Easter Cookie Day

Happy Easter! We had a very uneventful Easter day, which was just what we needed! A few days before Easter though, I had the most wonderful afternoon with a few teenage girls from the neighborhood. These twins live a few houses down from us and come from a very broken home. It is such a joy to have them over the house, spend time with them, and pour into their lives. And...the best part...
Another teenage girl moved in across the street from them! I invited her over too and the twins brought their little brother.

We've baked lots of different things together, but not cut out cookies (mostly because now I didn't have a good recipe until now! :) Since cookies aren't part of Brazilian culture, they had never done this before but I knew they would love it! We mostly used Easter shapes...but why not gingerbread men and women too? They kept thinking of Shrek, since that was the only context they had ever seen a cut out cookie man before!

Lots of fun...and LOTS of mess! Focusing on being with the girls and ignoring the tidal wave of icing around the kitchen :)

It has been so much fun to build a friendship with these girls

and my favorite part of the day was getting to very clearly share the Easter story with them. I asked them if they knew what Easter was really about, and since they didn't know, I told them using a little wooden Easter story telling set that Jeyson's uncle makes. At the end you put Jesus in the tomb and cover the hole. Then, there are magnets on the back of the "rock" piece and magnets of Jesus's nails so when you pick up the lid to the tomb, Jesus seems to disappear! So creative and the story really held their attention. The best part was talking about WHY Jesus had to die and the opportunity it give us.

I was so thankful for the opportunity and pray I'll have many more!

PS - Everything is much smaller around here...notice the size of our stove behind us. What you see is the whole width of it!

Jeyson Tales

In case you haven't heard the word....Jeyson is home! It has been SO wonderful having him back - 3 weeks apart was way too long! We've been having lots of fun together again, though it does mean I have to get back to actually preparing meals again instead of just snacking :) Here's a quick two funny stories that have happened since Jeyson's been back home. Persimmons. If you don't know what they are, don't feel bad, I had never had one before coming to Brazil. They're a fruit here in Brazil we call "caqui" and in English they are persimmons. We both love persimmons, especially Jeyson, so I picked some up from the store the other day. Here's what they look like.... Very similar to.... A tomato - right? In looks anyway, but the insides, taste, and texture are totally different. Well anyway, here's our little dialog as Jeyson headed out to the hangar this morning:

• Me: There are some caquis in the fridge if you want to bring one as a snack. I think there are 2 in there.


• Jeyson: Wow, actually there's a whole bunch in here (grabbing one, throwing it in his backpack and heading out the door)


• Me: What?? I know I only bought 3 and we ate one already, so there should only be 2


• Jeyson: (opening his backpack to check) Ooops I packed a tomato!

Then, at the end of the morning, I stopped by the hangar to pick Jeyson up for lunch. As I walked into the hangar I noticed everyone in the building huddled around the plane Jeyson was working on. What was going on?? Turns out....there was a SNAKE in the engine! Jeyson and another mechanic were working on some part right were the snake was hiding, and he decided to crawl out of his spot! As everyone looked on, a head came out....followed by an over 3 foot (I could honestly guess 4 foot) body! (internet picture b/c I didn't have my camera...but you get the idea...BIG) The guys all started hopping around and backing up except for my husband and one other guy. The snake was then slithering all over the hangar floor in circles...and the people were dancing out the way! Jeyson grabbed a stick and started trying to grab it, followed by someone grabbing a broom, and at some point Jeyson touched it (I'm not really sure when...the scene was a whirlwind...I just know that later Jeyson reported it was very smooth :). Eventually, the other guy grabbed him by the tale and carried him outside and dumped him on the sand out on the runway. All in a day's work!!! Welcome home Jeyson!

The things you have to do....

It's been an eventful few weeks here on my own in Anapolis. Fortunately, it looks like Jeyson and I will be back together again soon as Jeyson wraps up things in Boa Vista. Meanwhile, I've had the chance to grow in some new ways culturally as I've had to do quite a few tasks that normally Jeyson does. Here's a few of the highlights: Here our stoves are connected to propane tanks. When the gas runs out (about every 4 months or so for us) Jeyson calls up and has a new one delivered. Since I've never been alone when this has happened, I've never really paid attention before. But, this morning as I was flipping some french toast - poof! Out went the gas. After calling up the number we leave on the fridge, a man arrived on a motorcycle with two (full) tanks of propane attached to the back. He asked me if I prefer a blue or silver colored tank (I never knew I could choose! I went with silver) and he hauled it in the door. Usually Jeyon meets him outside with the old tank (you have to trade in your old one for the new one since you're only buying the gas inside, not the tank) and will bring in the new one himself and hook it up. However, since the tank is SUPER heavy (the guy was grunting like crazy as he carried it) and I have NO clue how to hook it up, I played the damsel in distress and he came in the gate and set me up. Pathetic? Yes! But did I get to cook the other side of my french toast? Yes!

Next - Cell phone credit. Believe it or not, we didn't have cell phones until recently. When Jeyson was going on his trip, one of our friends lent him his cell phone so Jeyson and I could talk. Here there are only prepaid cell phones, so you have to keep loading credit on as you use it. Since Jeyson has been busy going to tribes I told him I would load the credit on from here. So off I went to the lottery ticket store.

Yes, that's where you can pay bills (if you don't do it online like we do) and apparently where you can get cell phone credit - and of course buy lottery tickets. These lottery stores are all over the place here and I have rarely been in one to pay a bill never mind get credit for a cell phone. The process turned out to be really, really easy, but the line was terrible. It took about 30-40 minutes since any time a person over 60 came into the store, they have the right to go to the front of the line! It's crazy to think there is no automatic way to recharge your cell phone. When I finally got to the front I put quite a bit of credit to avoid a return trip, if possible.

Lastly....the lizard. This is actually a picture I found online, but this is exactly what I found one afternoon. A very large, very dead lizard in our yard.

And you thought a dead mouse in a mouse trap was bad! I'm quite suspicious that this was the cat as one of his favorite hobbies is watching lizards in the yard, but he didn't offer to help clean it up. I grabbed the dust pan and broom, held my breath, and hauled away the corpse :)

Oh - and the lizard was so big it seriously filled the dust pan - no exaggeration!

What an interesting few weeks it's been. I hope Jeyson gets back before I have to learn too much more!