Cortes de Cabelos

Shaun's handiwork...

My handiwork...a little shorter than I had planned. And honestly it looks better in real life...I think.

And I didn't cut her hair, but couldn't leave her out...ain't she a beauty?

And a small but funny story to end the post...nothing about haircuts. Shaun and I were invited to a young people's function right across the street from the soccer field. At least we thought we were. Shaun was tired and someone had to stay home to be with the kids so I headed out with a bottle of wine to say hi. I got to the house and was met by seven young men. They were very hospitable and invited me in, asking if I had ever had babo (or something like that), a stew-like dish with shrimp and yucca root. So I thought I would stay and taste it and then run away from the slightly awkward situation. It ended up taking at least 45 minutes longer and by then we were chatting. Many of the young people here study English in college so they wanted to speak English to me. I don't know if I'll ever be sure if it was Shaun they invited or the both of us, but I ended up being walked home by 4 of them and laughing myself to sleep everytime I thought of about whether they actually expected me.

And surprisingly, it was a good time. There are some very nice young men in the churches here, and a number of them have joined after attending Escola Biblica Cristão, the school that Mission Aid helps support here and that is run by the churches here. It is amazing how some of them are the only ones in their family that attend church, and also how a few of them have family members that began to go to church because of them. God works in many different ways, and I have heard a few times how Escola Biblica has played a big part in evangelism here. As a matter of fact, Edjackson began to go to church before Bel because of attending the school!

Anyways I want the young men to know, if they read this post, that they were hospitable and friendly, and the reason I don't know whether they expected me because they never once acted surprised or like it was out of the ordinary. They probably thought I was weird because I couldn't stop smiling about how funny it was. But then again, I think many things are funny.

Have a good Sunday everyone!

Love Brenda

Japaratinga

The weather has not cooperated so much for us these past few weeks, so Thursday, when we had a morning of sun, we drove out to Japaratinga, a small town around 15 minutes from here. When the tide is out, you can walk out to the reef. There are areas in Recife (which mean Reef, incidentally) and Maceio where the reef is literally metres from shore. We didn't actually get quite as far as the reef...kids always need to stop and check everything out...and we needed to get back in time for Edjackson to go to school and for me to feed Lyla (we left her sleeping with Bel). But we had a fabulous time, and explored to our hearts' content.

Shaun caught a crab using dad's shoe...quite a feat for Shaun as he is almost scared to walk in the water for fear of being attacked by a crab. It was great to have Edjackson with us as he took the crab from behind and grabbed it by the claws. He then took the leg behind the claw and stretched it across and pushed it into the joint between the claw and the arm on the other side, so the crab couldn't open its claws, and did the same with the arm on the other side.

Picture Montage

We have watched this building get plastered...by people standing on rickety boards. We can see it from our window. You can see maybe how high it actually is in the next picture. They are now almost finished.

Last week Tuesday Seth and Edjackson went to the beach to play futebol, so we went to pick him up way down the beach.

One of Hazel's preferred method of traveling the streets. She is the slowest walker in the world. Kind of like she is the slowest eater. So this is helpful for both her and us to actually get anywhere.

Oh...she decided to run. She loves the ocean.

Very helpful, I'm sure.

The most gorgeous evening. Around twenty minutes later it was pretty much pitch black. It gets dark really quickly here and at around 5:30 at night. Every night.

Another way of getting to our destination a little quicker.

There's Seth with a big kick.

Fun for boys = kicking ball into water and retrieving it.

Later that evening we went out for dinner. Now that people at church have seen Mom, I've heard multiple times about how Lyla and Hazel look just like her. Such beautiful girls :)

And apparently my handsome boy looks like me...hopefully not because of masculine features!

Notice Dad in the background :)

He's pretty handsome, too, I must say.

It is nice to have some time with Grandma and Grandpa Raap in Brazil!

The Weekend

I meant to update the blog this past weekend telling about Thursday and Friday, but am a little behind, so I asked my mother-in-law if I could "steal" some of her summary of the weekend. On Thursday the missionary from Recife came down to Maragogi to do some street preaching. I was excited to go but unfortunately the children didn't cooperate. Seth is worn out by the end of each day so if the plan is a late evening we try to give him a nap. He fights it so much that sometimes we keep him in his room an hour or two and he won't nap. Thursday was a day he fought it tooth and nail and by bedtime he needed bed, not a Portuguese street service. So I stayed home with the kiddies and Shaun and his parents headed out to the city centre by the church to listen to some preaching. Here's my mother-in-law's summary, which she wrote Friday morning:

