Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

I'm incredibly sorry it's already been more than a month since my last post. Fortunately, I now have a new computer (thanks Andy!) that will make my job of posting and emailing much easier. Even with my absence of blog presence, I've thought of all of you back home and in other places of the world, and during this holiday season, I wish you all peace and joy for the holidays. I wish I could be home in person to deliver hugs and smiles, but my typed messages will have to do for now. :-)

Life here has become normal (but not without surprises!), in that I am understanding and speaking Portuguese very well, finding my way around town, figuring out how to do work trips solo to the various communities, and all around enjoying life here. I have been learning a bit more about the cistern program here with MCC, because John, one of my American colleagues and the person in charge of the cistern projects, recently had hernia surgery and now cannot drive or lift things for a few months. So I have begun to make contracts and do other odds and ends with the cistern process to help him out a bit. I just visited a dry composting latrine this past week in Olinda, near Recife (I was there for a team meeting and Christmas celebration), and I was able to take measurements and brainstorm with the owner of the toilet. She is actually Californian and her husband is Brazilian, and they have an organic farm with all kinds of interesting experiments and demonstrations, and I had visited this composting toilet once before I spoke Portuguese, so I wanted to return now that I have a better understanding of the concept and am able to ask my questions. Now I have a pretty good idea of what's going on and what changes could be made to improve the idea, so I'm hoping to build the first unit in January. I'm very excited about this.

Right now, Eva, the SALT program coordinator in the U.S. is here for a visit. Every year she is able to visit a few SALT sites to evaluate the program and the teams that take in SALTers, the host family situations, the daily work situations, etc. It has been great to show someone around, especially someone as animated and funny as Eva, in any language. She has a great way of making people smile and feel comfortable despite the language barrier. So we've had a good time showing her around our work projects and the people we get to work with daily. It's also been a good time to emotionally and mentally process some of my experiences here. I have missed that a bit.

My December days are filled with Christmas parties in the communities, coming home each day to have my sisters excitedly demonstrating some new Christmas decoration they've invented during their time not in school (its summer vacation now), and reflecting on how this year's holidays will be different, but that Christmas is Christmas everywhere, people just celebrate a bit differently. I am still overwhelmed by hospitality and generosity. At one of the Christmas parties, there was a whole table display of fresh fruit, kind of a cornucopia number, to demonstrate the blessings of the harvest. I was kind of wondering if anyone was going to eat it but it remained there until the end of the party when I was leaving. I asked if I could have a piece, and I wound up taking everything on that table home in a giant box. Mangoes, cashew fruit, goiabas, bananas, wonderful tropical bounty.

And now, for some photos. A random assortment that have occurred since the last post. Enjoy!

I helped my friends Flavinho and Socorro move by driving this Bandeirante truck full of their earthly belongings (and them, their baby, and Anya) about an hour from Tigre to Monteiro. It will be wonderful to have them living closer

I arrived home on my mom's birthday to find the girls and a bunch of their little friends scrambling around to put together a last minute surprise party. Very cute. So much love in my family.

The gang in Mao Beijada at our Christmas party. This is where I went home with an abundance of fruit.

John, Anya and I in the bandeirante. Good times guaranteed.

One of my frog friends in the bathroom. I caught this one as he was trying to hide behind my shampoo! Sneaky little guy...


On my walk to work every day. Very lovely. Blue sky, brown earth, green grass, cool water. Lovely.

We stumbled upon this huge nativity in front of an old church in Olinda. Eva really liked this camel because it was a little decrepit lookin. Some of the carvings looked a little awkward, but very charming. And very grand.

Well friends, that's all I've got for now. Happy holidays to all and to all a good night!
Love, Peace, Happiness,
AnaMaria

Everyday Life in Monteiro

Hello faithful blog followers,
Sorry it has been a littler longer than normal since my last post, but to be fair, I warned you this would happen with my lack of computer!

My work is taking off, I'm settling just nicely with my family, and I have developed an overall sense of contentment in this place.

