Até Nos Encontrarmos Novamente: Ferias (Holidays) and So Much More

I have always enjoyed writing, however I suppose in my years of teenage angst and less children, I had more time to pour out my heart into a journal. Some evenings here it is all I can do to fall into bed. I've read this is quite natural for months or even years of moving to a new culture with a different climate, language, lifestyle..... Apparently it's all about the crazy amounts of emotional energy one burns while trying to make sense of our new surroundings. Moving is also considered the third most stressful life event, after death and divorce, so take the stress of moving across town, and I believe you might try multiplying it by a hundred or so, and add in someone who is 7 months pregnant and trying to homeschool, then having a baby, then moving again to a different home, helping the kids adjust to a Portuguese school, and then you may have a little understanding of the past year. Plus we've lived in seven different homes in the last four years, so you might say I have "moving-fatigue."

That being said, we have been in this home here in a small neighbourhood for eight months and actually feeling a little settled. We know our neighbours, the church and school are close by, and we have a decent routine. We had a lovely month of winter holidays from school during the World Cup, and it was relaxing yet busy, full of wonderful things. I love winter in Brasil, it gets down to the low to mid-twenties in the evenings, which does wonders for energy levels. It does rain more, but we've only had one period where it was non-stop for almost two weeks, the rest if it does rain is usually through the night into the morning, with periods of sun in the afternoon. Even those days have been somewhat sporadic.

So during winter holidays we organized an Escola Biblica de Ferias (Vacation Bible School) with many of the kids that show up at our house weekly or even daily. We spent some time at a Reformed Symposium and met up with a friend and his kid from Canada as well as meeting many other people and friends, we went to friends' homes during Brasil games since we did not have the World Cup available to us on our TV, we had company for two weeks, and we went to Recife for three nights and visited friends as well as checking out the zoo there. Sounds busy, but we did get to sleep in past 5:30, so it really was a much-needed break.

In other good news, our contract has been extended by a year and has moved into more full-time work for Shaun, which is great for us on so many levels. I think for us to move back when the kids were just settled in would have been an even greater stresser. People always say that kids learn languages fast, and they're resilient, blah, blah, blah, but in my personal experience constant change and an unknown future can also negatively affect children during a very sensitive time of growth. In terms of learning the language, when we were in Recife, the kids weren't really exposed to the language except on Sundays, so I would say it was not until we got here in November that they were really immersed in the neighbourhood and playing with kids here. Yes, they pick up language fast, but I truly believe sometimes people think it takes a week of immersion for kids. The kids started going to school in February and I would say right before the winter holidays everything clicked and all three of them really took off in terms of learning more and more. So I would say around six months for kids and then it suddenly is being learned at warp speed. People of course expect less especially from the younger ones, which is a bit unfair for Seth, but he is doing amazing, even in school where there is a huge focus on Portuguese grammar and reading and writing (same as in Canada in regards to English). Time has flown by and yet when I think of how long it has been it seems forever ago that we were in Canada, and I think it is amazing that the kids will be fluent in another language. I'm fairly sure they will lose most of it once we get back to Canada, but that it will help them in the future with re-learning or learning other languages. Seth and Hazel both at separate times when they were talking to cousins last week said they could not remember an English word in the moment, which to me is crazy! We read a chapter of an English story book daily, plus we almost exclusively speak English in our home, and Seth and Hazel both do English work with me at least three times a week.

As there is way to much to record in one post, I'll just leave you with some pictures. I am hoping I can do a little more specific updates about each "event" in the week to come, but this will have to do for now.

Hazel and Lyla have become the best of friends (when they're not fighting of course!), and are often playing house or Barbies. It is a lot of fun to see this developing friendship.

If you remember from one of the initial posts about the property here, there is a large covered barbecue area with a sink. We actually have only used it once, as the barbecue is so big it needs a lot of charcoal and time to heat up for just our family. Hazel and Lyla and often the neighbourhood girls spend time sweeping, scrubbing, cleaning, washing old pots and pans that the previous owners or left behind, making everything from birthday cakes (mud and pomegranate seeds, naturally) to orange candy (using the oranges from our tree and sugar and actually setting a bunch of leaves and cardboard on fire....this event included neighbourhood boys as well, and to be honest, did not work in the slightest). We have celebrated fake birthdays and been served "coffee and cake" when visiting, and it has been a wonderful world of imaginative play.

Random photo op.

We got a hammock and have hammock hooks all over our veranda and even inside our house. Sometimes it gets used as a swing, and has already been thoroughly enjoyed for naps, reading, and relaxing.