Um mes/Bençoada

This last week went really well! Thank you so much for your encouragement and prayers! I felt the difference. I saw an improvement in the areas that were most discouraging me.

This week I took time to meditate on the words of Jesus in John 14...

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

This week I still lost a lot of battles in the classroom with Brazilian technology, accomplished less with my students than planned, and showed up half an hour late for class at Arte e Vida last Tuesday because of a traffic accident. However, I had a lot more peace about everything and was able to step back on many occassions and say there´s nothing I can do about this. I need to move on now and form a new plan. I did that today, for instance, when the power went out right as I was finishing a lesson plan on the computer! There´s nothing I can do about this. I need to move on...

I was also let off the hook last week in a lot of ways and got to sit back and enjoy my students! On Tuesday afternoon two students from my English Conversation class at the Catholic University brought in some of their favorite American music to share with the rest of us. I got to hear a new song by Melissa Etheridge that I enjoyed as well as Patience by Guns N Roses and Back in Black by ACDC. Patience was definitely my favorite--who knew that I could like Guns N Roses? And who could´ve guessed that it would take me coming to Brazil to find out?! (Brandon Risner, you must´ve been holding out on me and only playing the lesser forms of classic rock in my presence). Needless to say, it was a fun class. Teaching people who already speak English pretty well is where it´s at. On Thursday I went on a small field trip with Arte e Vida where I got to touch a frog and a snake and listen to a really boring lecture on urban fauna of Northeast Brazil (the kids were lectured ahead of time about not zoning out, falling asleep or having personal conversations during the presentation, so I did my darndest to be a good example). Different students vied to link arms with me or hold my hand as we walked from place to place. It was fun to just talk with them--I´ve always been much better at talking than teaching. ;) On Friday, the coordinator for the Letras Department (a joint degree that combines literature and linguistics), who is also a student in my Conversation class, invited my into her home to have lunch and meet her family. I had a really great time with them. They are delightful people--I enjoyed talking with them and also just watching them interect with one another. They fed me a wonderful lunch and then insisted that I eat several servings of ice cream. Then we hopped on the computer and showed each other pictures--them of their adorable children and their trip in January to Busch Gardens (small world!), me of my family and my roommates and contra dancing! It´s so nice to feel known, even just a little.

Today makes one month here. Two left. I can´t believe it. At this point I still have mixed emotions about that coming date of departure. Part of me is like, Yes! I only have to get through two more months of this, then I get to go hooooooome! Another part of me is starting to really like it here, and is expecting to only start liking it more as time goes by, and knows that that day two months from now is going to sting like ripping a band-aid off a hairy arm. This trip has truly been unlike my other travel experiences in that I am not living in some American or Christian bubble. I don´t think I realized how different this was going to be from my past travels. I talk on the phone here and use the buses like a (semi-)capable adult. I never felt like I could handle these tasks in Spanish when I was in Costa Rica or Mexico. It´s also been really cool in that I´ve made many more friends and acquaintances here than I would have living in the bubble. I have been spending a lot of time lately hanging out with the maids who work in my house here. Their names are Valeria and Edelenha and they´re hilarious and loving and talented and I really enjoy procrastinating on my work by hanging around the kitchen with them. We dance, we sing, we talk about God and men and my love of peanut butter and bananas. Last Saturday I serenaded them on my guitar while they ate lunch and this Saturday they hooked me up with brigadeiro and taught me a bunch of Portuguese swear words that I can´t remember. It´s quite a delightful symbiosis. Valeria and Edelehna as well as the prominent members of my host family have been insisting that I stay here for the rest of the summer instead of moving in with Neto and his mother in July as planned. I´m seriously considering taking them up on this offer. There are a lot of good reasons to stay, mainly that it´s safer on this side of town, they like me, I already know the bus routes, and this family is incredibly hospitable and easily equipped to manage the burden of a foreign guest.

Fun times are kicking off here in the coming days. Tomorrow my afternoon class is cancelled at the Catholic University because according to my students Brazil is playing in the Cup and everyone is let off work to go home and watch the game and transit is crazy and it´s not safe to be downtown when it´s deserted... I had heard that everything stops for soccer in Brazil, but tomorrow I will see it! College students are starting their winter vacation with younger students soon to follow (I´m not sure yet the extent to which this will effect attendance in my classes). In addition, people are already gearing up for São João, the upcoming solstice festival. The people of Brazil´s Northeast region passionately celebrate São João with crazy country attire, painted-on freckles, a miriad of corn-based foods, fireworks, and dancing.



It´s really cool that I get to be here for this holiday. It should be a ton of fun--one of the major traditional dances that take place during the festivities, quadrilha, is much like my beloved contra dancing! I accidentally danced a quadrilha here at the Catholic University a couple of weeks ago; I joined with another foreign friend because to us it just seemed like everyone was linking arms with a partner and skipping around in a circle. When they lined the couples up in two long rows and started calling out other moves, my buddy ditched and I stayed and caught on and danced with a nice older professor.

The other major dance here, which has its more traditional form and its lesser modern form (nicknamed rala-bucho, or, belly-grater for its extreme proximity and rubbing motion), is forró. Last night I went with some ladies from the Catholic University to a local forró joint. I was apprehensive at first, especially because their original plan was to go at ten o´clock on Saturday night and stay out until the sun came up the next morning and it was safe to go home. For the couple days of anticipation leading up to that, I kept explaining to people, I never go out all night. I´m a very quiet, boring person. I don´t know if I´ll make it! That plan failed to my great relief; instead we went to a little open-air place yesterday evening at six, and I had a really fun time! I successfully danced five or six dances with men who agreed to be patient with me as a new forrozeira, enjoyed the music, had some nice conversations, graciously turned down several inappropriate advances, and made it out without getting kissed (which is apparently not always the case if one is not careful)!
Overall, it was a positive experience. Forró here attracts people of all ages and classes, the dress is casual, the music is great (not that I can say that I understand the lyrics), and it makes for a nice, natural, alcohol-optional atmosphere. I can´t easily think of an equivalent to it in the States. Our nightlife seems a little darker, a little dirtier, a little lonelier--not so interesting to me. But as I grow up I´m finding more and more that I really do love to dance! Professora Beth was encouraging me to enroll in a forró class here. I´ve seen signs at some local studios for ballroom dance lessons too, which I know I would really enjoy. It´s just a matter of prioritizing my time and my money best while I´m here. We shall see...

So I´m off to another week. I have to wake up in less than six hours, put some food in my belly and catch a bus to Arte e Vida. Please continue to pray with me for the peace of Jesus to cover over me and all I do. I still get nervous on Arte e Vida mornings, partly because it´s early and the pressure is on for me to get there on time, and partly because I´m terrified of teaching up until the minute that I´m doing it--afraid that I don´t have everything together and that my lesson´s gonna tank. Please continue to pray as well that I might have deeper friendships and community here. Praise God again for my guitar. And praise Him for a week that was very blessed, bençoada.

Love,
Claire