It turns out my initial work will include researching and implementing a project of dry composting latrines. The idea behind this concept is basically to use a barrel as the pit of a free standing latrine, and when the barrel is full, it is closed and set aside for a certain length of time until all (or most) of the harmfull pathogens die off. At this point, the material is safe (or safer than fresh faeces) to use as fertilizer. This is a technology specifically for communities around here that don't have any sort of bathrooms. These people only use the great outdoors, posing large risks of spreading disease, especially in the rainy season when everything becomes a big mess of mud. With the dry composting latrines, everything is contained in a barrel until it is safe to use, eliminating risks during floods and/or high water tables. Yeah! I've been traveling to various communities presenting this idea, and for the most part, after smirks and giggles watching an American try to talk in Portuguese about faeces and urine, the people have been surprisingly receptive to the idea. At one particular session, I think I didn't quite explain it well enough, because an elderly woman rose her hand, and asked, "but what if I fall in the barrel?" She was quite concerned and we all got a good laugh out of it. But I then assured her that each latrine has a normal toilet seat built above the barrel so this would not be an issue. Good laughs. I so far have 8 households for sure signed up to try one out, which means I have my work cut out for me. I'm currently researching best methods of building/maintaining these latrines, and then I will start to design and construct these lovely little units. It is all very exciting especially when I have specific people in mind to build these units for. It makes it so much more personal and meaningful. I'm excited to begin work in these people's homes because it means lots of shared lunches and teatimes and conversations. This is what it's all about.
As for the rest of my life aside from work, Monteiro is lovely. Very picturesque. I have about a 30 minute walk to work, although MCC recently decided to buy me a bicycle as most of the other workers live within a 5 minute walk. So I am the proud new owner of a shiney blue set of wheels :-). As I travel to work, I pass butcher shops with meat hanging from the ceiling, blacksmiths pounding away at their metal work, fruit stands, motorcycle repair shops, you name it. I often sing in my head (and sometimes aloud as I bike down the stone streets) the opening song from Beauty and the Beast where Belle is walking through town, watching the world wake up. "There goes the baker with his tray like always.. The same and bread and rolls to sell..." you know the song? It's a good one. And I totally know how Belle feels when I ride with the cool morning (early early morning sometimes 6:30) breeze in my hair, roosters still crowing, goat bells sounding, church bells ringing. I also relate when the townspeople sing the line "She's different from the rest of us, she's nothing like the rest of us.... That Belle!" Or rather "That blue eyed Anamaria!". Although there are plenty of lighter skin folks in Brazil, my blue eyes are a dead giveaway that something's different about me. And that's ok. There is something different about me here. There's something different about all of us. :-)
Hope you're all well.
I'll try to post pictures soon.
Peace,
Anamaria

Finally in Monteiro!

Hello friends,
I have finally arrived at my final home for this year, making the name of my blog, Monteiro Monologues, finally appropriate. Woo Hooo!
Anya and I arrived on Tuesday along with Andrea (MCC SALT coordinator in Brazil) and Veronika (friend from Akron visiting Andrea, and conveniently me as well since I lived with her in Akron while waiting for visa. See earlier pictures of Main House Friends), and have settled in well since then. My family consits of Tiana (Mom, 34) and her two daughters Erika (12) and Karol (8). I already have so much love in my heart for them, and I think them for me. They are three strong women, especially Tiana, being a single mom with two jobs, working all day for her girls. Erika helps around the house a lot, and as a result is amazingly mature, and Karol has a heart brimming with love for all. She loves hugs and cuddling. Which is just fine with me. :-)
Our work for the first few weeks will consist of tagging along with other MCC staffers to towns and farms around Monteiro, where the cistern and biodigestor work is done. I absolutely love the rural communities way out in the sticks (and I mean way out there. the middle of nowhere). I love their accents, their interesting farm animals (I got to hold an armadillo...), their resourcefulness, and hospitality. I think since most of my work will be with the people in these places, I will be very happy here.
A funny thing happened the other day. Allow me to share:
So, I was using the bathroom the other night in my new house. I stood up, pushed the button to flush, and the strangest thing happened. Something brown flew from the toilet. My first thought was that it was poo, but then I realized I had only (I don't know the most elegant way to say this) peed. I was quite puzzled and alarmed, and I watched as this brown mass stuck to the door, and then jumped from the door to the wall (probably a clear 3 feet in the air), then from the wall to the sink (each time making an awesome thunk/suction cup noise) and finally I realized it was a frog. Yes, there was a frog tucked under the rim of the toilet, and thanks to Jesus it did not decide to jump while I was still using the facilities. It waited until it had a clear shot across the room, and once I got over the initial shock, I appreciated this great ability of the frog to jump such a great distance. Then I waited until it was far enough from the door to make a run for it, and quickly explained to my sisters what the screaming and jumping around the bathroom was all about. THey thought it was quite hilarious, and so did I. I just had to let my heart calm down a bit. Needless to say, I have since started checking the toilet very carefully before using it...
Hmm... I have all sorts of other funny things that have happened. Language blunders (lots of those), quotes from my sisters, jokes I've made with Tiana. I think I am the family jokester right now, which is fun and great because the family has somse hard times right now. So its good for them to laugh every once in a while.
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you all. I won't be blogging as much here because for one, my house doesn't have internet. I will try to give a detailed description soon of my living quarters to give you an idea of where I live. But, for two, a rather unfortunate incident occured involving my computer, a leak in the ceiling, and lots of water coming through this leak. There were enough abnormalities about the situation, that I am now convinced it was supposed to happen. I have learned an important Mennonite lesson of disconnecting myself from my earthly posessions. But, IF any of you have an old laptop that's not in use, or have any brilliant fundraising ideas of how to get a new one on my measily volunteer stipened, or the like, let me know. It would probably be conveninent to have one for work purposes, but certainly not necessary. It just might mean I"m a little more out of touch... like the olden days. But it also means more letters... :-) Send me addresses if you're interested in being the recipient of one...
Alright friends, I should return home before dark, and it is almost to that point, although it is not yet 5:30. So goes the life in Monteiro.
Love and peace to you all!!!
Anamaria

