picture update...

these are some pics that i borrowed from andrea's photo album when we went to the skunky concert... [i wrote skunky because it looks nicer than the actual title of the band and that's actually how it's pronounced! lol]

carlos, me and andrea with the stage in the background...

it's hard to describe how ridiculously packed and loud that stadium was with all the people... i'll post some video soon! [i hope]


these are some pics i borrowed from bianca's photo album from her birthday... i'm sad i couldn't be there but i wanted you all to see the wonderful family that i stayed with when i first got to brazil and my family i'm going to return to in july! i miss them a lot! :)

this is bianca's mom in the green, bianca in the yellow and her dad in black

this is isabella on the left, bianca in the middle and amanda on the right and their little brother caua in the middle


i hope to have more photos for yall soon... i'm going to check out a "LAN house" tomorrow afternoon to see if i can upload my pics from my memory card after the game... by the way, brasil is playing portugal tomorrow at 11 a.m. here, we are off from work at the creche the whole day for the game!!! can you believe it?! they eat, sleep and breathe World Cup here! here's hoping for a big win tomorrow to put us in the #1 seed for the second round! brasil! Brasil! BRASIL!!! :)

oh, and definitely gotta say WAY TO GO, USA!!! we didn't get to watch the last US game because it happened during working hours, and no one really gives a flip about the US team here except us... anyway, we've been getting lots of updates from friends who know we want to know... heard we had an excellent performance! let's keep it up for next week! yay USA! :):):)

more updates soon...

peace and love,
crystal

more randoms...

hi everyone,
so, i thought i'd post a pic of me and the other three in the brazil internship program (BIP)... this pic is our first world cup game, cheering on the brasilian team at a local pub/restaurant with some friends... pictured are me, leo, diego and nick!


i'm trying to figure out a way to get my pics uploaded from my camera and online so you can see what we've been up to... the sabarenses had a computer with a port for my memory card but andrea's laptop doesn't have one, so, i'm thinking it's off to an internet cafe for me soon... last week diego and i led the "maiores," or older kids, in a trust-building activity and i definitely want to show you how that went... lots of other things in between and since, too...

this is a pic i scooped from nick's facebook of one of my favorite kiddos, artur, who moved away last week... he literally said bye on a friday as normal and when he didn't show up to the creche the following monday, i asked his friend david where he was... he said his mom had to move the family to live with their grandma in another city... i was heartbroken when i heard that he wasn't coming back! :( i didn't realize how attached i was getting to these kids... i wonder what august will be like? artur had the cutest little lisp when he talked and he loved asking me questions about my life and my family back in the u.s... i'll miss that little guy, please keep him and his family in your prayers wherever they went.

i had affectionately dubbed artur and david as "the breakers" because their special dance talent is breakdancing and doing these synchronized hip-hop acrobatic moves to michael jackson songs (of all music choices! ahhh!)... they'd definitely have a dance career back in the states... lol

here's artur...


and david


***

on a totally random note, wanted to ask for your continued prayers as i prepare for my return to graduate school in the fall at The University of St. Thomas in houston... i recieved my official acceptance letter into my program weeks ago, and things have started to move along rather quickly... the Master of Faith & Culture program touches on all the things i'm interested in: living, learning and teaching about my Catholic faith and the Church's role in higher education. UST is a great fit for me and i'm incredibly ecstatic that i'll be staying in houston for the next few years! i'm trying not to get overwhelmed with the amount of things i have to do the minute i get back to the states (like find a place to live, figure out transportation, go through academic advising, figuring out the financial aspects of it all, you know, the little things)... please pray for peace in my heart and my mind as i follow where God is leading me in the near future... thanks.

peace and love,
~crystal

lotsa love to all the Dads out there!

