Archive for the 'Teresa's thoughts' Category

That’s right, we got lost today and we don’t even have a car yet!

We took the bus to school today. Its not very far and we had a list of the different bus numbers we could take to get to the 2 different stops that are near our school. We had to be at school by 2:30. Just to be safe, we left to go to school at 1:15. It went so smoothly! We stuck our hand out, the bus picked us up, and it let us off just where we thought it would. Even with walking from home to the stop and from the other stop to the school with a potty break along the way, we got to school by 2 pm. So, you’d think that the ride home would go just as smoothly, wouldn’t you?

Not so much.

We left school at 4:30 to walk down to the stop. We stopped for a quick snack (which now I think was a prompting from the Lord) and proceeded to the bus stop. There were several bus #’s we could choose from that supposedly drop off at the stop we got on this morning, so we got on #727. So far so good! The bus started down the road, kept going, kept going, right on past our neighborhood. Then it kept going, kept going, and kept going. Soon it started to turn into some neighborhoods like we were in some kind of maze. Each time it stopped, more people got off until we were the only ones on the bus! Jackson was thrilled, “We have the whole bus to ourselves!”. Well, there was a reason for that. At the next stop, the bus turned off and the money taking dude said something to the effect “this is the end of the road”, acutally it probably wasn’t that because it was all in portuguese and I really have no idea what he said. Don’t forget, WE DON’T SPEAK PORTUGUESE!! Neither the cashier nor the driver spoke english, so we played a mean game of charades complete with Lucas, several times, doing the international symbol for “missed our stop”-which is “pare” which means stop combined with him quickly moving his hand like a zooming car while making the sound of a zooming car. Apparently it is not an international symbol, because they had not idea what we were saying!! Then, Lucas tried pulling out some words we had spoken in class-we haven’t been taught what they mean yet, so he was just going off of what he thought they sounded like. He tried to say “we forgot our stop” by saying “foguete pare” which sounds like “fogechey” which sounds like forget. After we got home, we found out “foguete” means fireworks!! So, he said “fireworks stop!” Somehow we communicated that we missed our stop and did not know what to do. I’m guessing they figured it out merely by the looks on our faces which were most likely priceless.

Apparently the place we stopped was a hub for the buses where they check in between routes, so the bus driver took us to a man in an office. We played some more charades, threw out the few portuguese words we know, and then said the key thing: Center Lar, which is a shopping center near our house. It all made sense to them after that. The poor, lost Americanos were not even close to their home!!! At this point they talked amongst themselves and then told us, I think, that they would find a bus to take us to the Center Lar. Just a reminder…WE DON’T SPEAK PORTUGUESE!!!

We then sat at this hub place for about 1/2 hour when the nice man pointed to a bus, said a bunch of words mixed in with “Center Lar”. So, we got on the bus, the ticket dude watched us to make sure we knew what we were doing, gave us a thumbs up when it was time for us to get off, and we made it home!!!

God is so good, isn’t he? Even with a GIGANTIC language barrier, God provided a way for us to communicate and got us home. We were blown away by the kindness and helpfulness of the brazilians along the way! They really went out of their way to help us. We got home (2 hours later), looked at a map of where we were, and realized we would never have found our way home without the help of these men(we were quite a ways away). We are so thankful that God was in control of the situation even when we had no idea where we were, how to communicate, or how we were going to get home! He just wanted us to have a little adventure on the bus before we have a ton of them in our car!!! I’ll just have to remember this story and how God got us home when we start exploring and we are lost in our van in the middle of the city…

Well, we finished our first week of language school. I think we are going to enjoy it! Our teachers are great, patient and super nice. So far, we haven’t had any homework. In fact, when we asked if we should go home and practice our words and sounds, our teacher Monica said very emphatically, “NO!!”. It is very important that we learn these sounds correctly, the wrong sound can totally change the meaning of the word. There are several sounds that are not typical in the english language, so it gets a little frustrating at times when our teachers say a sound, we repeat it, then they repeat it again because we didn’t get it right, then we repeat it, but its still not right, but we can’t tell it wasn’t right….AAHHHH!!! But, despite the frustrations, we are looking forward to really getting into school. In fact, I think I can even say that we are looking foward to having some homework!! (I say that now, but I’m sure it will change later.)

