BELÉM…

I got to Belém (which, by the way, is Bethlehem) June 1, got my bags really quickly (yay!!), and was met by my parents. We walked out of the airport into a sauna… I mean into the parking lot. I knew I was going to die in the humidity here! Man, that day was super hot – at least it wasn’t just me saying that. :) In Brasília it had gotten hot but was still dry, so mostly what still bothers me here is the oppressive humidity pushing down on me – not so much the heat. It just feels way worse because it’s wet. When I left Canada in May it was already over 30 degrees, and a few weeks ago I heard that it was around there again. Too bad I have to miss the only warm time there. ;)

The first few weeks in Belém I didn’t do much in terms of sight seeing. The 1^st day I got to see quite a few ppl again who were around the school (teachers & students). A lot of the teachers are new, so I also met some of them. The next day I went to chapel, which was small & different, and that night was the AVA graduation. I was definitely not impressed with it. I had come back when I did in order to make it to grad, but it was lame compared to my grad and others I had remembered. The 2 graduating (that’s right, I said 2) were Brazilians, so their families got there late & it started late. But there was hardly anyone there! The place used to always get packed out for grad, and now it was just high schoolers & the graduands’ families who came, pretty much. Not even all the teachers or families of younger kids, like they used to.

(Here's a blurry pic of the two grads, and then me with Mike at grad. He makes me feel so short....)

Maybe it was partly because they weren’t MKs (that more people didn't come), but I was saddened those first two days by the lack of school spirit here (not just from grad but from stuff I talked about w/ my bro & mom too). I’m so glad my high school was better & had great teachers who got involved with us – I would’ve hated it like this!! I went to the last chapel too - awards chapel, where Mike got a bunch of stuff. This is a couple of HS girls looking at their yearbooks afterwards.

Anyway, the rest of that week (June 5-12) I helped around the house, watched soccer (World Cup!), read, wrote emails, & got ready for our mission’s Conference that would be starting the next week (June 13-17). It’s a time when all the missionaries from the various fields get together at a hotel on the beach (hard life, I know…) to have business meetings, devotionals, fun, etc. I was in charge of choosing music & putting together a team for 4 of 8 sessions there. This was actually a new experience for me, bigger than what I had done in high school and more than I had done in college – there I just played piano, I didn’t have to lead the group! Anyway, so that was a challenge but it ended up going well – I found people to sing & play with me, we practiced before & at the Conference, and I think people enjoyed it.

The first pic is me with the group I played with 3 times - I had a trumpeter/guitar player & a violinist, plus 3 of us sang. It was fun to have different instruments. The other pic is me with the youth - we were involved in the last night's meeting, so I wanted some of them to help me with music. I just sang & let the guy on keyboard talk & play.

It was great to see so many people again, and to meet or see lots of new people that I had only heard about but not met yet. I also hung out with the youth during that week, instead of going to the adults’ meetings, so that was fun. All these kids were like in junior high or littler when I left – and now high schoolers! Craaaazy. It was cool though, getting to know them better (since before they were really little & I obviously wasn’t friends with them! ;)), helping with snacks, leading a discussion group, playing games…. I’m discovering that I really like working with kids and being a friend to youth. I was so blessed as an MK to have many godly people around me, and now I enjoy being a big sister to these high schoolers, to have fun with them, encourage them, share with them, and hopefully be a help to them in some way. It’s funny when I think how many “little” friends I have! :D

The week after Conference I pretty much didn’t do anything, because I was SICK! I had started getting a sore throat right before it, but thankfully God held it off till the last day, when I didn’t have to sing anymore. So right after getting back I was hoarse for about 3 days, and after that I had a bad cough for several days. Good grief. I hadn’t had such a cough in a long time, and it was NOT fun. So I spent those days reading, blogging, emailing, and watching TV. At least it wasn't like a flu sick... I guess....

beauties & the beasts...

I went to Brasília to visit 2 girls I was good friends with in high school. They’re Brazilian sisters whose parents work with ALEM, which is like Wycliffe. They grew up around missionaries and going to American schools, so they speak really good English. :) It was sooooo fun to see them again, after 4 years, and hang out for 6 days (May 26-June 1). A lot of the time we stayed around the house and ALEM property (which, by the way, is right by Lula’s (the president’s) ranch), talking, watching movies, walking around, etc.

Here’s a picture of the main mission building, with classrooms, library, offices, etc. They offer missions courses here.

This is the girls’ house – the front half of this duplex. AKA their “egg” (b/c it's small) or “kit-net” (né, garotas?!)… that’s pronounced “kitchenette” in Portuguese, which is what they call bachelor suites now. Hahaha. :D The next one shows the inside of it.

