My first week…

I arrived Saturday and describe that day in more detail then I’m sure you wanted to hear… so let me try moving at a faster pace for the rest of the week. Sunday morning everyone on campus met for church in the school chapel, and met again Sunday night making a group of about 50 full time staff without the school kids who were still on winter break. Monday morning I was at the dining hall by 8:30 to meet the kitchen staff and start to learn everything there. An American missionary, Cindy Palm is my “boss” and I’m also working with 2 very sweet Brazilian ladies and my housemate Natasha who is here for a few weeks to perfect her English. We made a few simple recipes and prepared for the official start of the spring semester on Wednesday. After lunch, Natasha and I tried to go boating with one of the missionary kids still enjoying the school break, but after finally launching the boat, but pull cord on the motor broke and ended our short boat ride. So we all went swimming in the Amazon River instead and somehow managed to avoid all of the dangerous and wild piranhas, anacondas, etc. supposedly swimming in the water with us. The water was actually very refreshing and the scenery along the river very green, rocky and just gorgeous.  Tuesday followed the same routine except that the boat was fixed and the missionary father gave everyone turns at tubing on the river. It was my first try at tubing behind a boat, and definitely on the Amazon, but again I managed to survive the experience and had a great time… Lunch on Wednesday was the first cafeteria meal of the semester, so I spent the morning with the kitchen staff preparing and learning some more. It was fun to see the kids arriving with their parents and meet some more new people… trying to keep faces, families and names straight has been a challenge.  Our first meal was a success, a mixture of favorite American and Brazilian dishes. In the afternoon was a kick off school assembly to meet everyone and introduce new people. The school principle introduced me as being here indefinitely…I guess we’ll see what happens :) Thursday was a full day of meals in the dining hall – early breakfast, large lunch, and smaller supper. And it was my first supper to serve by myself. I’m assigned to cook 6 days a week with Monday off, and be in charge of suppers on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Thankfully it was just tuna sandwiches and chocolate peanut butter bars that I had made earlier in the day, so everything was on time and went smoothly.  Friday I made bread all day, then for supper it was the famous homemade pizza night with milkshakes… very tasty. All the food has been amazing so far…partly because I’ve helped to make it JK :)... but quite a relief because I wasn’t sure what to expect with jungle cooking. Lol. Some of the highschool students came to visit Natasha and me in the evening and we talked and played games until just before the power shut down. That brings me to today, Saturday, which started with cooking just like any other day in the dining hall. Now a short break in the afternoon, and I’m sitting here in my house with a fan blowing on me, listening to the rain pouring down outside, sometimes so hard that the sound is deafening on the aluminum roof. I’m waiting until I need to walk back to the dining hall to get supper set up and ready to serve tonight at 6:30. By then it will be dark outside, slightly cooler and the night sounds will begin again for an otherwise quiet evening at my new jungle home in Brazil :)
(PS: this was written as a document on my computer and saved to post on my blog as soon as internet becomes available, not sure when that will happen)