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.

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.

Jonas spends a lot of time on shoulders.  It makes me a little nervous but I try to supress my worrying.

Watching one of the Brasil games at a friend's.

They set up a projector on the wall, which was really cool.

Seth figured out the self-timer function of my camera.

So not too long of a post, seeing as you've missed three months of our lives, but stay tuned for a few more catch-up posts.

Apple Crisp Banana Bread

Hazel's favorite past-time.  She knows all the Brazilian hand-clapping games.  She's told me that I need to practice on the wall to keep up with her....

We get water from the street every morning between 6:30 and 9:30.  Those hours are very approximate.  Sometimes it comes as early as 4:30 am and sometimes as late as noon.  That means we have to turn on a pump in this concrete box when the water arrives, which pumps water to a large 12,000 litre reservoir in the ground at the back of the property.  From there we have to turn on another pump to fill up our 1000 litre water tank high above the ground.  If it is a holiday weekend, we try to fill up our large reservoir as much as possible in advance, because we've had up to five days in a row without water coming from the street at all.  We also make sure our holding tank is full, particularly before we go to bed at night, because if the electricity goes out we can't turn up our pump.  We've been losing our electricity one to two times a week for the past month.  This is due to our house being on a power line that never has enough electricity.  I've heard this is called a brown-out.  Our fan spins oh-so slightly, the light on the a.c. will work but nothing else, and some of the lights will have a little dim light coming from them.  This is very frustrating because most of Peroba has power, but our power line doesn't.  Anyways, we had a different problem this past week with the concrete box pictured above, which generally is a dry empty box in the ground except for a pump.  It flooded due to torrential downpours last week, and apparently there are cracks in the concrete.  We were worried it would wreck the pump, as it is not a submersible pump, and Shaun spent many hours bailing the water out, with it being filled up very shortly after.  Finally the last three days it has been low enough to run the pump, but once it is dried out the box needs to be reinforced or else we can add that to our problems with acquiring water.

Items sent to us from family via Mission Board members who are visiting!  So exciting to open up suitcases full of goodies.

Somehow it feels really good to be so full of dropjes that you feel sick.

I'm working on teaching the neighbour girl how to French braid.  I thought I'd take a picture to prove that I do know how :)

Lyla riding Seth's bike.

The tortoise sisters fighting over a piece of tomato.... even though there are four more pieces under one of them and she had to go over top of them to get to this one.

Twelve Month Sleepers and Other "Events"

My little man is growing...

He crawls, and sits, is pulling himself up on things (in bed he climbs halfway up the crib and can't get down!), he is grabbing everything, and growing....  I have no idea how big he is, but he entered the 12-month sleeper phase this past week.

 

Every month our little church has a communal potluck lunch at somebody's house.  Last week was our house for the first time... I counted over 30 people.  Here is Shaun opening by reading the Bible in Portuguese!  

This past week we had Labour Day on May 1st (Thursday).  To allow us to have a long weekend with the Friday off as well, there was school on the previous Saturday!  Plus, on Wednesday was "parent-teacher's"  instead of school.  We were very thankful to hear from the teachers and see on their report cards how well our children are doing.  Although some days are a struggle, most days the kids seem to enjoy their classes and telling us about their day upon arriving home.  This is definitely more than we expected!

  So last Sunday was the communal lunch, and it was very enjoyable.  That night it started to rain, and the next few nights were very rainy.  On Tuesday night we shut our doors and windows early, because there were these weird bugs flying into our house and losing their wings and crawling around.  On Wednesday morning we woke up to a veranda COVERED in these wings.  It was disgusting.  Then our power went out.  I went to the school to talk to the teachers, and by the time I got back and packed up it was 3:00.  That's right, we were going on a trip!  We went up to Aldeia on Wednesday, and there is a simple yet beautiful suite Mission Aid has that we are able to use on property that currently houses a missionary family, five seminary families, and the seminary.  This was the first time we used it.  It took us 3 1/2 hours to get there.... much much longer than usual, as Jonas decided he didn't like driving and we had pee breaks and a little snack/supper/grocery stop before we arrived.  We dumped our stuff at the suite and headed to some friends' house and had a lovely time visiting them.  Played some cards, chatted into the wee hours.  Larger winged insects were flying around us there, with the same problem of the wings falling off.  Gross.  Suddenly it was 1:30 in the morning!  We packed up our kids and headed back to the suite.  Lo and behold, the power was out there too, and the electric gate would not open!  It can be opened manually from the inside, but our contacts inside were not awake when we phoned.  We finally headed back to our friends house as we could not get in.  Well, that was a night of little sleep!  The next day we got into the property and that was Labour Day.  In some ways I'm thankful we didn't get in the night before, because the suite was FULL of these insects and their wings.... a carpet of them.  They had crawled under one of the doors.  Anyways, that was Thursday and one of the reformed churches in the area had booked the property for a family day.  There was a speech, and lunch, and in general a fun time hanging out.  The energy was off all day until 3:00!  On Friday Shaun went to the airport in the morning to exchange rental cars (yes, we are still doing that!), and the afternoon we went to our friends again for tea and supper. That evening we had a couple over for some wine at the Mission Aid suite, a Canadian married to a Brazilian.   He is the caretaker of the property there in Aldeia, and also lives on the property.  On Saturday there was speeches on the property, as the first Saturday of every month is a "Training Day."  We left from there at two in the afternoon, but not before we enjoyed lunch with everyone: white beans and bucho.  I still can't think about it without feeling a little sick in my stomach.  I started eating this delicious looking dish and thought there was chicken involved.  I tried to chew it, but ended up mostly just swallowing it, as it was really chewy and what I thought was really fatty chicken.  Turns out it was cow stomach.  I pushed the rest to the side, and had many people laughing at the shade of red my face turned.  I explained that maybe next time I was served it, I'd be able to eat another piece, and the next time another piece, and maybe after trying it a few times, I might like it.   I think I was being naive.  I don't think I could "stomach" it again  *groan*  Anyways, it was another long journey back.  At one point three of the four children were screaming at the same time.  But we made it home safely, and had a wonderful time away visiting and meeting new people. 

