Update #1

Jeff does a great job as the communications link to Brazil, but when it comes to my contribution to the blog sometimes I get caught up in daily life and procrastinate for weeks on end. Jeff asked me to write a post about three weeks ago and I’m just now doing it. Oops. We have been finished with all school business since Tuesday. Now, since I have even more free time on my hands and I am out of excuses, I’m writing several posts to try to get on his good side again.

In the next few posts will hopefully catch you up to speed with school, life, ministry, etc.

School

There were two end of the semester programs to prepare for and present the last two weeks of school. Since I mainly work with the preschoolers the last two weeks were filled with repeating the same songs and dance moves, over and over again. The first program’s theme was focused on Pernambuco (the state where we live here). The international school kids presented special projects, sang songs, and performed skits. I learned my first full song in Portuguese as a result of helping the preschoolers with their presentation!

The preschoolers singing for the first program

The second program was a fund raiser event called “Nations’ Celebration.” The children performed dances from around the world and then sampled international food with their parents. We even held an “art auction,” selling the paintings the children made in their art classes this semester. The event raised around R$1,800 for a children’s hospital in Recife. I contributed by helping guide the preschoolers in their South African dance and by making chocolate chip cookies for the American food booth.

Joyce, one of our preschoolers, and her mom dressed up
for the Nations' Celebration

We completely wrapped up the semester with parent-teacher conferences last Friday and a teachers’ meeting on Monday. At the teachers’ meeting Emily Taylor and I presented a new English program that we formed to create a bridge between Portuguese subjects (ex. Math, Science, History) and the English language. We’re really excited about starting the program next semester!

Emily & I being awesome at the beach

-Lindsay