Good Bye Brazil!

Dear friends,

Just wanted to let you know that we´ll be on the road tomorrow again. Last week was quieter but with the week of prayer, it was a great blessing for me!

Yesterday, we went to a waterfall with friends from the church and had a great time relaxing. Today, we´re already preparing our stuff... since we´ll leave tomorrow. Back on the road. Final destination Vinto/Cochabamba on Sunday. We'll stay in Santa Cruz for the weekend and a prayer request is that we'll make it there by Friday around lunchtime at the latest. Don´t know if I´ll have the chance of getting into the internet on the way, but I´ll keep you updated if possible!

Sorry for being in a hurry, but I have to get ready for a worship in another Adventist church here in Ouru Preto!

Will be back... hopefully soon!
maria

Picture Blog

It’s become quieter here in Brazil. We’re in the “study phase”. Today, we’re actually fasting for the week of prayer and the sermon, Nailson will have in the Baptist church of his parents on Sunday. We already went to this church twice. Last Sunday, Nailson’s pastor from the States, who was visiting us for the weekend, preached there and yesterday, Arturo had the prayer meeting message and I sang in German. Theology students are never on vacation… and as long as you’re with them, they’ll find something to do for you, too :) but I love challenges so it’s fine with me. My worship in the Adventist church Wednesday night went well although I was pretty nervous about the language part. I’m improving with my portuñol though =)

I decided to do a “picture blog” this time to give you more than just one visual impression. We already have so many pictures though, that it’s hard to choose just 5 or 6. Arturo has a nice camera and is a good photographer, too, all of the pictures in this blog are his (used with permission). Did you ever see the flower of the cotton plant? Well, now you did! I didn’t know that is was that beautiful but it really is!

Maria on a horse… could you believe that? And I didn’t even fall off… lol, but one time, I almost did. First, I was riding this nice dark brown horse and had a saddle with a little stick that you could grab if you were about to fall off. The problem I had with that horse, were these thingies for your feet. You couldn’t make them short enough for my legs and so I was afraid of going really fast because I would always slip out. After losing my fear, I actually wanted to go faster though, so Nailson gave me his horse. He had tamed it himself and it really responded immediately. I only kicked it very softly… and it started to RUN! I wasn’t prepared for this fast reaction and wanted to grab that “emergency stick”… it wasn’t there… Must have been funny to watch me trying not to fall off – but nobody was paying attention so they missed the fun… =)

Nailson on a cow… just crazy! He first hunted and caught it with a lasso, got it down with his hands and then… rode on it until it threw him off. Cowboy!

Arturo… enjoying an orange coconut. Nailson climbed the palm tree like a monkey to get us these ones. We learned some things about coconuts, too. The “older” ones have coconut water with gas, for example. The ones that have already fallen off the tree for quite a while have little “apples” inside to nurture the new sprout. These “apples” have a funny taste. Spongy coconut. I like the little ones but the bigger ones taste strange.

Pastor Paulo… taking off first (with a flight instructor; tandem flight, not alone!). We actually weren’t in the air for a long time – but I loved it. Don´t know when I will get the opportunity to go again, but I would do it immediately. Running towards the abbyss - and then just taking off.

It´s already Friday again.

Can´t believe it! Last Friday, we had the reception of the Sabbath in a coffee plantation together with Nailson´s Grandpa. Afterwards, we walked up a hill and had a beautiful sunset. It was great. I would have liked to just stay outside and sleep right there.

Even if you shouldn´t have wonderful sunsets - I wish you a blessed and peaceful Sabbath to recharge you batteries, espcially spiritually!

God bless,

maria

Adventure Vacations

I´m in Brazil. Actually, for already a week. We left Bolivia the very same day we got to the border and didn´t go to the school. We met Tara, Ruan and almost all the other volunteers in Guayaramerin though. It was great to see them again - even if it was just for lunch. Monday night, we spent in Porto Velho with Nailson´s sister and her husband and Tuesday night, we got here (Ouro Preto).

Since that night and today has happened A LOT!!! I watched beautiful sunrises (pic) and sundowns, heard monkeys sing, drank coconut water of I don´t know how many coconuts in a row (delicious! right from the tree), I went paragliding (and realized a dream with it), made sugar cane juice, went horseback riding (and overcame my fear of horses and actually loved it), went to worships in different churchs (Adventist, Baptist and another one) and even got to sing in the Baptist church, continued my motorbike lessons David started in the US (thanks Nailson!), dropped my camera while being in the back of a truck and broke the screen =(, learned a lot about all the different fruits and trees and got to see coffee and cacao plantations, ate a lot of rice and it actually ocurred to me, that it is pretty easy to cook for Brazilians (you just have to know how to cook rice and beans...), watched real cowboys at work and one of them (Nailson) riding a cow (crazy!)...

Tomorrow, I´ll have the Wednesday night worship in Nailson´s church. It is really not boring here and I actually don´t know yet, when I want to leave... I would love to stay for the week of prayer about the sanctuary, too (Arturo and Nailson will do it, starting on Sabbath). Sigh. Let´s see.

Hope to be back with a blog, soon.
maria

Almost in Brazil

Hey guys. I don't have too much time, but I wanted to let you know that we're save and happy and almost in Brazil. We're in Guayaramerin and only waiting for Artuo's visa. Let's see how things are going. We might stay at the school outside of Guayaramerin if it takes some days to get the visa.

