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