http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=281334&id=668441007&l=df681b5980
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=280529&id=668441007&l=fa3e27fb71
Friday, 1 April 2011
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Caldas Novas
On Friday we left for Caldas Novas, which is a town similar to Bath in that it has natural hot springs. The State of Goiás is in the central regions of Brazil (and incidentally is larger than the entire British Isles) and as such you really have to get on a plane if you want to see the sea. Caldas Novas is sort of a replacement - it certainly had the feel of a seaside town and had a permanent fair, stalls and shops selling cheap souvenirs and even pony rides.
We travelled by car and it was a long way - four or five hours on an incredibly hot day, in a car without air-conditioning, sitting in the backseat with a two year-old and a five year-old, who think the best game in the world is "it's mine", "no, mine", "no, mine", "mine!", "mine!", "MINE!" etc etc. But I read half a book and we got there eventually! We stayed in a small bungalow in a sort of gated holiday place - loads of houses all the same and several pools that made use of the hot springs. I shared a room with Julia, which was fine except that she gets up quite early!
On the first day we went to the pool on site and that was great - mostly relaxing and playing with Helena and Julia. Afterwards we went into the town and had caldo (a kind of soup that the place is famous for), which was nice and then some pizza. The guy who owned the restaurant gave us some free tickets to a club for the next day, which was cool. I'm not really sure why, but I usually go with things rather than questioning, because it's just too much effort. Then we went home, but on the way back we passed through a square with fountains coming out of the ground and I got caught in them. Which did produce a hilarious photo at least! Luckily the water was hot so it wasn't too bad.
The next day we used our free tickets to go to the club, I think there was some kind of catch to them that meant we had to be shown around a load of holiday apartments that we were clearly not going to purchase, but that was fine. The club had a fake beach made out of white concrete with a wave machine which was quite cool. And another pool that was as hot as a bath and you really couldn't swim in without being uncomfortably hot. There was a bar in the pool, which was pretty cool and seats in the pool too. After that we went home and tried to make Helelna take a shower, at which point she fled and hid in a cupboard - I have quite a good photo.
Finally on the Sunday we went to the pool on site in the morning, before piling into the car to return to Santo Antonio. We looked everywhere for a place to stop for lunch and pulled in at a dodgy-looking shop/restaurant straight out of hicksville that seemed to attract every fly in a five-mile radius. I didn't need telling twice when Adriana warned me not to buy any of the food made on the premises, so we escaped clutching our branded goods instead and found a more platable rest-stop further on to eat pastries and drink sweetcorn juice. Yeah, you heard right: sweetcorn juice. As in apple juice, orange juice or sweetcorn juice. Beyond weird.
In English class on Monday we covered family members and refreshed colours and past/future tenses of regular verbs. On Tuesday we made posters on the topics covered so far (photos to follow) which were really rather creative. They now adorn the walls of the back room at church. On Wednesday we did clothes and played a game with flash cards. I made a load with different colours on, and some with different items of clothing. I picked one of each and read the combinations out (for example: "blue" and "skirt"). They had to draw said item of clothing in the correct colour. The best moment was when Silmara, after weeks of trying, finally learnt the difference between red and green. It's not that she got confused - she just literally couldn't hear or pronounce the difference!
After English class we had a prayer meeting, which was nice and we read one of the Psalms (113 or 133 - sorry that I can't remember!). When I got home, I walked through the gate and was greeted by Helena shouting "Bella!" (those of you who have skyped me will know how loud she can be) and running up to me with outstretched arms. It was very endearing.
That's enough for now - I'll post more in a couple of days.
xxxx
We travelled by car and it was a long way - four or five hours on an incredibly hot day, in a car without air-conditioning, sitting in the backseat with a two year-old and a five year-old, who think the best game in the world is "it's mine", "no, mine", "no, mine", "mine!", "mine!", "MINE!" etc etc. But I read half a book and we got there eventually! We stayed in a small bungalow in a sort of gated holiday place - loads of houses all the same and several pools that made use of the hot springs. I shared a room with Julia, which was fine except that she gets up quite early!
On the first day we went to the pool on site and that was great - mostly relaxing and playing with Helena and Julia. Afterwards we went into the town and had caldo (a kind of soup that the place is famous for), which was nice and then some pizza. The guy who owned the restaurant gave us some free tickets to a club for the next day, which was cool. I'm not really sure why, but I usually go with things rather than questioning, because it's just too much effort. Then we went home, but on the way back we passed through a square with fountains coming out of the ground and I got caught in them. Which did produce a hilarious photo at least! Luckily the water was hot so it wasn't too bad.
The next day we used our free tickets to go to the club, I think there was some kind of catch to them that meant we had to be shown around a load of holiday apartments that we were clearly not going to purchase, but that was fine. The club had a fake beach made out of white concrete with a wave machine which was quite cool. And another pool that was as hot as a bath and you really couldn't swim in without being uncomfortably hot. There was a bar in the pool, which was pretty cool and seats in the pool too. After that we went home and tried to make Helelna take a shower, at which point she fled and hid in a cupboard - I have quite a good photo.
