Carnival Weekend

Well, just a bit of cultural news this time. The famous Carnaval celebrations have started this weekend all across the country of Brazil with costumes, parades, music, street parties, drinking, dancing, and lots of other things not to be written here… it’s something like Mardi Gras in New Orleans from what I’ve heard. However, here at the mission school where I’m living, Carnaval is NOT celebrated and not much has changed, although sometimes the “party” noise from the city of Manaus reaches all the way to our remote jungle location, which can only mean the music is extremely loud. There are quite a few extra missionaries who have come to stay at the school for the weekend in an attempt to find relief from the crazy noise and crowds in the city, and they are eating in the dining hall so that does make my job extra busy. Many of the Brazilian churches also schedule church camps out of the city during this weekend to help their people avoid Carnaval as well. The only way Carnaval has affected me directly though, is my travel plans… Natasha, my Brazilian housemate, is leaving to return to her home and college that starts a new school year on March 14 after their summer break (yes, we’re below the equator here). So she invited me to go with her and visit her family in the city of Boa Vista located in the very northwest corner of Brazil, a 12-13 hour overnight bus ride from here due to bad roads. Between both of us being needed in the dining hall over Carnaval weekend, and the busses either overcrowded or not running at all certain days during the festivities, Wednesday, March 9 was the soonest we could get away. So we’re going to leave then and spend a few days together around her home before her classes start. I’m excited for the chance to meet Natasha’s family, see a different part of Brazil, and leave the school campus and jungle for the first time since arriving in January. I’m planning to stay for about a week and may even be able to visit the bordering country of Venezuela, which could help with the Brazil visa extension I need. The only part of the trip that makes me kind of nervous is returning alone by bus with a very limited knowledge of Portuguese… So I would appreciate your prayers, first for everyone’s safety during Carnival, then for the only two dining hall cooks the week I’m gone, and finally for my safe travels to Boa Vista and back again, specifically all the way back to the mission school… thanks!

Adventure of the Scorpion Slayers

Since my last blog posting, I have yet another job title to add to my list - although this time I hope to use my new set of skills rarely if ever again… Here’s the story only slightly dramatized several days after the event, definitely not a big deal but something that never happened to me in Ohio. It was a dark and stormy night, as my Brazilian housemate Natasha and I were sitting in our living room talking together. The electricity had shut down at 9:30 pm as usual but true to our college student habits, both of us thought it was too early for bed and just sat in total darkness finishing our conversation. Eventually I needed to use the bathroom and had almost decided I could feel my way around without a flashlight when I remembered the large-ish cockroach I found next to my toothbrush the day before. So I grabbed my mini flashlight and fearlessly entered the bathroom. That’s when I saw something crawling in the shower… Now at home in the USA anything moving in the shower would bother me, but here in the jungle we have lots of bugs that crawl everywhere and especially these long (2-3 inch), hard centipedes that crunch when stepped on to kill. I don’t really like the crunch or mess afterward so I’ve stopped stepping on them and most find their way to the shower and drown eventually. But centipedes were NOT what I saw in the dark shower this time – and you’ve probably guessed that already by the title of this post. There in the bottom of our shower was an angry scorpion trying its best to crawl up the slippery tiles and right out at me. I had been warned about stepping on scorpions because their sting is very painful and can be poisonous, but people mentioned it like a person would mistakenly step on a very small one. This scorpion was at least six inches long and the only way I would step on it or even get close would be if I didn’t see it…hmm, like in the dark. I left the bathroom as fast as possible and did what I always do when I have any jungle related problems or any problems here at all… I got Natasha, my teacher of all things Brazilian. Much to my relief, the scorpion AND its size surprised her as well – at least I wasn’t imagining things or expected to encounter one of these every day.  She quickly summed up the problem by saying we have to kill it. Well I knew that, I just didn’t know how without getting up close and personal. Armed with a pair of my Old Navy flip flops, Natasha started looking around for a can of bug spray… but of course there was none to be found in our house. So I had the courageous idea of going next door to see what our neighbor would do in our situation. Well the power was off for the entire school campus so her house was dark and I’m afraid she was sleeping, but one advantage of screens in the windows with no glass is that when we called her name and mentioned the word scorpion, and she was quickly out of bed with a big can of bug spray for us. Natasha grabbed the answer to our problem and heroically marched back into the bathroom to conquer our foe. She aimed the aerosol can at the scorpion and sprayed until the whole shower was filled with fumes and white mist. I was helping of course, by standing in the doorway watching and telling her not to get too close or breathe in the spray. We closed the bathroom door and went back to the living room to resume our previous conversation which had been rudely interrupted by my nasty discovery. Both of us were much too distracted though and soon went back to check on the demise of Mr. Scorpion. He was still moving but very slowly, so I did the second fatal spray-until-the-shower-is-full. We gave him some more time to die, then went back and just to make sure, smashed him good and hard with a shoe. It wasn’t until the excitement was over that I thought of taking pictures. So I have a few shots of a crushed scorpion lying next to a United States quarter to show its size, but somehow it doesn’t look nearly as terrifying shriveled and dead as when it was trying to climb out of the shower, through the hole in our bathroom door, and attack us both in our sleep, or so we imagined.  I have to admit that I didn’t sleep very well that night, and the next day after returning the bug spray to our neighbor, we discussed at length exactly how the scorpion had invaded our shower.  Our conclusion is that the scorpion came up through the drain cover on the shower floor and was probably stuck in the shower since it really couldn’t climb out. So much for the thought “we’re both going to be killed by the attack of the gigantic scorpions” from the night before… somehow in the daylight the whole story didn’t seem as dramatic or creepy. But as a precaution, I now make sure to always cover the shower drain with a pair of my trusty flip flops while I’m in there. See, lots of good has come from this experience… in addition to my valuable new set of killing skills, finding little old cockroaches in the bathroom doesn’t bother me nearly as much anymore; at least they don’t sting, right? LOL. Thus ends the short lived adventure of the SCORPION SLAYERS …happily and hopefully forever after :)