being out of the good 'ole U-S-of-A means that i am a little slow catching up on news back home... i caught wind of the turmoil in the big 12 about a week or two after everything happened... i in suspense to see where my beloved texas tech red raiders would end up but was glad to hear (another week or so later) that we're staying with the big 12... at least that was the latest a few weeks ago! lol

anyway, my point was to say that i had no idea that today (yesterday?) was father's day in the states... had i not logged in to facebook today i would have never known! so, i did what i could to let my daddy know that i miss him and i love him... i sent him an online text. yes, i texted my dad. from brasil. thank God for sprint online!!! lol i also got to send a text to my oldest brother, noel, who is an amazing dad to two wonderful and bright kids... i wanted to also leave a message here for all of my wonderful friends, cousins, uncles, brothers-in-law and everyone in between who are dads: HAPPY FATHER'S DAY & THANK YOU FOR BEING SUCH WONDEFUL FATHERS!!! YOU ARE TRULY A GOD-SEND TO US ALL!!! <3 i miss you & i hope you got to celebrate your special day with your kiddos! :)

***

a small confession: while things have been going great outwardly, on the inside i have felt kinda beat up, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually... over the last week i have missed my young adult faith community back home at st. vincent de paul in houston... tuesday nights are an anchor to my week, so it's been hard not celebrating Mass with them, or praying the rosary, or just having people around to keep me accountable to who i am and who Christ calls me to be... i got sad today at Mass, too, because i couldn't figure out the readings so even though i had my bible and i understood what book the readings came out of, they don't say what verses we're reading, so i was lost the whole first part of the Mass... then, i remembered that today was father's day and that all the dads back home would be getting blessings at church and hanging out with their kids and i just missed my dad so much... anyway, Mass turned out to be just amazing... over the last two sundays, the church hasn't had a seminarian at the Mass i went to but today there was... at the end of Mass, he invited anyone with questions about vocations to go to the back of the church to visit with him, so i went... we had a great conversation about life as a missionary, the sacrifices and the joys of service in the Church, and where i should go from here... he asked me what was troubling me because he said i seemed in turmoil, so i let everything go: questions about my future, missing my dad, how what i'm doing in brazil fits in to the bigger picture, etc... God surely knows what He's doing by placing the people i need in my life from day to day... what a God-send to have someone here to help me sort through everything, it's hard enough trying to figure out where God is calling you in ENGLISH, it's ridiculously hard trying to figure it out in portuguese... what i am most encouraged about is knowing someone here in belo who is going through a process of discernment on their own, and that is willing to let me ask questions... and i've also got an accounability partner now, too. thank you, Jesus, for sending help exactly when i need it.

***

quick re-cap of the weekend: friday night - dinner with andrea at church friends' house... about 10-15 people there, they loved asking the american questions about life back in the states... saturday - slept in, ventured out on the bus and found the ymca caicara, swam and relished in the sun for a while, returned home and got ready for the rock-n-roll concert for "skank" (pronounced eskunkee) at minerao stadium, andrea won tickets for 4 to go, after the show we waited for an hour to catch a bus and a taxi back home, hit the hay at 2 a.m... sunday - went to Mass, visited with the seminarian, world cup viewing party with andrea & carlos' church friends, about 15-20 LOUD brasilians all excited about a great win!, braved the bus again to go to a savassi dance studio "incomodanca" where two of the directors from the creche teach zouk (pronounced zoo-key) and other styles of dance, came home, watched marley & me with andrea and carlos, online update time. phew. busy weekend fo sho.

***

in other random news, my ipod is kaput. deader than a doornail. i charged it overnight last week, woke up the next day, turned the thing on and looked for my favorite artist (matt maher--an amazing artist, and catholic, too!) and the whole thing was empty!!! seriously, a gajillion songs, gone in the blink of an eye... i reset the ipod and it cycled off and on again, and everything came back, but it only plays for 15-20 seconds before the ipod shuts itself off... sad day. do ipods have an internal battery or something? maybe mine has gone berserk? in any case, the hour-long bus ride seems much longer when all you can do is stare out of the window or look at the back of the head of the person seated in front of you... ay ay ay.

