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