Surprise!

I didn't think I would get a chance to post before I got home, but wild horses couldn't keep me away-hahaha. (I keep messing up on this stupid American keyboard-ha.) Well, yesterday goes down in my top 5 saddest days. It was terrible saying goodbye to people that I have no idea when I will see again. Of course I cried...a lot. Who was I kidding pretending that I might not? We had great pasta lunch after worship, and then headed to the airport. Quite a few people came, which made it that much harder to leave. It was past time for us to go back, but Dayanne and Pietro still had not shown up and I was getting really nervous. Just in time, they walked up and we were able to hug them to pieces one more time.

Sweet little Flavihno


Me and my bicho (bee-shoo) He refused to smile, because he said he was too sad :(

Us with some of the people who came to say goodbye.


My last view before I walked through security

As we were getting ready to leave Sao Paulo, we had to go through one last security check. That is when we realized that mine and Jarrod's visas were, in fact, not ok. After our last attempt at explaining anything in Portuguese or "slow" English, we were free to leave the country. Should we decide to come back to Brazil...ever, we have to pay a fine :( William, however, does not.

Our last Brazilian sunset, from the plane.

The flights were great. No problems at all. We were met in Dallas by an LST rep, who brought to our fabulous hotel! The first thing we did was brush our teeth! It's weird to be back in the States. As we had assumed, we wish we couldn't understand EVERYone on their cell phones in the airport! It's also really hot here in Dallas, but almost no humidity so it feels great. I had to wear a sweater to dinner. We also got as many free refills on water as we wanted. We ran into one of the teams who just got back from Moscow. It will be interesting to hear more about their trip. We will head to Memphis after our end-meeting tomorrow night. I can't wait to see you all!

Our Work Here is Done

Friday was amazing! We helped Adriana celebrate her birthday, and our reading sessions were great! Everyone was very encouraging with cards and gifts. It made us feel that much better knowing how much we have been loved and appreciated. Our last party was a huge success. Everyone loved the Brazilian pizza, and really seemed to enjoy the games! It felt strange leaving the party, knowing that we are finished with our project.

A riveting game of pre-party Pente

Video of a crazy balloon game!

The winners of a wild game of Steal the Bacon!

Our beautiful Brazilian friends

Today, we got to see the sun rise and set! In between, we spent some time at the beach and spent our last night with Pietro, Dayanne, and her family.

Sunrise

Our buddies

Dayanne's mother with Thomas

Our last Recife Sunset

I really can't stress enough how crazy it feels that we are leaving tomorrow. It didn't hit me until tonight, when we were telling Dayanne's mother goodbye. I realized that I am going to have to tell everyone goodbye tomorrow, and I just don't feel like I am ready! I can only hope that God has plans for me to come back here someday.

We will be flying out tomorrow afternoon, but won't get into Dallas until Monday. There, we will have our final meeting as a team, with some other LST teams that will be ending their projects as well. We will fly out of Dallas Tuesday night, and I will post as soon as humanly possible to let everyone know we made it home safely! Please pray for our safety, as well as for me not to cry all over everyone tomorrow!

Dear William, this last one's for you!

Just Another Day in Paradise

Things are winding down quite rapidly here in Recife! We only have 2 full days left and they are going to be packed with things to do! I had a very busy afternoon because all of my readers showed up, plus a few extras! Elidiane and Paula came for their one-and-only session, and it was great! They did very well, and speak better English than they realize. They are very sweet girls, and we had a lot to talk about.

Lee's cousin passed away yesterday in a motorcycle accident. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

The three of us have compiled a list of things we are looking forward to getting back to. This serves two purposes. To entertain you, and to alleviate the pain of leaving Brazil. That sounded really dramatic. So, I will be able to enjoy the following for 3 glorious days before leaving for Costa Rica:

• Brushing our teeth, and drinking water straight from the faucet!
• Taking a hot shower without the fear of being electrocuted
• Our wonderful and loving families
• A worship service in English
• Driving
• Our own beds
• Walking on grass
• Not having to plan a party
• Everyone around us speaking English
• The sun going down later than 5:00pm
• Baths (This is William's, and William's alone)
• Not having to convert from kilometers, celcius, and reais
• Our pets
• Fabric softener
• The kids at Harding Early Childhood (that's just mine)

