A Canadian DVBS in Brasil

Hello to everyone...Quanto tempo!!!! It has been such a long time, and to tell you the truth, I am kind of dreading this blog in particular, just because I know that it is going to be really really long!!!
Not last week, but the week before on Friday, a group of 11 Canadians came down here to Brasil!
There was only one man on the team, but I think that they planned it that way. They were just coming to do a DVBS, or in Portuguese(EBF-Escola Bíblia da Ferias). His name is Ralph, and he is married to the group leader, Brenda. The youngest person on the team was 27 years old, and the oldest was 73 years old, but my goodness, she has more energy than me! They were all very nice people, and it was such a pleasure getting to know them each individually. I think Josh(the 21-year old who came 3 wks ago) really appreciated having Ralph here, because he would have been the only guy in the whole group of Canadians, especially every night when we had dinner at Joyce's house!
So, on the Friday after they arrived(at 8 in the morning!) they went to their hotel and rested or slept until noon. They ate lunch with the rest of us at the nearby little restaurant, and after that went to Vôo Livre to organize for Saturday. What happened on Saturday you ask? Oh, well, here, I will tell you. On Saturday(the day after they arrived) they had a women's day, sort of like a little retreat. They served breakfast, lunch and dinner. I know that all the women who went really enjoyed it, and immediately after some of them asked Joyce, "When are we going to do that again???!!!"
They had 3 different sessions, and during the sessions talked about different things about God...how he made us, the earth, and how everything that he makes intwines itself into everything. After the different sessions, the women went into 3 different groups, and then they had a discussion time. I guess you could say this was my first time doing some actual translating. There was only Joyce, Sadie(the lady who is teaching English for Graça) and me who were really able to do the translating that day, so I really had no choice to translate for this group. It was pretty easy stuff, just translating to the Canadians what the Brazilians thought about God, and translating to the Brasilians the Canadians' thoughts. Sometimes though, it was very difficult, because some words that they would say, I honestly had no idea how to translate them, and so in comes the improvisation. But to say the least, it was very very fun, but tiring!!! I guess I was tired because I had to think double.
Right now there are fire works happening really close to our house, and it is really annoying, because it's very loud. Allana just told me it's because one of the national soccer teams won a soccer game. That makes sense, because during the World Cup there were so many fireworks going off all over the city.
Back to the Women's retreat(which was titled "Share the Wonder" and for the Portuguese lovers "Compartilhe as Maravilhas")...In between the sessions, they had crafts for the women to do(the first was a butterfly fridge magnet, made of paper, and the second was an angel necklace made of ribbon and one of those huge criss-crossed shaped paper clips). There was also some recipe demonstrations, and I think the women really liked the whole day. I know it was tiring for the Canadian women, but it was a good day in all, and well liked by everyone. On Sunday after church and lunch, Joyce took the team to Brasília for some touring and a some shopping for souvenirs. Unfortunately Josh was sick, and he had never been touring in Brasília either(but she took him yesterday so he got to see everything). But I went with the group, and it was alot of fun. But by the time we got back in time for dinner and church at night, we were all really really tired. It was long day!
By the way, it has been nice and hot lately, no coldness at all! Yesterday and today it was almost 30 C, so back to normal again I hope!
Another tidbit of info...women and girls here don't really wear shorts. I know that has no relevance whatsoever to what I have been talking about, but it's really strange. They like to wear form fitting jeans, and capri pants. But I went out to mail a letter today wearing shorts, and felt like everyone was staring at me! It was so weird!
I know I said that I would write really long, but my right hand is hurting from writing so much, and I have to go eat something for dinner anyways. So tomorrow I will catch you all up on how the DVBS went, I promise!
Good night for now, and love to you all. Thanks for your prayers!
Love, Ash :)