We are DYING to communicate better with our neighbors. You can tell they are used to Americans living in this house, they are really patient with our lack of portuguese! On Thursday night, Julia and I were sitting out front watching the kids play, and several of the neighbor kids came over to talk to us. There names were Julia, Bianca, Bruno, and Jon Victor (there were a couple more, but I can’t remember their names). We sat out there for about 1/2 hour talking bad portuguese and a little english getting to know each other. I think we successfully communicated why we are here, that we are not just visiting, and that we are studying portuguese (all with the help of Bruno who speaks pretty good english). After I went back in the house, Julia sat outside with them for another hour and a half! They are very intrigued by our family and they love our kids, so there is a great potential for ministry, starting now! I also met several moms this week, which was great. There is Luciana-her son is Lucas, our boys play their Nintendo DS’s together. 2 doors down is Miriam and Jiro-their son is also Lucas who is 8, they were friends with the missionaries who lived here before us have been awaiting our arrival. I met Sandra-she also has a son Lucas, he is 4. I am looking forward to getting to know these ladies better as our kids interact!

Today, Lucas is running a 5k somewhere around here, I’m not even sure where he is! As far as the rest of our day, we’re hanging out here-the no car thing again. :-) Lord willing we will get a car this week and next weekend we can start exploring this beautiful city!

Well, this is my first official blog. I don’t know how often I’ll do it, although I hope its often. I don’t know what I’ll blog about, although I’m sure there will be plenty of embarrassing stories. I don’t even know if I’ll be good at it! I do know that this will be an echo of my heart. I will be honest on these pages about how our family is doing-adventures, struggles, and all. This blog will be a window into our life in Porto Alegre, Brazil. So, here we go!!

We have been here for 1 week. Its been a roller coaster of emotions in 1 week. At first, it was all so overwhelming. We were emotional from leaving our home, emotional about arriving in Brazil, and our heads were filled with all sorts of information we needed in order to get settled here. It really was overwhelming. And that was just the first 2 days!! We had a great welcome from our field council (the group of ABWE missionaries in our city). Friday night we all had dinner at one of their houses. It was nice to finally meet them all. Saturday Julia arrived! We were so happy to see her. She is going to be of great use during our language school. I’ll get into that more later. Later saturday we started exploring. Well, as much exploring as one can do without a car! Yes, we still don’t have a car. We have been able to function-there is a grocery store about 3/4 mile away, a bakery 2 blocks away, and a produce market 2 blocks away. One of the missionaries, Cal, has been taking us to and from school each day. So, we are getting to where we need to go. A car would be nice though. We are itching to get out and explore! Not to mention, being at home so much promotes opportunities to think about missing our friends and family. I think it would help our homesickness if we had something exciting to do! (Well, my homesickness anyway) Lord willing we will get a car soon and we can check out the many parks, shopping, and eventually the beach! (It is summer you know)

So, back to this bakery down the street. It is sooooo yummy! The bread is so good and so cheap!! We’ve been going there way too much. I think I’m eating a loaf of bread a day!! I will have to stop this eventually.

We had our language school orientation. It is going to be a lot of work! We start out with no homework and class 2 hours a day for the first 2 weeks. Gradually we will work up to 30-40 hours a week of combined class time and study time!! Julia is going to be so helpful to have around here when we have class, hours of study, housework, portuguese conversation assignments, not to mention the kiddos! This is going to be a bit of a stretch, I think. :-)

Over the next few weeks we will be visiting all of the ABWE area churches. There are a few, I can’t remember how many. After we visit all of them, we will choose one to attend during language school. We are not permitted to do ministry, just attend the church, make relationships, and attend a small group. Our full time job this year is language study.
The boys have made a ton of friends already. Our neighborhood is a gated, guarded community of about 80 homes. The kids can run pretty much freely inside the gates. There are a ton of kids!! Last night, when I was getting the boys ready for bed, there were little brazilian faces peering in the front window looking for the boys! Then tonight, some kids called our house from the guard’s office to find out what the boys email address was-in portuguese!! That is such an answer to prayer! It was a major turning point for them this week when they had kids to play with. I heard Nathaniel praying for some of them tonight, that they would believe in Christ someday. Some of their names are Julia, Lucas, and Larissa. Please pray for them, and for our kids as they share Christ!

Well, that is a recap of our week so far. There is so much I left out, but I’m blabbing already! Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do in a blog?

Until next time…