New... and Improved

I've been talking about it for a long time, but now I've gone and done it. Back to my natural color - sort of - for my hair. We tried matching, but it's hard to do, especially on the blond highlights. My highlights were never supposed to be so many or so blonde. They just kept getting lighter and brassier. So off with them. On to a new color! I asked for a trim and out came the razor and when I looked up, my hair was gone. But I loved the look, although it still kind of shocks me, as I don't look like myself at all. Fortunately the hair will grow out. I love the color, although I already know most people won't. I like being a brunette, like I was born. I say this is sort of my natural color, because this color definitely covered up the "grey". Shocking isn't it? I have greying hair. If I had more grey I would leave it, but I have here and there so that it looks odd. Anyway, here I am with a new look. If it's improved, well you'll have to judge. I feel younger and lighter (wish the latter part were true about more of me than my hair, alas...). Can't wait to see the reaction at church on Sunday. Hey, why don't you try something new and improved in your life this week? (Not necessarily a new hairdo, however.)

Move over Picasso!

One of the fun things I did on vacation was do some more drawing. I have been taking drawing lessons since March. I thought it was pretty hopeless, but discovered despite my lack of talent, with a good teacher, anything can be learned. To me it is amazing that I can produce anything that looks recognizable. I get all excited when I see my drawings, because I just can't believe I did anything that looks halfway decent.



I want to you look at the difference between the portrait of João I drew (albeit from memory) pre-instruction, with the portrait I drew on vacation. I think you can see pretty serious progress. The basic technique is to draw what you see and only what you see.

Of course there are some "tricks". For instance in the beginning we drew things upside down - Voilá this German horse (by some unknown artist). That is so you learn to draw what you really see, not what you think you see.



We also learned to draw using what is called "negative" space. That is, instead of drawing the flower in this Bromelia, I drew the spaces between the leaves and petals. That is to help with shape and size.



Ah.. perspective. That is so hard for me. In fact, I never finished those drawings. I hate drawing furniture, walls, still lifes. I have a lot of those unfinished drawings in my album. Maybe I hate the subject. Maybe I hate the fact that I just can't get it right. I don't know. I plan to start working on that some. You can see from the table drawing that this is not my strong suit. Trust me, it's a load better than my vases and chairs.



I do like, however, portrait drawing. I have tried my hand at animals, and so far so bad. Of course, haven't had any teaching in that area. So for now, will stick to people.



Next, I learned about proportion and measuring accurately. Don't do that so good either. We copied portraits of master artists for this step. This one is my best. It is Cranach's "Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Hat" (1600). I got him too fat in the face. I tend to just draw and forget to measure the sizing. Then I just hate to erase and fix it. In fact, probably my greatest enemy is my very short attention span and my hurry to finish up something.



Yesterday's class (a make-up class for me) was just a riot, as we worked on shading. The technique was so different. We darkened the paper and then we erased out the light sections. Oh so cool because I did it upside down and could see nothing until I turned it around and there was the guy. He's too skinny (there we go forgetting to measure again), but I just love it anyway. I think it's my best effort so far. Tomorrow we are going to work with charcoal to do another Picasso. I can hardly wait. I love doing new things. To accompany my learning in this area, I am reading all I can on art and drawing, including the fascinating "The Story of Art" by Gombrich (a definitive work in this area I understand). I am now doodling all the time to work on learning shading. Who would have "thunk" it? You can teach old dogs new tricks.



PS: Today, Friday, we worked in charcoal for the first time. That was really hard, but I loved it. So much fun doing another Picasso, one of my favorite artists. I ran out of time at the end, so he lacks detail work, but here is my portrait of Picasso as a young man.

Friendship

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it is a rare thing to go on vacation and come home with so many new friends. We were blessed in our stay in Monte Verde. It was really wonderful. One of the very interesting moments was when the pastor's wife ran into us one day and invited us to eat pizza and attend a choir rehearsal. It's not the church choir, but rather a group that will be singing at the Latvian Baptist Convention. A large group of Latvians fled because of the communist persecution and some came to Brasil. Werner Grinberg was among this number. He eventually came to the mountains of Minas Gerais and established the village of Monte Verde (which is simply a portuguese translation of his name - Green Mount). Before constructing his permanent house, he built the Baptist Church. Certainly it is the only place in Brazil where a Baptist church is on the main street, prominent in the community. Some of the Latvian descendents of those who settled with him, are still members of the church. Together with Latvians from all over Brazil, they meet for an annual meeting. The group from Mt. Verde will be singing and so we were able to "practice" with them. I think music runs in the blood of the Latvians. Everyone I know is so very talented. I thought you would enjoy sharing in this special moment! Just listen in with us.