One day we planned to go swimming at this pool which was from a mineral water spring, so a natural pool or lake, except when we got there it was closed because the people who ran it were on strike!!!! Grrr. Good thing it wasn’t too far from their house. I had already put on a bunch of sunblock on, so we stayed outside for like an hour to at least use it for something! Hehe. This is us goofing off with cheetos… you have no idea how hard it is to do that without cracking up! Especially when you’re looking at each other and trying to take a pic!

Here’s the girls, L & M. :)

This is L with their dog Kiwi – a tiny Doberman mixed with some
thing…

I must say he’s quite spoiled, and though he barked lots at me at first, after 1 or 2 days he was used to me and nicer. Except he likes to lick like craaaazy, and I don’t really dig that. :p See, here’s proof! (enlarge to see where his tongue is!)

The Esther you’ve never seen… hehe. We were having a girls night here too. :)

We also went to a couple of malls, and to the Brasília Zoo. That was fun. It’s a lot different than the zoos in Belém – way bigger and more spread out. One side of it was right by the highway, but otherwise it was on the edge of town so they had room, I guess. You can even drive around inside it, so we parked, looked at stuff in that area, drove further down, walked some more, etc. That was nice because we got pretty tired of walking! We even had a cute picnic lunch there. :)

The elephants were super cool – they came right over to us! We were just separated by a little fence and a big ditch. :)

Hmmm, I won’t be gettin’ near that guy!

M did get near this one though –we thought it should be safe enough. ;0)

2 typical Brazilian birds – toucan & blue macaw (remember that headdress? yeah…)

Awww, what cute puddytats… jaguars and tiger sleeping. I’m excited for heaven (or the new earth) when these guys will be tame and we’ll be able to play with them, pet them, ride them, etc! Won’t that rock?!

deep in Lula land

Brasília is the capital of Brazil (shocking, I know). It too is located in the interior of the country (east of Cuiabá), a ploy to get more people to move inland from the coast. (The capital used to be in Rio.) President Juscelino Kubitschek planned the move and the city was constructed in the mid-‘50s. Because they were specifically building it to be the capital, they were able to design the whole city (planner Lúcio Costa & architect Oscar Niemeyer), making a section for the government buildings and monuments, another for schools, another for hospitals, etc. And most interesting is that the entire city is shaped like an airplane! While this is cool, it also makes stuff really far away – when you live on the south wing and have to go to the north wing, etc. Plus who ever thought it’d be cool to have everything grouped together instead of spread out so each neighborhood had one of everything?? Oh, and my friends said it was built to hold about 1.5 million, because they didn’t expect more to come, but now there’s around 3 million people. Come on, you want people to move & then you don’t plan for growth?? The result is that there are satellite cities around the airplane shape. :)

Here’s a picture of the shape of the city, then a model, so that you can kind of see the airplane shape. All the government buildings are in the cockpit – on the model, the right side (above where the wings curve). [Click to enlarge.]

... oh, and for the curious, Lula is the current president.

One day we spent the afternoon looking around the various buildings and monuments. It doesn’t take long because everything is all in one area! You can just walk around from one thing to the next, if you want.

First we went to the main Cathedral, which is beautiful! I had seen pictures of it, but loved it. (You will notice that all of the buildings here are quite interesting and unique architecturally!) You have to go kinda underground to enter it, so that what you see here is really just the part that’s above ground, the stained glass part.

On the left side there was a big oval thing that stood for the loaf from the Last Supper, and on the right a big structure that held 4 bells, and it stood for the chalice. I thought that was really cool. Also outside they have statues of the 4 apostles, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Here’s the inside – it’s weird because there’ll always be people there praying while lots of tourists come in too. I LOOOVE stained glass, and they have 3 angels hanging from the roof too.

M confessing all her sins….

They even had a replica of Michelangelo’s Pietà here!

And a copy of the supposed shroud that covered Jesus in the grave (his skeleton is the lighter part in the middle).
Man, Catholics here are so bound up in their rituals and objects – symbols, saints, and idols. It’s sad.

Another super cool thing about this place is that the Cathedral is circular, so the walls inside are all curved (duh). But what’s cool is that it’s separated into 4 sections and you can stand on side and whisper to someone on the other end of it, and it sounds like they’re talking right beside you!!! It’s amazingly cool. Here, I guess I’ll have to put a pic so you can see what I mean. (Notice that this whole part is underground like I was saying – the part you see above ground starts with the roof & glass.)

Ok, I’ll just put about one picture of the other buildings.

Palácio da Justiça – Palace of Justice

Ministérios – many buildings on either side of this boulevard/park for the various government departments (agriculture, tourism, defense, etc.)

