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 :-)