The Long and winding road

The Beatles sang to me in my youth:

"The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear"

That was definitely my hope as João and I began to make our way home from Monte Verde as our vacation began to wind down.

Since I last wrote on Monday, we have had delightful and adventuresome experiences!
Monday night, as I returned from the LAN House, I felt colder than usual and as the evening wore on, I was uncomfortably cold and began to long for the heat of Rio. (That in and of itself should tell you how cold I was). That evening we built the hottest fire we could, pulled the mattresses next to the fire and put on just about every piece of clothes we had with us and I snuggled under 4 blankets and was still cold! We learned it had hit a low of -4 degrees C, which is roughly 24 F. It was the same temp inside as out. With the roaring fire, we got the temp up to about 6 (C) or 42 (F) in the house. Wow.

Fortunately the sun popped out the next day and it warmed up to 15 (C), which is about 59 (F). Big relief. Since it was still cool, we decided we would finally indulge in one of the specialties of Monte Verde, which is fondue. Unfortunately it is only served at night and we had an evening engagement. But because we had made friends with the owner of the restaurant, he made an exception and served us our long awaited cheese fondue. What fun we had eating that. I broke down and bought a fondue pot and hope very soon to make it with friends and family, since they even shared the recipe with us.

We spent Tuesday evening at the Pastor's home and really delighted in spending the time with such a wonderful family. The pastoral couple is just absolutely outstanding. It's unusual to make so many friends and feel so much a part of a community after just 3 weeks.

I was sad come Wednesday morning, as we packed the car to begin our trip home.

We decided to drive to another resort town, via the "scenic route", which is being generous. It's called the farm route, since it is actually no road (is not on any maps), but a way to connect the farms and ranches. They told us to always choose the wider path and vear to the right at any fork in the road. But to our surprise there actually was a sign along the way, which was encouraging. To give you a notion of the road condition, in the first four hours we travelled 45 quilometers (or about 24 miles). No we did not stop along the way, except occasionally to make sure our car would ford the stream, clear the rocks, not fall through the wooden bridge, or be run over by the cows, dogs, chickens, sheep that shared the road with us. It was never scary, but it was worrisome if we were going to ruin the car or if we were ever, ever going to arrive anywhere. The views were spectacular, the sky blue, the air cool and crisp and my company was excellent. We climbed and dropped alternatively in the highest mountain range in Brazil (although not the highest peek).

Eventually, after four hours, we actually hit a real road, although unpaved, was of excellent quality. Then after another 40 minutes we hit the asphalt. And after 5 ½ hours of driving we finally arrived in Campos do Jordão! It is also a gorgeous mountain resort. We didn't have a lot of time to explore, but I was just happy to see civilization. But the town was very nice and I hope to return someday. I especially enjoyed seeing the maple leaves that were turning colors (it is almost winter here) and the cherry trees in full blossom at the very same time. Seasons can get confused in the tropics. After a good meal and lots of oohing and ahing as we drove down the mountains, back to the main highway, we finally arrived, that evening at my friend, Marilene's, home.

That was to be the very last stage of our vacation. Lots of late night talking and visiting and eating and sharing and sleeping took place as we tried to catch up on old times. We are the kind of friends that always pick up where we left off, no matter where that was! After a year of being far from one another, with just occasional visits, the friendship is firm, which is a great victory.

On our last day in Mount Verde, we happened along the farm near our house and the new lambs were actually outside feeding. We stopped the car to look and listen. I am a city kid, so I still get a kick out of farm animals. The owner came over and offered to let me hold a lamb. I had never down that, so he placed her in my arms. She was so sweet and calm and soft. Just irresistably adorable. Course I love animals, especially the cuddly kind. Her mother, however, was not so fluffy and sweet. The caretaker, a young boy, was terrified of her. Momma sheep was smelly and dirty and rather cross. She lacked a loving shepherd to stay by her side and bathe her and care for her and make her feel like her babies were safe. That, my friends, is why our vacation draws to a close. We have sheep, we have lambs who need us to protect them, to care for them, to help them to feel safe. João and I joyfully, willingly return to our shepherding duties. There is a flock to be fed, a flock to be cared for, lambs to be nurtured, sheep to be protected and lots of love to be shared!

