Road Trip

I think I haven't been a very good blog-keeper.  I was reading through some of the other missionaries blogs and they tell their peeps everything about their lives.  So far I've only told you about my cooking sorrows and random thoughts.  You poor followers know practically nothing about the people I live with or the daily life.  I promise to amend my ways...

With that said, I won't try to go back in time too far and bombard you with nearly 2 months of experiences (WHOA!  2 months?!?  Has it been nearly 2 months?  No wonder I'm aching for home) but instead I'll start with the most recent past and tell you about a little road trip I took on Sunday.

Irmã Miriam (Brazilian nun, my roommate, has lots of shoes) has lived here in the Fazenda for 3 years.  She went on her first Heart's Home mission 17 years ago and decided this was her calling.  With HH she's lived in Argentina, El Salvador, France, and now Brazil.  In November she is moving to Peru and I know already I will be a wreck when she leaves.  I think she is fabulous.  I am very fortunate to have her for a roommate for several reasons: I think I get some sort of extra spiritual protection sleeping in the same room as a nun, she is the only educated Brazilian we have in the Fazenda and so is our Portuguese expert, and she's a really good cook.  Plus we get along very well.  She grew up a couple hours from the Fazenda in the interior of the state of Bahia.  She went to visit her parents who still live there (along with most of her 11 siblings) for a little vacation and invited some of us to spend last Sunday in their home.  

Very early on Sunday 6 of us: Irmã Josette (Lebanese nun, funniest nun I have ever met), Carolina (French permanent missionary, lives in my house, plays the violin beautifully), Adriano (Argentinian, speaks English and so gets all of my jokes), Aldo (Peruvian, laughs louder than I do), João (French, I don't know how else to explain him except that he is very French), and I loaded into the car for a 2 hour trip.  Adriano won the prize for "most prepared" when he whipped out the mate and cookies.  In case you're wondering what mate is, well it's a slightly caffeinated herbal beverage that is popular in South America.  You put the mate leaves in the gourd (the gourd is a cup or little pot and also called mate, which is confusing) along with a funky metal straw (called a bomba), and then fill it with hot water.  You pass it around and everyone drinks from the same mate and the same bomba, but this is the least of my sanitation worries here in the Fazenda.

Passing mate while driving--this is legal in Brazil



We talked, laughed, and played silly word games the whole way there.  We also stopped to ask for directions 8 times.  Eight.  I'm not even kidding.  Apparently South American men don't have the same issue with asking for directions as do the North-American-United-States variety. 

Just 2 examples of the friendly Brazilians who helped us



Along the way we passed through the town of São Felix which looked something like The Sound of Music meets Fantasy Island.

Adriano, Aldo, João 

Can you guess which one is Irmã Josette?

Anyways, we FINALLY arrived and everything was so beautiful: the landscape with lush rolling hills, the simple ranch house, the loving family.

We went to mass at the teeny tiniest chapel I have ever seen which was conveniently located just down the dirt road.  The chapel held 20-25 people and there were about 100 of us there.  No worries--we grabbed some cerveja chairs from the teeny tiniest tavern and extended the chapel seating onto the lawn. 

After mass, back at the ranch, we had lunch and relaxed a bit.  Irmã Miriam took us for a little hiking tour of the property and we saw the house where she grew up and the fields where she used to play.

Irmã Josette, Aldo, João, Irmã Miriam, Adriano, Carolina

After that the music began.  You name the Brazilian song and I think we heard it that afternoon.  When they ran out of Brazilian songs we started singing in Spanish, English, and French.  One of the guitarists was a singers dream: I'd just start singing a song and he'd fill in the chords. 

I smiled and laughed so much my cheeks hurt and being in the midst of that darling family made me miss mine all the more. 

We were reluctant to leave, but ended up singing the whole way home, which was shorter because we only had to stop to ask for directions twice. 

I was very grateful to have the opportunity to spend the day with some of my brothers and sisters of community.  We are all so busy in the Fazenda that we don't have much time to just relax and enjoy each other's company.  I feel like it's been hard for me to make friends (other than Erica, again Graças a Deus I have her!) since I'm just learning the language and can't communicate well.  At least they all like my cooking and my singing.