Capoeira

One day I was walking through the city and came across this in the middle of a park area.  It's called capoeira and is a very traditional Brazilian type of martial art that focuses on dance and music.  Pretty neat.

And here's a picture of our very own Alisha practicing capoeira the first time she came to Brazil almost 3 years ago.

A Smith Family Visit

My dad and grandma were here for 6 days last week.  Arriving on Thanksgiving day.  I decided to take them to paradise for a day or two.  We relaxed on the beach, drank coconut water, tried to watch the sunrise (it comes up way earlier than I thought), held a sea urchin, and even got to walk out on some reefs and found one natural pool that is shaped like Brazil.  

The sunrise that was still beautiful even though we missed it.

Me holding the sea urchin.  It tickled a lot.

Grandma, Annika and I at dinner. 

Grandma made a friend at Derby and even taught her a word in English-- "hug". 

I got to introduce them to one of the ladies, Riso, who donated her time when we first arrived to teach us Portuguese and has continued to be an awesome friend. 

We had an amazing lunch with the ministers and deacons in the church in São Lourenço and their families. A fun afternoon had by all.  Including coconut water, fresh fruit juice, yummy food, and lots of translating.  

We even got to see a few museums and get to know the culture a little better.

Thanksgiving: Brazilian Style

We all knew that being in Brazil for Thanksgiving was going to be a little bit weird.  I mean, for one thing Thanksgiving is during the fall...not the spring.  For another, Thanksgiving is all about Pilgrims and Indians.  I don't even know the Portuguese word for 'pilgrims' (Annika does, and has been great about sharing the true Thanksgiving story)...it's just not one of those words that people use everyday.  Anyway, many, many months ago an awesome missionary family invited us to spend Thanskgiving at their house.  We eagerly accepted.  A little about their family: Dennis, an American, married Germana, a Brazilian, and they have two beautiful half Brazilian/ half American daughters, Paulina and Victoria.  However, they all joke that Germana is the most American one in the family when in comes to Thanksgiving.  She was so excited that we all got to spend the day together.

We started planning the menu and set a day on our calendars.  We were even going to invite my dad and grandma who were going to be visiting me and could bring us some of those coveted "Thanksgiving ingredients" that don't exist here in Brazil.  However, plans didn't work out quite that well, and we ended up having the dinner before my dad and grandma arrived.  So, on Tuesday morning, we gathered in Germana's kitchen to try our hand at our planned Thanksgiving foods.  While we didn't have all of the ingredients to make our traditional thanksgiving foods, we did pretty good and even added in some foods that just reminded us of home.  We had a feast of delicious food as we brought both American and Brazilian together to give thanks for what God has provided for us (too much of a stretch trying to connect it back to the original Indians and Pilgrims?).  

Annika made a delicious corn casserole.

Alisha made dressing and I made fried okra.

Annika created a beautiful fall table setting.  Doesn't it just make you want to sit down and eat!

And we all sat down to enjoy or Thanksgiving meal.  We even invited Germana's mom and neice to join or celebration. 

Our menu consisted of chicken, gravy, dressing, biscuits  fried okra, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, salad and passion fruit juice.  With strawberry cheesecake and apple cobbler with cinnamon rolls on top for dessert.  

Yumm!