***

well, enough updates, i hope you all have a great week, yay for monday!!!!

peace and love,
crystal

keeping my cool in uncomfortable circumstances...

i am enjoying this internet access business here at andrea and carlos' apartment since i get to blog basically whenever i want... so, i'll tell you about a little adventure i had today on the bus...

anyone who knows me knows that i like to know what direction i'm going, like north, south, east or west... well, in most major cities i've found that the natives don't actually know directions like N, S, E or W, they just know where they're going... makes it kind of hard to give directions to out of towners, ya know?

anyway, back when i first arrived in houston and i'd be bored or just have some time to kill in between going places, i'd get in my car and drive somewhere and explore neighborhoods... i loved the sights, sounds, smells of all the different places you can go in the metro area... the west end is nothing like the neighborhoods on the east loop, and the washington strip is nothing like the suburbs in spring... well, it's taken me nearly 3 years to really know the highways, major streets and bypasses in houston from humble to katy and from cypress to pasadena and everywhere in between, so i think i'm pretty good with directions these days, if i say so myself...

but i realize now that i'd taken for granted the independence and liberty i had to be able to get in my car and go exploring... here in belo, i've got friends or friends' parents who are willing to drive me wherever i need to go, which has been great, but i've also been worried about getting lost in the city when i'm by myself... for the first 3 weeks while at bianca's house, i only had to take one bus a day and that was just half of the way home, a ride of about 20-30 minutes... now, at andrea and carlos' apartment, i take two buses each way for about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on traffic... i've only been doing this by myself for a week, and it's been interesting!

well, long story short, today diego and i took our regular bus from the creche to downtown to visit the mercado central where i was sure i could find some jalapenos... the boys and i have been craving some serious tex-mex, so i am DETERMINED to make some chips and salsa for us, even if i have to fry up the tostada chips myself! (more on that later!) anyway, after finding said jalapenos at the market, diego and i grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant across the street from the market, and then headed out to find a bus stop that would take us to our different neighborhoods... i found my bus number and stop pretty easily, but we had to walk a few blocks to find diego's... we both caught our busses and parted ways...

i was tired, so when i got on the bus i closed my eyes for about 5-10 minutes or so, and when i opened my eyes again i realized the bus i was on was going in the wrong direction!!! my heart sank into the pit of my stomach as my worst fears were being realized, i hate being lost... that's why i learn directions! lol i noticed that we were passing all of the landmarks that my morning bus passes on the way to the creche! and i love the creche, but it's not exactly the safest neighborhood to be in during the day if you don't have business there, i didn't want to find out how safe it was at night, if you know what i mean. so, i pulled the string and got off the bus, pretty sure i could walk across the street and take the bus in the other direction...

in our training, we were told that if you have to stop and ask for directions, you should ask 3 different people for directions to see if you get the same answer... basically, you need to be as aware of yourself and your surroundings as you would be in houston, times a thousand!!! just to be careful... anyway, the neighborhood i got off in looked pretty shady, but there happened to be a little pizza place open and a girl talking to a guy behind the counter... i asked them for directions to the stop back downtown and they said i could walk across the street and catch the same bus back the other way... on my way across the street, i asked another person and got the same answer... well, by the time i got across the street, the bus i needed had arrived so i didn't have time to ask a 3rd person--i just hopped on the bus! thankfully, it was the bus i needed going in the direction i needed...

had i not recognized those landmarks i've been staring at for the past couple of days, who knows where i would have ended up! just wanted to say a word of thanks to patti and all the past bip's who prepared us for this trip! the weeks were numerous, the hours long and sometimes inconvenient, but i really, really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and helping us prepare for all kinds of unforseen circumstances... much love to you all!

since my experiences this evening, i plan to figure out directions asap... i carry a map with me of downtown, but i kind of want to walk the streets to figure out exactly where i am at all times... perhaps a project for this weekend?! :)

on a sidenote: to everyone back home in lubbock or in houston, i hope you're staying cool in that crazy texas heat! (i do have to say that i don't miss it yet!) it's crisp in the mornings here, blazing during the day and chilly in the evenings... definitely not the summer i'm used to!

peace and love,
crystal

good things even amidst the not-so-good...

