Well I'm back from Brazil, and what an amazing trip!
We started with a long flight from JFK to Sao Paulo then another flight back up to Maceio. We arrived at 2am just after the rental car place closed so we slept in the airport for a few hours and then woke up to pick up our car. First day we were pretty out of it we just headed to Teresa's house and met some of her family, ate some food and all of us fell asleep at some point or another. Later that night we headed to the beach house where we were staying - thank you Antonio and your family for your hospitality.
We started with a long flight from JFK to Sao Paulo then another flight back up to Maceio. We arrived at 2am just after the rental car place closed so we slept in the airport for a few hours and then woke up to pick up our car. First day we were pretty out of it we just headed to Teresa's house and met some of her family, ate some food and all of us fell asleep at some point or another. Later that night we headed to the beach house where we were staying - thank you Antonio and your family for your hospitality.
The beach house where we stayed - kind of felt guilty it was so nice!Up in Maceio we toured the city, visited a "safe center" for children, went to the Panaria (bakery) that Teresa's husband owns, had lunch with the Missionaries [Andrea and I were glad that one was American and could speak English to us]. The whole time I tried real hard to understand Portuguese and I was able to get the gist on things and Dave was nice enough to translate some of the rest. Basically by 5pm my mind would be exhausted from so much processing.
The alley leading to Geverton's house!Next we visited San Luis de Quitingue (sp?) where the kids Kaiizen sponsors live and go to schoot - Teresa teaches in this town also at a public school which is how we found these kids. The city is great, pretty small and surrounded by sugar cane fields for the most part. There are some nicer houses down in the city but as you head up the hills you see how most of the people live. It was definitely eye opening to see these levels of poverty but maybe even more shocking to see how happy people were and how they were able to still make a life for themselves on the very basics.
Visiting the sugar cane factory nearby!
The kids were AMAZING - The boys I could keep straight Geverton (practiced his English constantly with us - so fun!), Hudson (pretty shy but he came to hang out with us one day with just Geverton so I think he liked us), and Igelson (just a fun easy going go who's a fan of Backstreet Boys!). The girls were a bit harder to learn their names, mostly because they all sound the same. Bruna Gabriella I could remember the smallest yet kind of a leader of the pack. Then there was Alani, Elaine, and Adalangi - I probably didn't even spell those right. (Alani was a little shy but she thought she might have pink eye so she kept her distance, Elaine is so smart and a very silent leader, and Adalangi is the tall thin model-like girl who's a total flirt her target = Josh).
We also met up with Gominho a kid just from the town that met the group last time and offered to watch their car for some money - they had him come in and eat lunch with them instead and they just can't stand to not have him around anymore. His smile is so infectious and he just LOVES Josh - They were playing in the ocean trying to hold onto eachother through the waves and it was so cute to watch, but we all know Josh is just a big kid at heart!
I have to give credit to Teresa, she is so amazing. Not only is she the most gracious person ever and fed us way to well - including all the great juice that she made, but she has raised a righteous and intelligent family that were so nice and so much fun to be around. She really makes this program run and she is such a stong and amazing women and I can't wait until she comes to visit Utah and we can wait on her hand and foot and return the favor.
One of my favorite memories from the trip was Saturday = Beach Day when in the evening we all played American Football - that's right we lined up a game and gave each team 6 downs to make a touchdown. We tried to explain the rules but the first kick off they started throwing it all over to eachother and Andrea and I just dropped to the sand laughing - so we had to explain again that you can only run the first time, then you only get 1 forward pass each down, that forward pass has to be BEHIND the line of scrimmage, and then I realized just how many rules there are - don't worry we let some slide. I did my best to set up plays and would speak English/Spanish/Portuguese real slow then Marceo would do his best to translate to all Portuguese for my team - we emerged VICTORIOUS though.
Other great memories:
>Dave teaching Geverton and Gominho English - mostly phrases like "Let's Rock" and "You blow my mind" and "I have a crush on you."
>Gominho finding us on the first day in San Luis and calling out to Josh until he turned around and the smile on both of their faces was absolutely priceless!
>They were in the middle of a political campaign but we just kept saying that Teresa should run for Mayor.
>Andrea trying to be polite and nice to the English Teacher at the public school because she thought he was a friend of Kaiizen's - no just really Creepy and he actually sang James Blunt "You're Beautiful" to her and invited us all over to his house (plus he couldn't even really speak English).
