Hey everyone!
I realized I never wrote about my weekend helping out with the 5 boys at Lar Eloim (one of the Casa Abba homes). It was quite an adventure! Most of the two days I spent enjoying getting to know the rhythm of the home, and trying to figure out which way was up between mischievous smiles and jokes, full-on charm, pouting and sulking, shrek-pussy like eyes when there was danger of getting in trouble, and over all really liking the boys. Nevertheless, I admit that spending 20 hours in one weekend with 5 energetic boys between 7 and 13 years of age, who are still learning what it is like to follow the rules of a home, was exhausting. I think in the future, I might help out just on Saturdays, to preserve my sanity a little bit more :). Anyway, pray that I have wisdom in relating to them, and can be firm about the boundaries that need to be in place. I'm not sure I'm always very good about being authoritative!
God bless!
Rachel
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
Hi friends
Hi Friends,
I haven't written in a while. Today has been a lazy day. Lol. Well, actually it's been a lazy day for the last 30 minutes or so :). I recently did a puzzle while listening to Jars of Clay... some of their best music. It was lovely. Anyway, the rest of today has been busy. I got up early in the morning (6ish) to get a ride with a friend to the nearest metro/el/subway/whatever-you-call-it-in-your-city station. It's about 40 minutes away by car. Then I took the metro/el/whatever downtown so that I could get a Brazilian social security number, so I can open a bank account. :).
I hadn't been in the actual historic part of São Paulo for a long time. Many of the old, narrow cobblestone streets have been left intact, but made into pedestrian thoroughfares that run between the paved, busy traffic-filled lanes. Both weave in and out of a combination of old-fashioned (1800s) large, yellowish buildings (I currently don't know what they are made of) and occasional more modern ones. I took a convoluted route to the "poupa-tempo," or "time-saver" building, a huge government complex that provides the public with a variety of services. On the way back, I discovered that if I had done it slightly differently, it would have been a straight-forward block away! However, I managed to get thoroughly lost on the way there, and asked the assistance of a smiling woman about my age waiting to cross the street I had been directed to by the previous direction-giver (a middle-aged man). She said "oh, I'm going there too, just follow me!" So I did!
We passed numerous people trying to convince us that if we took our pictures for the government documents with them, it would be cheaper than the next guy, and eventually ran into a woman with a shirt that read "information." I was guided to the "green plaza" and from there to the "yellow desk" and from there down a corridor to a government official who looked at my identification and paperclipped an approval paper to it. He then sent me back the way I came to the "red wing" where they took my paper clipped documents and told me to have a seat. Several minutes later, I was called to the desk, and given a social security on a normal looking white paper. I was told I would get the official card in the mail within the next 60 days! Whew, the bureaucracy! Thankfully the lines weren't long, and I was out of there within about 20 minutes. The "time-saver" is accurately named... if only it didn't take me an hour and a half to get there!
Anyway, skipping over the adventures on the metro and bus on the way home, I arrived around 11:00AM to discover my computer was being dysfunctional. I did a variety of things around the house while waiting to see if it was going to decide to be alive, and finally decided the only way to get it out of its neutral state half-way through the shut-down process was to pull the battery on it. This proved quite affective, and it was up and running in a matter of minutes. As a result, I got four good hours of work in on my dad's website in the afternoon. I took a break about an hour ago, and did the dishes that have been piling up in the kitchen the last few days, before sitting down for a lovely half-hour with Jars of Clay and a puzzle. Which put me in a lovely, lazy mood, thus the beginning of this blog.
Now I better go pull my laundry out of our gas-powered dryer, before the gas fills the house so much it gets dangerous. I hope your day was as enjoyable as mine!
God bless!
Rachel
I haven't written in a while. Today has been a lazy day. Lol. Well, actually it's been a lazy day for the last 30 minutes or so :). I recently did a puzzle while listening to Jars of Clay... some of their best music. It was lovely. Anyway, the rest of today has been busy. I got up early in the morning (6ish) to get a ride with a friend to the nearest metro/el/subway/whatever-you-call-it-in-your-city station. It's about 40 minutes away by car. Then I took the metro/el/whatever downtown so that I could get a Brazilian social security number, so I can open a bank account. :).
I hadn't been in the actual historic part of São Paulo for a long time. Many of the old, narrow cobblestone streets have been left intact, but made into pedestrian thoroughfares that run between the paved, busy traffic-filled lanes. Both weave in and out of a combination of old-fashioned (1800s) large, yellowish buildings (I currently don't know what they are made of) and occasional more modern ones. I took a convoluted route to the "poupa-tempo," or "time-saver" building, a huge government complex that provides the public with a variety of services. On the way back, I discovered that if I had done it slightly differently, it would have been a straight-forward block away! However, I managed to get thoroughly lost on the way there, and asked the assistance of a smiling woman about my age waiting to cross the street I had been directed to by the previous direction-giver (a middle-aged man). She said "oh, I'm going there too, just follow me!" So I did!
We passed numerous people trying to convince us that if we took our pictures for the government documents with them, it would be cheaper than the next guy, and eventually ran into a woman with a shirt that read "information." I was guided to the "green plaza" and from there to the "yellow desk" and from there down a corridor to a government official who looked at my identification and paperclipped an approval paper to it. He then sent me back the way I came to the "red wing" where they took my paper clipped documents and told me to have a seat. Several minutes later, I was called to the desk, and given a social security on a normal looking white paper. I was told I would get the official card in the mail within the next 60 days! Whew, the bureaucracy! Thankfully the lines weren't long, and I was out of there within about 20 minutes. The "time-saver" is accurately named... if only it didn't take me an hour and a half to get there!
Anyway, skipping over the adventures on the metro and bus on the way home, I arrived around 11:00AM to discover my computer was being dysfunctional. I did a variety of things around the house while waiting to see if it was going to decide to be alive, and finally decided the only way to get it out of its neutral state half-way through the shut-down process was to pull the battery on it. This proved quite affective, and it was up and running in a matter of minutes. As a result, I got four good hours of work in on my dad's website in the afternoon. I took a break about an hour ago, and did the dishes that have been piling up in the kitchen the last few days, before sitting down for a lovely half-hour with Jars of Clay and a puzzle. Which put me in a lovely, lazy mood, thus the beginning of this blog.
Now I better go pull my laundry out of our gas-powered dryer, before the gas fills the house so much it gets dangerous. I hope your day was as enjoyable as mine!
God bless!
Rachel
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