We arrived here on Saturday at about 10 AM after being on a plane for 13 hours so we were very tired but excited. That day we met the family where Pamela is going to be living, had lunch there, went on a quick tour of Brazil, and then we went to where I was going to be living. It was a bit of a surprise at first because I thought I was going to be living with Pamela. But turns out I'm staying with this elderly lady named Dirce (Jer-see) who doesn't speak much english and her 'maid' Verna who doesn't speak a word of english. I was pretty intimidated but as the week went on I got alot more comfortable and Dirce is the sweetest lady ever. I'm actually glad I'm staying there because it forces me to learn a little bit of Portugese, plus I am busy all day anyways.
Sunday we went to church and met alot of people. Brazilians are extremely loud at times but very very friendly people. When you meet someone you always say hello, how are you and kiss them on the cheek. Me and Lucas both are still awkward at this because you have to kiss so many strangers (Pamela is pretty much Brazilian because she lived here for two years so none of this bothers her)! Sunday night we had our information meeting for our L.S.T conversational english classes. We had a great turn out and signed up lots of people.
Monday we started our classes, getting to know our readers and figuring out our schedules. Classes are going great, Brazilians are such beautiful people! For many of our readers, we are the first foreigners they have ever met so they are really excited to be able to read with us. In Canada its common to see foreigners walking down the street. But here I get stared at everywhere I go! People will actually stop, turn around and start whispering to each other. I wouldn't stand out very much if it wasn't for my blue eyes because Brazilians can have very light skin or very dark skin, but blue eyes aren't very common. And of course I look like I'm lost half the time and I speak english.....so anyways classes are really good. Pamela, Lucas, and myself are already booked up! Praise the Lord for that!
This is the church building where we have all of our reading sessions. As you can see, all of the streets in Brazil are brick except for a few main roads are paved. The driving here is nuts, you have to be soooo careful when you cross the street because Brazilians don't follow any road rules, and the motorcylces here do whatever they want. Plus the streets are extremely narrow too.
This is the inside of the church building. We read in a few classrooms that are to the left and we also have all of our parties here.
We had reading sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday as well but Thursday was a holiday here called Corpus Cristi. It's a Catholic holiday where streets are blocked off downtown and people make these carpet like things called tipetes (tip-etchees) on the ground. Tipetes are pictures made out of things like dyed wood chips, egg shells, and coffee. After they're finished a priest followed by a procession of hundreds of people will walk down these carpet like things. So Thursday morning we toured around downtown.
This is downtown Itu where alot of people were making the tipetes.
There also were alot of children making the tipetes which was so cute to see!
Thursday afternoon we went to Fazenda da Serra or the Chocolate Farm. It was AMAZING! It is kind of like a petting zoo plus there's a restaurant, chocolate shop, souveniors, and a bakery. The farm is situated in the hills outside of Itu. I literally just walked around gawking at the amazing scenery while listening to a live Brazilian band play, it was breathtaking.
Me, Lucas and a parrot at the chocolate farm.
At the chocolate farm.
This is my friend Mauricio (fanny packs are cool in Brazil).
Eating chocolate covered fruit with chocolate on my face....
Yesterday was another work day as well as this morning too (Saturday). Usually, we will be reading Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday (except for the parties) and Sunday afternoons. Monday and Tuesday will be our days off and they are well needed. After being here for one week I have found out that teaching English and reading with people takes alot of energy! My readers can vary from hardly knowing any english to being able to speak fluently, but so far it has been great getting to know these people.
I'm sorry that this was so long but I'll try to post more often from now on. Last thing I wanted to say was just about some of the cultural differences that I have been getting used to:
- The coffee here is really good, but extremely strong and usually only comes in little shot glasses. There's no such thing as a cup of coffee. You can get a smaller sized cup of coffee but it is mostly hot milk with a little coffee mixed in, but to me it tastes like normal.
Drinking coffee shots with one of my readers, Guto.
- When you use the washroom, you don't put the toilet paper in the toilet but in a garbage can. Their toilet paper supposedly isn't biodegradable.
- You always always wear your shoes in the house.
- There's no such thing as hot or warm tap water. Taking my first shower was interesting because you have to have the tap turned exactly to a point for the little water heater to start working.
- Pancakes, waffles, syrup etc. don't exist here. I'm going to miss that breakfast food. Brazilians eat rice and beans at every meal, pretty much everything has beans in it.
This is Maria Luiza, Brazilian babies are the cutest thing ever.
Tchao for now!