...and the living is easy

Ah, what a wonderful vacation we are having here in Monte Verde. It is a charming little town of about 7,000 people, that swells to about 12,000 on the weekends. To the left is the entrance to the city. I thought I would hate the weekends, but I find it fascinating to see how the town comes to life and so many more stores open on Saturday and Sunday. There are even traffic jams on the one main street. On the right you can see main street and me indulging in chocolate covered strawberries!
Most other streets are dirt and many run up into the mountains. We have taken some treks up into the mountain... and our poor car and my poor nerves. But the view is well worth it. To the left is the gateway into the mountains. Isn´t it cool? Here is a view on the right with João taking in the sights at the top. Actually we never made it to the top, as you have to hike up. We tried hiking, but I am too old and fat and you can see in the photo to the left, I just pooped up with the steep upward climb. Actually I might have insisted, but my poor Achilles tendons really starting hurting and my knee as well, and I didn´t want to ruin the rest of my vacation trying to do what I am not in shape to do. But it has been fun seeing something beautiful everyday. I have had a riot just photographing the flowers and trees here. There is something new to do every day. One day we took the trail from the airport to the city and to our suprise it was not a bad hike at all. And it seemed we were in some kind of primeval forest, with 200 year old pine trees. It was a very quiet experience.
Last Thursday was Sweetheart´s Day here in Brazil and the Baptist Church here had a fabulous banquet. I have never seen so much wonderful food in my life. They invited us and so we had a great time. The folks here are so very
friendly. We have made so many new friends. When can go into the restaurants here and call the waiters and owners by their first name. We have made friends with about 15 people at the church as well. That has been a plus we just didn´t expect here.
We both continue our reading and our writing, and I continue sketching. As the book recommends copying some old masters, I decided to try my hand at a Picasso, finally working up the courage to add some color to my work. See the results! Not great, but a lot of fun to work on with my new colored pencils.
I am sure I have bored you with my easy living details, but hope you at least enjoyed the photos. I close out my entry by sharing this last photo of me with the flowers up on a mountaintop, just give you a feel of the beauty here.

Just Lovin´ It

We continue to enjoy our stay here in the mountains. I don´t have tons of exciting news, but wanted to post some pictures, although the internet here is interminably slow, so I am not too sure how many I will succeed in uploading before my time is up.

The other night it was quite chilly (8º C) and with the fireplace going full blast we were still cool. But what fun we had roasting cheese on sticks, letting it melt onto fresh bread (our neighbor bakes) and enjoying fresh grape juice (you didn´t really think a Baptist pastor would have wine, did you?). It was so delicious and felt to very decadent. I felt in the very lap of luxury. Our little chalé is really quite lovely and comfortable. It has everything we need. The only really hard thing is working up the courage to take a shower. The water is warm, of course, but the bathroom isn´t!

The view from our backporch is really beautiful! And there are trees and flowers in our back yard. I look like a babushka or something, but anything to stay warm on a cool morning.

Just across the street is the airstrip and yesterday we went talking along the land strip, as it is one of the highest points in the city. We had a great view of the city and mountains around us. In addition we got to run to the side of the runway and watch a plane land right in front of us. What a hoot. Here I am on the airstrip, in front of one of the native pine trees that are just so very beautiful here. We don´t get many pine trees in our area of Brazil, so we are fascinated with them.

The photo of João is also from the airstrip and shows some of the mountains in the background. You have to admit it is different from Rio.

The food here is outstanding. Everyday we have had something different. We couldn´t resist taking a photo of this restaurant where the food is cooked over ovens made of termite hills. Isn´t just a riot?

All and all, you can see we are having a wonderful time. Oh, and I continue to draw some. Look at my drawing and see who is growing a beard during his vacation... can you guess who it is? Well that´s the news for now.

Vacation time

I am on vacation. And lovin' it. Life is good, although now and then I catch myself feeling guilty because I not doing anything productive. Silly me. That' s the whole point of vacation, isn´t it?

We left on vacation on Wednesday much later than we had planned, but still found time to stop and visit over lunch with Marilene and Franklin, as it was on the way.