Finally on the Sunday we went to the pool on site in the morning, before piling into the car to return to Santo Antonio. We looked everywhere for a place to stop for lunch and pulled in at a dodgy-looking shop/restaurant straight out of hicksville that seemed to attract every fly in a five-mile radius. I didn't need telling twice when Adriana warned me not to buy any of the food made on the premises, so we escaped clutching our branded goods instead and found a more platable rest-stop further on to eat pastries and drink sweetcorn juice. Yeah, you heard right: sweetcorn juice. As in apple juice, orange juice or sweetcorn juice. Beyond weird.
In English class on Monday we covered family members and refreshed colours and past/future tenses of regular verbs. On Tuesday we made posters on the topics covered so far (photos to follow) which were really rather creative. They now adorn the walls of the back room at church. On Wednesday we did clothes and played a game with flash cards. I made a load with different colours on, and some with different items of clothing. I picked one of each and read the combinations out (for example: "blue" and "skirt"). They had to draw said item of clothing in the correct colour. The best moment was when Silmara, after weeks of trying, finally learnt the difference between red and green. It's not that she got confused - she just literally couldn't hear or pronounce the difference!
After English class we had a prayer meeting, which was nice and we read one of the Psalms (113 or 133 - sorry that I can't remember!). When I got home, I walked through the gate and was greeted by Helena shouting "Bella!" (those of you who have skyped me will know how loud she can be) and running up to me with outstretched arms. It was very endearing.
That's enough for now - I'll post more in a couple of days.
xxxx
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Photos
It has occured to me that some here (grandparents come to mind) do not have facebook, so below are links to my three photo albums - enjoy.
xxxx
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=273593&id=668441007&l=0a31207bd8
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=276093&id=668441007&l=a1393345e8
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=279121&id=668441007&l=de66810595
xxxx
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=273593&id=668441007&l=0a31207bd8
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=276093&id=668441007&l=a1393345e8
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=279121&id=668441007&l=de66810595
More from Santo Antonio - part 2
So the service on Sunday was taken by a different preacher. Ubiracy went to some other Church and spoke there and we got someone different. And he talked about how next year he was going on mission to Mozambique, to set up a Church in a village there. Apparently they speak Portuguese in five different African countries - who knew? Anyway, Mozambique is one of them and he showed us photos of the village and what the Church would look like when it was built etc etc. And it really made me stop and think. Because this is a Church that was the subject of my fundraising, my Church's fundraising - we considered them as (in the nicest way possible) a case for charity. But here they were, giving money to a local preacher so that he could go to a part of the world that was far worse off and do some good. It reminded me of that story in the Bible, of the poor widow who gave two copper coins for collection, and Jesus said she was giving more than the rich men because she gave all she had. I give more to collection than they do, but I don't give all I can afford. They do, just to help others in need. It was really touching.
On Monday me and the girls* went to Brasilia to watch a movie (Just Go With It, dubbed into Portuguese, luckily the plot is so predictable that I had no trouble keeping up) and that was really fun, though I was really tired afterwards. The buses in Brazil are a bit of an experience - way too many people, but a really cheerful atmosphere. Not like sullen British commuters, but kind of "we're all jammed into this bus together, so we might as well make the best of it". There was even singing at one point.
Then yesterday I mooched around the house for a bit, before preparing some stuff for English class, we worked on the colours and food and they really did quite well.
One thing to note is the patriotism of the girls. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Britain, but I like it because it's my home, and we have good values and the customs agree with me and I haven't yet found anywhere as beautiful as the shire. But they love England too, for very stereotyped and ridiculous reasons - they love Big Ben and red telephone boxes and the Queen and the custom of afternoon tea and the Union Flag. It's almost like a parody and yet they are very genuine. They can all say "God save the Queen" and "I love England" and Priscila showed me her "England things" which included a jigsaw puzzle of Big Ben, a little Union Flag, a top from River Island, a magazine article on the Queen and two plastic bags from Debenhams and BHS. It was bizarre. They also have the enthusiasm of Evangelicals and Brazilians. I'm just not sure the reserved, stiff-upper-lip British are capable of that kind of eagerness. It's certainly not in my nature.
For English class tonight I'm planning a little competition on who can remember the most foods and another with colours. They love team games too so maybe I'll put them in groups.
That's all for now, beijos!
On Monday me and the girls* went to Brasilia to watch a movie (Just Go With It, dubbed into Portuguese, luckily the plot is so predictable that I had no trouble keeping up) and that was really fun, though I was really tired afterwards. The buses in Brazil are a bit of an experience - way too many people, but a really cheerful atmosphere. Not like sullen British commuters, but kind of "we're all jammed into this bus together, so we might as well make the best of it". There was even singing at one point.
