So you know you're Brazilan when.... (with selected commentary)

-You think American bathing suits are enormous. (Oh my gosh, yes!)
-You like Guarana better than Coke. (Nah, but Coca Light takes an easy first place over Diet Coke.)
-If someone tells you to be at a certain place at 1:00 pm, you don't show up until 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. (Maybe leave the house at 1:00pm)
-You know who Xuxa and Pele are. (I actually was proud of myself one time when Gilmore Girls mentioned Xuxa and I knew who she was!)
-You would rather die than see Argentina beat Brazil in soccer.
-BBQ means steak, sausage, chicken wings, pork, rice, farofa, molho and beer. (A hard choice between Brasilian and Southern!)
-You are the loudest person in the room. (That's hard to do here....)
-You travel to Brazil and instead of taking a suitcase with all your stuff, you take presents for the entire family, the dog, the neighbor, not to mention the old/used clothes that you take just in case someone needs it.
-You're so proud that you're Brazilian you tell everyone. (Does it count that I am proud to seem Brasilian?)
-You leave your house spotless when you have people coming over.
-You have a sweet ass (or you like women with them).
-You understand & speak Spanish, but when you say a word in Portuguese no one understands you. (Maybe it's just my accent.)
-You take soccer too seriously. (Or at least have memorized the game schedules so you don't have to pass by Maracanã on Sundays or Wednesdays.)
-You cried when Brazil lost the world cup. (Not too hard.)
-You know what Capoeira is.
-You know a lot about Samba and Pagode. (Aw, samba isn't hard to dance.)
-You eat rice and beans at least 7 days a week.
-Your breakfast consists of milk and coffee, bread with butter and a piece of cake.
-Everyone thinks you're everything but Brazilian. (French, German, American)
-You know who Os Trapalhoes, Turma da Monica, Zico, Caetano Veloso, Tom Jobim, Elis Regina, Ronaldinho, Jo Soares, Cazuza, Gilberto Gil, Silvio Santos, Roberto Carlos, Ayrton Senna, amd Carmem Miranda are. (They forgot Vinicius de Moraes!)
You are so used to corruption that nothing surprises you anymore. (Louisiana has nothing on this country!)
-You know how to play dominoes and cards.
-You take pictures everywhere you go.
-You know how to party, and if the party isn't over after 5am...its not a party!
-Any holiday...being it official or not, is an excuse to stay home from work and take a week vacation. (And you dread the day after a holiday because traffic, for some random reason, will be worse than normal.)
-You know what feijoada and pave are. (Gross on the first, yummy on the second.)
-You spend an entire day at the beach.
-You are too friendly. (I've started telling people my whole life story.)
-You make friends everywhere you go. (Everybody has something in common with me.)
-You own havaianas in every color imaginable. (Not yet.)
-No meal is complete without rice, farofa and feijão. (WHY, when I cook, do I feel like I have to make rice and beans?)
-You'll fly Varig even if it's a little more expensive because it's Brazilian. (Hey, it's nice!)

The call of God is always to Himself, and not to a geographical location or station in life.
Let me explain....
God calling us to Himself does not mean that He will never call us to a geographical location or station in life. What it does mean is that His call is ultimately for us to be with Him, to know Him, to trust Him, no matter where we are (geographically or otherwise). Everything that He commands has the ultimate purpose to bring us to Himself, whether it is "fun" or not, whether we want to be there or not, whether we like it or not.
Hmm....
Upon re-reading, I realized that the end of this post sounds a little bitter, which is NOT how I meant it at all. I was just trying to emphasize the fact that while a great majority of life is enjoyable, there will be times when obedience takes us to places we wouldn't have chosen outside of the will of God. And then, it's the knowledge of the will of God that keeps us there, not how much we like the place.

