Family Pictures

Here are a few pictures we wanted to share with all of you. Oddly enough, this red headed boy kept sneaking into our pictures. Hope you enjoy.

O que? Are you speaking Portuguese to Me?

We continue our daily endevor to learn this language. Each day we pray that a few more words and concepts to cement themselves into our brains. It is as hard as you might think it is to completely learn a new language. To change how you think about the world around you and to put it in a different order. We make big mistakes and little ones. Yesterday in class we had to describe ourselves and I said I had "orelhas verdes e brilhantes" my teacher burst out laughing because instead of saying I had bright green eyes (olhos) I said I had bright green ears(orelhas). That definately goes under the category of little mistakes. I am afraid I don't even realize some of my big ones. However we cannot allow ourselves to be intimadated by our mistakes or we never speak at all. And its pretty hard to tell people about the good news if you don't talk.

Happy Birthday to Stacey

Tonight we celebrated Stacey's Birthday with fajitas. Mmmm. Our team each brought part of the meal. For our mexican celebration we had to make most of it from scratch. So we made our own fajita seasoning, tortillas, guacamole, sour cream, and refried beans. We bought our corn chips from a mexican restaurant for...lets just say more than you would pay for a bag Tostitos. All in all it was a wonderful meal and a wonderful birthday celebration for our friend.

Rain, Rain go away....

So it is another rainy winter day here in Salvador. And by winter I mean you still might break into a sweat but not sweltering, and by rainy I mean another day that your towels won't dry when you hang them up after a shower.
We knew the seasons were opposite here but we didn't expect all the implications of a different seasonal calendar as well as a different climate. We are still trying to get used to it being "winter" in July. Although it helps that it isn't actually cold. Although we have slept without our air conditioner on 3 out of the last 4 nights. And I do put on a sweater occasionally. Okay actually I only put on a sweater when I go to the movies. It seems to be a world wide phenomenon for movie theaters to be 20 degrees below 0.
It may be more strange when we are celebrating Christmas in the middle of summer. We ar also trying to get used to the idea of our birthday's being in the opposite season. It is difficult to imagine having a Fall birthday when you've always had a spring birthday. Just another part of culture shock I guess.