Wrapping up in Recife

My most sincere apologies, dear friends, for not having posted for quite some time. Because of emails with family and friends, I feel like I'm keeping in pretty good touch with my community back home, however I have unintentionally neglected my blog-reading community and I will try to not let it happen again.

Many things have happened since my last post, naturally. One of the larger events was spending a week in Caruaru with Anya, attending The 7th Simpósio de Brasilerio de Captação e Manejo de Água da Chuva (The 7th Brazilian symposium on the Capture and Management of Rain Water!). We experienced blessing after blessing of meeting new people, practicing portuguese, learning new technical vocabulary, eating good food, and generally having a good time. The Northeastern region of Brazil is incredibly dry for most of the year, and so the capture of rainwater during the rainy season is crucial to provide drinking water as well as irrigation and water for livestock during the dry season. I bought one of the T-shirts because I loved the saying printed on the back "Água da chuva é água para todos" (Rainwater is Water for everyone). So true. A resource for all people. All people just need cisterns to hold such a resource... :-)

At the symposium, I also learned how to construct "bombas" or pumps, but an important differentiation I learned was to say "bombas de água" because simply saying "bomba" means bomb. I wonder how many people were a little worried to be in my presence after I proudly announced that I recently attended a workshop on how to build bombs. 

One of the evenings at the symposium, we had a cultural night at a nearby farm. There, we learned how to dance forró, a traditional Brazilian form of dance, similar to square dancing. Most of the other symposium folks who attended the dance were farmers, and they were quite eager to teach the two American girls how to dance. One of my dance partners even requested the song "AnaMaria" on my behalf. Unfortunately for him, by the time he returned to dance with me, another gentleman stepped in (and by "stepped in", I mean grabbed me by the hand and simply started dancing without a word or introduction). It was quite a night.

I'm starting to wrap things up on Recife, because I will be moving to Monteiro in about a week. I will miss so many good people here.  All of the staff at the MCC Sede, my Brazilian host family, my Portuguese teachers Fabio and Luciana, my tennis coach Joe, the worker at our favorite food kiosk on the beach, Naldo, Helen's host family (especially their 2 year old grandson Gabrielle), and many others. Fortunately I will be able to return to Recife on occasion, but I will miss them all the same. 

Random asides:

-Every night when I return to my house, there is a huge ant parade on the curb, each one carrying crumbs and food scraps, no doubt collected from the neighbor's garbage. One long row, displaying their amazing feats of strength.

-My neighbor has a dog that plays with a pop bottle outside my window. It reminds me of my own dog Chessie chasing cool whip bowls around the living room for hours on end. I wish I could climb over the wall and meet this dog. I think we would be good friends. 