Then yesterday I mooched around the house for a bit, before preparing some stuff for English class, we worked on the colours and food and they really did quite well.
One thing to note is the patriotism of the girls. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Britain, but I like it because it's my home, and we have good values and the customs agree with me and I haven't yet found anywhere as beautiful as the shire. But they love England too, for very stereotyped and ridiculous reasons - they love Big Ben and red telephone boxes and the Queen and the custom of afternoon tea and the Union Flag. It's almost like a parody and yet they are very genuine. They can all say "God save the Queen" and "I love England" and Priscila showed me her "England things" which included a jigsaw puzzle of Big Ben, a little Union Flag, a top from River Island, a magazine article on the Queen and two plastic bags from Debenhams and BHS. It was bizarre. They also have the enthusiasm of Evangelicals and Brazilians. I'm just not sure the reserved, stiff-upper-lip British are capable of that kind of eagerness. It's certainly not in my nature.
For English class tonight I'm planning a little competition on who can remember the most foods and another with colours. They love team games too so maybe I'll put them in groups.
That's all for now, beijos!
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
More from Santo Antonio
So Friday morning was spent making a giant crossword on a piece of wallpaper with food and drink words (in English obviously) so that was the warm-up when we got to class. Everyone had to find two words, pronounce them correctly and say what they were in portuguese. After that I got everyone on their feet and we jumped and said "jump", smiled and said "smile", waved and said "wave" etc. They're getting better with numbers, but thirty-three is still a nightmare. Then we did some role-play of two different scenes - asking a stranger for the time* and meeting a new person**.
On Saturday morning I went shopping with Adriana, which was very different to the British equivalent in Asda. We went to a supermarket to buy some meat, but then bought fruit and vegetables at a stall in a large open-air market which was full of extremes. The fruit & veg stall was made of crates and all the surfaces were piled high with produce. The stall next to it sold spices out of large sacks by the cup-full. Next to that was a cleared area with a couple of tables and chairs where a surly-looking woman tended a barbecue. Further on was a man with a horse and cart full of chickens. And finally there was a stall selling cheap plastic toys and Barbie merchandise.
It is strange to see tanned 10 year-old boys, with black hair and eyes, ride bare-back and run bare-foot trough the streets and then run inside to eat Nestle chocolate and watch X-Men on TV. It is the mix between traditional ways and the clash with the modern world.
Saturday evening I went to a Pizzaria with Bruna and Priscila, I actually managed to maintain conversation throughout, which with my language abilities is no mean feat! On Sunday I hung out with Bruna and Priscila again and we played with the girls as well as playing hangman (with the aid of a portuguese-english dictionary so that the words were fiendishly hard). In the evening we had church and I helped with the Sunday-School. After the lesson, they taught me a game called "Alive-Dead". When the caller shouted alive you had to stand, when they shout dead you have to crouch down - if you do the wrong thing at the wrong time then you're out. I didn't do very well!
That's all I've got time for now, but I will give an account of Monday and today later on.
Love xxxx
*"Excuse me, what is the time, please?"
"It's seven o'clock"
"Thank you"
"You're welcome"
**"Hello"
"Hi"
"My name is ... What's your name?"
"My name is ..."
On Saturday morning I went shopping with Adriana, which was very different to the British equivalent in Asda. We went to a supermarket to buy some meat, but then bought fruit and vegetables at a stall in a large open-air market which was full of extremes. The fruit & veg stall was made of crates and all the surfaces were piled high with produce. The stall next to it sold spices out of large sacks by the cup-full. Next to that was a cleared area with a couple of tables and chairs where a surly-looking woman tended a barbecue. Further on was a man with a horse and cart full of chickens. And finally there was a stall selling cheap plastic toys and Barbie merchandise.
It is strange to see tanned 10 year-old boys, with black hair and eyes, ride bare-back and run bare-foot trough the streets and then run inside to eat Nestle chocolate and watch X-Men on TV. It is the mix between traditional ways and the clash with the modern world.
Saturday evening I went to a Pizzaria with Bruna and Priscila, I actually managed to maintain conversation throughout, which with my language abilities is no mean feat! On Sunday I hung out with Bruna and Priscila again and we played with the girls as well as playing hangman (with the aid of a portuguese-english dictionary so that the words were fiendishly hard). In the evening we had church and I helped with the Sunday-School. After the lesson, they taught me a game called "Alive-Dead". When the caller shouted alive you had to stand, when they shout dead you have to crouch down - if you do the wrong thing at the wrong time then you're out. I didn't do very well!
That's all I've got time for now, but I will give an account of Monday and today later on.
Love xxxx
*"Excuse me, what is the time, please?"
"It's seven o'clock"
"Thank you"
"You're welcome"
**"Hello"
"Hi"
"My name is ... What's your name?"
