Playing Catch-Up

So it's been a while since I posted...whoops! Here is a brief take on some of our recent activities:

Since moving into our flat, we have cooked our first of many meals, paid the first of many bills, and made a home for ourselves in this enormous city. During a time of so much transition it's nice to have a place that can feel like home. I brought tons of pictures from home that I've taped up on the walls, which are all white so it was nice to fill them a little bit. This week I hung up the wooden cutout of Arkansas that people signed at my commissioning service. Aaand I finally made time to draw a little bit, so I taped a couple drawings to the wall too. 

It's crazy to call such a foreign place home, but it is! Every now and then my roommates and I talk about how we have those moments when it just hits us that we live here. When people ask us if we're here visiting, it's so strange to say "no we live here"! There are so many surreal moments of realizing where the Lord has brought us and why. I feel so blessed to be here. 

I will admit, there are tons of new things to get used to, so many adjustments to make, but it's exciting and all we can do is have a good attitude and sense of humor about it. For instance, I've never had to use a train as a means of transportation before. Metros and buses, yes, but trains in this city are at a whole new level. I've never been Black Friday shopping before, but my brave friend Hannah tells me it's chaos. So imagine the stampede of people literally pushing themselves into Best Buy or Target, and then imagine the same mass of people coming out the same doors! Somehow in a period of about 30 seconds, hundreds of people push themselves off the trains while hundreds more fight to get on. It's quite the experience to observe, and quite the dangerous one to participate in! Sometimes I can't help but laugh at the situation while I'm trying to board the train, especially when my roommate is behind me  yelling like a coach to motivate me to push my way through. When we finally get on, it's funny to see all the people who are also laughing at the silly Americans trying to use the train. But they are very helpful. It would take years or hours of studying the maps to know which stops are next, but somehow all the nationals know. It's like the Brazilians: when they all get the shot in their arm as a baby, they must also get a chip inserted, because everyone knows the exact route and schedule of every bus in Florianópolis. It's like there are so many unsaid things that are common knowledge to the nationals. Thank goodness they are helpful to the poor foreigners! The ladies on the women's car always make sure we get off at the right stop. So as long as I can keep relying on their friendliness, that's one less thing to stress over learning!

Here's an interesting thing I just watched. As I'm typing, late night !ndian TV is on. Of course the shows are full of drama, but this one just ended with an actor reassuring good morals and basically saying the things happening in the show are exactly opposite of what they want to exemplify. Like a reverse object lesson. Interesting take. 

Anyways, this country is full of surprises. There are so many good things about this culture, particularly how friendly, open and hospitable they are to us. All the women we have met on our home visits are so sweet and more than willing to patiently help us as we struggle through language. They are so gracious to open up their culture to us too. Their culture is rich for sure!

This month we have several fun Christmas things planned. I've never been away from home at Christmas, but God keeps showing me that the same way God in flesh intervened in human history two thousand years ago, he still intervenes for his people today, blessing us with his presence and provision every day. There truly is reason to celebrate. 

Obviously, keeping up with this blog does not come naturally to me, so bear with me. I have some pictures I want to add, and also my newsletter from the last month. Technology has not been good to me, and I think when I sent out the newsletter for November it either came back to me or didn't open fully. That will have to wait because now I have to get some brain power sleep for language class tomorrow. I miss you all, and thank you for your thoughts and prayers!