The last hour of our trip lasted about 5 hours! It was very dark, very mountainous and a curvy dirt road. However, there was no chance of making any mistakes as this road only takes you to Mount Verde! We breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived. We even found the energy to unpack the car and make the bed and then we slept very well. It was only moderately cool the first night, so we were fine.

On Thursday we had glorious sunshine and enjoyed walking around town to see the sights. We even found a Cyber-cafe and so I am not totally isolated from the "world", although we aren't staying that close to town, we do get in by car. It's a charming village and I do promise to send some photos later.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday we had rain and it became quite chilly. Sunday it was about 40 degrees and with no heat, trust me you feel it. I was glad for the firewood we bought and for our cheery little fire to warm us.

I have found a little time to draw and you will see I have managed to finish my sketch of my art teacher. I am very happy with my very first portrait and you'll note it is vastly improved over my initial sketch.

Yesterday, on Sunday, we visited the little Baptist church here in town and discovered our inn-keeper is a member there too. We enjoyed the services, and although were concerned we might feeze to death, even without heat, the church was cozy. The services were lovely and in the evening we even heard a missionary who was a fantastic speaker.

We have enjoyed the delicious mountain trout with almonds here. Also bought cheese on skewers to melt over the fireplace and eat on the homemade bread our neighbor bakes. What fun.

The shops here are wonderful, especially the chocolate shops that are a great temptation (that so far we have resisted). The apple strudel with capuccino was beyond our ability to resist and we thoroughly enjoyed every bite!

Try not to envy us too much... I do have a sore back and am still recovering from a severe sinus infection, but even that can't put a damper on our wonderful time here.

To everything there is a season... and this is our season of rest.

I'm Out of Here

Hi friends, neighbours and countrymen.
I am on VACATION!!!! I haven't left town yet, but in a few more hours (after some sleep I hope to find time for) João and I will be heading for the hills (literally) for some serious rest. We have rented a chalé in the mountains where there is nothing to do except sleep, relax and do nothing slowly. No internet or telephone. It is quite chilly there (this week it was about 30 degrees Farenheit) and we have only our love to keep us warm. Well not true, since there is a fireplace, we are taking a heater and bunch of blankets and lots of warm clothes. Our car is full to overflowing, since I am also taking our food (it's a resort area and expensive). I think I have just about everything ready to go, except a few last minute things we will still use tonight. We have packed just tons of books and can't wait to do catch up on reading. I have 30 films to watch, so if our eyes fall out, I don't know what we will do. Today I had extra drawing lessons and at the end of the session, did my first sketch of a live model. I only had a little bit of time to work on it, so now I have the project to complete during my holidays. That should also keep me busy. I'll show you the results when I get back.
I know you will manage to survive without my blog for a month, but wanted to let you know that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Just dropped out of the internet.
Hope you have as much fun as I plan on having the next few weeks.

The sad end to the sad story

You may recall that I mentioned some time back, a doctor who was murdered outside the gym where I do aqua-fitness. Recently the whole story came out and so the story comes to a sad conclusion. Seems his murder was paid for by a state senator! But for personal reasons. The doctor was dating the senator's ex-wife (read: divorced). The senator took that as an affront I suppose and so paid R$30,000 for the man's murder. The police officer hired two very inexperienced young men (paying them R$15,000) to shoot the doctor. Everything was carefully planned, including the exact spot where it would take place. They just didn't plan on a police car being on the corner because the policemen were taking a break, buying some fruit from a corner market. And so we now know what happened. I am sure the two gunmen will be convicted. Perhaps the police officer. But the senator will probably suffer nothing. That's the way justice tends to work around here. Or, has I call it, injustice. I have lost faith in the system and, in general, politicians. I must say that in my mind, the senator isn't particularly more guilty than the other senators who rob the public coffers to build houses and buy cars - they are directly responsible for the 100 or so deaths of children recently. The children died from dengue, as a result of "no money" for mosquito control. That's because our politicians spent the money to "kill" their rivals and other wonderful causes. One politician in another state, spent thousands to hire a jet and take his family on vacation to Europe and even said he saw nothing immoral in what he did! Great. If depriving our children of education and medical care, so he could take a vacation isn't immoral, what is? When oh when oh when will we raise up a generation of politicians who really CARE about people? Who refuse huge salaries? Who pursue the corrupt? Who refuse special privileges because they chose to SERVE? I am so tired and so disillusioned with the corruption and selfishness it makes my cry. But the mothers who children who are in their graves, have shed more tears, I know. The families who wait for their loved one to have surgery for cancer, until it is too late, have shed more tears. The children who dream of having a better life, but have no teachers or schools have shed more tears. Can we not put our tears in a bottle and pour them out at the feet of our politicians and cry NO MORE TEARS???

