To follow along with our team adventures check out this website:
http://crossmark.diaryland.com
So… an update on my part:
Right now we are in Santa Cruz, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. We are John, Dave, Alison and me.
Let me back up for a minute though, the flights went well, though it made for a long, full day of traveling. 8 people is just the right size for a traveling group. It was fun to finally be “on our own,” without Pete or anyone else to tell us where to go and how to get there. We work well as a group! We flew to Dallas/Fort Worth with an hour stop in Chicago. From here we flew to Sao Paulo, then onto Porto Alegre. We encountered only minor problems during this travel- Dave almost left the airport with his return tickets still on the plane, and Kelli’s carry-on was taken beneath the plane (as she was the last person on the plane and there wasn’t any room in the overhead bins for it) and we weren’t sure that it would make it to our final destination, BUT it did, and Dave realized he didn’t have his tickets and made his way back to his seat to claim them. I was able to sleep on each of our four flights, and spent a bit of time reading my Portuguese book. On the 10 hour flight to Brazil I sat beside a Brazilian business man named Eduardo. We enjoyed talking with one another, and I enjoyed learning about his life and of Brazilian culture.
Our team was met by our Brazilian contact Armin Hollas at the airport. He escorted us to a bus and we traveled another hour to a restaurant where we ate our first Brazilian meal. We traveled another two hours through the countryside to Santa Cruz, and the synod here. We met with the bishop, two young adults connected with the church, and the bishop’s wife. We used our limited Portuguese, and our new friend Everton to translate between the groups. Ice cream was served as well as “sprinkled” (mineral) water. I felt very welcomed here! We were told that Alison and I would begin our program with CAPA on Monday, so until then we will remain with John and Dave at the church apartment here in Santa Cruz. Tony and Erik traveled with Armin to his home an hour north of here soon after we finished our ice cream and said our goodbyes. The rest of the group traveled to the supermarket and then to our Santa Cruz contact Dirceau’s house for a pizza meal. After this we walked to the apartment- just across the driveway from Dirceau’s to settle in and go to bed. Kelli and Shaina spent part of a night at the apartment with us- though they left at 3:30 in the morning to make the 5 hour drive to the Uruguay border where they will be stationed for the first 3 weeks.
Yesterday John, Dave, Alison and I slept really late. It felt good to catch up on sleep! Our contacts wanted us to settle in and take our time acclimating ourselves to the new setting. Both Dirceau and Everton were busy (driving to Uruguay and taking classes) and invited us to feel free to walk around the city and purchase some groceries. We did walk around town and get our bearings. We can now successfully ask where to buy international calling cards, “Tine cartoes internacionales fone?” buy groceries (at 2 locations), make our way to any of 3 pizzerias, and find our way back to the church from just about any location in town. It feels good to feel functional already! At the end of the day I had even learned to play Euchre. Alison, Dave, John and I are enjoying this time together before we’ll begin our programs on Monday.
Santa Cruz translates to “Holy Cross” and is home to 180,000 people, of which 12,000 are Evangelicals. This means that there church is rather large and home to many active members. This morning we attended the 9:15 service at the church where Dirceau is an Associate Pastor. Though everything was spoken in Portuguese I was able to follow along quite a bit. True to form, this Lutheran Church service lasted one hour and we were graciously welcomed by the congregation afterwards. Many of the members asked if we could speak Portuguese or German. Nope, not really! We felt welcomed nonetheless.
We’re using Internet at Dirceau’s now, and passing friendship tea around the group. Friendship tea is called “Shimarou” and is often passed amongst groups in Southern Brazil. A gourd-like cup is filled with yerba matte and continually refilled with hot water. Everyone sips from the same cup and the same straw-“bomba.” Soon we’ll eat lunch together and then…
We don’t ever really know what’s next! We’re trying to become more comfortable with this- as it will be our reality for most of this trip. It’s freeing in many ways, but also stressful.
I’m anxious to see what our placement will be like at CAPA. Alison and I are hoping that much of our time will be spent farming, but again, we don’t really know what to expect. We will be just a half hour north of Santa Cruz, so we’re hoping that we can come and visit John and Dave during the Oktoberfest celebration in Santa Cruz. There’s such a large German influence here- and the whole town is preparing for this celebration.
All for now...
Katy | 
