on the corner makes with sugar cane, so on the walk with Toby today I went and bought a cup of sugarcane juice (caldo de cana). It tasted pretty much like what you would expect the water and sugar squeezed from the sugarcane to taste like - delicious!! I'm glad I discovered that the third to last day I was here... I think agua de coco is a better habit to have...

I love going to the english classes. Turns out I'm one of those people who is energized by spending time and connecting with other people - anyone surprised? Anyone... I'm a little saddened, however by the most common question I get. They talk about the movies about high school that they see and ask me if it is really like this, meaning, are there such divisions among groups, and are the football players all cool and dumb, and are the cheerleaders all hot and promiscuous, and are there nerds who are smart and losers. On one hand it makes me sad that this is how the world perceives us, as anyone would if these movies were the only time they saw into the United States and our culture. On the other hand, I'm glad to be here and to have a chance to talk about our culture and show people here a "different" sort of American. I like to be able to subvert the rumors, and I love most of all to talk to students about myths about sex before marriage that our media passes out like candy. I think I was born to work with this age group, if only the crazy parents would relax about grades a little bit, and I think a dream of mine is to foster a small group of girls in the high school that talks about these things, that can learn from my mistakes and triumphs, and who can encounter God and bring him to their (our) culture!

My favorite conversation from today was a student who asked if we had brigadero in the U.S. Half of them were utterly shocked that my answer was no (I think the other half already knew this). The girl who asked me, still astounded, then asked this question: But what, then, do you eat at parties?!?! They weren't consoled with any of my answers, however, because none of it involved condensed milk, however they were a little relieved to hear that we at least had condensed milk in the U.S.

Alright, I'm out folks. I'm going to go help prepare for tonight a little bit more... with any luck they'll ask me to "help" make the brigadero!!! I need to go practice my innocent face...

The fruit club

Goiaba take 2 happened today - instead of eating the pretty green goiaba, I ate the yellow one, and low and behold, it was amazing! There was no pucker effect, the seeds were still hard, but the entire fruit is edible and it's tasty! To compare the ripe and unripe fruit, I took a picture. When it comes to goiaba, green does not mean go.

I also tried caju this week. The caju fruit is an accessory fruit that grows attached to the true caju fruit, also known as castanha de caju, or the cashew nut. The fruit is delicate and juicy, very sweet and tender with a slightly chalky aftertaste. And apparently I am slightly allergic to this fruit (or maybe to the potent skin irritant found in between the double shell encasing the cashew nut, which is also a toxin found in poison ivy?...

nah... ) because both times I ate the fruit my throat got all itchy and my hands got what looks like sunburn or hives... without the burn and itch. The goiaba I ate today was sitting next to the caju for the last couple days, and when I ate it I got the hand-sunburn reaction again... for the love... What a curse to be allergic to something that is so good! In heaven I'm going to have a caju tree.

A teacher of another sort

I've been volunteering at a local english school these past 2 weeks and today I talked to three classes. I appreciate being a volunteer more now that I'm a teacher - what a great lesson plan: bring in a native speaker, let the kids ask questions... I need to utilize guest speakers more... The kids are so much fun to talk with - especially the girls because they are so animated (lots of exclamations, giggling, gasping). It's helping me to get more excited to return to my own classroom!

Low Tide

It's the middle of the week, so of course the day is perfect. There are only enough clouds in the sky to be decorative and the ocean peeking between buildings is sparkly, so Toby and I scratched our usual around the block plans and headed for the beach. We hit waterfront when the tide was low and the bay was scattered with boats sitting too high in the water. We walked past one that was planted completely out of the water, but it didn't matter - there was someone still working on the boat and another working around it. In fact, most of the boats that were beached had people working on or around them.

As Toby and I walked I started to notice all the incredible beauty around me. The color of the water looked photoshopped, and the way the water had run across the sand left patterns that made the ground look like marble. As blue swirled below, the canopy of green above seemed to blossom out even more than usual. God's creation is so perfect - even as I walked down the beach I noticed that when I started to get to warm I would pass under the shadow of the palms into delicious cool air.

Toby was loving his time at the beach - he almost seemed to prance in and out of the scattered seaweed. He thought the seaweed flowing with the current was alive, so I sat, entertained for a while, watching him tentitavely reach out his neck as far as it would go in order to smell it and then a wave would catch the seaweed and more it a little, so Toby would jump back! Then he'd paw at it and leap sideways! I'm pretty sure he would have stayed there with that clump all day.

A giant sandbar was uncovered because it was low tide, and it stretched out nearly half way across the narrow part of the bay. It was packed with people, and we wove our way around them in order to walk out to the end. I walked in the warm, shallow water while Toby was a little more hesitant, but he started to prance in and out of the little waves and soon was wading across the little channels all by himself. When he came out of the water he looked hilarious - since just his legs were wet, they looked really tiny and spindly and his fat little fluffy body sat on top. He looked so out of proportion that I couldn't help but see him as a cartoon character - he would have been pompous royalty prancing around with his nose in the air, a white ruffly collar on, being tailed by a butler carrying a silver platter of doggy kibble. He is just so happy at the beach.

As we walked back, the beached boats seemed to be collecting people. The one stuck completely out of the water now had 3 people sitting on it, drinking and talking, another one was being rolled out to the water on logs by 2 people, and as the sun got hotter the fishermen seemed to be doing more socializing and less fishing.

Oh how I will miss Maceio!! I love it here, and I know that my dreams during the rainy, grey winter in OR will be of walking along this beach.

Erin was right: 3rd grade is hard!

I've been looking for that magic bean, the one method of learning portuguese that is going to make it click for me. I'm starting to think that there is no such thing as magic or clicking... On the down side, portuguese is difficult and I have days where I am so frustrated about my lack of understanding and progress. On the positive side, there are moments of glory when I realize that I actually am learning - when I understand a whole sentence said on a TV show, or when the check out lady at the grocery store asks me if I have a number, and I can give her an answer without receiving that scrunched-eyebrow look that is so very familiar (and often followed a few seconds later with an ... ohhh... )

I'm starting to think that there is no one method that will get me to learn, but rather the more methods I employ, the more fully I will learn. I'm trying everything I can think of: I took a class, study from a text book, listen to an audio lesson, watch TV/movies in portuguese, read/translate children's comic and story books, play games on line, and I recently bought a book of cross-word puzzles and word searches. I tried watching children's shows, but most of them on the Barney level, which is what I need these days, make me want to stab myself with a fork... or stab the TV, or maybe Barney. Anyone else have suggestions? (stalkers out there?)

I'm also starting to think that there's no "click." I keep waiting for the moment where I'll all of a sudden be able to understand what people say and be able to respond (in more than 2 year old speech...) But I'm starting to think the learning process is less like stair, or a series of times when you just get it, and more like climbing a hill - it's a gradual accruing of knowledge and understanding.

If you're praying for me out there, pray for patience. I have more empathy for kindergardeners and other early learners these days; as a famous teacher once said: 3rd grade is hard! Excuse me while I go read "A Princesa e o Sapo."