"My name is ..."
Friday, 18 March 2011
English Lessons 2 & 3
So my days follow a pretty regular pattern now. I get up about 8:30, have breakfast, watch cartoons and play with Helena, go online, read, have lunch, prepare for class, have tea, go to church and teach, have supper and go to bed. Preparing for class usually takes as long, if not longer than actually giving it. I teach from 6 until 8 (approxiamately).
Wednesday's class focused on dates and times and then we did a short section on food. I don't envy those born on the 30th as this is particularly hard for them to say. I also told them the rhyme "Monday's child is fair of face..."* which they found hilarious.
Thursday's class was on the present continuous tense - though I'm not sure I managed to convey this to them! There's no whiteboard at the church, but I got a roll of wallpaper ad stuck some up on the wall with masking tape and began to draw a park. We labelled things such as trees or flowers as we went along to improve vocabulary. Then I drew a little stick figure jumping next to a tree. I labelled it "Bella"**. Then I wrote "It's twelve o'clock and I am next to the tree, jumping". I got each of the students to come up in turn and draw themselves into the scene and say where they were and what they were doing. I've taken a photograph of the finished scene and will try and upload it this afternoon. We had quite a variety of actions by the end - singing, dancing, talking, laughing, smiling, drinking etc.
After this we played "odd-one-out" with the food words we had learnt the day before. I would write up "mushroom, onion, carrot, pork" and they had to work out what each one meant before deciding that pork was the odd one because the others were vegetables.
Finally we had a very exciting team game where I wrote numbers up on the board and called them out, a player from each team had a coloured pen and the first to circle the correct figure in their team's colourp to em got a point - it was all very exciting for them! Their was lots of shouting and good-natured squabbling over disputed points!
At home Helena's three favourite games recently are to sit on my lap, facing me and undo and do up a button on my shirt, over and over again! She's very independant and loves to be able to do things for herself. The second is to come up to me with a teddy behind her back and say "close you eyes, I have a present for you" (in Portuguese obviously) and then shout "ta-da!" and produce said toy. Finally, whenever I'm on skype she loves to come and say "oi" (hi) to whoever I'm speaking to, which is really rather sweet. If you should happen to be on the receiving end of this, the correct response is "oi, tudo bem?" (pronounced "oi, too-do beng?").
That's all for now - I need to prepare tonight's lesson.
Love xx
*"Monday's child is fair of face
Tuesday's child is full of grace
Wednesday's child is full of woe
Thursday's child has far to go
Friday's child is loving and giving
Saturday's child works hard for a living
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny, blithe, good and gay"
**I'm sure I've explained this before, but just in case - "ela" in Portuguese means "she" so I go by the name Bella here.
Wednesday's class focused on dates and times and then we did a short section on food. I don't envy those born on the 30th as this is particularly hard for them to say. I also told them the rhyme "Monday's child is fair of face..."* which they found hilarious.
Thursday's class was on the present continuous tense - though I'm not sure I managed to convey this to them! There's no whiteboard at the church, but I got a roll of wallpaper ad stuck some up on the wall with masking tape and began to draw a park. We labelled things such as trees or flowers as we went along to improve vocabulary. Then I drew a little stick figure jumping next to a tree. I labelled it "Bella"**. Then I wrote "It's twelve o'clock and I am next to the tree, jumping". I got each of the students to come up in turn and draw themselves into the scene and say where they were and what they were doing. I've taken a photograph of the finished scene and will try and upload it this afternoon. We had quite a variety of actions by the end - singing, dancing, talking, laughing, smiling, drinking etc.
After this we played "odd-one-out" with the food words we had learnt the day before. I would write up "mushroom, onion, carrot, pork" and they had to work out what each one meant before deciding that pork was the odd one because the others were vegetables.
Finally we had a very exciting team game where I wrote numbers up on the board and called them out, a player from each team had a coloured pen and the first to circle the correct figure in their team's colourp to em got a point - it was all very exciting for them! Their was lots of shouting and good-natured squabbling over disputed points!
At home Helena's three favourite games recently are to sit on my lap, facing me and undo and do up a button on my shirt, over and over again! She's very independant and loves to be able to do things for herself. The second is to come up to me with a teddy behind her back and say "close you eyes, I have a present for you" (in Portuguese obviously) and then shout "ta-da!" and produce said toy. Finally, whenever I'm on skype she loves to come and say "oi" (hi) to whoever I'm speaking to, which is really rather sweet. If you should happen to be on the receiving end of this, the correct response is "oi, tudo bem?" (pronounced "oi, too-do beng?").
That's all for now - I need to prepare tonight's lesson.