City travel

Mia and I went to Pão de Açucar (Sugar Loaf) today and made it there very well in a taxi. Since the dollar is so crappy right now (meaning we're getting a HORRIBLE exchange rate), I didn't want to spend that much money to get home. So we asked the information guy what buses passed by there and went to a metro station. Good idea; the metro comes very close to my apartment.
The bus ride was fine, even though it was the first time I had taken that particular route and the cord that you pull to signal the driver to stop and let you off at the next stop was broken. Or he couldn't hear. I'm not sure which. We got to the metro station without any hassle and bought our tickets. I forgot one huge detail. IT WAS 5:15 WHEN WE GOT TO THE METRO STATION. Hmm. The train arrived and was already chock full (so we thought). The guy in front of us kept pushing people farther and farther into the train (thank goodness, or Mia's arm would have been cut off by the closing doors). Mia's face was in my armpit until I graciously moved it for her. Then we started laughing. The kind that doesn't stop. I am glad of many, many things today, but I will name two here: that we didn't get to laughing too hard, and that I am not claustrophobic.

Today I am amazed at the reaction to my udpate. I have gotten some return e-mails with people saying that they are asking God just as many questions as I did last year while I was waiting, and that they are ashamed to ask Him to prove Himself over and over again. I must say that I didn't expect to hear back from so many people, and I tend to forget how big my sphere of influence actually is.
I am not inclined to share my whole life story, or even small parts of it; I generally take my time in even trying to figure out what's going on with me. So I tend to overlook the fact that sharing even little bits of what I am dealing with can help others.

I have been reading some of my friends' blogs and am realizing that they have a lot more courage than I do when it comes to sharing quite personal details of my own life, which I realize is not for everyone. I also realize that most of my friends (actually, all of them) have no idea what is going through my head at any given moment. There are some lucky ones who pay enough attention to notice my facial expressions. Those say thousands of words. Mostly because I don't even have time to process it during the day. Some days I think my brain is going to explode, and some days I even wish it would, so I could start over with a clean slate.
The worries that run through my head are generally mild, and I find that if I ruminate on them I just get stressed. Talking about them is included in the stressors. However, being the problem solver that I am, I try to take on the bigger ones and fix them. The real problem comes when I start worrying about others' lives more than I worry about my own.
I have just written an update (see below) talking about trust. I must remember that.

An overdue update

Well, it’s time for another update! Maybe past time. We have been preparing for our teams coming in and are almost ready. I have been back for 6 months and am reminded every day how much I love this country. At the same time, God is continually showing me Brasilians who are passionate for their own country to know Jesus, and who are passionate for others to become true disciples, not just nominal Christians.
I had the privilege over the Easter weekend to go to Belo Horizonte for a Youth for Christ (MPC here in Brasil) music festival, which included artists who have influenced Brasilian evangelical music very much over the last 30 years. It is amazing to see that Brasilians here are making the gospel culturally relevant, writing hymns and praise songs in local music styles (including samba!), telling Bible stories even in local dialect, and being part of a movement that is passionate about reaching Brasil on Brasil’s terms, culturally speaking.
A funny note: For those of you who don’t know much about the different regions of Brasil, the southern region of Brasil has much European (LOTS of German) influence, even down to skin, hair, and eye color. Basically, there are lots of tall, very white Brasilians in the south, simply because of their ancestry. I have had more than one taxi driver here in Rio ask me if I’m German, simply because I am tall and white. So while in BH, whenever anyone would ask me where I was from, I would tell them I was from the south and living in Rio. Most people didn’t even blink an eye and asked what state I was from (Brasil has states also). I had one guy thinking for 2 whole days I was Brasilan (before I told him I wasn’t)!
I am doing well with my language but am beginning to realize that I am still thinking very much in English. That gets frustrating when I am trying to translate things in my own mind. Please pray that God would help me to start thinking in Portuguese more often, so that I can communicate even better.
I am beginning to realize that God is using my time here in Brasil as a time of restoration, primarily of my trust in Him. I know that you all know that I spent six months waiting on a visa, and I asked Him every day why I couldn’t be here. I knew that He wanted me here, but I did not walk in an attitude of trust. I must say that I have grieved that much and God has been amazingly kind to me in showing Himself trustworthy. It reminds me of the story of Thomas, standing there looking at the resurrected Christ, yet still needing to touch Him to believe. Aren’t we all like that? How many times has God proven Himself trustworthy, yet we ask for more proof? He has proven Himself time and time again, throughout history, whether He has been believed or not. May we walk with Him in trust, even if we start with baby steps.
We have a few teams coming over the next 6 weeks, and then the craziness starts! Please pray for the following teams:
Vet clinic – Clarksville – April 28-May 4 – Parque das Missões
Volleyball team – Belmont – May 15 – May 23 – various locations
Medical team – Brentwood – May 25 – June 2 – 2nd Baptist Church Vila do João
Pray that God would prepare those who we come into contact with, and that He would prepare the teams to share His good news of His love with everyone we meet.
For He alone is worthy.

