This is my introduction post.

I want to introduce you to some names I imagine I’ll use on a pretty regular basis. First off is…
Araguaina. Between 200-250,000 people, Araguaina is the economic capital of Tocantins.
Tocantins- stands for Toucan’s beak. Taken from an indigenous language, it’s what the state looks like when turned to the side. Tocantins is only 22 or 23 years old. It broke off from another state.

UFT. Stands for Universidade Federal de Tocantins (Federal University of Tocantins). There are two campuses. One here and one in Palmas (the state’s capital). For quick background. Here public education is free. Yep. Going to a private university for some is seen as “you couldn’t get into a public university” for others its “I have the money to send my kid to private school” In any case, the publics are state schools and federal ones. UFT is 8 years old.

Michol. She’s my roommate. 25 next month, she hails from Oklahoma and loves cats. She’s adopted one named Luciana rescued by our program director. She also loves watching cat videos on Youtube (maru). Michol likes to cook, which is good because I like to eat. She’s a laid back, horseback riding, yoga doing, nature lover. She used to work at a health food/vitamin store and is very knowledgeable. I’m probably now going to always read the labels on the food I buy.

Luciana. Fulbright cat. Named after the girl who works in the English lab that found her, Luciana is twice her initial weight and quickly becoming a master climber. Luciana’s crossed eyes initially weirded me out, but I don’t even notice anymore and will probably think other cats look strange when I get home. The vet says she experienced a trauma to the head (probably a kick). She’s very needy, but she’s a baby so I imagine soon she’ll start to act like other cats. I hope.

Valeria. Program director from Rio. Speaks English with a British accent and also loves cats. Extremely well-read and written, she has a Ph.D. and does Post-Docs for fun. Loves the 18th century and mystery shows/novels. She’s very nice, talkative, always concerned. Kinda like my mom. When they spoke they seemed to hit it off well. Anyway, she’s a type A personality and has a daughter studying out-of-state (which generally occurs a lot less frequently in South America than the states)


Esmeralda. The super sweet grandma that lives downstairs. I love where I live largely in part of this outgoing welcoming woman. She comes to check on us, gives us food, takes us places with her and invited us to watch her tv until we got one. All of her kids/grandkids are lawyers/doctors. Im glad to have someone like her watching our house and our backs.

Please Help

I posted this here for those that:

1) Have heard this story and wanted to help but
2) Wouldn't normally turn on a computer

I've heard this story through the power of social networking sharing which is why I'm doing it here. There's so much wrong in the world that people sometimes get overwhelmed and don't do anything because they can't fix everything. While that's true, there's something that can be done about this. "Do for one what you wish you could do for all" ~Andy Stanley

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

Ode to Cleaning

I spent the morning cleaning.  I spend a good hour a day (many days 2 or 3) cleaning.  It typically takes me a second to get motivated to start, but once I do I don’t stop.  I then feel extremely accomplished when I look at the finished product.  We have white tile floors and walls.  Outside has many unpaved sidewalks, dirt, and sand.  ;lkThey get dirty very quickly.  I hypothesized that if we cleaned all the floors at one time it would stop us from tracking dirt from one room to another. Michol thinks it doesn’t matter. I think she might be right.  I’m kinda second guessin my cleanin process back home now.  I don’t clean nearly as much there as I do here.  I haven’t decided if that’s cuz I just can’t see it as well or if it’s just not as dirty outside (no negative connotation implied, I literally mean dirt on the ground)

The walls that aren’t tile have just been painted.  Here it is customary for the vacating tenant to pay for the process if it’s necessary.  We’ll try to keep the walls clean, but we’ve accepted that we’ll probably have to have them painted.  I’ve killed a large number of insects on them.  I am not a bug person. I do think I’m much better about them than I was.  When we first got here, I killed everything that moved.  I’ve since decided that while God has predestined everything it probably wasn’t his intention for them to die in my apartment.  So the majority of them I let be.

It takes me about 2 1/2 hours to wash a load of clothes.  I dry them on line so I have to hang them in the day or they don’t dry.  With the move, and the store hours. Oh yeah store hours.  Here, the pace of life is much slower than the states. Almost everything shuts down between the hours of 11:30 and 2 for lunch. So like I was saying with the move and needed to go to stores on a daily basis and work around their hours, I haven’t had two straight hours to wash but I imagine that’s about how long I’ve spent on it collectively. 

In any case, I like washing my clothes by hand.  It shows me just how involved the process is that happens back home while I set the washer and go do something else.  The clothes have to (soak) wash, ring, rinse, ring, and dry.  I also appreciate all the clothes I have.  I didn’t bring very many here which is why I have to wash so often, but I didn’t really think about how much have until I had to do that process for each article of clothing.  I have mad respect for the women around the world like Esmeralda who do this on a daily basis.

Well that was my ode to cleaning.  Wish everyone who actually read this far and even everyone who didn’t make it this far J a great day!!!

Bem-vindo ao Brasil

Hello everyone who decided to click on my blog link! Welcome to my blog!!  And more importantly, welcome to Araguaina, Tocantins, Brazil! I'm going to try (really hard) to do a post at least once a week about what I'm doing and how things are going here. So, I guess we should get started.
Today you get to read all about my experience yesterday 3/11 or 11/3 as it's written here with church.  Michol and I (Michol is my roommate and fellow Fulbright ETA. You"ll meet her in a later post) live close to the city center and square. It's been my experience that square in Ibero-American culture includes a big church/cathedral.  Araguaina is no exception.  My director, Valeria, told me that the church is Catholic and that mass starts at 7am.  I'll probably still visit, but I started asking around for other options.  Long story short I heard about this Baptist church.  When we found it, we found out it was a couple streets down on our block.

The door said Sunday services were at 8 am and 7 pm.  As it was about 5:30, I decided to go to evening service.  I'm really glad I did.  I was a bit nervous about going. On the walk, I just reminded myself that God wanted me to be here and that while I wanted them to like me, at the end of the day it wasn’t about me.  I didn’t see a sanctuary so I went to the daycare and the first person I spoke to was like an answered prayer.  Her name is Patricia.  An English student at my university she knew who I was.  She said she studied abroad in Denmark and understood how difficult it is to transition into another culture.  So she showed me around and I took my seat and waited for service to start.  Comfortably late.

I realized I was in Primeiro Igreja Batista (First Baptist Church).  It had a mix of lawn chairs and pews and a variety of ages of its members.  It kinda felt like New City in STL. I was greeted by the praise team which included a full band and teenage violin octet with conductor.  I thought he was the pastor until the sermon.   After they finished “Agnus Dei” I realized that I had actually heard them this morning from my apt.  Next was “Here I am to Worship.” Words and the entire service was power pointed on the wall.  There were prayer and scripture reading and a “Hug a neighbor segment.”   Then offering and more prayer and scripture reading. Then sermon.  Taken from o primeiro do primeiro de joao.  I went to Job, then John,  and when that didn’t sound like what he read 1 John 1. Success! Lol.

His sermon was about how the promise of eternal life isn’t a universal one, but that it takes you to develop a personal relationship with God because at the end of the day it’s your experience not any one else’s.  And without this personal relationship it’s impossible to know complete joy.  I’m excited for the day I fully understand Portuguese so I can fully understand the sermons.  Most of the service I was tapped on the shoulder by a very cute, yet not cute enough to not be downstairs in day care toddler.  I also enjoyed the singing conductor/deacon man? Still workin on that. 

About an hour and forty-five minutes, the church and service reminded me very much of my home church and I was glad for the familiarity.  I think I’ll visit the other two churches in the area a couple times to be sure, but I may have found my church home for the year.