And now, PICTURES!

My temporary boss/ forever friend, Helen

The man that stole my heart. Here he is serenading Anya. I'm afraid he stole both our hearts. And I'm sure you can see why with his entrancing gaze...

Fabio, my Portuguese teacher. I'm gonna miss him when I go to Monteiro. :-(

Anya and I at the symposium

The forro band in traditional garb.

My pump building group. The guy on the floor, Alberto, was later my main dancing partner.

The pump works!

Happy Happy Happy Girl

And finally, a trip to MONTEIRO!!

Many things have happened since my last post (as is common with my adventures in Brazil), but I will quickly talk about a few, and then post some pictures!!!

-Language studying is progressing well... 

-I spent 8 hours at church on Sunday with my family. "Wow", you might say. Yes. 8 hours. Mind you, that 8 hours included socializing before church, listening to the praise band practice, waiting for everyone to go home, take showers, and come back before the service, playing with children, supper, and dominoes. Oh the life of the pastor's family... :-)

-I finally got to see MONTEIRO! --The place I will actually be working after my language study in Recife is complete. We had a few visitors from Curitiba who wanted to see MCC projects, so for two days, Anya and I, along with Keith (our country rep), and Tobias & Herman (our visitors) went to Monteiro (which by the way, is about 5 hours away from here). It is absolutely gorgeous. Mountains, palm trees, fruit, farmland, and cacti everywhere. The temperatures get very hot during the day (and its winter right now!) but cool off at night, and there is very low humidity. The MCC folks in the Monteiro office are so great, and it was wonderful to talk with them now that I have a greater knowledge of Portuguese compared to last time when I had only just arrived in the country. I saw cisterns, biodigestors, organic farms... I ate pizza with the staff, took a ride on a ferris wheel, DROVE A MOTORCYCLE... I think i will do just fine there, blazing the dusty trails on my motorcycle, off to build another cistern here or a composting toilet there...

Now here are some pictures from the past little while:

First day of school!! Oh man, was I ever excited.

My sisters-- Karen(12), and Kellen (14), with our lovely fruit salad we made when the parents left us home alone for supper. T'was delicious.

My sisters, myself, Claudia(mom- bottom left corner) with ladies from church

A biodigestor!!!!  It was one of the projects we visited in Monteiro. So cool. It turns cow poop into cooking fuel and fertilizer!! whoa!!!

A very happy girl!

Thanks, as always for the thoughts, prayers, and emails. I very much appreciate them. IIIIFFFF... by any chance, your fingers are just a-itchin to write me a letter, my address in Recife (for probably the next 5 weeks.. maybe more) is:

Comissão Central Menonita

Rua Antonio Paes de Andrade, 95

Prado-Recife-PE-50751-050

BRAZIL!!!!!

Love, peace,

Annie

ch ch ch changes...

Many things have been happening in the past few days, and I apologize for not keeping you all up to date on them. Life can get quite busy when you are having a good time.
Here, in the form of a list, is a summary:
-I started Portuguese classes at a nearby language school
-I have learned to ride the bus, although I am not the most efficient at picking the correct buses to take...
-I moved in with a lovely host family. Claudia and Juraci have welcomed me warmly along with their daughters Kellen(14) and Karen(12). I get along with the girls especially well because of my knowledge of High School Musical and Hannah Montana (Thanks to Robyn for that one)
-oh, and my new house is an old fitness center, so it is huge. I feel like I am in a castle. I even have my own balcony and bathroom. very nice...
-I have purchased a Bible in Portuguese and have begun to read it aloud with the girls to practice my pronunciation. To make it fair, I make them take turns reading verses in English as well. :-)
-I have stopped counting bug bites because I am quite certain I am the most popular target in the entire state of Pernambuco.
- and I am still loving it all.

Thanks for the prayers about language difficulties. Things have improved very much since my last post. I am able to get around alone with general vocaubulary and broken grammer, but enough to be understood.
I ask for prayers for me and my host family. To be able to continue to communicate well, and also that I do not accidentally offend them in any way. And also continued prayers for language studying. It is a long trek, and I have only just started.
Love you all! And please write if you are able! A quick email, letter, or similar corespondance is much appreciated no matter how small or trivial you might think it is!
Peace,
Anamaria
oh, and I´ll try to post pictures of my new digs and family soon.