well, my last post was about this ridiculous ear infection that i have so i wanted to give you all an update... thanks be to God i am doing MUCH BETTER. the doctor prescribed three medicines last week, so i've been taking something every four hours... i am basically a walking pharmacy. good news is i can actually breathe through my nose (yeah!) and my ear has stopped hurting... i am on the mend!

also, i wanted to report that one of my fellow bip's here got hurt last friday while i was out of commission... just an fyi--brazilians drink out of these tiny pint-sized glasses and some of them are very thin and fragile... well, i guess nick grabbed his cup too far near the mouth of the glass and it broke into pieces while in his hand... it sliced open two of his fingers and he had to be taken to the hospital... so, he was the 2nd of us bip's to visit a brazilian hospital. yikes. good thing is that he's all stitched up, on medication to prevent any infection and he's also on the mend. keep him in your thoughts and prayers, not having the use of his hand has been frustrating in completing every tasks like opening a door or tying his shoes. pray for a speedy recovery!

i'm happy to report that the work at the creche has been going well! i was greeted this morning by welcoming hugs and kisses, the kids and staff were all concerned about my health since i did not come to the creche on friday... even though i still can't hear out of my right ear (yet), i was able to run around and play with the kids today during 'dia livre.' playing quemada never gets old! tomorrow, diego and i have planned to have a scavenger hunt with our group of kids in the morning, hopefully it turns out well... some days the kids have the attention span to complete complex games, and some days, all we can get out of them is a 10- or 15-minute activity before they mutiny... it's rather comical to watch, actually... :)

today i got to spend some time with one of the kiddos named john lennon. literally, his name is john lennon! it's pronounced with a brazilian accent so it doesn't sound very beatle-ish, and with his last name, i'm sure lennon just sounds like an ordinary middle name... anyway, while sorting colorful postcards today for an art project later on this week, i got to talking with john lennon about his plans for his life... he always asks me about myself, what i do, what my city is like, what i studied in college, so i thought i'd see if he would be willing to open up some about himself... he was all for it! :) i asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up and he said a construction engineer or an architect! pretty ambitious for a kid from the streets, no doubt... he went on saying that he enjoys math, and he's good at it, but hates science and has to work hard to do well in his science classes... he is the oldest of 4 children in his family and he is trying to set a good example for his younger siblings... such maturity from such a young guy! i asked him which university he wanted to go to, and he said there are many good ones to choose from in belo, but the best one is UFMG, the state university of minas gerais... he said he liked the campus, he had visited before with the directors of NAC... he and some of the older kids had gone on a field trip to the university to see what it's like... i was blown away! either sylvia or nicki, or both, had gone out of their way to expose some of these kids to the possibility of education, and it made such a lasting impression... it's not in their job description to do that, they went over and above what they were required to do and are one by one changing families here in the favelas of boa vista... and he talked about the NAC directors with such admiration, respect and appreciation for showing him and the others that they can go to college...

personally, i am passionate about education and know first-hand what an impact getting a college education can have on a family... my own family is an example of that. it was encouraging to know that even in belo horizonte, minas gerais, brazil there are people working to level the playing fields for less fortunate students and are working to ensure that all students who have the desire to go to college and who work hard know that they, too, can go.

i had a great day at the creche today, hands down. even if the earache isn't completely cured, i had no problem hearing my kiddo today... he's for sure a good egg.

finally, i wanted to share with you a verse that i was reflecting on yesterday after Mass...

luke 6:45 ''a good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.''

man, talk about a swift kick in the rear. God has been doing that to me lately, just showing me areas of my life in which i'm complacent and i think i have things all figured out, and then--boom!--there He goes showing me something else i didn't know about myself. lol. at times i feel like i have it all figured out, i know what i'm doing with my life, i know where i'm headed and i know what i'm doing from here on out... i see the end goal and it's wonderful... but i forget that in between, from here to there, there is life to be lived, various situations, all kinds of circumstances, relationships to be made, etc.

