June in Review

June was a great month for us! We are completely assimilated into our routine and we finally feel like we are making meaningful impacts here.

Classes

Our classes reached record attendance! We had to get additional chairs to seat all the children and we are trying many different ways to get more tables to accommodate all the kids.

Some kids have had to stand up for activities because we don't have enough seats!

The reason we have so many children this time of year is that the kids are on their “winter” break. Most of the time the kids go away to the “interior” (country) to visit relatives and celebrate a successful harvest for the feast of São João (St. John the Baptist).

The kids drew pictures of what São João Festival is like

It’s like our Thanksgiving, but it is one of the largest holidays here. They decorate with banners and eat corn on the cob, boiled peanuts, corn bread, and other fall foods. But, because the economy isn’t very good (inflation is at 8%), not many of the families in our community could afford to travel. Of course, that is mixed with the fact that our classes are just awesome. Kids are bringing their friends and their siblings and cousins.

Typical decorations of this time of year

We celebrated by going to the historic center this year, but after the first hour it was too crowded to even see the concerts or hear any music so our night was pretty tranquil.

Typical banners for this time of year

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We have settled into a new routine for the classes. We have different classes for each day of the week. 

• Tuesday: Art  
• Wednesday: Film
• Thursday: Music
• Friday: We have a volunteer, Sonia, who comes to do an extra-fun activity
• Saturday: Catechism and Games

Sidewalk chalk outside

Kara with Gabriel and Giovana
Coloring the new popular kind of coloring pages here

Irma Dulce

In addition to our work with the children, we are volunteering at one of the largest nonprofits in Brazil, the Irma Dulce Center. Blessed Irma Dulce (soon to be Saint) is like the Mother Teresa of Brazil… and she is from right were we live. 

She started a social service agency that is extraordinary and huge. A network of free hospitals (which we used), a bakery, services to the homeless, single mothers, elderly, you name it. We are privileged to be able to partner with them to teach English as a second language in the historic center of Salvador on Saturdays. We have fifteen adult students.

Our House

As we said before we had a mold infestation in our house, which we controlled with bleach and vinegar (at one point toxically mixed). This worked for about a month, but it is back. We’ve gone over a week with constant heavy downpours every day and the water is seeping into our walls again. This made our wardrobe as well as most of our clothes grow mold. But, we cannot clean it until it dries so we can wash everything.

Mold in our dining room.

But, the mosquito situation is improving. After we went away for a week, most of them that were in our house died off and we have been extremely careful about keeping every last one of them out. We wage a serious war on those that sneak their way in with little electric racquets.

Our electricity keeps burning out, but we are looking forward to the power company coming and connecting a new line this coming month. Maybe we can have a warm shower without burning our wires through. Hehehehe. 

The white wire powers our entire house. 

We celebrated our three-year wedding anniversary in June. We went for a romantic dinner next to the beach. It’s been a crazy-fun adventure. Looking back we have no regrets. Even though our life is absolutely insane, we couldn’t imagine it any other way.

We are coming home for some doctors appointments for two weeks at the end of July. We will then have more to report after that. Thank you to all who have been supporting us and our mission financially and with you prayers. Keep it up, we depend on you all to carry Jesus to these far parts. Love you all.