After moving all of our things from Turvo to Entre Rios and staying a night in Daren's bed room, we took off to our next destination here in Nepomuceno. The bus rides took a total of about fifteen hours with a two hour break in the middle when we switched buses. Other than watching Gladiator and sleeping, the trip was overall uneventful.
We arrived in Nepo around ten o'clock or so and moved all of our things to Heltton's apartment (Heltton is twenty-four and his family and him have worked here for a number of years). Since then we have moved rooms but we stayed with Heltton for the first five nights. That in itself was a bit of a challenging experience. Because of the church camp that took place for the first five days, our room (Heltton's living room) was the main walkway for about four men from Sao Paolo to get back into their room. It also happened to be one of the boys hang out areas during the camp. It was hard for us with the lack of privacy especially because we enjoy taking time in the morning to have quiet time to read and pray. Each morning, however, we were woken up to the boys or men walking through the apartment or just hanging out for a while. There were rarely moments when there were not people around. I can't imagine how it must have been for Heltton but Brazilians have a way of hospitality that I cannot understand.
Church camp for us was overall a good experience. They were here for the first five days because carnival was going on in Brazil and they wanted to avoid such events. The camp was much like any camp I have been to in the states with programs and activities for the kids in the morning and a service in the evening; lots of food and plenty of fun. We participated in most of the events and had a great deal of fun through it all, mostly because Steven and I are the only Americans here so we were often the center of attention.
For one of the evening some of the men dressed up as a random American band with wigs and clothes they apparently thought American bands would wear. Then they tried to sing English songs hoping we would understand. The only word we recognized was "California." The best part was the one of the guys knew a small amount of English. So between songs he would say whatever words he thought made sense together, which, in most cases did not. "Thank you, please," "thank you, good morning," "beautiful music," or any random collection of greetings and thank you's. One of the other guys in the band would translate what he thought was correct. He probably just said something funny because everyone laughed and so did we because the English didn't make any sense and he said it so sincerely.
We had a lot of fun the following evening as well. It was the last night of camp and they had a small service with music and preaching and after the final prayer the party started. The music came on and food came rolling out and people sprayed these cans of something everywhere (shaving cream like stuff) and people started dancing. The food was bananas and some rice puddling and mango and peanuts and lots of candy. People started dancing and eventually convinced me to do the same. The cameras came out and everyone wanted a picture with the Americans, especially the girls. So, needless to say my picture is now all over in Sao Paolo households (Steven's is not because he mysteriously disappeared at this time).
This all lasted for a while until finally it started to die down. Steven and I decided we were tired and went to bed. I was right about the point in sleep when you aren't sure if you are awake or asleep, when suddenly about twenty guys came rushing into our room saying in broken English, "excuse me, excuse me, excuse me" and sitting on our beds. I rolled over and gave a sigh and wasn't sure what I was going to do, when Steven just happened to say I farted in Portuguese loud enough for everyone to hear. "OH!" everyone said and they all backed off. It was either Steven's words and actions or it was them being nice to us, but they left very soon after that.
The next day everyone from camp left and it was a neat feeling to know that we made some good friendships. A cool thing too is that we are actually going to go to Sao Paulo for five days before we go back home. One of the couples invited us to stay at their house, go to the beach, and see the city. We were and are very excited about that. Some other couples found out about it and want us to visit them for dinner. So, we are going to see at least three different families and maybe go to the church in Sao Paolo before we leave for the states.
But, though we are excited for what is ahead, we still have a month or so in Nepo. This in now our sixth day and we are just now starting to get used to what is going on here. This is the first day we have been here that there has not been camp. In many ways, it is really our first full day here as it normally is. We have moved into the guest house now and it is a very nice change from the previous "hallway." In fact it is a full three bedroom house. We are staying in one of the rooms and we use the kitchen, bathroom, and living room, but the dining room and other two bedrooms are mostly unused.
We are in the process of learning the schedule. This morning we had breakfast and worked for part of the morning, then had lunch, did little to nothing for an hour and then went back to work. After work we ate some guava fruit and lemons off the trees and the boys are currently playing soccer.
So, Steven and I are looking forward to our time here and how God will work through us. We continue to learn many things together and individually. By now on our trip we have an understanding of each other's strengths and weaknesses. God put us together on this trip for us to grow together by sharpening each other towards becoming like Christ. I am thankful for the ways Steven has encouraged me and helped me to grow and am very glad that he asked me to come on this trip with him.
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