and i got to thinking, what kind of catholic have i been since i got to brazil? back home in houston, i went to church every sunday, went to bible study, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, young adults group and had an accountability partner. here in brazil, things are different and i'm grasping at straws trying to find some consistency among the daily changes... since i've been here, i've been to three different catholic churches to make it to Mass each week but i haven't been able to find a priest who can hear my confession in english and i haven't found a church with public Eucharistic Adoration (which is my favorite time of prayer)... and i have no young adult faith community (yet)...

still, even with all this uncertainty, God should be the constant in everything and i haven't done a very good job in making sure that He is the priority here for me. the passage that i was reflecting on was a good reminder for me that if i fill my heart with angst over what i'm doing at the creche this week, or have anxiety about my finances and future plans when i return to houston, or am worried about getting off at the wrong bus stop and ending up in a strange place, or other silly things like that, i'm not filling my heart with the right things. like Scripture. or prayer. or just reflecting in silence in God's presence. and my heart will be empty and i'll have nothing to draw from to put into action here... or once i get back home.

talk about a swift kick in the pants when you need one!

pray for me, everyone, that my time in brazil continues to be a time of discernment for me and that i am stedfast in keeping my eyes on Christ.

peace and love,
crystal

infected... sinuses, that is.

it's official: i am the first of the bip's to visit a brazilian doctor! it was a rather interesting process to go through, and although i wish i hadn't needed to go to the doctor, i went and hopefully am getting everything under conrol...

i've been sick for about two weeks now with a sniffly nose, scratchy throat and headeaches, but no fever... i figured it was just a little cold so i went to the pharmacy and consulted a pharmacist and got some otc medication for it. as the days went by and my nose continued to get more and more stuffy and the headaches more intense, i knew something else was up... well, everyhing came to a head yesterday (thursday) after lunch at the creche...

we usually have an hour in between the morning and afternoon sessions with the kids for a small break to relax, run errands or, as i prefer, nap in the video room upstairs... so on thursday, like any other day, i got the key to the room and headed upstairs, set my alarm to wake me up and lay down on a gym mat... lying down was uncomfortable, my head started to throb immediately... i couldn't lay o my back because the back of my neck was tender, so i turned to my side... laying down on my left hurt my head even worse, so i turned to my right side and soon fell asleep... when my alarm went off i was startled to a sitting position and i immediately felt a sharp stabbing in my right ear, the ear i had been laying on during my nap... so i sat up and tried to stifle back tears as i tried to figure out what was going on... i walked downstairs with diego, who was also napping in the room, and i walked outside and sat on a grassy embankment near the entrance of the creche... i couldn't hear anything out of my right ear, coupled with the intense pain i was feeling, i was so frustrated... diego asked if i wanted any juice, but all i could think about was the pain... some kids came over to say hi and hug me and i guess noticed the tears in my eyes and me clutching my ear, and they took me to the office to get some cotton for my ear... by the time i had stood up and walked to the office, i was doubled over in pain... i got some motrin and tylenol from my bag (which i always carry with me) and took one of each, which my doctor in the u.s. advised me to do when i had an ear infection back in january... nicki, one of the directors, came over to see if i was alright and immediately knew something was wrong... she sat me down on the couch and tried to talk me through what i was feeling and what i needed... she and the NAC secretary called some of the free clinics in the favela to see if they would treat me, but since i'm not a citizen, they wouldn't... so, nicki told me to lay down and try to wait for the medicine to take effect and they'd take me home at 4:30 p.m. instead of sending me off on the bus as usual...

the next three hours were painful, every time i moved my head i felt a stab in my ear and pain rise from my toes to my head... eventually, the motrin and tylenol started working and i was able to lay my head down and close my eyes... i was counting down the seconds until i was able to go home... i felt so bad on top of the pain in my ear that i left my teaching partner, diego, by himself to work with the afternoon kids... we made necklaces and bracelets with some beads and yarn i brought with me and the kids loved it during the morning session... the NAC coordinators juggled some people around and moved nick to help diego, and the two leo's worke with another group of kids... the boys came in to check on me and inbetween fits of pain and crying in frustration, i was able to get ahold of myself and make it through the afternoon waiting to be taken home...