Pictures!

I realized I kind of skipped over the part where I got my visa... one day I was talking about not getting my visa, and then tada! I was in Brazil. Here are some pictures taken both in Akron and Brazil, giving a snippet of what my life has been for the past week or so.

When my visa didn't come on time, my parents still did! And we met my friend Ezekiel from MCC orientation for lunch!

Surprise! Kathy brought me my visa on Saturday. I was very excited :-)

I worked one more day at the MRC, finishing up some rugs, and then I had to say goodbye to my lovely friends, Harold and Leon.

...and more friends at the MRC. I will miss them dearly.

i will also miss Veronika and Val, my housemates at the Main House, although Veronika has been planing a trip to Brazil before she met me, so we will see each other in a few weeks!

Kathy (my guardian angel in the Latin America Department at MCC) drove me to Philly to drop me off at the airport.

...and I finally made it!!! (This is a beach near where Anya lives) Very beautiful!

That is how it all happened. 

And now I have had lots of Portuguese practice with people, I have learned to ride the crazy bus system, I have gained a new name, and I have seen my first Brazilian composting toilet! Oh the adventures I have had... and the ones that have yet to come... 

Peace,

Annie (now Anamaria :-)

Eu Estou em Brasil!!

I am in Brazil!!! Finally!

I arrived yesterday morning (Wednesday) and I've been enjoying my time here since. The Brazil team meetings are currently going on here at the Sede (the MCC headquarters) and so I have had the lovely experience of meeting the entire team all at once. This includes the people I will work with in Monteiro. We've been having meetings, and also having fun together. Tonight we went to a farm project in Olinda, and then went to a free music festival, where musicians play in all the old churches of Olinda. Tonight we heard a guitar with 14 strings. He (the man playing the guitar, not the guitar) was really really good. Afterwards we had tapioca pastries and hung around downtown Olinda. I had my first actual conversation in Portuguese with Marcelo who works in Monteiro. It was slow and very broken, but we took our time, and used my phrase book, and eventually figured out what we were saying to each other. 

I think that language will be a huge challenge for me in the beginning. I feel like nobody knows who I am, and without being able to be understood and to understand, it will be difficult for people to really know me, and for me to know them. Tonight's conversation gave me lots of hope that I can get across my personality without necessarily speaking fluent Portuguese.  I will try to post pictures soon when I can.

Thank you all for reading! Please pray that the Portuguese learning goes well for me, and that these days will not get too frustrating!

Peace,

Annie (now Ana Maria :-)

Ups and Downs

After my exciting news about my visa being approved, I am sad to say that I now sit with no visa in my hand. My dad (quite a saint) went to the consulate in Chicago on Monday to pick up the visa, only to find that the consulate had lost some of my forms. These forms are apparently crutial to the visa process (although i ask if they were so crutial, why did they lose them?) and so they would not give my Dad the visa. Instead (I find out at 4:30), I had to quickly fill out new forms and express mail them at the post office which closed at 5:00. After much rushing around the office, Kathy and I pulled up to the post office at 4:55 and successfully mailed the documents. Now the process is once again in the consulate's hands, and they will ship the finished visa to me in PA when it is all done!

It is slightly frustrating, but also a good learning experience to gain some patience and perseverence. My work here in Akron at the Material Resrouce Center is going very well, and maybe it is just not complete. God wants to give me a little more time here for whatever reason.

When my visa was supposed to come in on Monday, my parents and Robyn had planned to drive it to me for one last goodbye and set of hugs. When the bad news arrived, I was so down in the dumps, my family decided to still come and visit. It was such a blessing to have them here, to see all of the wonderful people I have gotten to know, and all the wonderful work these people do.

One of the most inspiring things about working at the Material Resource Center is the perseverence and willing spirit of the older folks who regularly come to volunteer. People with physical disabilities regularly come in, doing whatever they can to make a difference. No matter how slow they might do their job, or how much explaining they need to learn how to accomplish a new task, they do it with smiles and good spirits. That place is alive and running because of all the wonderful retirees who spend their time there, and every little bit of work helps. Let that be a lesson to us all, able bodied or not. Every bit helps. Never doubt that. Pitch in when and where you are able. We all have gifts to offer and wonderful things can be accomplished when we put them all together.
Peace,
Annie

Great news!

