Beautiful Sunday Morning

Yesterday Shaun told me, "Alright, Brenda, no more buying anything this month...."  The thrifty in me said "No problem."  This is not a super common occurrence, but it does happen occasionally, and of course every month there seem to be unanticipated expenses.  I guess there should be a monthly column for "unanticipated expenses" because they are so common they should be anticipated?

Anyway, of course that evening the unanticipated happened.  Our 9-month old fridge (also which we had not anticipated buying when we moved here) stopped.  Electricity was going to it (the light was on) but the fridge had melted.  At least on the inside.

Twinges of guilt for a couple purchases this month ate at me, specifically the cost of a course online this fall.... (I'm still working on my degree and have five courses left.  What better way to spend my "free time," right?).  I marched stoically across the road through a large group of people having a party on the road and onward to a small group of people visiting on the street, one of them being a neighbour.  The five or so of them gazed curiously as I came to the group and burst into tears.  Well, that wasn't quite how it happened, but as I tried to say "Our fridge stopped" in Portuguese I had a hard time holding it together.  She was kind enough to offer the use of her fridge and save me from further embarrassment.  We had thought in this community where everyone seems to know something about everything that one of their husbands would know something about fridges, but apparently that's why there's lot of refrigerator repair shops around.  None of them open at night though.  If we want to figure out warranty stuff we'll have to pay someone to bring the fridge to Recife, two hours away.  I don't even want to think about that.

I came home after moving our meat over to our neighbour's house and Shaun was pouring over online forums about how to fix a fridge.  Something about a compressor having to work hard blah blah blah.  Maybe turn it off for a couple hours and try again.  Also take an axe to it....that was just my suggestion, but no forum agreed with my analysis.  We tried to turn it on a few times.... nothing happened.  I guess we have to wait until Monday.

So this morning, as we are eating breakfast I plug it in.  Nothing happens.  Then I forget all about it.  Twenty, thirty minutes later we hear a hum.  Seriously?  GET OUT!  Now I'm really crying because I am so incredibly grateful.  I know it's just a fridge people, but this is actually a big deal.  Thank God that He provided us with an answer to our prayer that it would just be a small thing.  And please pray that we have no more unanticipated expenses this month.

Escola Biblica de Ferias...aka VBS

Another special event that happened during World Cup Month (Winter Holidays), was Vacation Bible School.  We have a teensy tiny church plant here in Peroba, and have a large number of kids show up at our house on any given day.  With participation from some of our fellow church members, we invited these kids to come to Escola Biblica de Ferias.  Our dear friend Sandro, who drives the school bus, picked up kids from the church here and we all drove to the school, Escola Biblica Cristã.  His wife ran the games, his daughter led the crafts, our friend Luiz taught music, and Pastor Thyago had Bible class.  There were a bunch of helpers with each group as well.  I honestly think the bus ride and the fact it was at EBC was the highlight for most of these kids.  There's not a lot going on in Peroba apparently!  We had 40 kids aged five through twelve split into two groups, with the majority of kids being in the older group.  We had an awesome four days, but I must admit there were stressors, such as crafts not being ready to go, or not being planned at all, and helpers coming more sporadically than I would have liked, the only man who can take the guard dogs in and out at the school not being available one of the days (we stayed at the church), and no one bothering to let us know there was construction at the school going on in the gym.  However it was lots of fun, and a lot of kids showed up at church on Sunday in the afternoon to receive their certificate and sing the songs they learned in front of the church after the service.  Since then we've done a monthly Saturday Bible School which has had between fifteen and twenty kids show up.

THE most important job.  Seriously.  This is all the kids talked about: "Will there be snacks?"  "What kind of snacks?" "What are we having tomorrow?"  "Who made this?"  and "Remember the cookies Shaun made?"

We had some handraisers ;)

Singing on the bus was boisterous and fun.

The last day when the school wasn't available we used our road.

The pictures are out of order because they are from two cameras.

Snacks at our house the last day.

The younger group singing their song at the church on Sunday.

The older group.

The kids have been asking when we will do another one.  I'm not quite ready for that yet, but I must say I learned a lot from what we did and how I would improve things next time, so I am excited about the opportunity in the future... maybe summer holidays?

Dois Irmãos Zoological Park

The Recife Zoo is a fascinating family outing, and on July 11 we had a chance to enjoy it with the Van Spronsens.  At only R$2 per person, it is inexpensive, and as far as a popular attraction in a developing country goes, there were a couple of pleasant surprises: the majority of garbage could be found in trash receptacles and the bathrooms were in fairly clean condition with actual soap in the dispensers. 

The Zoo has an amazing bird section

One of my favourite birds.

Eating a chunk of meat.

I didn't realize some toucans were so small.

I love these monkeys!

Ice cream at the end.

Where's my ice cream?!

Traditional touristy hole-in-the-billboard picture.  Half the bear head is ripped away, and our little bear didn't quite get the concept of turning his head to match the picture at first.

Now the bear has a face.

The sweetest happiest bear you ever saw.

The Zoo has acres of natural park, and we got to see a capybara in the wild.

The prettiest birds you ever did see.

One lost its head!

Monkey with shoes on?

They have a very cool section with stuffed animals and skeletons.  This is a hippopotamus.

Lion.

Siberian Tiger.  Hazel was happy to be my model.  With every skeleton.

Jaguar.

SNAKE!
This is a reticulated python.

The strangest animals you can find at the Recife Zoo!