Love xx
*"Monday's child is fair of face
Tuesday's child is full of grace
Wednesday's child is full of woe
Thursday's child has far to go
Friday's child is loving and giving
Saturday's child works hard for a living
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny, blithe, good and gay"
**I'm sure I've explained this before, but just in case - "ela" in Portuguese means "she" so I go by the name Bella here.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Santo Antonio do Descoberto
Not much happened in my last few days in Sao Paulo, though I was very sad to leave when I did. Firstly because of all the friends I made there and how welcoming the people were. But also because I was settled there and knew everyone and coming to Santo Antonio felt like starting all over again.
But that's just what I did - got on the plane on Saturday morning and arrived about lunch-time. I slept a bit in the afternoon as we'd stayed up late the night before watching a movie. And then in the evening we went to church. I suppose at this point I should explain who "we" refers to, but that requires considerable back-story: skip the next paragraph if you already know what brought me here.
I've come to Santo Antonio do Descoberto (a small town near the capital of Brasilia in a central state called Goias) to visit the Evangelical Christian Church here. A couple of years ago my church, Temple Methodist in Taunton, started something called the Canaa Project. The congregation (and in particular my youth group) aimed to raise 3000 pounds (there's no pound sign on this keyboard) to carry out building work for this church. We enabled them to have a youth room built, among other things. So the Reverend Ubiracy (pronunced oo-bi-ra-see, be like biscuit, roll the r and a like cat) said did anyone want to come and visit. At the same time I was casting around for somethingto occupy me during my gap-year, so here I am.
So "we" is the Reverend (or Pastor, as they say here) Ubiracy, his wife Adriana and their two daughters. Julia is five and Helena (pronounced Elaine-a) is two. They are both very sweet. Julia can count to ten and say "good morning", "good day" and "good night" in English and is understandably proud of the achievement. She has about as much English as any of them. Helena says "bye-bye" so often that she has left me in little doubt that she has no idea what this scrap of English means. She is probably not even aware that it's foreign. I talk English to her and she talks Portuguese back and it all works very nicely. Interestingly I didn't know what the word for "stop" was until I got here. But with a toddler in the house house you often hear "Pare Helena, pare!"
Another language point to note is my difficulty in adjusting. In Sao Paulo I usually hung out with Bruno and his 20-something male friends who spoke with a lot of street slang. To go from that to hearing little girls lisping about Christ is a big change. Also if you have spoken with a toddler lately you will know they are sometimes hard to understand even when speaking the same language. I believe my five year-old cousin has yet to master the pronounciation of "th". So Helena is usually unintelligible - but she's two, so it's not hard to guess what she's on about.
Back to my story: we went to church Saturday evening and I got the grand tour, which didn't take long. I took some photos of the rooms and will post them later today. I also met two of the young people - Bruna and Francisco who I think are both 17. They were very nice and I think they might have a little English, but they lack confidence, they told me their English teacher at school wasn't very good. Anyway I think we were there for a singing practice, which took place at such a volume I was surprised the neighbours didn't complain. However on driving back through Santo Antonio I realised there were between twenty and thirty churches in this one small town - I'd judge it to be smaller than Wellington (a reference most readers will get). This is missionary country I can see that.
On Sunday morning we were up and out of the house before 8 and at the church for breakfast. I got to meet many more children and teenagers. They were only a few adults there and I quickly understood why. The main service in Brazil is held in the evenings, the morning services include a few hymns, a bible reading and then youth/Bible study groups. I attended the teens' Bible Study group, armed with an English New Testament and understood parts of what was going on. The reading was taken from Genesis, so I'm not entirely sure which one it was. However next week I think we are reading from the Gospels, so that's okay.
We went home for lunch and I read, went online and had a little nap, before the evening service. This was much more like the services we have on a Sunday morning in England (the main difference being the age-range, there were as many under-18s as over). They don't have an instrument in the church, but quite a good cd player (you know what, it wasn't a cd player, it was like some speakers and a laptop and one of those boards with all the dials and stuff on, but I don't know the name for it). So we sang some hymns, had a Bible reading, prayers, sermon, communion and then notices. Ubiracy made me stand up and he presented me to the church and told everyone I was giving free English lessons every evening at 6 o'clock. After that the service ended and I think I shook every hand in the church. They made me feel very welcome. A couple of points of difference tht church-goers might be interested in - dress, Ubiracy was wearing a t-shirt and shorts for the morning service, but changed into a suit for the evening. The girls wore what looked a bit like bridesmaid dresses (photos to follow) and so I thought to myself that this was obviously expected, so I changed into a smart shirt. When I got there however I saw that I hadn't gone nearly far enough. Most girls my age were in high-heels and dresses and looked like they were going out for dinner, or to one of those posh family occasions, maybe a wedding or something (photos to follow). Also they sang during the communion, unaccompanied, it was very beautiful, I might see if I can get a copy of the lyrics and translate it for you.