A Praça dos Três Poderes – The Plaza of the Three Powers, meaning Executive, Judicial, and Legislative power. It’s a huge open plaza surrounded by the buildings in these 3 areas, as well as other monuments & things.

Executive: the President’s palace/house (Palácio do Planalto) seen from a distance.


Judicial: the Supreme Court, with this statue in front of it. (notice that it’s blind – I guess to say that justice should be blind to prejudice or biases??)

Legislative: the Congress (representatives’) building – the most famous building there. It’s also called “the cup & saucer.” I’m told that the cup represents them listening to the people, and the saucer represents the government’s views… something like that, anyway. At least the cup one is bigger! :p

Other things in that praça – the Candangos statue (justice building in the background)

And this “Pombal” – which means it’s a random structure for pigeons. There were tons around the plaza, and inside this thing there were concrete shelf things, where the birds actually nested! Funny.

Behind it is this other building, which they say is dedicated to those who helped free Brazil.

There, I hope you enjoyed your tour of Brasília's government buildings!

Cuiaba, May 22-26

Cuiabá, in the state of Mato Grosso (lit. "thick bush"(forest)) was my 2^nd stop. This city is in the interior of Brazil and known as the hottest city in the country, sometimes referred to as Brazil’s armpit. :) At least it’s dry there, not humid. It is a kind of junction for the Amazon (tropical, hot & humid), the Pantanal (a large swamp-like area), and the Cerrado (a semi-arid climate). Here’s a picture of its location in Brazil.

Either Cuiabá or the nearby touristy town of Chapada dos Guimarães is also the geographical center of South America (there is a dispute as to which, but my sources say the real one is in Chapada :)). Here I am on what is left of a monument there – Cuiabá people tore it down because they say they’re the real center!! I would never have known what it was if I didn’t have my guides! :)

The next picture is of a street in Cuiabá, nicely decorated in green & yellow for the World Cup (soccer games). More on that later….

I stopped here to visit a couple I had gotten to know in Three Hills. They are new missionaries living in Cuiabá for now, though she grew up near there. I had actually seen them as recently as March. His parents (in Three Hills) sent a bunch of presents for them with me, so I was quite a bit lighter after that! :) Here’s a cute picture of them.

I stayed here for 4 nights (May 22-26) and was able to see quite a few things & eat lots of yummy food that I hadn’t had yet. (We ate out 3 nights, which was fun and quite cheap in comparison.) I had pamonha (the corn paste wrapped in a husk that you see below), espetinhos (skewers with meat or cheese or chicken), pasteis, churros (oh, deep-fried goodness!), manioc… so YUMMY!!!

One day we went to the Indian training school that their mission has near Chapada (an hour away & up in the mountains). The first picture shows one of the buildings that they’re still working on & some staff houses. (Almost all of them here were made out of this orange brick.) The wooden building is the dining hall, where we ate lunch.

In the afternoon, my hosts had a meeting and I ended up hanging out with the kids for most of the time. Here you see Indian & American kids playing together in a big pile of dirt. :) (Don’t worry, “Indian” is what they’re called here; it’s not derogatory.)

This is a picture of me in an Indian headdress that my friends bought that day from a Caritiana lady (that's the name of her tribe). It’s made with macaw feathers – the bright blue ones are for sure a macaw's, and the smaller downy ones might be too. (I am told they bring their supplies in from the tribe when they come to school, and that they don't kill the birds to get the feathers. They "just" pluck all the feathers out and I guess leave them to walk around naked for a while, till the feathers grow back & they can fly again. Awwww....)

While were were at the school, we went for a quick trip to a nearby waterfall called "Véu de Noiva," or "Bride's Veil." It was super foggy that day, so we could hardly see it from the lookout point. Thankfully, there was a trail that went over the river and around to a spot close to the waterfall!! There we could see it really well. :D I took lots of pictures of it, but here's one. I love how green & mossy it was at the bottom. Supposedly you can walk behind it, but I think I would slip & fall as soon as I set foot on it. :P

This picture kind of shows how foggy it was. The red cliff is what all the mountains around here look like, but which I hardly got to see because of the fog. I love when there's white skeleton trees mixed in with all the green ones. It looks really cool. (Click on this to see it better.)

We went to one other lookout place, where on a clear day you can see all the way back to Cuiabá (an hour's drive)! Unfortunatetly, because of the fog we hardly saw anything - just tree-covered rolling hills right below us. We couldn't even see the ridge of cliffs beside us. Sadness. But that's how it is when you live up in the clouds! You also get lots of lightning bolts!

Have a good weekend, everyone!