Winter winter go away

Here in Natal rainy season is upon us, which actually feels quite a bit more like hurricane season. The wind is wickedly strong and howls through the tall buildings all day long, and at any second I am prepared for Marisa to shout "It's raining!" and we frantically must run around and shut all the windows... until 3 seconds later when it's not raining anymore, and we can open them again. No one ever said life in Brazil was dull.

Speaking of, life in Brazil is not dull. Yesterday I had the BEST DAY and was so happy about it that I layed awake in bed until 2 am thinking about great of a day it had been. It began with Roberto's birthday lunch at one of the best restaurants around, Mangai. (Muhn-guy, not man-gay.) Mangai is a really fun, open-air restaurant that has very traditional Northeastern food. But it also has really traditional Brazilian food, which happens to be the best food on the planet. I was lucky to be included in the birthday festivities.

Roberto and Marisa, my Brazilian mom and dad

After lunch we went and looked at an apartment that had recently been vacated. I won't say much, because my hopes are already so high that they're almost deadly, but I loved it and haven't been able to think about anything else since. Hoping it works out...

Andressa, my Brazilian sister




Then we went to the church building in time for Marisa's Portuguese literacy class. She teaches a group of about 5-7 older ladies how to read and write in Portuguese. They arrive at 1:55 on the dot and happily sit at the table and cut out shapes, learn their letters, practice a bit of math, and adore Marisa for an hour. It is a precious sight. While Marisa taught class, my friend Sergio (who doubles as my personal assistant...just kidding...but kind of...) and I worked out my schedule. He filled me in on all of the new readers from this year and we drafted up a reading schedule, including times for Portuguese classes and group reading sessions. This got me so jazzed up and excited to begin working with these readers that I think I was beaming the rest of the day.

Today Marisa and I are going to go and buy a book for me to begin studying Portuguese. I'm REALLY excited about this because I am antsy to not have to rely on the person whom I am having a conversation with to complete every verb I say. It would be like if you and I were talking and I said "Yesterday I was talk..." and you would say "talking..." and I would say "Yeah, yesterday I was talking to my mom and then she say..." "said" "yeah and then she said...." Annoying, eh?

So all in all things are going well. I will begin reading sessions on Monday. Please be praying for my relationship with these new readers, that we are able to connect and get more out of our sessions together than just English vocabulary. :) I appreciate all of you so much and pray that you are having a good week, too. Ate logo!