Monday, November 19, 2012

The Beginning of a New Beginning, Part 1

(Cuz the beginning of the end sounds so final,lol)

Hello readership,
When we last tuned in the strike was set to end for Araguaína on September 10th.  Classes actually resumed one week later on September 17th.  Nine weeks later I am writing my penultimate blog post from Brazil. It has been a pleasure and I thought I’d break this down into two parts so the goodbye next week isn’t so long.

The semester officially ended on Friday and we had 8 successful weeks of courses.  Michol gave a writing workshop and together we gave an hour long conversation class 4 times a week.  We also began separate weekly reading classes for some natural science students.  We discovered that our students though struggling with prose actually write beautiful poetry so Michol suggested an open mic night. That happened Friday accompanied by the like 120 pancakes that she made and was really successful.  We felt really fulfilled at UFT this second half of the semester.  Things were challenging this year to say the least but it has been an incredible experience.  

One of the things I’m also pleased about is that I was able to start a Bible Study.  It taught me a lot about the process and it’s something that I think I’d like to look into at home.  I pray that the students received God’s word and were blessed by it.  I thank them for bearing with me while I prayed for God to speak through me every day but especially on those days when no amount of planning in the world could move the Spirit if it wasn’t willing,lol. 

What else? I took the GRE. I didn’t get the scores I was hoping for but when I finished the test I felt good about it. I’m learning a lot about “failure” here. Case in point, week before last I played in a guitar recital. It was nice for me because I saw the bi-annual recital in May and decided that I’d be in the next one and I was J Anyway, I practiced all day and got up there and got LOST, which I thought would be the end of the world beforehand but it wasn’t. I still had a great time and was proud of myself.  I say that to say that sometimes my best won’t be good enough. And that’s ok. Cuz God is more than whatever "enough" ever will be.

As for stories, Michol and I went with Rosy to the farm to go fishing.  It looked straight up like the land before time. 

 Anyways, as I’ve said in an earlier post I pee like 7 or 8 times a day cuz I have to drink that much water to feel like I won’t die. So we’re on a boat and I’m like I gota go to which they offer two suggestions. Or I pee in the boat (on myself) and throw some water on it (me) or I get in the water.  It would seem that I could’ve just done one of those without the announcement.  Here was my dilemma: the first didn’t sit well with me. Not that I didn’t have practice. “Just throw some water on it” seems to be the common response to urination related experiences. The second was that we went fishing for piranha and cachorras so them telling me those fish live 30 feet deep wasn’t really comforting. In any case I chose the latter and survived.lol. Although one of the cachorras flopped up and bit a chunck outa Rosy’s finger…

a cachorra
piranha's are actually smaller than I thought they were

I forgot sunscreen :/

Uhh… and Michol and I went to Palmas (the capital of Tocantins) with Tenikey. Some friends have a band that was playing in the International Rock Festival of Tocantins there. They were cute,lol. 

(centavos)

Saw my second favorite waterfall and went to their Mercado Municipal. Way bigger than the one here.


After the 25 min hike from the waterfall

 We ate almost every meal at the shopping (mall). My ma was like buy a big mac and see if it tastes the same.  The sandwich alone was $6 and was smaller but same taste.  All in all an enjoyable weekend.  I’m glad I went.


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