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!