"Because of the flood that they have had here in Pernambuco some of the roads have been closed off. Pastor Kennedy was to have a speech last night in the park by the church at 7 but ended up phoning that he was delayed in arriving as some roads were blocked and others were congested. He tried an alternate route and came across a bridge that was closed. He then had to hike back with his family a 1/2 hour to try the next connecting road. That ended up being the a road like the one we experienced when coming down here (Maragogi) from Recife ~ waskhed out roads with huge potholes that scraped the bottom of your vehicle. So that 5 hour drive that we made for not taking the right turn from BR 101 to PE 60 didn't necessarily mean a bad move as Pastor Kennedy said we probably would have run into problems there too. WHEW!" (as a side note Thacianne told us later that Pastor Kennedy incorporated this into his sermon, talking about how Jesus was the only bridge and you wouldn't be able to find another route to heaven). "Pastor Elissandro, however, got us started with lots of singing and in between spoke a few words. Dad and I are amazed that the people here know most of the salmos (psalms) and hinos (hymns) off by heart ~ and some of them gave many stanzas. They have a book that has 150 salmos and 205 hinos. It is a joy to listen to them for they truly sing with all their heart. By the time Pastor Kennedy arrived it was nearly 8. When you enter different states you periodically have a road check. The police are at the borders and stop random vehicles to check for proper registration and safety. Pastor Kennedy said that they mostly stop bigger vehicles as a lot of people use them to make money transporting people from one place to another. They have private registration instead of commercial registration and not the right kind of insurance. He also was stopped at the state Algoas where the cities San Jose and Maragogi are in. He mentioned to the police that he was already an hour late for a preaching engagement so they let him continue. They did ask him which church he was from and he told them the reformada. Pastor Kennedy thought the policeman was pentecostal (as most people here are besides the Roman Catholics) as he looked at him strangely. Nevertheless, after about 10 minutes into Pastor Kennedy's speech it started to rain so we had to move into the church. In his sermon he used the allegory of a policeman motioning for you to stop and if you didn't stop but kept going they would have their gun out to shoot you. Needless to say you would stop. That is the way it should be for our heavenly Father. He is telling us to stop our sinful lives and live for him, follow him so that we can have eternal life. It was a 2 hour evening which is very common for them.

Tonight at 7 we have the 30th anniversary of the Igreja Reformada do Brasil in Maragogi. We have also met the Rev Meijer's who were also one of the first missionaries here in Brasil. They live in Holland now. The house they owned when they lived here, and which they sold to a lady in Germany, was open to be rented while they were here. It was so exciting for them. Lots of memories between those walls. It should be an exciting evening once again. That would mean that we will have heard an edifying word 6 times this week! This morning Dad and Shaun had a visit with the mayor of Maragogi about setting up a business here. And wouldn't you believe it, our host Katje is going to be the translator. Last night she was teaching English classes in the breakfast area in our pousada (hotel) to students. She inquired if we could spend a evening next week in class with the students so they could practice their English by interviewing us. That should be fun : ) At breakfast each morning Katje has a new list of words for us to learn. She pronounces them for us as their vowel sounds are different that what we think. Our aim is to memorize these words/phrases and learn to pronounce them properly. Yesterday we learned about greeting people (the letters in bold are were the stress of the word is on)

~good morning ~ bom dia (bon dee-aa)

~good afternoon ~ boa tarde (bo-aa taah-de)

~good evening, good night ~ boa noite (bo.aa noy-tee)

~hello ~ ola (o-laa)

~hi ~ oi (oy)

Today we have learned

~thank you ~ muito (moyn-to) very much ~ obrigado (male), obrigada (female) o-bree-gaa-do (male), o-bree-gaa-da (female)

~you're welcome ~ de nada (de naa-daa)

~how are you? ~ como vai? (ko-mo vai)

~fine and you? ~ bem, e voce? (beng e vos-say)

~goodbye ~ tchau (chow)"

On Friday night we had the 30th anniversary of Maragogi church! It was amazing seeing how full the church became and seeing how the Lord has worked here in the past 40 years, as they came from towns all around here, including Recife and Maceio.

Here's another little summary from Mom Raap:

"Friday night happened to be a fairly long but exciting night. Quite a few congratulatory speeches were made, a lot of different age groups from the churches sang some salmos/hinos, and a couple of solos were sung by individual ladies. Pastor Elisandro (present pastor of Maragogi), Pastor Pedro (past pastor of Maragogi), Pastor Bram (Maceio), Pastor Thiago (Barra Grande), Pastor Kennedy, and Pastor Julius (both from Recife) were all present with some of their congregants. Afterwards there was social time where we were all treated with something to drink and a small plate of baked goods. Yum ~ these appetizers had fish in some, coconut in others, fruit etc. It was delicioso! Shaun also had a short congratulatory message ~ and he did it in Portuguese."

I unfortunately left before Shaun did his speech. It was already 10:00 and the kids were cranky and Lyla is a bit under the weather, so I finally gave up waiting and took them home. I did hear rave reviews about his speech after!