when i got home, i took more motrin and tylenol and waited for my host sister to come home... i asked if she could take me to a clinic or a minor emergency center, and after calling area clinics and getting consultation information, i decided to wait until the morning to see a doctor... i couldn't afford the after-hours fees the clinics were charging, in addition to prescriptions... my host sister, andrea, was kind enough to schedule an appointment for me this morning and take the morning off from work to accompany me there... an hour and a half later, i had seen the doctor (a big, burly man), been examined, diagnosed with a sinus infection and prescribed three separate medications to heal me all up.

i've spent the rest of today just alternating between taking medicine and sleeping, it's been an exciting day... tomorrow is valentine's day here in brazil and i had planned to go to a singles mixer organized by one of the iccp friends, but that has been cancelled for sure... it looks like i have a date with the couch and tv this weekend!

please keep me in your prayers, i hope that things start to clear up--and soon! back in january, i had a really bad infection that kept me from work for a whole week, and i don't want to miss work or be an inconvenience to anyone here... just pray that i get healthy soon!

love and miss you all... happy valentine's day!

~crystal

my new favorite sport is people watching.

just some observations i thought i'd share about my latest people-watching adventures in downtown bh:

-i'm not sure if mullets and mc hammer pants were in style, went out of style and came back into style here or if they just never went out of style... but they are EVERYWHERE. mullets. mc hammer pants. go figure.

-the ''i'm just looking'' phrase means nothing here-- salesmen in the u.s. could learn a thing or two from these brazilians! diego and i went to a watch store at a local mall while we were killing time waiting for the movie to start seating... we went in to ChilliPeppers (seriously, an accessory store called ChilliPeppers!) and we were mobbed by a throng of salesman... in literally a blink of an eye diego had two watches strapped to both of his wrists and there was another salesman trying to put sunglasses on my face... um, no. not only did we say we were just looking and had no money with us to buy any of their overly-expensive items, but the salesman had figured out how much it would cost to buy a RS$290 (about $140 USD) watch in 3 payments!!! they just did not want to take 'no' for an answer... that's persistence if ever i saw it.

-there is no personal space or "room for the Holy Spirit" here... i think the rule does not exist in brasil, perhaps all of latin america? people are generally more friendly here than in the states, more affectionate in greetings, etc., but even strangers will get extremelyclosetoyou if they are asking you a question or admiring your earrings or handing you a napkin in a restaurant... we've had several close encounters with the NAC staff where they talk to you face to face THISCLOSE about everyday stuff... it's just funny to watch any of us bip's squirm and how natural it is to these brazilians... lol

-american-looking people who speak portuguese and are, in fact, brazilian. it throws me for a loop every time! on the bus, at a restaurant, walking down the street... at least 3-4 times per day i'll see someone who looks like an american (please read: fair-skinned people with red/blond hair, blue/green eyes and dressed like an american) and they will open their mouth and speak the most fluid, beautiful portuguese i've ever heard... i do a double-take and have to physically close my own mouth... lol. my brain is confused, i think, when that happens!

-skinny pants all around! literally, EVERYONE wears skinny pants! i don't get it! grandmas, teenage girls AND boys, grown men, grandpas, students, children... skinny pants are all the rage here. WHY, BRASIL, WHY WOULD YOU PICK SKINNY PANTS OF ALL THINGS!!!!

-insanely buff security guys in tailored suits at all of the malls, wearing earpieces and sometimes ray-ban sunglasses... i think it makes them look very 'men in black.' but i wonder, how could they ever possibly chase down a thief in their designer duds and man-heels?