Death Road wasn't actually that bad anymore. They build a new road that is pretty neat (for Bolivian standards). Yeah, and we spent Sabbath in Rurrenabaque at the orphanage. That was really great and a real blessing to all three of us! So yeah, we have about 10 hours by bus left to our final destination and already 41 hours by bus behind us... we're almost there =)

Wish you all a blessed new week!
I'll soon be back with pictures!

maria

PS (some days later): This pic was taken on Sunday around lunch time after the guy with the 2 combat chickens, who was occupying this seat before, had left. Yep... on Bolivian busses, you can take your chickens without cages and without problems...

Bolivian Winter

Did I ever tell you that we're in winter over here right now? In Cochabamba/Vinto, we normally have about 32 degrees (0 degrees celsius) in the nights... For some Bolivians that is FREEZING cold! During the day, we are in the 80ies (??) though (up to 30 dergees celsius). So I acyually like Bolivian winter here in Cochabamba! We're heading for La Paz this night though - and that will be COLD! I mean REALLY cold. Yeah, you see, Bolivia is not only heat and sun, but we still have beutiful flowers! Not to compare with the sad German winter!

I took this pic actually some weeks ago and in the meantime it got a bit colder, but you can still find these flowers all around. I like them!

Yeah, I actually wanted to tell you that we'll be on the road in about an hour, get to La Paz tomorrow morning and go "Death Road" tomorrow (Friday) during the day. On Sabbath, we want to stay at the orphanage in Rurrenabaque - and I'm really looking forward to that! I only heard that everything has already changed again tremendously. I want to see it! I know that in 2007 I was flabbergasted!!! when we entered campus! Everything had advenced so much in just one year!

So I hope to be able to tell you on Monday how everything went. Think of us in you prayers - especially because of this nice road... I have respect of it...!

Have a great weekend!
maria

The highschoolers are gone....

...let's have a PARTY! Together with the guys of course!!!

That seemed to be the motto of the past 2 weeks. The picture was a little "private party" though and I actually got to eat gnocchi with mushroom sauce and GARLIC! And garlic bread! It was delicious! I mean it's nothing outstanding special, but since they don't use garlic in the cafeteria and they hardly give us any sauce, I was just happy about my garlic gnocchi =) It was Nailson's birthday and after walking around in Cochabamba a little bit and getting to know the Central Adventist Church there, we ended up in this Pasta Restaurant. We had fun! From left to right: Mexican (Arturo), Brazilian (Nailson), German (me =), Bolivian (Cathy) and Argentinian (Dario). I'll miss them when I'll go back to Germany. So yeah, the two guys on the left will take care of my safety during our road trip. Dario will go canvassing to Santa Cruz, so he won't be coming with us and Cathy is actually not a student at the university, but working for the Adventist Media Center here in Cochabamba. She was the "talk show host" when I was participating in the "Sabbath Bible Study Program".

Mmmh... I'll finish writing at the university since I don't have to pay anything there. The computer I'm using right now couldn't read my external hard drive though, so I ran back to the university computers (the ones that don't give me the option of uploading pics on blogspot) and put the pics on my USB-stick and came back... Well, I thought I'd better upload not only the pic for my last blog, but one more and so I started writing... Have to run and do some laundry though. Will be back with a report of the "party activities" soon.
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I did laundry for 1.5 hours and still didn't finish. Looks like I'll have another hour tomorrow. Whatever. Right now we have "final exams week", that means we don't have any classes, just exams. I only had one exam today though (Introduction of the Holy Scriptures) and it wasn't hard. Tonight, I'll go with Wendy (my classmate who went with me on the jungle trip), Dario, Nailson and Arturo to a seminar by Robert Costa. They'll have a baptism, too, including people from Nailson's church. I'm looking forward to it!

Back to the "party": The high school students went on vacation 2.5 weeks ago and a week later, everything started with some guys, invading the girl's dorm at 5am, threatening us to drag us into the shower if we wouldn't show up for worship almost immediately. We had some fun and a little water fight, but the girls decided to take revenge on Sunday morning! On Friday night, we had (for the first time this semester) the reception of the Sabbath together (guys and girls) in the yard of the guys dorm. It was really nice! We had morning worship together the whole week, too (the guys came over). On Sabbath night, they had some terribly loud karaoke event (I didn't go) and on Sunday morning, at 4am, the girls turned the boy's dorm into a battle field... I was outside and it really sounded like a war! They used fireworks to wake them up and showered them with all kind of disgusting stuff (paint, water, shampoo, baby powder, dirt...) afterwards. Crazy! On Monday (I think), they went again, but I didn't leave my sleeping bag. They intended to sing for the guys, but everything ended in a water fight again. On Wednesday night, when everybody was in worship, some girls got all the shoes from the guys and knotted them together... The guys were supposed to buy them back with chocolate... On Thursday morning, the guys actually came at 5am to sing for us and give us our chocolate. I was sleeping in the yard and since the girls had closed the main door of the hallway for the university students out of fear, the guys found me first and I got the first chocolate =) On Thursday night, we had a seminar about friendship - courtship and stuff, followed by social activities like funny games for couples. I actually liked it - because they paired me up with somebody I wasn't afraid of doing silly games with. I stayed to clean afterwards... and got to bed at 1am. Crazy week!

Poor highschoolers. They missed all the fun... =) Would have liked a little bit more sleep though! Whatever. The "party activities" were just one! aspect of the crazy past weeks, but I'm afraid I can't and don't want to tell you everything anyways... =)

For now, I'll jump into the shower and get ready for the seminar!
Have a great rest of the week!

maria