Observations behind the wheel

I like imagining what things used to be like before modern times. When Izabel and I were in the States doing Partnership Development we traveled a lot and saw a lot of open country, I was always wishing I would be able to see the land from 300 years ago compared to how it looked today. If there was a large prairie did it use to be a forest? If there is a large forest, did it use to be a prairie? Was the Rocky Mountain range always so densely packed with trees? If so, how did the wagon trains cross those mountains?

Part of the mountain area going from the coastal plain to the higher altitude

Living in Brazil has made me start to consider these and other things as well, mainly how traffic laws and routines evolve. We live in the coastal plain of the state of Sao Paulo, just after our city are mountains that level off into a higher altitude for the big city of Sao Paulo. These mountains are densely covered with trees and other vegetation, were they always covered this thick with green? I imagine being an early explorer tasked with uncovering this land yet being discouraged by the hard work of having to march my way through the thick jungle, of course I also think what an adventure that would be.

I was told recently that Brazil is going to increase some traffic fines which will hopefully prevent reckless driving, it reminded me of the emphasis in the States on using a seat belt or child safety seat. All during my lifetime seat belts have been required, but over the last 10 years or so there has been an increase in the fines associated with not using them. I remember my first trip to Brazil in 2007 I was riding in a car and looked into a car next to us and all four people in that car had a can of beer in their hand. There was another time when, as a pedestrian, I was passed by two guys on a motorcycle, both of whom were holding a beer can. Thankfully, the laws have taken a strict stand against drunk driving since 2007.

It takes much more energy to drive here in Brazil than I used to expend in the States. When we first arrived here I was nervous when I first started driving into other cities, not knowing all the rules, written and unwritten, but also just trying to keep up with the differences in driving cultures. After I returned from the States earlier this year I was talking about the differences between U.S. and Brazil with my soccer friends. I joked that in the States a road is wide enough to hold 4 or 5 cars side by side but there are only two lanes of traffic. In Brazil the roads are only wide enough for 2 car widths but somehow three cars and a bus fit in that space.

Since I've been in Brazil I have learned that here it's important to be aggressive as a driver or you'll never get anywhere. I've seen how common it is for people to approach a controlled intersection where they have a stop sign but to approach the intersection so rapidly that it seems they want to force the driver with a right-of-way to stop, so the car with the stop sign can continue without stopping. Eventually most of those cars stop, but it's important to be ready in case you find one of the drivers who is going regardless.

On the one hand you have a group of drivers that seem like they expect the seas of traffic to part around them, on the other hand you have a group of drivers who are awfully generous. These people have the right-of-way yet will stop and let anything into traffic or cross the road, human or animal. One group will happily continue driving, ignoring a pregnant woman with a small child waiting in the crosswalk, while the other group will stop anywhere along the road to allow a single male to cross the street who may not even be waiting to cross. What a study in contrasts.

Pretty much like this

I was driving in the city of Santos last week and for a while trailed a team of four motorcycle cops. I watched their diamond formation while on the move but was fascinated at how they arranged themselves while stopped at a light. As they came to a stop they positioned themselves to have a view of  every direction. Immediately after each motorcycle was positioned correctly, their hand went to the gun in their holster and they scanned their area for things that seemed out of place. One officer looked into my car trying to see my soul, I probably would have confessed to anything he accused me of at that point. This was the second time I had noticed motorcycle police driving in such a formation.

The last thing I'll mention about traffic is that somehow I think a Brazilian uses a third hand while driving and I have no idea how. Both the horn and the headlights are used as communication devices. Not only do I need to learn the Portuguese language but I also have to learn 'lights and sounds' too. It's amazing how quickly the lights will be flashed or the horn beeped when necessary. The length and pattern of the lights or horns probably also have different meanings like Morse code. The only conclusion that I can make is that a Brazilian drives with one hand on the horn, another controlling the headlights and they use their third hand to use the steering wheel, not to mention shifting, maybe they have four hands.

Turnback Tuesday

Sometimes I'm reminded of things for no apparent reason, earlier this week I had such a thought. I don't think I ever shared it on this but at the time I remember thinking it would be appropriate for something like a blog.
During my first full year here in Brazil I had 5 hours per week of Portuguese classes and we completed two lesson books during that year. In these classes we had some regularly appearing exercises to practice different important activities. Sometimes I had to discuss vacations I would like to take (with an unlimited budget, of course),

My Dream- A house on stilts over the ocean

My reality- a house on stilts over a swamp

 













other times I made comparisons based on a topic for the day. On this specific day the activity was about giving directions to different destinations in the city and surrounding areas. One of the destinations was a nearby city where the person would have to get on a hard to find highway.
After finishing the class for that day I began walking home and was stopped by a couple in a fancy car asking how to get on this highway I had just given directions to in my class activity. I eagerly put into practice this lesson I had just learned and helped them get on the road to their destination, hopefully they arrived.