Shaun and his stellar Portuguese speech...he practiced quite a bit and it obviously paid off.

Pastor Elissandro, pastor of Maragogi church.

They decorated the church for the anniversary, did repainting, tiling, new roofing, etc. It looked fabulous!

Saturday we spent with a family from Recife at the hotel they were staying, which was nice...playing cards, swimming, chatting, eating. Then Sunday was a relaxing day which ended with a little churrasco at our place with Thacianne, Hermes, Sandro, Djane, Mom and Dad Raap, and a friend from a different state named Cledson. Fun times all around. Today we did some clean up, spent some time at the beach (it has been really rainy here lately, not too much beach weather!), grocery shopped, and had hamburgers with Mom and Dad...the first time since we got here! Delicious! something we definitely need to import to Brazil!

Thinking of you all as we get close to coming home...already! Only 2 1/2 weeks!

Have a good week!

Brenda

Taking Care of Business

Shaun did a lot of work this week, with meetings in both Maceio and Recife. These two cities are the capitals of the two states we are looking at working in; Maceio of Alagoas, and Recife of Pernumbuco. On Wednesday Shaun and his dad headed off to Recife at around 8:30 in the morning, for a meeting at 10:30. He met with Jucepe, which is where you register your business in Pernumbuco. He found out that to register in Pernumbuco you have to go to here and then there and then somewhere else. It would take 20 business days to register. After this they met with the secretary of economic development, this is the area that promotes business and also provides assistence and incentives to attract businesses. There are many ways the government is trying to bring business to the state. Then they met with the SEBRAE in Recife, which is the small and medium sized business association , which helps business through the whole process of getting started and helping out while running. It was an adventerous day and lots of things were learnt. They arrived home at 8:30 at night. Shaun's mom and I had spent the day together hanging out with the kiddies, reading, relaxing.

The next day Shaun and his dad headed out to Maceio, another 2 hour drive. They had one meeting with the SEBRAE of Alagoas. They were very impressed with the ease and efficiency that Alagoas has arranged for registering a business, as well as tax incentives. The tax breaks ended up looking to be the same as in Pernumbuco (which is significant because the land we looked at is in Alagoas), but to register a business in Maceio you need to just go to one place, where they have all the areas you need lined up, and it takes two days. Maragogi, however, takes 20 days as well. There is a lady who works for SEBRAE in Maceio helping businesses get set up, and she also works for the mayor of Maragogi every Friday. She does things such as create business plans for free which small businesses may need to apply for bank loans or permanent visas. She helps businesses get registered and also informs them of possible government incentives. So immediately she had a meeting set up for them on Friday with the mayor of Maragogi.

So on Friday Shaun and Dad headed into Maragogi for a meeting with the mayor. This is exciting because in Maragogi the mayor has a lot of power in regards to land and tax breaks. Much of the land of Brazil, when it was colonized, became land that belonged to the cities. The cities have much power in regards to granting it to poor people who can't afford land, or businesses who want to get set up, or even to use the land, especially if it will offer jobs to the local people. So the mayor of Maragogi, Marcus Madeira, was excited about the prospect of this business in his community, and has told Shaun that he will do everything he can to help them, and if he has problems let him know. (The parade we saw on Sunday was for the son of the mayor, who is running for Deputy Governor).

Incidentally, the land we were looking at in Peroba, which is considered part of Maragogi, looks like it is unavailable, as there are a number of owners and they are in disagreement in regards to selling it.

So there are a couple of things Shaun and I have to work on. First of all we need a CPF, which is like a social insurance number. We have heard it is fairly easy to get, we just need to go to a post office. Then Shaun has to decide where to register his business, probably contingent on where we find land. Oh, and of course, first we have to find land. We also have to decide which equipment to buy. Shaun was thinking to buy equipment that is made in Brazil, that should do the job, at least for the first few years, and is relatively cheaper than other equipment. The problem is it sounds like it would need to be modified because it would crush the peat too much and change the nutritional value. So Shaun would like to go to Seragipe next week, which is another state one over, as there is a company there that uses this machinery, and see how it works. The other possibility for equipment is different equipment manufactured here, or in Malaysia.

Some other news we have is we think we have found a partner for the business. From the beginning, and in regards to all his research about working in Brazil, Shaun thought it was important to have a Brazilian on board, to understand the language, the culture, and be able to communicate with all the agencies involved in starting and running a business. We ran into a couple who currently live in Belgium. He is Brazilian, born and raised, and he married the daughter of former missionary, who is also Brazilian, but moved to Holland when she was younger. So they speak Dutch, Portuguese, and English. This is also great because Shaun has contacts for selling Coco Peat to a Dutch company and selling Coco fibre through someone in Portugal, who wants to distribute it. So this couple understands Brazilian and western culture, and he is also business minded, and they both wanted to move back here for some time. We presented the idea to them and they were very interested. They left to go back home at the beginning of last week and already the gentleman has been emailing Shaun with some great ideas for gaining product and is very excited about the opportunity here.