Happy Little Family

Yesterday we celebrated another birthday around our house. It was João's birthday. I had been looking forward to our family dinner for a while and was a little disappointed that I woke up with a cold and felt a little under the weather. Nevertheless, I was able to put together a decent pot roast supper. João asked for a lemon meringue pie instead of cake, so that's what I made. It was beautiful and to me tasted so good. He enjoyed it. I am not sure if the girls were so enchanted. But they did enjoy the pot roast. Since we had a pie, I couldn't very well stick a candle in it, so we improvised with another candle and had fun yelling/singing Happy Birthday as João pretended to struggle to blow out the candle. João got a lot of nice gifts. I could hardly wait to give him the guitar I bought for him. Our music minister helped me to pick it out. I think João likes it and was really pleased to receive it before his vacation when he will be able to use it a lot. There is a dinner at church on Sunday, as well as a "tea" on Saturday evening, so we will be stretching out the celebration over a couple of days. That makes it more fun that way.
I feel much better today and am struggling with the temptation to not snarf down the rest of the lemon meringue pie. Have a good weekend!

I'm not the one with time on my hands!

We have been having cooler weather and João and I have been finding ourselves humming Christmas songs. I find that really funny, as João didn't grow up with a wintertime Christmas. I know that 65 degrees doesn't sound "cold" to you guys, but it's cool enough to dig out long sleeved clothes and sleep under a blanket. It's funny too because most of our friends are just loving the weather, because we have had some great sunshine as well. I would have to say that, in general, May is the best weather month of the year (although that can vary).
It was a particularly busy week with our family life conferences and the guest speaker in our home. On the other hand it was also relaxing talking and sharing with him in our home.
At any rate, when I saw this video (trust me, I wasn't looking for it), I thought I have to put this on my blog. I think it is just hysterical. Maybe we can contract him to come to our church for a Christmas program, since we have such a hard time getting anyone to come to church on Christmas!
He has a whole bunch of videos playing vegetable instruments and I decided that he has a whole lot more time on his hands than I have on mine! The funniest is the cabbage. The broccoli is the most musical. I hope you get a chuckle out of this and don't feel like this is a minute of your life you will never get back. Monday morning hugs and kisses!

What a blast

I had just a great time at the youth camp over the weekend with the kids from church. They are a good group of kids. They were attentive, obedient and even let me sleep all night long. Hey is this April's Fool? No, it's the truth. I loved the kids and certainly got my quota of hugs.
They rigged up a slide of sorts, with heavy plastic on a hill. They poured water and soap on it and slid down the hill. It was really cold - at least to our Brazilian blood - on Friday. It was raining and about 65 degrees and there they were slip sliddin' away. I got a kick out of their resistance. A couple of people were worried they would get sick, but heck I figured they were young and strong and healthy and a little bit of chill and rain wouldn't hurt any. They got in on Sunday night and were really pooped. I only had my cell phone with me, so you can't get a good focus on the slide, but still I thought you would get a kick out of how I spent my holiday. And by the way I didn't slide as I didn't have appropriate clothes, although some of the girls offered to loan me a bikini. Fat chance (literally)!

Just so you don't think I don't do nuffin'

