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.

Happy New Year!

I noticed a few days ago that my last post was December 28!  That wasn't actually three weeks ago, was it?  Didn't the New Year start yesterday?!  My goal is to post once a week, but to be honest when I have sat down in the evenings the internet has been horrible, so I have been unable to upload pictures or sometimes even load up the page.

The most exciting news of the year thus far is the birth of my new nephew, Nathan Charles.  And although I know it has nothing to do with me I was extremely excited that it happened on my birthday!  What wonderful news to wake up to.

Here I am with my newest nephew:

I can pretend, right?  I don't know what is up with my teeth.  I brushed them before I went to the hospital.

Anyways, for some reason, maybe because of this exciting news, my birthday was unexpectedly hard.   But I made it through.  And then I made a conscious decision to phone people here in Brazil and make some social plans.  I need a life :)  Okay, I'm somewhat joking, but I think generally on my birthday whoever phones or wants to, comes over and it's sort of an open house.  And I serve a few pre-made appies from Costco and just have some rye and coke available and everyone is happy!  We did have a nice evening skyping with Shaun's parents and his sister and her husband, but having a few people over wouldn't have hurt.

I will tell you some of the things that are holding me back from having a "party" in the evening.  First, if we have people over in the evening they are expecting a delicious barbecue with a meal to go with it.  This is not a North American barbecue.  This is a crazy amount of meat roasted over a charcoal barbecue and handed out in strips over a number of hours.  It is a bit intimidating for me.  We have a perfect fireplace barbecue for parties, and it is so big we have only used it once because it takes a long time to heat up.  The next thing is we generally put our kids to bed significantly earlier than Brazilians, and Brazilians take their kids with them everywhere, so I know all the kids will be up into the evening.  Which would be fine I know.  We have relaxed a bit in that department, trying not to stress out when the kids aren't in bed on time, but in general our kids are happier when they're in bed at relatively the same time every night.  The third thing is our lack of chairs and tables, plates and utensils.  We have none.  Even Hazel's birthday was a little awkward.  And we don't have enough pans for a lot of dishes, and the pans we have are small.  Okay, so what was my point?  I haven't felt ready to have a large group of people over, but I think I should have invited some people over for cake... they don't know our little non-invitational plans we generally make for birthdays.  So Shaun's birthday is coming up (in March), and I'll make more of an effort for that.  I'll let you all know how it goes.

     

Two more bits of exciting news to catch you up with.

We were all issued our Certidão do Estado Legal here in Brazil!  Could it be possible this can allow us access to our bank account?  I think Shaun is scared to try.... however it did allow us to do one other exciting thing....

Enroll our children in school here!  Seth, Hazel and Lyla will all begin school on February 4.  In the primary grades they attend school approximately from 7:00 until 11:00.  We really were unsure about whether to send Lyla, as she is only four in March, but know it is probably the best way for her to learn Portuguese.  We will see how she does, and see how much I miss having her around.  Right now I'm feeling like we should de-register her....

I also noticed on the school calendar we got that the kids have a full month off of school from the middle of June to the middle of July.  I commented on this to a friend, and she said it is because of the World Cup.... the government has ordered all the schools to take a month off.  In general their school has two weeks off in July 

I was attempting to upload the three weeks of Jonas that I missed, knowing that you all want to watch him grow, but my internet connection won't allow me.  I will try to do something in the morning, when our internet connection seems better.

So as I wave my magic wand (otherwise known as the mosquito killer) and enjoy a glass of fine wine while Shaun and Seth are experiencing a bit of Brazilian culture firsthand (they went night fishing with flashlights), I hope you will forgive the tardiness of my blog posts and chalk it up to the fact that I'm living in a country which does not know the meaning of alacrity.  But then again, neither did I until I looked it up just a minute ago...

Policia Federal

In my quick attempt to catch up my readers on the past three weeks, I got caught up in the visit to the Federal Police and how it involved fees for not extending our tourist visas.  However, the whole point of why we went to the federal police got lost in that story.  So for the purpose of an accurate update, I thought I'd quickly include the rest of our visits to the federal police the past three weeks.  The Federal Police offices are at the airport in Recife, which is a little under two hours away.... if all goes well.  There is one office for Foreigners and one for Residents of Brazil.