And now, the things we will miss the most (I'm sure I will be adding to this list as I am reminded of things):

• Crunchy love (Brazilian candy)
• All the fabulous juices
• Going to the beach whenever we want
• Spaghetti at every meal
• 5 minute rains
• Spending our days at the School of the Bible
• Icecream Saturday
• Palm trees everywhere
• The Sport beat
• Walking to work everyday
• Fresh bread, daily
• Each other
• And of course, more than anything else, we are going to miss with all of our hearts all of the amazing and wonderful people we have met and become close to. The people from church, Escola da Biblia, our readers, and our friends. Even though we have only been here 6 weeks, it is strange to think about waking up at home and not seeing all of your smiling faces. Thanks to all of your help, encouragement, and laughs! We will miss ya'll!!!!

Enough sadness! Now, for the last round of random picutres!

This is a delivery guy. His box-backpack says "China in a Box" Yes, it is all there.

This is a truck carrying a lot of toilets. He never has to pull over.

The beach at Boa Viagem at night.

Another pretty church building.

Jarrod, Kensey, William





For William...the one that takes baths

Here Comes the Sun!

Today has been beautiful!! It is amazing how Recife is an entirely different city when the weather is perfect! Sessions went well, and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. I think I even saw William do a little jig in the elevator.

Danny told me earlier that he saw a guy riding a motorcyle yesterday, wearing a blue and white University of Memphis jacket! Weird!

One more of my readers had her last reading session today :( Miserable. The only reason I don't feel too sad about the last sessions, is the hope that I will see my readers at the party on Friday. I think we will have a really good turn out since it is the last party.

Tonight is the last night I will ever have to do laundry in Brazil! (At least on this trip) Brazilians don't typically use dryers, so the only way to dry clothes is to hang them up and let them air-dry. That means, today is the last day that I can wash my clothes to give them enough time to dry before I pack them up and bring them home!

We just finished our last Wednesday night worship service. It went well. We understood about 5 more words than we did 6 weeks ago ;) Brazil is playing Argentina tonight, so that should be interesting!

Tomorrow is a special day. My adopted sister, Kayla is turning 18!!!! If you see her, give her a big birthday hug! I hope she has the best birthday possible!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLA!!!

And now...for your viewing pleasure: More random pictures taken over the past 6 weeks

Jarrod and I have gotten much smarter since we got to Brazil

Lee, William, Me, Jarrod, Marilia in Danny's new car!

A really creepy door-knocker

A really pretty church building by the beach


Another picture of Everton, as has been requested by my female blog fans

This post is dedicated to Vince Vaughn

The Last Tuesday

Ok, angry blog readers...I had assumed that you would rather me not post at all, than to post about nothing. Judging by the hostile email feedback, I guess I was wrong! Yesterday and today have been very slow. It has been pouring rain, so we never really know which readers are going to show up. Also, I am pretty sad about this being the last week so it's hard to know what to write about. I have been designing the "goodbye" cards to give to my readers, and we have also been party planning. Last night, we watched "Feliz Natal." That literally translates to "Merry Christmas" in English, but I don't think that is the name of the movie in America. A lot of times, they change the entire name of a movie. It was a movie set in WWI, and it was VERY good. Once you get past the somewhat graphic battle scene in the beginning, the story is great.

Today, I purchased my plane ticket to Italy! So, it's official...I leave Sept. 22, and will be in Italy for 2 years! The work I will be doing is much like the work I am doing here, only much more involved. I am very excited because I can't imagine doing anything else at this point. I will be in Florence for the first 3 months, training and taking Italian conversation classes. Then, I will move to a different city (not sure which one yet) to work with a church. Guess who is playing in Bologna, an hour outside of Florence the first week I am there? Coldplay! I suppose I will give them one more chance.

Now, some random pictures to go with this random post...

Jarrod and William can't seem to stay out of trouble

I can't think of anything clever to say about this picture

Sport Flag. Very common to see hanging out of cars, from balconies, and even from people riding bikes!