It's hard to believe that we left for Brazil almost two years ago. Our life experiences have been adjusted to nearly two years of living in a foreign developing country. I know there are many things I have missed out on by living in a different country (celebrating the first major championship in a long time by a sports team from my state; oh yeah and of course my family), but there are also experiences and friendships I've had living here in Brazil I wouldn't have thought possible.

I'll try hard to share my unreal experiences but for now I'll just share some pictures we have accumulated during our time here in Brazil.

The street in front of our house completely flooded during a storm

Too busy studying Portuguese to pose for a picture

 

Ok fine, we'll take a break.

 

I guess we did one nice overnight stay, an usie

Half my class hard at work, you don't want to see the other half.

It's hard to tell who they're cheering for.

We've been back in Brazil for about a month and a half, it's nice to be back at home where it is easier to relax. We had a great yet busy time in the States when we went up in June for Conferences and visitations. In all we spent over two months in the USA between 3 different states (OR, WA, and TX) and too many airplanes. We saw all of my immediate family but unfortunately didn't see nearly as many friends as we were hoping to see. For Samantha and I this was our first time back in the States after leaving in December of 2012 (a little over 1.5 years).
I felt prepared for the re-entry into the USA as I knew what other people had experienced after long absences from the USA. I deliberately avoided some of the things many talk about, for example, getting overwhelmed in a grocery store at the sheer variety of cereals, frozen foods... I protected myself by walking to my favorite cereal, getting a box, and walking away instead of trying to choose one of the many options.

I re-experienced some forms of culture shock as we came back into Brazil, though. It's crucial to stay on high alert while driving on the roads in Brazil, watching for other cars, people on bicycles, pedestrians or animals who at any time may wander into the middle of the road. We were grateful for several people who maintained our things while we were away, we found out that our house was cleaned two different times by people in the few days leading up to our arrival. Even with the extra cleaning it's still a never ending task to keep floors clean here in Cubatao. As we walked around the house after we arrived our socks and feet turned black because of the black dust that settles everywhere.
One of the things we bought while in the States was a robotic floor sweeper/mopper. We knew that with Izabel using most of her energy keeping her and the baby healthy through this pregnancy that we would need something to try to keep up with the never ending dust. Oh how happy we are to have this new toy that Samantha has named "V." Even though we have V running all day long sweeping and mopping the cloth we attach always returns black with dirt and dust.

Izabel had an ultrasound last week, during the ultrasound we learned that we are going to be having a boy and everything is healthy. In the States we were told that the Due date is February 1st but when we arrived back here we were told the 4th. I hope the baby doesn't get confused.

Celebrating Izabel's mom's birthday. The 4 daughters and two grandaughters

The three son-in-laws

Pregnancy belly!

English? Yes please.

Life became normal for me last week as my English classes started in earnest. I was happy to continue one of the longest running ministries through Evangelical Church Missions here in Brazil by going out into the rough neighborhood of Vila Esperança to give English classes. Last week Cris and I went to three classes out of the four we will regularly go to. We were called before the Wednesday morning class and told that there weren't any students in the class, last year Wednesday morning classes had the most students. In all, there were 22 students, ranging from beginner to advanced. I anticipate that throughout the next few weeks there will be more students to register and we will go out 4 times each week.

My classes also began at Life English Center. I have one VIP student on Monday evenings, 6 students in a class that meets Tuesdays & Thursdays, and 4-5 students in a Saturday morning class. I am not used to lesson planning and organization but I have put together a good template that makes things easier.

We have been looking for ways to connect our church to some of the other ministries of Evangelical Church Missions-Brazil. Last night, Monday, was the first of weekly Bible studies in the classroom where I teach English in Vila Esperança. We have encouraged the students in the classes to invite their families to the Bible study, last night 16 people attended. Tonight, Tuesday, we begin a Bible study in Life English Center, this study will be done in English and will be practice for the English students to read, listen and speak.

We appreciate your prayer and support, here are some ways you can keep us in your prayers this week.

• For good relationships to be developed with my new students.
• For Izabel's Citizenship process
• Good attendance at all 4 of the weekly Bible studies.

Happy New Year!

I started a post with this title last year but I never really got around to finishing it, I guess I'm stealing my own idea then. What I have been told before is that the new year in Brazil doesn't officially kick off until after Carnival so I'm a little bit early in spreading my New Year's wishes. Carnival is later in the year than most years so some thing are getting started before this major holiday here.

Izabel and I on the beach with our Brother-in-law for New Year fireworks

It has been quite a ride since late November as both Izabel and I, along with Aaron and Cristiana Brakefield, have been working on documents for Izabel and Cris to become U.S. Citizens. This process has included required trips to the United States for Izabel and Cris in order to maintain their Legal Permanent Resident status.

Izabel met extreme cold on her trip north...

The process is moving smoothly so far for Cristiana, but Izabel is working on her third try for submitting the application and hoping that this one is the charm. Once they are accepted we anticipate at least one more trip for Izabel up to the States and potentially two more trips. We see many benefits for Izabel becoming an American Citizen and are using those benefits to help encourage us as we continue to resubmit the application.

and had the other extreme upon her return.