>All 4 of us signing autographs and taking pictures at the public school like we were celebrities - actually this was just plain awkward and we hated it but it was kind of funny at first.
One of my new friends at the public school - I thought he was cute!
>Dave and Josh teaching a class at the public school and rewarding correct answers but letting them dance with us (Don't worry one student totally grabed my butt!)
>Grabbing some ice-cream where you scoop yourself and top it however you want then pay by the weight it was so good.
>All the good times with Dave, Andrea, and Josh - watching Just Friends and laughing so hard we had to rewind it, fake fighting, Dave being perverted, talking about Bill, sharing juice, and just loving eachother.
>New Friends that we made in Brazil that forever hold a place in my heart!
I'm sorry this is so long, and unfortunately it doesn't even do justice to the week but I hope it shares with you a little of my experience!
The kids were AMAZING - The boys I could keep straight Geverton (practiced his English constantly with us - so fun!), Hudson (pretty shy but he came to hang out with us one day with just Geverton so I think he liked us), and Igelson (just a fun easy going go who's a fan of Backstreet Boys!). The girls were a bit harder to learn their names, mostly because they all sound the same. Bruna Gabriella I could remember the smallest yet kind of a leader of the pack. Then there was Alani, Elaine, and Adalangi - I probably didn't even spell those right. (Alani was a little shy but she thought she might have pink eye so she kept her distance, Elaine is so smart and a very silent leader, and Adalangi is the tall thin model-like girl who's a total flirt her target = Josh).
We also met up with Gominho a kid just from the town that met the group last time and offered to watch their car for some money - they had him come in and eat lunch with them instead and they just can't stand to not have him around anymore. His smile is so infectious and he just LOVES Josh - They were playing in the ocean trying to hold onto eachother through the waves and it was so cute to watch, but we all know Josh is just a big kid at heart!
I have to give credit to Teresa, she is so amazing. Not only is she the most gracious person ever and fed us way to well - including all the great juice that she made, but she has raised a righteous and intelligent family that were so nice and so much fun to be around. She really makes this program run and she is such a stong and amazing women and I can't wait until she comes to visit Utah and we can wait on her hand and foot and return the favor.
One of my favorite memories from the trip was Saturday = Beach Day when in the evening we all played American Football - that's right we lined up a game and gave each team 6 downs to make a touchdown. We tried to explain the rules but the first kick off they started throwing it all over to eachother and Andrea and I just dropped to the sand laughing - so we had to explain again that you can only run the first time, then you only get 1 forward pass each down, that forward pass has to be BEHIND the line of scrimmage, and then I realized just how many rules there are - don't worry we let some slide. I did my best to set up plays and would speak English/Spanish/Portuguese real slow then Marceo would do his best to translate to all Portuguese for my team - we emerged VICTORIOUS though.
Other great memories:
>Dave teaching Geverton and Gominho English - mostly phrases like "Let's Rock" and "You blow my mind" and "I have a crush on you."
>Gominho finding us on the first day in San Luis and calling out to Josh until he turned around and the smile on both of their faces was absolutely priceless!
>They were in the middle of a political campaign but we just kept saying that Teresa should run for Mayor.
>My first time at the Atlantic Ocean - Josh was excited for me too!
>Andrea trying to be polite and nice to the English Teacher at the public school because she thought he was a friend of Kaiizen's - no just really Creepy and he actually sang James Blunt "You're Beautiful" to her and invited us all over to his house (plus he couldn't even really speak English).
>All 4 of us signing autographs and taking pictures at the public school like we were celebrities - actually this was just plain awkward and we hated it but it was kind of funny at first.
One of my new friends at the public school - I thought he was cute!>Dave and Josh teaching a class at the public school and rewarding correct answers but letting them dance with us (Don't worry one student totally grabed my butt!)
>Grabbing some ice-cream where you scoop yourself and top it however you want then pay by the weight it was so good.
>All the good times with Dave, Andrea, and Josh - watching Just Friends and laughing so hard we had to rewind it, fake fighting, Dave being perverted, talking about Bill, sharing juice, and just loving eachother.
>New Friends that we made in Brazil that forever hold a place in my heart!
I'm sorry this is so long, and unfortunately it doesn't even do justice to the week but I hope it shares with you a little of my experience!
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