Labor Day

Yes, yes, I know in the US and Canada it is Mayday (and I wouldn’t mind dancing around a maypole and giving away mayday baskets, but I don’t think that is done anymore),  but it is a real holiday here in Brazil. Yes, yes, I know we had two holidays last week, but today is labor day here. Consequently, we are off work. I am not sure if we are celebrating that we work, or that we don’t have to work, but actually makes little difference to me since this is our day off anyway.

Still, I decided to enjoy the day, despite what appears to be a cold or allergies (who knows, as I always have something like this in May). This morning I made a brunch, as I seemed to be the only one who didn’t sleep seriously late (if you don’t consider 8:00 late) and had some time. I didn’t do anything fancy, but the family enjoyed the fried eggs and waffles (with ricotta cheese, chocolate spread, strawberry jam, and ham paté). I enjoyed the chlorophyll juice (made from wheat grass, cucumbers, spinach, squash and apples) and homemade raspberry yoghurt (can you believe I found fresh raspberries here???) .

By the time we got up from the table and got going on cleaning up it was afternoon. So I decided to work on a Degas drawing I started the other day. Only I changed directions and instead of doing a graphite drawing, decided to take it to charcoal and pastel. I was pleased with the results, especially because the paper didn’t really have enough “tooth” to grip the pastel properly. Nevertheless, the result was pretty nice. I love pastels, but they are so messy that I usually just don’t drag them out. I went for a monochromatic black/white effect. It went pretty quickly and I had fun actually drawing again. The hard thing for me in art is deciding what I really like the best. Drawing? Watercolors? Acrylics? Pastels? Deciding that is one of my goals for this year, but I don’t seem any closer to deciding.

Yesterday I had a great class with the missionaries in training. I have really connected with this group and will miss them, as last week is my last class. I intend to have them over for a cross-cultural lunch next week. Baked beans, sloppy joes, potato salad and cole slaw with chocolate cake. Can’t get much more classically american than that. Can’t wait for them to try the baked beans. (In case you don’t get that, ask any foreigner what they think of putting brown sugar into beans).  I’ll let you know their reactions.

Sunday we start our “Family-life” conference. The pastor who will be preaching (Dr. Irland Azevedo) is staying with us. I am excited about that, as he is an absolute “icon” in Baptist circles, but I have never had much contact with him. What a privilege! I know, then, you’ll understand if I abandon you for a few days. Happy Labor day!