Yesterday was my last class with the "Radicals" or as you might call them "Volunteers Without Frontiers". I admire these young people greatly as they give up their "identities" to go and live among unreached people. Being young they can adapt and flow with the punches. At least that's the idea. They will certainly be in my prayers as they face innumerable challenges when they get to the field next year.
In their last class they each had to tell a Bible story with all the details from the Bible, without written notes, geared for people of an oral culture. The class took a lot of preparation, since oral culture is not exactly my specialty, but I really became convinced that we have geared our evangelism for the 20% of the world's population that is totally literate. Even in our churches here in Brazil it is probably much more effective to assume people don't really much like to read. So telling a story is much more effective than a three point sermon. But who will ever convince our seminaries of that?
My class was a 30 hour module that I found extremely challenging to teach in three hour segments since I had to model what I was teaching, meaning I had to teach through stories and oral methods, rather than use any kind of written or audio-visual material. In the end I felt I had begun to get the concept across, but the students didn't get enough practice to be really "confident" in the process. Even breaking them into smaller groups, it was hard with 27 people. Tuesday's class was a riot as they had to tell a story through song. You should have heard the songs. It was so much fun.
Today I am busy with this that and the other as I try to get ready to share four messages with our youth at their retreat. Since I will be with them at the retreat center, you can imagine how much sleep I'll get Friday night. I also must get the house ready for our revival speaker who will be arriving on Saturday. And I need to leave enough food for the family to eat while I travel. I am procrastinating by writing this post. I do that sometimes when I am overwhelmed with all there is to do. João has promised to vacuum and since that's the biggest house cleaning chore, I think I am basically okay on that score. I have made banana bread this morning, so at least I have something for our guest to eat for breakfast on Sunday morning. (If I can keep my family from eating it all up before then...) Next chore is to grocery shop. So off I go since I only have 20 hours left to get everything done! Since today is May Day, International Labor Day, I guess it's appropriate that I am laboring.

Old Friends/New Friends

João and I had a safe and wonderful trip into the "interior" of the country, as we traveled about 820 quilometres, one way, to preach a revival. We left on Thursday morning, and I was especially anxious to get to São Paulo to see my dear friend Marilene, since we planned to spend the night with her and her family. Our visit was way too short, but it was just great to be in her home - finally!
We got away at a decent hour in the morning and had a longer drive than the previous day, but still it wasn't tiring. This time it was João who was excited to see old friends, as we would be staying with a couple who had been his friends in Iraq (where he ministered from 1981-83). He baptized the father and the son in the Euphrates River in Iraq. To the right is the couple as they were in Iraq and to the left is the couple today. In addition I have added the photo of João baptizing Domingos in the river. There are certainly fruits that remain in our ministry and this is a wonderful example, as Domingos is a deacon and vice-moderator of his church. He is the one who invited us to come and preach. So it was very meaningful to me as well to get to know these very special people in João's life. João preached from Friday through Sunday at First Baptist Church of Passos, in the state of Minas Gerais. What fun on Saturday night when another family that João had baptized in Iraq drove over from a neighboring town to be present at the worship service!
After two years of serving at First Baptist of Rio, we (or maybe just me) had forgotten that our church is not exactly the norm. It is a "capital city" church and a large one at that. This visit took us both back to our real roots in church life and we loved it. We had forgotten about the constant buzz of people moving around, a standing room only crowd, children crying, etc. It was kind of challenging at first, especially when you are used to the solemnity of our church. But it was great to see so many visitors and many decisions. My children's message was something new for them and it started off small, but it definitely grew larger. I had a lot more kids than I have at our church! I think you can see on João's face, his joy at sharing with these wonderful people.
The three days in Passos flew by ever so quickly and Monday morning we needed to hit the road early, but it was hard to tear ourselves away. I think, in my heart of hearts, I am really just a kid from the country and city living is not exactly all it is cracked up to be.
We didn't leave as early as we should have, and also chose to take the route recommended to us by the "natives", sort of off the beaten path, but some 200 quilometres closer. It was a beautiful drive, but it didn't take too long before we had regretted our decision. Less miles, but not such great roads. In fact, some just plain horrible. We had detours and we changed roads dozens of time, so we had to drive with the map in my lap and constantly be alert. Then there were the trucks driving 15 kph up the mountain and no place to pass. Monday definitely dragged on and on, as we sang "This is the trip that never ends". I took this shot on one of the straightest and best stretches along the highway. I am glad I didn't have motion sickness on the hairpin turns, as many years ago I traveled this highway and I did get sick. By the time we got into Rio, it was dark and the traffic was horrendous and my poor husband had to tangle with bumper to bumper traffic for over an hour after driving over 10 hours. We were two tired kiddies. I still haven't unpacked, as I was too tired. Today I had to teach my seminary class. I didn't even feel like eating, much less fixing lunch, so we ate on the delicious cheese we bought along the highway. (Minas Gerais is famous for its milk and cheese products). So our grand adventure is over and we are back to our routine. I am washing clothes and getting ready to teach tomorrow. João is at a meeting at church. The interlude was wonderful, but it is always good to be back home again.