Shaun also has a meeting scheduled on Tuesday with the Secretary of Economic Development of Alagoas. So in general things are finally picking up here, and it looks to be a couple of busy weeks before we go home. But today, seeing as it is a gorgeous Saturday, we are off to swim at a hotel with some friends. It's caipirosca weather, after all! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Lyla

rolls over from her back to front now!

I thought she could as I have found her on her side but now I saw her in action. She hasn't been waking up in the night, and I think it is because she can roll onto her side, as I often find her on her side sleeping now. So there you have it, for anyone who cares! I know, I know, only interesting to her mother right!

Picture That

Enjoying our North American company

Maragogi church had a communal lunch today, which they usually do once a month after Lord's Supper.  This month they waited until Pastor Pedro and his wife were in town. He is a former missionary here from Holland, and is back for the 30th anniversary of Maragogi church, which we will celebrate this coming Friday.

Thacianne and her son João.

Notice that I am at the front of the line. They insisted...

While we were having lunch, a parade for a political compaign of the state governor (we think) went by. Hundreds of people (Shaun thinks even up to one thousand) went by playing music and lighting minutes worth of straight fireworks. So loud we couldn't talk at times. The election is in October. These vans are starting to go around town campaigning with loudspeakers off the top and constant talking.

Can you find our little Brazilian?

Bel's son, Edjackson. He plays futebal with Seth and Seth loves him. Yesterday we walked to Bel's house and she told us he was on the beach playing soccer, and he went to every group looking for him and was very sad he could not find him. Okay fine, he had a temper tantrum. But I am thankful that he feels like he has a friend, and at church he's starting to play with all the little boys and do a lot better. All a boy needs is one friend and he is happy.

Our first barata...looks smaller in the picture, believe me!

Bel's daughter, Elizabete, loves babies. Very Convenient :)

Everyone drawing/colouring.

Bel's daughter, Wedja (oo-wed-I-ja). such a cutie!

Here's my chubster! I am still hoping to get her weighed at the public health unit here, because I'm convinced she's gained 5 lbs. Literally.

Shaun's first attempt at futebal with the guys. Right outside my window so I could spy on him. Apparently they said "we thought you couldn't play." Not sure if they were trying to be nice or not.

Everyone here tells me that Lyla looks exactly like Shaun and the other two are more like me. Personally I can`t tell, maybe because I`m so close to them. They are sure cute though! Lyla`s doing fabulous here, finally in a fairly consistent routine and sleeping well through the night, well, from 7 to 4 or 5 usually, and then back to sleep for a couple hours. Still not quite long enough for me but I love that I can put her down at 7 and know that that is it for the night. Hazel is just happy wherever. Yesterday we were walking in Maragogi and this lady I have never met yelled "Oi Hazel!" Everyone who meets her recognizes her that's for sure. And she just waved back and yelled "Oi" before she continued to skip down the street.

This is a property we are looking at for the business. It is 22 hectares and in Peroba, a small suburb between Sao Jose and Maragogi. Sao Jose is in a state called Pernumbuco, and Maragogi (and Peroba) (where we live right now) is in a state called Alagoas. Part of Shaun's research is figuring out which states offer better tax incentives and benefits for business. This week he plans to go to Recife on Wednesday and Maceio on Thursday to find out exactly what incentives either state can offer. The property is in Alagoas, but so far it looks like Pernumbuco offers better incentives and tax breaks, so we have to find out if it is still worth it to buy a property in Alagoas. This property is across the street from the nicest hotel in the area, which would provide some security, and Peroba is also a town that is growing in regards to tourism and residents because of its beautiful beach (nicer than Maragogi). Other great features of this property is that it has a spring with good water and it is flat.

Well I'm off to take a shower! We lost water again this afternoon (3rd time this week!) and we think it is because our washing machine is extremely inconvenient. But it is back now and I have probably 4 layers of sweat on me. Here the pattern is to sweat, dry off, then add another layer of sweat, then dry, then another, then dry....you get the picture. It feels like you should be able to peel off sweat at the end of the night.

So last week my goal was to move on to past and future tenses with Portuguese and review my present tenses. Somehow it is the same goal this week. I did progress a bit more with some verbs I didn't know in the present tense, but did not make it to the other tenses. I did pay more attention this week when people were talking to me in regards to what tense they were using and how they were using it, so hopefully I recognize it when I get to it. But Shaun and I were talking this week and saying how much we were enjoying learning a new language. I'm just hopeful we will remember some of what we learn when we come again.

Well everyone, have a good week!

Brenda and family