We spent our second Christmas as a family here in Brazil and all that I can say is that it is completely different than our Christmas traditions up North. The weather allows, even encourages, people to stay outside as we are in the heat of summer and the air is usually quite hot and stale inside. It's common to celebrate from Christmas Eve into early Christmas morning by visiting friends and neighbors and by lighting off fireworks. I felt bad having a hard time staying energetic and finally used the excuse of needing to get Samantha to bed in order for us to go home.

I have taken a break from lesson planning in order to give an update about what is going on down here. Although it is one month before Carnival, the year has commenced for me. By the time this is published I will have completed my first class teaching at Life English School in 2014. My days will be busy planning lessons or giving them. Since Shelly moved back home to Washington (way to go Seahawks, by the way) I have taken over the classes that she had been teaching. I will be teaching three classes at Life along with going out to Vila Esperança twice a day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support. Here are some specific ways you can keep us in your prayers this week:

• Pray for the Citizenship process for both Izabel and Cristiana
• Thank God for protection and safety, we should thank Him even more when he keeps us from danger we may not even know about.
• Pray for David beginning classes at Life and in Vila Esperança.

How do you say 'straw' in Portuguese?

I meant to get this out on Saturday but things always seem to get in the way. Since the last week of November it has
been extremely busy for all of us here in Brazil. That shouldn't be news to any of you since Thanksgiving, Black Friday and all the preparations for the Christmas season make everyone's end of the year busy. Here is what has been keeping us busy.

• Aaron, Cris, Izabel and myself took a trip to the U.S. consulate at the end of November to file papers and have questions answered. Even though Cris and Izabel are Permanent residents, the U.S. powers that be expect their permanent residents to reside inside the States, since Izabel and Cris do not, we went to file papers to keep their residence. While there however we were all told that the U.S. Consulate couldn't help us because they didn't qualify for those specific papers.
• Believe it or not, in Izabel's case we were advised that the easiest and ultimately cheapest way to preserve Izabel's residency was to have her make a trip up to the States. We left this morning to take Izabel to the airport for her trip to Minneapolis. While she is there she will work on some of her documents and help Barbara Kochendorfer around the house (not that Barbara needs help).         
• To tag along with the previous bullet point we have a visitor arriving tomorrow to help Shelly Fuehrer in her final week here in Brazil and her trip back. Instead of making two airport trips in two days I decided to find a hotel in São Paulo to stay at. So far Samantha and I have explored Walmart, a big shopping mall, drove through busy traffic to a zoo that didn't look like it was open...or fun, and checked into our hotel. We also explored a big outdoor shopping area close to the hotel but I got tired of holding Samantha and she got tired of the heat so we came back to the hotel. 
• I've been on my own all day long with no one to help me with the language and I've done alright. Samantha interrupted me before this bullet point saying she was hungry so I successfully called and ordered some little pizzas to be delivered. I forgot to bring a straw with us on this trip so before I went to the restaurant in the hotel I typed into google "how do you say 'straw' in Portuguese?" I also successfully asked the front desk for a crib for Samantha that has now been delievered. Many times I still feel lost with Portuguese but other times I can look back and see how far I've come.
• We had Shelly move in with us a couple weeks go and we're getting her apartment prepared to turn back over to the owners. We are still looking for someone who knows how fill an air conditioning hole in her wall. Please pray that someone can be found shortly.
• There have been many other things going on and we appreciate your prayers during this busy yet rewarding time of year.

Back from retreat

I want to thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and support, it is hard for us to be productive here in Brazil without a good support team back home. We had a major event this last week as we took a group of 13 teenagers from the English ministry that we assist from the tough neighborhood of Vila Esperança.

We attempt to have some sort of reward each semester for these students but this was much more involving than other rewards, we haven't taken these students on a multiple day retreat for several years. Us missionaries left Wednesday afternoon to prepare the rental house and then the children arrived Thursday morning and stayed until Saturday afternoon. There were fun activities, a few hours at the beach, much time spent in the pool and a lot of good food to eat. I believe that our main goals were accomplished, safety, fun and times to present the Gospel.

This was also a time that Shelly was able to use to say thank you to the students for many years of taking classes with her and an opportunity to say goodbye as she returns to the States in December. On the last day of the retreat I sat down with the main teacher of these classes and with Aaron Brakefield and we discussed the future of the classes. We agreed that I will take over as the American assistant beginning next year, continuing a partnership that has been going for over 10 years. I've never thought of myself as much of a teacher but now I get the opportunity to test myself and develop relationships with many young people in a difficult neighborhood to grow up in.

We have used these classes to help teaching English with great success, we have also had great success in teaching these students about God and the Bible. Our desire is to draw a connection between these classes and a church that will challenge them to grow in their relationship with Christ. We would love to have them come to our church but it is unrealistic to expect them to come walking or by bus from the other side of town.

Please pray for commitments made and seeds planted during these few days to remain strong and to grow. Activities were mentioned to connect our church and other ministries to these young people, pray that these ideas can come to fruition. We didn't bring a camera on this retreat. As pictures get posted from others we will share those so you can see the faces of some of these young students.