-excessive PDA everywhere! i guess it kind of goes with the lack of personal space thing... it reminds me of my good friend katie's famous phrase: ''if you don't like it, don't look!'' at any point in time when surrounded by at least 6 people or more, you can pretty much bet that at least one pair of people are a couple, and they will be showing copious amounts of blatant PDA... i've noticed people kissing while walking on the sidewalks of downtown bh (not an easy fete), couples kissing while getting on an escalator (that's skill!) and even kissing while getting off an onibus (which is near to impossible to do by yourself, i can't imagine being lip-locked and trying to jump off the near 4-foot high steps of the bus!)... it's just PDA crazy here...

phew! i think i'm done with my observations for today... people watching has become my favorite sport by far, although i did try playing soccer today, so i'm sure to have more updates soon. :)

peace and love,
crystal

new host family...

after two and a half glorious weeks with the sabarense family in pampulha, i moved to my new host family's apartment yesterday... it was tough to say goodbye to my 3 sisters, my little brother, bia's friend laise and the greatest host mom ever, but i was encouraged by bianca that it is a good experience to see how other brazilian families live... this time i'm staying with a young married couple!

after about 45 minutes in the car, carlos, andrea and i had driven clear across town from the northeast part of belo to the salgado filho neighborhood in the far southwest... it's not really near anything, at least a 20-30 minute bus ride to a mall, the main city square, or the metro, and this morning i found out that it's over an hour and 15 minutes commute to the creche! yikes!

both andrea and carlos are in their late 20's so it's been fun to talk with them to see how things are for them here in brazil as they are around my age... their apartment is also a 3-bedroom flat like the sabarense family, but with just the two of them, there's plenty of space... i have my own room and closet, there is a computer room/study, and their room... we all share one bathroom, and the living room and dining room are in the same space... the kitchen is rather small, but i get the feeling that they don't cook much at home since it's just the two of them... andrea also said that she's still practicing on keeping house, although they have been married for nearly 4 years! she's so cute! lol

andrea was kind enough to take time this morning to go with me from the 'supplementar' bus which drives around the local neighborhood and through the metro... we left the house this morning at 6:15 a.m. to catch a bus to the metro, take the metro to another bus stop where sylvia picked me up... again i got to the creche well before i needed to be there... this morning i was there at 7:45 a.m... it was a long night on sunday trying to figure out which buses i could take and at what times to get me to the creche... anyway, both andrea (my host sister) and sylvia are concerned for my safety, and i totally get it, but i learned today that there is one bus that i can catch from the house to downtown, and another bus i can take directly from downtown to the foot of the hill that the creche sits upon... um, hell-o! i'm totally going to do that in the morning, it's supposed to save me an hour of time... so i won't have to leave the house until 7:15 tomorrow! woohoo!

today at the creche was a lot of fun... the kids are so cute, they come up and hug us and kiss us on the cheek saying "bom dia!" which means 'good morning!' and also giving us handshakes or high-fives... they are so excited to see us and keep asking if we'll be back tomorrow... i've tried explaining that we'll be here until august, but they still seem to be incredulous that we'd stick around that long... i wonder if they've had other people show up a few times and then abandon the creche? made me think about the promises i make to people and organizations, people who count on my help and who need my help, and the times that i haven't followed through with my word... that one kind of took the wind out of me this morning...

lots of conviction happening here, trying to keep up in my journal though i admit that i'm not journaling as much as i would like to... but, i hope to post some of my reflections soon...

i've been thinking a lot about my personal journey and path that my life has taken, looking back and thinking about the different parts of my life where i've been the driver and at other times when i've been the passenger... i don't know if you're anything like me, but it's been hard for me to yield control over my life to God... i usually have my hand in everything, usually more than i can handle, because i need to have a say-so in things... slowly i started loosening the reigns of control i had over some things in my life, loosening my grip on things i have been clinging to for years, and only recently has God blessed me with peace of mind and forgiveness about some things... this program has been much more than a study abroad experience, or a volunteer opportunity, or a mission trip, it's kind of been a time for me to realize that the best times of my life have been when God has been the driver in my life... i can look back over my late-teens and early 20's and see countless decisions that i made, taking the steering wheel and trying to find my own way, and things didn't go so well... but all of the hard lessons have brought me to this point, in a new country thousands of miles from home, surrounded by people who have opened up their home to a stranger from texas, to realize that God is, was, and always will be.

thank you for your continued prayers for me and for my time here in brazil... please also remember to pray for my kids here at the creche and their families... there is nothing as powerful as prayer...

peace and love,
crystal :)