What’s new at Puraquequera?

Well, by this Saturday (February 19) I’ve lived here in the jungle 4 weeks now and with the spring semester at the school off to a good start, I’ve acquired a few new responsibilities…
- High school and middle school study hall monitor two nights a week
- Second grade art teacher
-Preschool Sunday school class
- Drama class helper/actress – something like 30 lines in the high school play
-Giving piano lessons
(For those of you who didn’t know that I’m into drama and piano, I’m actually not… they needed help so I’m giving both a try. Pray for me and my students :)
-My newest and favorite job is CLEANING TEETH! Yes, a local Brazilian dentist came to the school last Wednesday to check the kids with braces and naturally I went to the school dental “clinic” to watch, so he found out that I’m a dental assistant and going to college to be a hygienist. Later he called me out of work in the dining hall to give me a lesson in Portuguese on cleaning teeth (basically just polishing) and wants me to work on the kids’ teeth to help with their oral hygiene between his visits to the school. I had my first 2 patients on Monday and they survived the experience, so since I’m off duty in the dining hall all Mondays, it has now become my official dental clinic day.

Some other new things for me include…
-Language lessons with the school Portuguese teacher, umm I’m not going to be fluent anytime soon…
-Wearing flip flops ALL the time… even for cooking in the dining hall and teaching school. I haven’t worn shoes since I got here four weeks ago and everyone here does the same except for sports. I guess because flip flops are easier to keep clean with all the mud and rain, are cooler of course, and provide more protection than going barefoot all the time… mosquitoes don’t seem to notice the difference though. The dental clinic is my only exception, I wear my hiking sandals there and that works since it is one of the only air-conditioned rooms on campus.
-No facebook for the past 4 weeks and next 3 months… it’s definitely suffering for the cause – email me your status updates please! LOL :)
-Body surfing on what they call river rapids in the Amazon jungle and in the pouring rain… it was at a school outing destination last week and the students were having lots of fun so I had to join them, although I think I may have broken a toe… thankfully my toe feels much better now and the experience was well worth it.

