Eric, a recent visitor to Morro Azul, with some students.

Student Aida and Henry.

TUESDAY, JULY 4, 2006
INDEPENDENCE DAY (USA)
Well, Brasil lost to France in the World Cup last week, a bitter loss. Now we'll have to wait for 2010. Regardless, I decided to keep the national colors a little longer. 

Our visitor Eric has gone home; he's back in Oregon. Unfortunately he was in a motor cycle accident the day after his return, but I'm glad to say he wasn't injured badly and he's recovering well. Eric has a heart for ministry and thinks he might be called to favela work in Rio specifically. He has another year of school remaining, and we'll be praying with him as he considers his options in the coming months.

Earlier this week when I talked to Eric, I asked about his impressions of our work in Rio. Specifically, I asked if the website accurately represents the work we're doing. He said yes it does -- the only "surprise" was that he didn't realize the English classes and computer classes are in separate buildings.

Because of the recent trouble we've had here, he didn't visit Morro Azul for the evening services; it's probably not a good time for an unknown American to be walking around in the community. But he did attend several classes and the kids were all crazy about him.

We have a group tentatively scheduled to visit in October (we're nailing down the particulars this month), so keep us in your prayers as we add this new element to our ministry.

THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2006
NEW COLORS and NEW VERBS

I went ahead and changed colors on all the pages at the site. Search and replace is a wonderful thing. I told this little program to find the color "CCCC99" and replace it with color "FFFF88" and bingo, the site looks completely different.

Wouldn't it be great if this technology existed in every area of life? Imagine if you could say, "search for my bad habits, replace them with good habits...search for every stupid thing I've said today and replace it with something intelligent and uplifting." I'd certainly pay for that bit of software.

The English students have been learning the verb "to be" for the last several weeks. Our form of this verb is much different than the Portuguese versions (they have two different "to be" verbs) — and so this has been the focus of the lessons for the last few sessions.

The students are also learning pronunciation. Brasilians have trouble with the R sound and the TH sound. They have a tendency to say "F" instead of TH. They also have a tendency to exaggerate our R sound, since the Portuguese R sounds like an H, a D, or a cat getting rid of a hairball—but never just plain and simple R. So they overcompensate by saying FURRRRRSDAY instead of "Thursday".

Of course, my pronunciation of Portuguese is so far off the mark that more than once I've had waiters and clerks look at me with amazed and confused wonder. When I first arrived in Rio, I tried to order a sandwich that is spelled joelho and pronounced something like "zhowellyou" — and I called it a jello, hard J long O, not even close to correct. When the lady finally realized what I wanted, she couldn't keep from smiling. Or smirking. Sometimes it's a subtle difference.

Regardless, our students are doing well, making progress. I'm looking forward to teaching some classes when I return to Brasil next month.

Here's a test Ana is giving the students tomorrow. She designs not only the curriculum, but has to lay out the pages as well. We haven't been able to find a good text book, so she's making her own.

FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2006
OH HAPPY DAY

School's out for Winter Break, so the regular English classes will stop for a couple of weeks.  We'll have special conversation classes in the afternoon where students can come in and practice speaking, but there won't be testing or homework.

During the last week the students have been learning songs, i.e. learning the lyrics and translating them. They chose the ones they wanted to learn: Rod Stewart's Sailing, Elton John's The Way You Look Tonight, and Oh Happy Day, which they knew from the movie Sister Act.

I think the choices were something of a compromise, since Brasilian youth tend to like American rap music, and that's where Ana Claudia drew the line. My choice would have been the Eagles or Jimmy Buffet, which probably wouldn't have been a great idea, since the point is to pick songs that they'll be familiar with. Regardless, they were pleasantly surprised to discover that they could pick out the English phrases and figure out the meaning. The students are really beginning to feel like they're learning the language.

During the winter break at the Computer Center Beatriz is offering a brief typing course, teaching students how to do "touch typing" with all ten fingers.

Regular classes resume August 1. The picture, by the way, is computer & English student Henry with his younger siblings.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2006
SUMMER CAMP
I am at Lakeshore this week leading a Jr. High Music and Drama camp with Elizabeth, Jonathan and Stephen. It's quite a mixture of campers from a variety of backgrounds.

The heat has been almost Rio like -- in the upper 90's each day. The difference here is that we have air conditioning everywhere, but that doesn't really work to your advantage. In Rio, since many places (such as my apartment, the church, the school, etc) aren't air conditioned, you eventually adjust to the heat. Here, going in and out of air conditioned rooms and buildings all day long just makes it seem that much hotter.

MONDAY, JULY 24, 2006
ABOUT BLOGS
I enjoy reading blogs, though good ones are hard to find. I refer to this section of the PB site as our blog, but really it's not. It's just a news page. I post information about what's going on with Project Brasil, but I don't pontificate about life (at least not often), and I don't have open comments. Blogs take a little more time to maintain than I'm able to invest right now, so this section will remain basically a news and updates section. Still, I wish I could find a good blog about Brasil (one in English, I mean) but so far I haven't turned up anything.

I have come across one really good Christian blog in recent weeks, though. It's called Jesus Creed.  It's written by Scot McKnight, a brilliant scholar and one of my favorite theological writers. He has a good balance of Biblical exegesis, theological discussion, personal stories, and devotional meditations. No political / religious rants, no cheap shots. He thinks through everything he says, and he is always gracious to those who hold a different view. Take a look; you'll enjoy it.

As for life in Rio, it's still Winter Break at the school and computer center. A few students are dropping by the school each day (even during vacation) to practice conversational skills and play on the computers.

We received a gift from the UMW in Catete that will enable us to buy one more desk (a left handed one) and a water cooler. As hot as it is in Rio, this is a much needed addition to our classroom. The UMW also donated some used desks.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2006
CSI MIAMI IN RIO

David Caruso and his friends were in Rio last week filming an episode of CSI: Miami, which will air on Monday, September 18. It will be interesting to see how Rio is portrayed in this show. Brasilians get a little testy when Brasil is misrepresented in film and TV. When The Producers came out, the Globo review complained that a scene that was supposed to take place in Rio featured the wrong style of music and the wrong style of dress. Apparently, the producers of The Producers don't know the difference between Rio de Janeiro and Trinidad.

It will also be interesting to see if I recognize any places where they film. Assuming they stay in the South Zone of Rio — Copa, Ipanema, etc. — chances are good I'll recognize a landmark or two.  But since I will be in Rio when it airs in America, and I'll be in the US when it airs in Brasil — my chances of seeing it at all aren't real good. Maybe I need to look into buying a VCR or something.

FRIDAY, JULY 28, 2006
THE COOLEST MAN ON EARTH
Here's a 90 second CNN story about Seu Jorge, a popular musician from Rio, who has been praised by American musicians and called "the coolest man on earth." He was in Cidade de Deus, but I didn't know who he was. A counselor at camp told me about him (thanks Derrick) and in looking up his music, I found this short video about him on Google. There are number of places in this video that I have been to: the favela Vidigal, Lapa (a downtown hangout that, fortunately, not many tourists know about.) I've also been to the music store in Centro. Tried to buy a banjo there but ending up buying one across the street. Regardless, I thought you might appreciate this quick glimpse of Rio.

(Click the play button above to watch the video.)

Jorge says, "People here fight every day for survival with a smile, with a samba ... Music is for emotion, it's not for technique..." That's Rio.