There is finally word on the status of my visa! It has supposedly been approved today in Brasilia, and they will send word to the consulate in Chicago, and the Chicago consulate will pass my visa off to my parents, who will then drive it to me in Akron to say goodbye one last time! Hoorah!

It feels very strange though. I have almost gotten settled in here, and since I wasn't sure how temporary this arrangement would be, I decided to fully invest myself here, not wanting to risk losing valuable time for living and being joyful in life. Because I have really jumped in to the community here, it feels very strange leaving so soon. But then again, I didn't do SALT to live in Akron. I did it to work in Brazil:-)

Today, I spent the day at the Material Resource Center once again, where I finally learned how to weave rugs! The rugs are made from old pairs of jeans and corduroys cut into long skinny strips, and also neckties. They are woven together on huge looms, which I have been eyeing ever since I got to MRC. Today I finally asked the kind man (Roy- whose last name is awesomely enough Weaver) if he would be willing to teach me, and sure enough, he was! He gave my my own loom to work on, and I made about 1.5 rugs.

I thought I should post some pictures today, since pictures are the best part about blogs. Although the pictures aren't of tarantulas and rain forests quite yet, they do give you a glimpse into what I've been up to around Akron.

Me and Anya with our Brazilian friends at orientation


Crazy pic with some of the IVEPers and YAMENers :-)


Do you like my hat? (It's Puthehi's from Lesotho)


Music team for the closing service of orientation.

Me with my first rug! (and my faithful teacher Roy)

...and she's still in Akron...

All the SALTers, IVEPers, and YAMENers have now departed, leaving me and two other SALTers behind. The other two will leave Saturday as planned for them, but I will be here indefinately as I wait for my vsia to come. Pray that it comes soon!
In the meantime, I've kept myself busy with a mixture of volunteering, learning Portuguese, socializing with my new Mennonite friends and neighbors, and reading about the history of Brazil. Not a bad set up I suppose, but it's still not Brazil.
I spent this morning with the other two SALTers packing school kits to be sent to kids around the globe. MCC is all about efficiency and resourcefulness, so I was in heaven. The bags had to be packed just so in order for the kits to maximize space. I love assembly lines and efficiency, so I could see myself heading back over there numerous times before this stay of mine is over.
There is a couple here, Daryl and Jean, who have lived in Brazil for a one year term with MCC. They have been so kind to share their stories and experiences with me and Anya (my partner in appropriate technology crime. She is already in Brazil begining her in-country orientation). Daryl is going to be teaching me Portuguese while I am here, which is wonderful.
The community here is great. All of the MCC staff are making sure that me and the other SALTers are doing alright and adjusting to the fact that we're not on our assignments yet. It is tough to see everyone go and hear about the adventures they're already having, but I assure you, I plan to have a few adventures of my own here in Akron. :-)

love you all!

Starting Off in Akron!

Let me start off by saying a huge THANK YOU to all the people who have made it possible for me to take this huge leap of faith and begin a new adventure. I couldn't have done it without your support in so many ways. In a way, you are all here with me because knowing all of my friends and family have formed me into the person I am now.

Before leaving for Brazil, me and the other SALT (serving and learning together) program participants need to spend a week here in Akron PA for orientation at the MCC offices here. We are joined by two other programs worth of participants- IVEP and YAMEN (other lovely acronyms of which the meanings have escaped me)- are two programs that bring international young adults to either the U.S. for service, or to other foreign countries. As a result, we all have a great cross cultural experiences here in Akron with many languages and cultures being shared as we live, eat, worship, and talk together. 

It is so beautiful to see the beauty that God has created through all of the diversity here. I love to hear languages, try dances, talk about new foods, and worship together. This is the experience I have always wanted, and even more than I had hoped. I am thriving in this environment and I hope that this feeling will continue throughout the year.

I ask for prayers for the next few weeks, as my visa has still not arrived. It could be several weeks after orientation, and until it comes, I will stay in Akron volunteering at the Material Resource Center (a large warehouse where many wonderful things are crafted out of recycled and donated materials), and also doing odds and ends around the MCC grounds. I love it here, and it will be a great experience to stay, but it will still be hard to see all my new friends leave when I must stay here. 

Thank you for your support! I hope you are all well!

Peace

-Annie