Wednesday, August 13, 2008


Well, Saturday came and went as a pretty laid back day, especially compared to the rest of the week. Not many people work on the weekends in Brazil, and Chian of Love is no different. We got to sleep in, eat a leisurely breakfast, and hang out in the dorms for the morning. After another delicious lunch, we headed outside to hang with the kids, who were all pretty excited for the upcoming Festa Inverno, which was planned to start around 6:00. All afternoon people had been setting up tables in the gym, and as 6:00 grew closer, these tables started filling up with crafts, games and most importantly, food. We all agreed that the "common" Brazilian food is some of the best food we have ever had. There were pastries with meat in them called pastels (to die for) and the best dessert ever: little balls of goodness with chocolate icing and sprinkles on it. According to Luke F. they are "life changing". The gym was packed with people, all having a great time. Outside of the gym was a mechanical bull, which cost only 1 real (60 Canadian cents) for three tries. Of course, a lot of our team wanted to try. By the time 10:00 rolled around, we were all pretty tired, and headed off to bed.

Sunday gave us a little more of a busy day, as we got up and ate breakfast, had a team meeting and headed off to the hippie market in Porto Alegre. We arrived at 10:30, and the ladies powershopped until 12:00, when we were to meet at the bus. Most of the guys found a lot of the merchandise very feminine (there was a lot of jewlery), but still enjoyed the very unique experience of an open market. At 12:00, we were driven to a genuine Churrascaria, with a gaucho (cowboy) show and everything. A Churrascaria is a restaurant that is similar to the Pizzaria in the way you are served, but differs in one aspect. It's not pizza; it's meat. And it's giant chunks of meat on swords. On the left, you see a picture of one of the waiters, holding a large sword with meat on it, and the very sharp knife used to cut it into serving size pieces. A very unique experience, for sure. After the meal, there was a show, with some traditonal dancing and rope tricks. These ropes were used with cattle, and have weights on each end. The gauchos in the show demonstrated some very intense tricks, including spinning the end of the rope so close to someone's head that their hair moved! Very cool. After the Churrascaria, we all headed back to Chain of Love, very full and very ready for a siesta. We left for church at 6:30, and enjoyed another service of worshiping in two different languages. Because this Sunday was Father's Day in Brazil, they had the little kids come up and sing a song. I think the only word that any of us (except Randy S. and Krista D.) caught was 'pie' - dad! Soon after we got back from church, we quickly headed to bed, as we had a busy day ahead of us.


Monday was pretty normal. We got up, ate breakfast, the got to work. Between craft classes, sport classes and other work projects, we were kept busy. Lunch was delicious, as always, and siesta was delightful. Then it was back to work until around 4:00, when we got to hang out with the kids until supper. Randy, Shelley, and Kameron S. as well as Sarah H. headed off to eat supper at the house of a family from the church. We had ESL and sport classes that night, with Josh D. filling in for Randy S. in ESL. At 10:00, we had a team meeting, then went to bed.

At breakfast on Tuesday, Ken and Jerilyn Bayer and Chris Kidd shared with the team a little bit about Chain of Love's ministry and how it started and then left the floor open for questions from us. Then the rest of the day went fairly normal, with the exception of a little outing for the lady leaders and Ingrid Kidd in the afternoon. They were planning on getting manicures and petticures, and then going grocery shopping, but the nails took a little longer than expected, and the rest of the team picked them up on our way to our second Brazilian Pizzaria, which was absalutely amazing. There were atleast 10 different types of dessert pizzas, all very delicious. On your left is an example of one of the dessert pizzas - white chocolate and strawberry. Delicious! After the Pizzaria, we headed back to Chain of Love, and went to bed.

Nalanda Barber (for the Brazil Gateway Team from Faith Baptist - Regina, SK)



1 comment:

Kindermusik in Regina said...

We really enjoyed reading your blog and seeing the pictures. It is great to hear about all of the things you are doing. We can't wait to hear more and see all the pictures when you come home.