Anyway, I’ve been keeping busy, loving life in Brazil, and thanking God for the opportunity to be here :)

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)

My first day in Brazil…

So I’ve survived my first week in the jungle of Brazil… It’s hard for me to believe that just last Saturday I arrived at the Manaus, Brazil airport around noon, so much has happened since then… After waiting for what seemed like hours to get through passport control, collect my luggage and walk through customs, I was met at the airport by a patient missionary couple who helped me exchange money for supplies, treated me to my first taste of Brazilian food for lunch (actually very good:), and then took me out of town to catch a small boat to the Puraquequera mission school that was to be my home for the next few months. Sitting in the front of an aluminum boat, riding down the Amazon River with all of my things in back seemed almost unreal, but the hot humid weather made the wind feel good and reminded me that I was definitely not in Ohio anymore. Soon we were unloading the boat at the school dock and some of the missionary kids who gathered on a higher bank as my welcoming committee came down to the dock see what the newcomer was like… after hugs and hellos one little girl said she was hoping I would have red hair because she liked red hair… no red hair, sorry! My assigned housing was in the far back corner of the campus on the very edge of the jungle so I had a short tour of the place on my way there. Several of the houses sat on a high bank overlooking the Amazon River, while the rest of the 15-20 buildings were scattered around the jungle clearing. All the houses have large screen windows all around with just curtains to let in any breeze, no glass at all. Each has a corrugated aluminum roof which can be seen as the ceiling inside that is about  15 feet at the highest peak and a smooth tile floor. My house is a duplex, shared on one side with a single missionary named Beth, and on my side with my Brazilian housemate Natasha. We each have our own bedroom, and share a bathroom with a flush toilet and shower (no hot water though), and a nice large living space that includes a living room area separated from the kitchen and dining room by a low wall. Hopefully I can post some pictures soon because I’m afraid my descriptions are not very clear… Anyway my first day I did some unpacking, then took a nap because the heat and travel finally wore me out. Supper was with a neighboring missionary family and then Natasha and I played Dutch Blitz with their 5 kids until just before 9:30 pm when the campus generator shuts off and forces a “lights out” with no power for everyone until 6:30 or 7:00 the next morning. My first night was quite an experience sleeping under mosquito netting in the heat and hearing jungle noises like crickets, frogs, birds and the occasional monkey all night long. Thankfully I’ve gotten used to most of it already but decided to forget the mosquito net for now… The end of day one :)

Brazil is NEXT!

So it's official...last Monday I received my final approval from New Tribes Mission to join their team in northern Brazil on January 22 and stay through May. I'll be flying into Manaus, Brazil in the Amazonas region then driving to a small village and from there taking a boat down the Amazon River to the NTM mission school called Puraquequera or PQQ. My main responsibilities at the school will be cooking/working in the dining hall and helping out with teaching. It's been exciting to see God at work already as the details of my trip have come together very quickly, like getting my visa into Brazil - a process that normally takes up to 2 months but mine arrived in less than 2 weeks! So I'm looking forward to seeing very soon what God is doing in the Amazon, and I'll update this blog as often as jungle internet allows :)

The PQQ School:

New Tribes Mission on Brazil

Brazil is a bit smaller than the USA, but its five regions form a remarkably diverse country. The north contains the Amazon region -- home to known and unknown indigenous people. The northeast contrasts desert with beautiful palm-treed beaches. The central west boasts one of earth's most unique wildlife refuges and is home to the capital with its modern architecture. The southeast, with its multi-ethnic feel and huge industrial production, is home to São Paulo, with the world's fifth largest urban population. The south, settled mostly by European immigrant groups, inspires with its plains and rolling hills that create a backdrop to the enduring gaucho culture. You will also find the majestic Iguaçu Falls at the convergence of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay.

There are approximately 350,000 indigenous people in Brazil made up of 258 indigenous groups who speak 180 different languages. Some sources indicate that Brazil contains the majority of uncontacted people on earth. Sixty percent live in the Amazon region.

Brazil Facts:
Full Country Name: República Federativa do Brasil
Area: 8,514,215 sq km (3,286,487 sq mi)
Population: 184 million
Capital City: Brasília
People: 53% European ancestry, 44% African descent, with significant Japanese, Arab and indigenous populations
Language:
Religion:
Government: Federal Republic
President: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva