Chapter 20

Me, Simon, Carine and Sabine having a great time...

Friday was Sabines birthday so we had a small but very cozy little party over at her place. It was a lot of fun and we stayed until late that night. We all were pretty tired the day after but Simon and I still had to clean the house, cook and have lunch, Aurea wanted to come over for German lessons and at night we had Youth Group scheduled. But thank God Aurea had to prospone the lessons for next Saturday and our pastor from church called and invited Sabine, Carine, Simon and I over for a little snack at his house. So the day turned out pretty great. Still this week started out quite hectic and by now (Wednesday) most of us are ready for the weekend again.

Thank God for the awesome time we have every morning, worshipping God and hearing his word. Every morning we can charge our batteries just enough to make it through the day. I’m really exited for when the kids come back and am looking forward to see those smiling little faces again. Until then, God bless you all and take care!

Dominik

Chapter 19

Hey you guys, so last Sunday I had this big test to get into college here (kind of like the SAT) so I had to get up at 4:45! It went alright, I’ll see in a week if I passed or not…
Other than that my vacation was pretty much just hanging out and sleeping in! But last Monday we all went back to work (just the staff, not the kids). So one kid (Talia, 8 years old or so) was wondering around the day care center, saw me and we talked a little, I came to explain to her that Germany was so far away that you can neither walk there nor take the bus there… she was all ears and asked: so do you go there by bike? I told her that only taking a plane you can get there. She just asked back: Do you know where Edivaldo is? I was kinda surprised by the sudden change of subject and said no. So she just answered, rolling her eyes: Oh man, Dominik, you don’t know anything at all!!! It was so funny but so typical for her (and most of the kids here)… Well in two weeks Ill have more of those stories to tell…Ill let you know how it goes. Cya

Chapter 15

Friday and Monday we just chilled our in the hammocks next to the Hostels pool…cheap and very efficient relaxing strategy.

Here goes a short but very illustrated report about our vacation in Bonito. Simon and I were really, really exhausted because of the difference between German school life (6h a day with “unattended classes” every now and then) and Brazilian work life (8h a day without holidays of ay kind). So we asked for a couple of days off and our boss gave us half of Thursday, Friday and Monday off so we could take the bus to Bonito (which means: beautiful), the second most expensive (but for sure a wonderfully beautiful) town in Brazil.

Saturday we took the bike for a 4 mile tour to the Balneário Municipal (community natural pool…or something like that) where we just laid in the burning sun all day long.

Our plan was: no plans, just relax! We did our best and just chilled out, laying in the hammock, jumping in the pool every now and then (for example at 11pm…). A couple of times we took the bikes for a more or less long ride through the jungle to two of the natural river pools in the area to relax there. So now we’re back, fully motivated, relaxed and stress-free to take care of the kids who are getting more and more anxious every day towards the Christmas break.

At the Balneário Municipal we just “met” this really beautiful Ara…Just like that!

Most of them know for sure that they already passed the year so they just don’t go to school anymore. And where do they go, when they don’t have school: Right, they come to our day care center (CCF)
But last week we had a tremendous success…the second edition of our newspaper – which from now on will be called Criação – went into printing. But, next time more about that because its not even published yet! I can only tell you so much: huge success…
Well, thanks for stopping by, God bless you all a lot, have a great week!

Sunday after lunch (around 2 pm) we took the bikes for another, longer trip to the Balneário do Sol. Around 8 miles up- and downhill, on muddy paths, through herd of cattle and passing by a bunch of parrots.At around 100 F we just loved to have a beautiful, crystal clear and cool river to jump in