So as I reported, we went to the police to apply for our permanent residency and found we needed to include our children in the process, as well as have every page in our passport copied and certified.  So the next week we headed back with everything we needed.  Upon application, if you have all the required documents, they give you something called a protocol number, which you can use while you wait for the actual permanent residency documents.  Then she told us to head over to the Federal Police for residents of Brazil (on the other side of the airport) and get our Certificate of Legal Status (Certidao do Estado Legal).  We hadn't heard of this before, but by this time it was almost two o' clock in the afternoon, so we thought we'd grab lunch before we headed there.  Our kids had patiently been waiting for almost three hours.  By the time we headed back to the Federal Police they were closed for lunch.  No worries, we don't need this cerificate we had never heard of.... or do we?

Shaun eagerly set out the very next day to open a bank account.  We had Everything We Needed.  A contract or an electric bill for proof of residency, passport for identification, and our protocol number saying WE BELONG HERE IN BRAZIL.  Hmmmm, two days and two banks later....no can do.  Apparently our magical protocol number means nothing.  Shaun was ready to throw in the towel.  I felt absolutely no surprise.  I knew it wouldn't be as simple as that.

Shaun returned to Recife airport to exchange the Dublo for a five-seater car a few days later, as it was a quarter of the price and we have found in general we use the car for groceries and running errands that don't require all of us to go.  Shaun and Hazel had an enjoyable time together, and stopped by the other Policia Federal to see about this Legal Status in Brazil, whatever that was.  They told him that I had to do it separately, so Shaun said he would just wait until we were in Recife together.  Doing further research he found that the Policia Federal should have given us a number called a SINCRE (don't ask me what that stands for), at the same time as the protocol number.  Well, guess what, that number, the SINCRE has been replaced by... you guessed it.... the Certidao do Estado Legal.  Which of course you need to go to the other Federal Police for residents to receive.  I guess they decided the Polica Federal for residents needed to start doing more work, or maybe the Policia Federal for foreigners needed to do less.  Whatever the reason, the number is now issued by the opposite Policia Federal than we were expecting.

Shaun has gone up to Recife a couple of times for work and to exchange our rental vehicle one more time to a cheaper version that had air conditioning.  They both still had five seats, so we could not all head up.  And this last car is a tiny little hatchback that doesn't even fit four of us comfortably.   As an aside this is why having a car with five seats does not work if we ever want to head to Recife or Maragogi or even our friend's house a five minute drive down the road.  And here they do have similar car seat laws and occasionally police that want a bribe, so even if I felt comfortable driving the six of us in a five-seater car (which I don't), there are often police check points on the road. Anyways, a few days ago we dropped Seth and Hazel off at a friend's to go see about this number....

Poor Lyla gets carsick, so we had to stop and run around the car a few times, but it isn't really that effective.  She ended up falling asleep moaning about how sick she was.  She awoke super happy and we spent an hour or two at the airport, applying for the legal status.  Fortunately Shaun brought every document we owned, because they needed Jonas' birth certificate.  We thought we just needed our protocol number (from the other Federal Police) and our ID, so that was a relief.  We should be able to pick up our certificates of legal status on January 2nd for everyone!  The kids need it to register in school, and we need it to open a bank account (these were the reasons she told us to write on our application).  And we just need to bring Jonas in to pick them up!  Well, it's not exactly like that, but Jonas appears to be like a little card we carry around to say we can stay in this country.

So while this may only be an interesting post if you are trying to live and work in Brazil after having a child here while on a tourist visa, it may be interesting to know that we are still busy with this concept of opening up a bank account.  And it looks like we are only two weeks away.  Notice that there is no real excitement in my voice.... because I'll believe it when I see it.  Also notice that I'm not really disappointed or frustrated.... this is just the way it is.  But when we have a bank account open, I might just buy a bottle of champagne!