Same day, different view

Happy Blog-iversary to me! It's remarkable how much has changed in exactly one year.  Today marks the day I officially decided to pursue YASC and start this huge adventure.  And today, one year later, I write this from Goiânia, Brazil, which is something I never would have ever foreseen.  In fact, only one YASCer at the time was in Brazil, and from what I could read, her placement was not something I felt called to.  In fact, some aspects of it terrified me, but while I was destined for Brazil, I could never have guessed the specifics and the wonderful people who have already begun welcoming me to life here.  So here are a couple more pictures:

The balcony view of Goiânia. The city has about 1.26 million residents

I helped Rev. Tati set up the advent decor at her parish

I love the smell of new books, but I think I love the smell of new prayer books even more
This is some of the first edition of prayer books created in Portuguese for the Anglican church here.

I attended a local ecumenical meeting with Rev. Tati.  The presenters for the night were from the Syrian Orthodox church.
Arabic and Portuguese...I was completely lost.

 But there was some beautiful items used in group discussion and prayer.  Plus food! The picture shows some little mini pie type things (guava, chocolate, and dulce de leite flavors) and pão dulce (sweet bread) and one of my new favorites: peach juice. I probably need to find a gym quick because it is VERY easy to get fat again here.

 

So, that's about it since the last time.  Tomorrow, there is a bible study for the community of Rev. Tati's church, and I'll start helping her prepare some things for the diocesan spiritual retreat this weekend.

I think I mentioned in my last post, but I'll say it again just in case.  I DO have an address if you have something you'd like to mail me.  I also now have a local phone number, since my phone (despite promises from my carrier stateside) won't do anything outside of wifi. So if you want to catch me, facebook messanger and WhatsApp are free and fairly reliable on the go.  All other means and my state number will work, but only when I'm home, so if you send between 7am-11pm EST there's a decent chance I'll be out and about (yes, with the time difference I am often still out at 2 am).

Also, if anyone reading this has a burning desire to gift me with some sort of Christmas present, I'll leave you with two options:
1. Fundraising continues over on the "Support" tab/page
2. Give a gift that goes twice as far by purchasing before the new year over at Episcopal Relief and Development (I'd love a goat given in my name! Or women's literacy, because educating women and girls changes community poverty, health, and success faster than almost anything else!)