William loves Brazil

First day of the last week :(

We had reading sessions Saturday because we had taken last Monday off to go to Porto de Galinhas. After a really long, and much needed nap, we went out with Dayanne and Pietro Saturday night! We got to go on our very first Brazilian bus ride. There were kids in the back singing church songs! We went to the mall to see a movie. Picture a mall at least twice the size of Wolfchase...quite possibly bigger...and it was packed! So, we are in Brazil at this huge mall and we run into four different people that we know! haha. It was pretty funny. We went and saw "The Happening." Please. Please do not ever go see this movie. I don't mean for you to wait til it comes out on video. I mean NEVER see it. It is terrible. I am also guessing that it is extremlely graphic. I can only "guess" because I had my eyes closed most of the time, so I can only assume by the reaction of the audience and the scary music that is was pretty violent. But even the people who had their eyes open the whole time, agreed that it was just a really bad movie. I do, however, enjoy hearing people speak English in the movies because I can understand what is going on. It will be strange to be back in Memphis and actually know what people are talking about all around me.

Two of Jarrod and William's non-Christian readers came to worship on Sunday morning with us! They seemed to enjoy it, and of course everyone was very friendly to them. After worship on Sunday, we went with Everton, Thalles, and Vanessa (Thalles' girlfriend) and David on our second bus ride! This one was a lot longer. We went through Olinda (oh-leen-dah) and into Paulista (paul-eesh-tah) where they live. We had a big lunch at Everton's house with his family. We spent all day there, and at the beach. Later, we went to worship and a Valentine's party with the high school/young adult group from the church where they attend. It was so much fun! Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. It is a really big congregation. While the band was setting up for the party, Jarrod got to play bass to a Coldplay song with them! Everton's sister, Elidiane, had written her boyfriend a song and she sang it to him with the whole band and even back up singers! I had no idea what she was saying, but it was still the sweetest thing I have ever seen! One of the girls told me later that it was about how much she loved him, and how their relationship is centered around God. Afterward, Thalles and his father brought us "home."

I hope all the Father's had a wonderful day yesterday! I'm sad that I missed it, but my dad got his present delivered all the way from Brazil...kinda :) Father's Day here is at a different time of the year, so the Americans like Randy get two Father's Days!

Lighthouse in Olinda

Thalles, David, Everton

This is a video of David singing and playing the guitar. This one was a song about a girl. It's called "Larissa." He wrote it and played it for her in the airport when she was leaving-aww! (Those are not his purses :)

David, Elidiane, Jarrod, Paula, William, Thalles, Me (Everton is taking the picture)

Today, I put on a long sleeve shirt for the first time since I got to Brazil! It is pouring rain and quite chilly. Well, at this point 75 degrees feels chilly. We are not expecting a huge turn out for our sessions today because it is so difficult to get around the city in this type of rain. I have had good luck so far, though. We will see how the rest of the day goes. I had wanted to go to the beach on our lunch break today, but it looks like I will be taking a nap instead! Oh well!

Willy's Kibi from Habibi's

Friday the 13th!

The São João Festival is coming up here in Recife. I really don't know yet what all that involves, but it apparently has something to do with corn. Danny and Adriana brought us some things to try yesterday morning. One was some sort of corn pudding, and the other was "pamonha." I don't even know how to describe that without just showing a picture. We have also been seeing a lot of stacks of logs for sale. We have been told that there are many bon fires during the festival. It should be pretty interesting. I am anxious to see what it is all about.

Mostly eaten Pamonha

Making cookies for the party!

Last night's party was a lot of fun! We decided to make it "snow" in Recife, because that is something Northeast Brazilians never get to see. We also had cookies that could be decorated like snowmen. Maria Fransisca made some kind of amazing pudding to share with everyone. We had fun making snowflakes, and playing completely unrelated-to-snow games. Randy brought in a huge cooler (like one you would see in a store) full of icecream!

This is a video of Alcides (I know I spelled his name wrong, and I'm sure I will hear about it ;) Whenever someone "cheats" in a game, the Brazilians like to make that person sing a song or dance. I have a lot of funny videos from all the cheaters last night, but this one is my favorite. Be sure, and push play!

Everton, Daniel, Me, Marilia, Garry, Katia

You can see more party pictures on the slideshow...I am adding them right now.

We went to eat fondue for the after-party-dinner. It was really good! (By the way, that glass has water in it :)

William is always beating himself up...