Tudo Bem! (All is well!)

 

Here is where I wash my clothes and occasionally pet Leona. She´s pretty chill.



I held a 2 week old puppy yesterday. Oh my heart! (meu coração!)

The four young men on the left are teachers from an indigenous group called Parakaná. They came to ALEM to receive training in a new teaching methodology and we spent this week crafting instructional resources to give them to take back to their village. Here, they are showing some of the staff at ALEM a dance and song.








This is one of the first Bibles in the language Kaiwá, just recently completed!
Rose (right) attended the Bible dedication ceremony two weeks ago





We play volleyball every evening from 5-8 PM pretty much, so my volleyball skills (which were pretty much non-existent) are improving. Yesterday, everybody seemed to be in a singing mood, and who would´ve guessed that the Les Miserables soundtrack would be the choice music of the night (Aunt Bonnie and Tiffany, I thought of you).

 

Rose (pronounced Ho-zee) has become my unofficial Portuguese teacher, and it works out nicely because I´m helping her refine her English as she´s going to India in October with a Wycliffe program called One Story (http://www.wycliffe.org/Go/ShortTerm/GSP/OneStory.aspx).

I helped Rose with her pronunciation as we read from Daily Light, a devotional book the other day. Then, I tried my best to read aloud from Mark 4 A Novo Testamento (New Testament) in Portuguese. Portuguese is less phonetic than Spanish and has more pronunciation rules that depend on the context of the sounds.

 

Examples:

 

rr is pronounced like ´h´ and so is ´r´ when it is word-initial and word-final. But when ´r´ is in between vowels, it´s pronounced like a flap (the sound of the ´tt´in ´butter´)

ti/di/te/de = instead of being pronounced ´t´ and ´d´, these consonants undergo palatalization when they precede the vowels i and e, so they´re pronounced like ´j´ in judge. (Lucca, feel free to comment and correct me if I´m mistaken).

 

Also, there is an oficial coffee break at 4 pm every day in the cafeteria. Everyone stops what they are doing and meets to chat, drink coffee and eat pão de queijo (cheese bread). (Dad, I thought you especially would appreciate that tidbit).

 

Today, I´m going to attend the graduation ceremony of the students in the Bible translation program. I´ve known them for less than a week, but I´m very happy for them and their journeys as God guides them on their way.

 

I´m doing well here, and just enjoying getting to know wonderful people who I consider family already.

 

Lovado seja Deus (God be praised)