Upon going up Corcovado to see the statue Cristo Redentor (vote here to make this statue one of the New 7 Wonders of the World), we sat down to have juice. All of a sudden, we had a fly-by that was a little frightening. Turns out that one of the Red Bull Air Races is to be held on Saturday, April 21 here in Rio. After the initial fright, it was kind of fun watching the stunt plane (and the helicopter following it) practice.

I finally caved

As I think people all over the US know, the MySpace craze has taken over the internet. What most Americans may not know is that the same type of craze has taken over the internet in the rest of the world. It's called Orkut. I was so proud of myself for resisting the MySpace craze for so long. I still am. But I had to wave the white flag of surrender and sign up for Orkut. Apparently Brazilians get really disappointed when you don't have Orkut -- a way for them to keep up with what you're doing and where you are. One of my friends invited me to join, and I simply succumbed to the peer pressure. On the positive side, I am excited about being able to keep in touch with friends all over this country.

My friend Ilce and I went yesterday to buy Easter eggs. I know Easter has already passed, but you know what that means: SALE! She bought 3 eggs; I bought 4. Not sure my 4th one counts, though -- it's for my little sister (because it has a very cool SpongeBob yo-yo inside). She's 25.
Here's a short list:
Prestígio: An egg from Nestle that has milk chocolate on the outside with a coconut lining (and mini candy bars inside). I bought 2 of these -- 1 broken (it's all chocolate in the end) and 1 whole.
Sonho de Valsa Branco: As you might guess, this one has white chocolate with a filling inside.
Sponge Bob: A milk chocolate egg with a really cool yo-yo inside.
I have already eaten most of the broken Prestígio. All I can say is YUM.

Rain

I am currently listening to the sound of rain out my window. Not that wimpy sprinkling rain, but the rain that soaks in the ground and refreshes everything growing in it. The kind that is good to listen to as you go to sleep. We haven't had very much rain in Rio over the past 2 months. January had about 7 sunny days (unheard of for Rio), and then summer came in full force. Until this weekend. It's finally getting cooler (which means it's 85 instead of 90) and I am so thankful. And off to bed to listen to this glorious rain.

Som do Céu

I had the chance this past weekend to go to a music festival called Som do Céu (Sound from Heaven) that was very, very cool. It included artists who have highly influenced Christian music in Brasil in the last 30 years. They have succeeded in writing songs telling about who God is that are culturally relevant and will be listened to (if not understood) by people who would never set foot in a church. They have written songs that praise God with a samba beat, bossa nova, forró (a style of music very popular in northeast Brasil), and the Brasilian equivalent to country music. It's amazing to me how much one country can be different in the culture of its regions, but that's what happens when the people take culture into their own hands. It's beautiful.
I went with some friends and made new ones from all over Brasil, and even succeeded in making some people think I was Brasilian! But then again, I do look very much like someone from south Brasil. I am finally gaining some credibility as a Brasilian, which makes me SO happy!

The state of things at home

My desk is ridiculous. I have no less than 10 books on it, along with a calendar, my computer, a bottle of water, a bottle of Coca Light (that's Diet Coke for those of you unfamiliar with the international branding), several CD's of pictures, a mug full of pens, my computer and modem, a bottle of nail polish, a wedding invitation, and a roll of duct tape. If I listed everything, this post would never end. I am wishing my camera's batteries weren't dead so I could post a picture of it. Sadly, there's no room on here to charge them.

Friends, relatives, and welcome guests

Over the next two months, I will be playing host to a number of different people. I am headed out of town this weekend for a music festival. Then, my friend Mia arrives next Thursday to stay for 2 weeks. Our first volunteer team comes 2 days after she leaves. David comes May 18th, and my mom and sister and baby brother (I am SO excited he's coming!) come the next week. The day they arrive, our first medical team comes in. And then we don't stop until the end of October. I am getting tired just thinking about it, but I am ready!