9/7

Standard Brazilian – Mormon Time, that’s two times as worse!!!! – Vanessa

We spent the majority of the day in a van going to Afogados, a city in the interior of Pernambuco. We brought with us the rain, or so we thought, but by the time we got there it was just a couple of overcasting clouds. The place where we stayed was a relatively small town, which reminded me a lot of some of the areas where I served on my mission, but the environment was significantly more barren than in Bahia. After arriving and getting settled into the hotel, we met a man named Mario who  was a representative from the organization called Diaconia which we are working  with. What marked me the most about Mario was how passionate he was about Diaconia’s cause. Mario had come himself from humble conditions, but with the help of this organization, he risen to the task and had improved his quality of life.

Another day, another wall painted

Today was the final day of painting the CCJ. It took a little longer than we initially expected, because we were initially expecting to go again on Saturday. I won’t lie. Today I don’t feel like I worked as hard as I did on the other days that we have been here. Something that hit me today was the fact of how many people we meet for very short periods of time in our lives, never to see them again. Grade School, College, Work… how many people have you really kept in touch with? The vast majority you’ll probably never see again. That’s why it’s so important to establish a good first impression with people.

Plans and Goals

Today was a great day for several reasons:
*I got my presentation on Celso Furtado, a brazilian economist, over with.
*We got home a lot earlier than usual.
*We got to play soccer with the Brazilians at church.

Look at the cool blending of the Brazilian and American flag here!

The best thing was discussing in class what we've learned so far because of our internship. I think what it has taught me more than anything is that not everybody has the same habits, preferences, drive, and expectations as you. It depends a lot on the person's culture. Brazilians for the most part tend to be a little more relaxed than Americans are. This has taken some adapting for us, but I really feel that it's been a great experience.

Happy Independence Day!

Quote of the Day: "This movie is going to be awesome!" - Jordan
"Why?" - Michele
"BECAUSE THERE'S FIGHTING!!" - Jordan

Today was interesting in the fact that we got to celebrate an American holiday in Brazil. And not just any holiday, like labor day or something, but independence day! We spent a couple hours at a party with the same students from yesterday, and we got to teach them a couple games and dances such as the "Cha Cha Slide". They loved that one because it's simple and easy to follow.

Cristina, Tawnya, and I inconspicuously blending in to our Brazilian surroundings.
Whose camera am I holding? I didn't even bring my own.. 

After this we went to the Catamaran, a sea port, where we took a one hour boat tour and went under a bunch of bridges and passed by a couple of historical sites. A great chance to see the cultural side of Recife! We plan on going to the CCJ tomorrow to finish up our paint job. We'll see if that happens because it's rumored that there's going to be a bus strike. That always makes things a lot funner.

American School of Recife

Today we visited the American School of Recife. It was interesting to visit a place in Recife Brazil where English is the predominate language! The classrooms looked a lot like american class rooms. What was better even was the group of students accompanying us! They're from all over Brazil. All of them had been selected for this group for being proficient in English! Some of them learned English through taking a class, and others learned through listening to music or even watching movies!

It's really amazing what a human being is capable of doing even with limited resources!
Afterwards we taught the kids how to play American games like football and baseball! I never realized how hard it is to explain a sport that someone is unfamiliar with.

Later, I went with about half of the group to the CCJ to continue the painting. It was a productive day!!

thanks for reading!!!

Painting...no graffiti this time

Quote of the Day: Mitch "Hey guys, I'm not sure I should be the one applying paint dye to the new white paint in order to match the color of our previous paint batch" (Mitch is colorblind)

-This was not a direct quote but I was really trying to sum it up in one sentence. I apologize if it's a run-on/hard to follow/not funny sentence.

Wow, I can see my uneven work even from this picture...that's not a good sign

Today we went to the CCJ again and did what probably the most physically productive day of this internship experience. YES, THOSE ARE THE SAME CLOTHES I WORE ON SATURDAY! I'm not going to get paint on two sets of clothing...Should have applied this logic to my shoes as well... anyway

We arrived at the CCJ at about 9:30, ready to work. We were lucky because although they did not have all of the supplies, there was a construction materials warehouse nearby. Josh and I carried a 22kg carton of acrylic paint back, realized we got the wrong thing, returned it, and then brought back a 32kg carton of stucco. That might not sound like a lot, but a kg is 2.2 pounds....

This is a VERY candid shot of people who obviously had no idea that someone was taking a picture. Those were the
cartons of paint which we carried. This picture does not do them justice. They are heavy.
The picture does to justice to show the desafio "dezza few"   ( it mean's "challenge" in portuguese)
presented by one of the walls we had to paint.

Well, it was a lot for me

I felt like this was a chance to prove to the Brazilians that we Americans have good work ethic. I don't know if the fact that we were singing backstreet boys and Disney songs half the time conveyed that message, but we were able to clean, prep, and get two coats of paint on two of the rooms within the CCJ complex. I love painting because you get to see the product of your work very quickly.

We will be returning to finish the job.

Lazy Sunday

Quote of the Day: (While playing Apples to Apples, several cards were selected to describe the word "calm")
Josh (the Judge): "All these cards stink! ... Balerinas?..Mudslides?...Bagpipes?....I think I'm gonna go with glaciers"
Morgan: "DON'T PICK GLACIERS!!! THEY KILLED THE TITANIC!!!"

Ok, so there's an explanation for this photo.... I was like, "Hey Guys!! Let's look like we're going through an intense part
of the game!" Apparently only I went through with the plan. Maybe Josh too, or maybe he just didn't care, lost in his lemon juice drink.

This was basically the day in a nutshell. We also went to church and got to rest a lot. We'll be going to the CCJ tomorrow, so I'm going to log out now. Not because I'm going to sleep, but because I have nothing else to say.

Thanks for reading!!