So on Monday Ubiracy and Adriana went to work and in the morning Julia went to school and I was left in the house with Helena and the maid/nanny. By the by, we've had some hilarious translations courtesy of Google - the best being, on Sunday night from Adriana, "tomorrow I will go to work and the scullery-maid will be here while Ubiracy is leading the Cult". Fantastic. Anyway, I whiled away the day by reading, going online, playing with the children and preparing for my first English class that evening.
At about ten to six we left for the church and when I arrived there were a few girls there already. By the time we got to six I had a rather excitable class of ten girls and one boy (the boy:girl ratio in that church is way off kilter). They ranged from 17 to one little girl in purple who looked about 10, I didn't ask though as I had enough trouble with names. I was quite glad that the worst in the class was one of the oldest as she took it much better than one of the little ones might have. In fact it turned into a bit of a joke, which was great. We did numbers, which some of them already had, but they were very patient and good about it. After running through one to twenty and 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 we played bingo. Which really went down well and they all got quite competitive as I called out numbers in English, they were much better by the end. Then we did a short piece on telling the time and finished at 8.
On Tuesday we all left the house at 9:30 to go to Anapolis, which is a city about two hours drive away, when we got there we went to a place that I think was some sort of University. Ubiracy had a meeting there, I'm not sure if it was exclusively Christian or not. Anyway, we took the girls to the park and then had lunch and met some family friends. I sat with the adults while they talked for a bit, before going to hang out with their teenage kids and watching some English TV. A bit later on we went to the pool and Adriana asked me if I could swim. This reminded me of Bruno in Sao Paulo telling me proudly that he could swim and I realised that it's not a very common achievement here - Adriana can't swim for example. Anyway Julia quickly decided that the most exciting thing to do in the pool was have me pick her up and throw her in. So that was pretty funny, but fairly detrimental to my cloud-watching scheme. After the pool we went back to the other family's house and had a meal, before heading home.
Random thoughts from Brazil:
I don't know whether it's because they have young children, or whether it's the custom here but we have four meals a day - breakfast, lunch at midday, tea at 5:30 and then supper at about 9. I quite like it.
I have read about two and a half books since Sunday morning, purely because I can't watch TV - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and now I've started reading The Children of the New Forest.
Praying. It's a bit of an issue. They sometimes say grace, and sometimes don't bother, and I can't seem to find any pattern to it, and I don't want to be rude by eating when I'm not meant to. Usually I just wait until someone else takes the first mouthful. Also they have invited me to pray on two occasions now, in English obviously, and it shouldn't be an issue because I pray already, but I don't think I've ever prayed out loud before and it does make you incredibly self-conscious, even though you know no one can understand you. Oh and they also pray at really random times, like in the car yesterday before we set off. I was just looking out the window and not paying attention to the conversation (trying to understand is very tiring, so if I know they're not talking to me I usually just tune out) and all of a sudden I realise they're praying and I've been staring out of the window instead of doing the repectful bow-your-head-and-clasp-your-hands thing. I'll have to watch out a bit more in future.
A couple of things I've been meaning to say for a while, when we went to the club in Sao Paulo to go swimming we had to queue up and go into this little room in groups and stand against a white wall while a man in a white coat stared at you. Then you had to turn around and he'd stare again, then you were allowed to leave. Apparently he's looking for signs of infection on your skin, so the pool stays clean but honestly it was completely bizarre.
In Rio we were sat in a cafe by the beach and a woman came over from another table who'd obviously been drinking and said something to me in fairly slurred portuguese. I explained that I was English and so she repeated herself and stroked my nose, which was honestly one of the most disturbing things that has ever happened to me. Edilson explained that she thought European peoples' noses were perfect. Then she wandered off.
The temperature here in Santo Antonio is pretty much the same as Sao Paulo.
Foo in Brazil is boring. After two and a half weeks here I can safely predict that on 90% of the nations plates tonight will be rice, beans, beef, lettuce and tomato. Every day.
When I first arrived in Brazil I told them I could speak a little French, which was true at the time, but honestly? I can barely remember the numbers to ten and I learnt that when I was about seven. It's like the Portuguese has shoved all my high-school French out of my ear. On the plus side my Portuguese is much better and is getting better every day.
All my mosquito bites have gone.
My heat rash hasn't.
As we drove to Anapolis yesterday I saw the landscape typical of the central region. I suppose it has it's equivalent in British moorland/woodland. There were rolling hills covered in wild grasses, shrubs and vine-covered trees.
I also saw the great soya plantations of central Brazil. They stretch as far as the eye can see on the plains.
I have my second English class tonight, I think we will run over everyone's numbers, do dates and days and maybe food and drink if we have time. I've never taught a language before and am not really sure how to do it, but they really enjoyed the last session and didn't want to leave at the end, so I must be doing okay.
Had another bout of homesickness the other day, but got on skype and chatted to friends, so feeling better now.
The kindle is causing a bit of a stir and is a total life-saver. I love it.
It's weird to live in a place with dragonflies longer than your index finger and where the equivalent of common-or-garden birds like sparrows are bright green or blue.
That's enough for now, and congratulations if you made it to the end (I'm probably only speaking to my mum now). Love to everyone xx
But that's just what I did - got on the plane on Saturday morning and arrived about lunch-time. I slept a bit in the afternoon as we'd stayed up late the night before watching a movie. And then in the evening we went to church. I suppose at this point I should explain who "we" refers to, but that requires considerable back-story: skip the next paragraph if you already know what brought me here.
I've come to Santo Antonio do Descoberto (a small town near the capital of Brasilia in a central state called Goias) to visit the Evangelical Christian Church here. A couple of years ago my church, Temple Methodist in Taunton, started something called the Canaa Project. The congregation (and in particular my youth group) aimed to raise 3000 pounds (there's no pound sign on this keyboard) to carry out building work for this church. We enabled them to have a youth room built, among other things. So the Reverend Ubiracy (pronunced oo-bi-ra-see, be like biscuit, roll the r and a like cat) said did anyone want to come and visit. At the same time I was casting around for somethingto occupy me during my gap-year, so here I am.
So "we" is the Reverend (or Pastor, as they say here) Ubiracy, his wife Adriana and their two daughters. Julia is five and Helena (pronounced Elaine-a) is two. They are both very sweet. Julia can count to ten and say "good morning", "good day" and "good night" in English and is understandably proud of the achievement. She has about as much English as any of them. Helena says "bye-bye" so often that she has left me in little doubt that she has no idea what this scrap of English means. She is probably not even aware that it's foreign. I talk English to her and she talks Portuguese back and it all works very nicely. Interestingly I didn't know what the word for "stop" was until I got here. But with a toddler in the house house you often hear "Pare Helena, pare!"
Another language point to note is my difficulty in adjusting. In Sao Paulo I usually hung out with Bruno and his 20-something male friends who spoke with a lot of street slang. To go from that to hearing little girls lisping about Christ is a big change. Also if you have spoken with a toddler lately you will know they are sometimes hard to understand even when speaking the same language. I believe my five year-old cousin has yet to master the pronounciation of "th". So Helena is usually unintelligible - but she's two, so it's not hard to guess what she's on about.
Back to my story: we went to church Saturday evening and I got the grand tour, which didn't take long. I took some photos of the rooms and will post them later today. I also met two of the young people - Bruna and Francisco who I think are both 17. They were very nice and I think they might have a little English, but they lack confidence, they told me their English teacher at school wasn't very good. Anyway I think we were there for a singing practice, which took place at such a volume I was surprised the neighbours didn't complain. However on driving back through Santo Antonio I realised there were between twenty and thirty churches in this one small town - I'd judge it to be smaller than Wellington (a reference most readers will get). This is missionary country I can see that.
On Sunday morning we were up and out of the house before 8 and at the church for breakfast. I got to meet many more children and teenagers. They were only a few adults there and I quickly understood why. The main service in Brazil is held in the evenings, the morning services include a few hymns, a bible reading and then youth/Bible study groups. I attended the teens' Bible Study group, armed with an English New Testament and understood parts of what was going on. The reading was taken from Genesis, so I'm not entirely sure which one it was. However next week I think we are reading from the Gospels, so that's okay.
We went home for lunch and I read, went online and had a little nap, before the evening service. This was much more like the services we have on a Sunday morning in England (the main difference being the age-range, there were as many under-18s as over). They don't have an instrument in the church, but quite a good cd player (you know what, it wasn't a cd player, it was like some speakers and a laptop and one of those boards with all the dials and stuff on, but I don't know the name for it). So we sang some hymns, had a Bible reading, prayers, sermon, communion and then notices. Ubiracy made me stand up and he presented me to the church and told everyone I was giving free English lessons every evening at 6 o'clock. After that the service ended and I think I shook every hand in the church. They made me feel very welcome. A couple of points of difference tht church-goers might be interested in - dress, Ubiracy was wearing a t-shirt and shorts for the morning service, but changed into a suit for the evening. The girls wore what looked a bit like bridesmaid dresses (photos to follow) and so I thought to myself that this was obviously expected, so I changed into a smart shirt. When I got there however I saw that I hadn't gone nearly far enough. Most girls my age were in high-heels and dresses and looked like they were going out for dinner, or to one of those posh family occasions, maybe a wedding or something (photos to follow). Also they sang during the communion, unaccompanied, it was very beautiful, I might see if I can get a copy of the lyrics and translate it for you.
So on Monday Ubiracy and Adriana went to work and in the morning Julia went to school and I was left in the house with Helena and the maid/nanny. By the by, we've had some hilarious translations courtesy of Google - the best being, on Sunday night from Adriana, "tomorrow I will go to work and the scullery-maid will be here while Ubiracy is leading the Cult". Fantastic. Anyway, I whiled away the day by reading, going online, playing with the children and preparing for my first English class that evening.
At about ten to six we left for the church and when I arrived there were a few girls there already. By the time we got to six I had a rather excitable class of ten girls and one boy (the boy:girl ratio in that church is way off kilter). They ranged from 17 to one little girl in purple who looked about 10, I didn't ask though as I had enough trouble with names. I was quite glad that the worst in the class was one of the oldest as she took it much better than one of the little ones might have. In fact it turned into a bit of a joke, which was great. We did numbers, which some of them already had, but they were very patient and good about it. After running through one to twenty and 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 we played bingo. Which really went down well and they all got quite competitive as I called out numbers in English, they were much better by the end. Then we did a short piece on telling the time and finished at 8.
On Tuesday we all left the house at 9:30 to go to Anapolis, which is a city about two hours drive away, when we got there we went to a place that I think was some sort of University. Ubiracy had a meeting there, I'm not sure if it was exclusively Christian or not. Anyway, we took the girls to the park and then had lunch and met some family friends. I sat with the adults while they talked for a bit, before going to hang out with their teenage kids and watching some English TV. A bit later on we went to the pool and Adriana asked me if I could swim. This reminded me of Bruno in Sao Paulo telling me proudly that he could swim and I realised that it's not a very common achievement here - Adriana can't swim for example. Anyway Julia quickly decided that the most exciting thing to do in the pool was have me pick her up and throw her in. So that was pretty funny, but fairly detrimental to my cloud-watching scheme. After the pool we went back to the other family's house and had a meal, before heading home.
Random thoughts from Brazil:
I don't know whether it's because they have young children, or whether it's the custom here but we have four meals a day - breakfast, lunch at midday, tea at 5:30 and then supper at about 9. I quite like it.
I have read about two and a half books since Sunday morning, purely because I can't watch TV - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and now I've started reading The Children of the New Forest.
Praying. It's a bit of an issue. They sometimes say grace, and sometimes don't bother, and I can't seem to find any pattern to it, and I don't want to be rude by eating when I'm not meant to. Usually I just wait until someone else takes the first mouthful. Also they have invited me to pray on two occasions now, in English obviously, and it shouldn't be an issue because I pray already, but I don't think I've ever prayed out loud before and it does make you incredibly self-conscious, even though you know no one can understand you. Oh and they also pray at really random times, like in the car yesterday before we set off. I was just looking out the window and not paying attention to the conversation (trying to understand is very tiring, so if I know they're not talking to me I usually just tune out) and all of a sudden I realise they're praying and I've been staring out of the window instead of doing the repectful bow-your-head-and-clasp-your-hands thing. I'll have to watch out a bit more in future.
A couple of things I've been meaning to say for a while, when we went to the club in Sao Paulo to go swimming we had to queue up and go into this little room in groups and stand against a white wall while a man in a white coat stared at you. Then you had to turn around and he'd stare again, then you were allowed to leave. Apparently he's looking for signs of infection on your skin, so the pool stays clean but honestly it was completely bizarre.
In Rio we were sat in a cafe by the beach and a woman came over from another table who'd obviously been drinking and said something to me in fairly slurred portuguese. I explained that I was English and so she repeated herself and stroked my nose, which was honestly one of the most disturbing things that has ever happened to me. Edilson explained that she thought European peoples' noses were perfect. Then she wandered off.
The temperature here in Santo Antonio is pretty much the same as Sao Paulo.
Foo in Brazil is boring. After two and a half weeks here I can safely predict that on 90% of the nations plates tonight will be rice, beans, beef, lettuce and tomato. Every day.
When I first arrived in Brazil I told them I could speak a little French, which was true at the time, but honestly? I can barely remember the numbers to ten and I learnt that when I was about seven. It's like the Portuguese has shoved all my high-school French out of my ear. On the plus side my Portuguese is much better and is getting better every day.
All my mosquito bites have gone.
My heat rash hasn't.
As we drove to Anapolis yesterday I saw the landscape typical of the central region. I suppose it has it's equivalent in British moorland/woodland. There were rolling hills covered in wild grasses, shrubs and vine-covered trees.
I also saw the great soya plantations of central Brazil. They stretch as far as the eye can see on the plains.
I have my second English class tonight, I think we will run over everyone's numbers, do dates and days and maybe food and drink if we have time. I've never taught a language before and am not really sure how to do it, but they really enjoyed the last session and didn't want to leave at the end, so I must be doing okay.
Had another bout of homesickness the other day, but got on skype and chatted to friends, so feeling better now.
The kindle is causing a bit of a stir and is a total life-saver. I love it.
It's weird to live in a place with dragonflies longer than your index finger and where the equivalent of common-or-garden birds like sparrows are bright green or blue.
That's enough for now, and congratulations if you made it to the end (I'm probably only speaking to my mum now). Love to everyone xx
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