Caetano Veloso

Meet the newest member of our little home: Caetano! He is the most amazing of little cats, and speaks Portuguese! Taking his name from on of Brazil's most famous singers, Caetano Veloso, our little guy has quite the singing voice!

And here's a trailer from the moive that inspired his name:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS8uhFa0MYg

This documentary is about Tropicalismo, a revolutionary musical movement in the late sixties that has had a lasting impact on Brazilian culture, even up to this day. I saw it on Monday in theaters and was much intrigued by the music and the passion. I was also excited because it was my first Brazilian national film to see in theaters, and I was able to follow fairly well with my limited knowledge of the beautiful Portuguese language.

Seasons

Happy October! So it's that time of year again... fall. The leaves are changing, the air is getting crisper... and yet here we are, tanning by the pool in the warm summer sun. It's strange not experiencing the fall weather. This will be the first time in my life that this beautiful season won't touch me. It's caused me to pause and think about the rhythms of life, the seasons, the cycles, how we are all affected by the passages of time, even if subconsciously.

Full Moon

And so from this end of the world . . . Happy Summer!

Jovens Retreat

At the jovens retreat in Belo Jardim, a city about 3 hours inland from Recife, it was cool, so we had to bring jackets and blankets and it was still cold.  Not cold, but 55 or 60 degrees. There were about 100 young people, ages 12-30, from all over the state of Pernambuco coming together for 3 days of lessons, praise, food, games and fellowship.  It was an interesting mix since there was a variety of teens and young adults so I felt like I was half participant and half helper.  I helped get our team get into the relays, games, building of spiritual armor and washing dishes. 

We got to spend quality time with people deepening relationships as well as get to know new friends. Annika and I were able to reconnect with some of the people we met from other cities two years ago. There were a few girls in particular I met and spent a good amount of time with, both of them didn’t know many other people, it was a blessing that God brought us there to cross paths and encourage each other.  

Sagui!

At a camp a few weeks ago a young girl asked a group of us if we wanted to go exploring the city during free time and see the monkeys.  My automatic response was "yes!"  I've lived here for 6 months now and the only monkeys I've seen have been caged monkeys in this park downtown.  So we all got ready and set out on our walk.

After walking a little while, we stopped in this little square and I asked her how much longer till we got to see the monkeys.  She looked up and pointed and there above our heads were like 5 Sagui monkeys hanging out in this little habitat in the tree in the middle of town.  Naturally, we bought bananas and tried to lure them down, but they were very skeptical.  Here's a video of the friendliest...or hungriest.

We moved!

Sorry it's been so long.  We've been without internet since we moved almost a month ago.  Which brings me to the exciting news for the day...WE MOVED! After lots of prayers, lots of talking, and lots of trying to decide between practicality and awesome neighbors--we decided to move.  We don't live on that crazy steep hill anymore in the middle of São Lourenço, but in an apartment building about 5 minutes away from the center of town.  There are definite advantages and disadvantages to both of the houses, but I feel overwhelmingly blessed to be living in this new community.  We now have room for people to come visit and stay with us...*hint hint*!

The Dancing Dog

On our way to a friend's house out in the country, we walked past this dancing dog.  It's kinda entertaining because he's dancing to the music, but also really sad because he's been hearing nothing but loud music for so long that he can't do anything else.

Sorry about all the wind and the bad sound quality.

Obstacle Course in the Streets!

There have been quite a few interesting things in the street recently that deserve being shared with the rest of the world.  :)

Exhibit A: This is a giant tree stump. 

I don't really know where this tree stump came from because I'd never seen it before in my life, but one day it showed up on our way home and three days later it was gone.  They were doing a lot of construction on the road and I'm not sure if they dug it up, or were using it to defer traffic.  Either way, it made for an interesting landmark.  

 Exhibit B: This is a large pile of bricks.

A lot of people are doing construction on their houses right now so it's a pretty normal thing to see large piles of bricks or piles of sand in front of people's houses.  I also just find it funny because when someone is bringing us home, we just have to tell them that our house is the one in front of the giant pile of bricks.

Exhibit C: Lots of Water and a giant hole.

(Picture to come eventually)

Something happened about a month ago to a pipe on our street and it has been leaking water ever since.  They've come out to fix it a few times, but can't exactly find the problem.  So the hole keeps growing and shrinking and the water keeps flowing.  It's made our steep hill a little hard to climb!