Sorry no pictures to go with the above story.  I brought my camera and did not take a single picture!

Here are a few pictures I took this morning though!  A sweet little tree frog :)

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Come and Gone....

I suppose no news is good news, right?  I promised a post in March to tell you how our February had gone, but seeing as February is ancient history, I'll keep this post current.  As much as we are in a tropical country which people may equate with relaxation, we are getting caught up in actual daily life, which is busy no matter where you are.

We notice more and more rainy nights, and even some days.  Signs we are heading towards "winter."  The girls took some time out to enjoy the puddles....

On one of the sunny Saturdays after Shaun's birthday, we headed to our friends' house to celebrate.  Jonas is drinking to dad too!

Seth loves to carry "Babyland" over to his bed before he sleeps for the night.

Jonas seems to enjoy Babyland as well.

Jonas never lost his baby hair, so the stuff he was born with just kept growing, leaving him with a wispy mullet at the back....

 

And a wispy matte at the front.  So we took matters into our own hands.

A little spiky, but it will do.

Seth had a major injury.... could've used stitches I think, although it doesn't look that bad here.  I'm trying to find the glue that doctors use instead of stitches for his next accident.

Palm branch house the neighbourhood kids built on the road.

Skyping with Uncle Randy and Aunty Lorene, and finding out the super exciting news that they are expecting a baby!

Then we had to bring the laptop outside to show them our new babies.  Red-footed tortoises. 

One of them Seth got for a birthday present when we were here four years ago.  We left it with the gifter, when we headed back to Canada.  Now we get it back, plus the gifter needed us to take care of hers for six months!  They seem to be settling in nicely.

He's working on crawling, however tiled floor can be a dangerous place to practice!

 

So life is good and busy.  The kids have been going to school every morning, and they all just went through "exam week."  It sounds like they all did as well as could be expected, in some cases better than expected.  There was a lot of initial anxiety as the kids settled in, which was hard to deal with, and I was second-guessing myself about forcing them all to go.  However, they are all able to chatter away in Portuguese and it makes me so proud to see all their hard work pay off.  The past 3 weeks there has been a day off of school a week, with a Saint's day, then Easter and Tiradentes, and next week is Labour Day (May 1st).  The funny thing is, as a private school there needs to be 800 hours of schooling a year, which works out to 200 days.  (Public schools have this requirement as well, but it is definitely not enforced).  Because of the World Cup, apparently the schools need to give a month off of school, where there is typically two weeks.  So the school can't take as many days off here and there as usual, and this year the school year goes until December 23rd, a week later than usual.  However, next week Labour Day is on a Thursday... I guess someone decided that to have a Thursday off is not a good long weekend, however, there aren't enough school days to take the Friday off.  What's a school to do?  Add an extra day of school this Saturday!  And give the parents notice the Wednesday of!  So our kids have five days of school this week and we get a long weekend next week.

Shaun and I are staying busy.  When the kids head off to school I typically do some laundry, and plan and then make lunch, which I've taken to calling supper because it's our hot meal.  I relax a bit with coffee and my computer, Bible study, and bemoan the fact that my dearest loved ones are still sleeping, because that would be a perfect time to catch up with them.  Sometimes we shower three times a day, and we all enjoy the cold shower now, surprisingly.  Jonas is eating still approximately every three hours during the day, which takes up a bit of time.  When the kids get home from school there's often a bit of homework, which they finish up in no time, we eat, read, sing, etc.  Sometimes I can't believe how long lunch takes.  In the afternoon, I am trying to do some English work with the kids every day.  By the time that is done, it's time for showers, walking to the bread store to buy bread, make and eat supper, read a chapter of an English book (currently Little House in the Big Woods) and head to bed.  It's a good life, yet exhausting.  I think it's still the heat that makes the days tiring, and I wonder if I'll ever get used to that.  Every day is equivalent to those hot summer days back home where everyone says "It's too hot to cook!"  However, our air conditioner is set to 23 or 24 degrees Celsius, and it feels cool to me.  I wonder how cold I'll be when I end up in North America once again, as I was talking to a friend who said her thermostat was set to 21... to heat the house up!

Take care everyone, and I'm not promising anything, except an attempt to be more consistent :)