Rain. Rain. Don't go away!

Saturday, I went with the Axworthy's to hike to Salto de Itiquira, a waterfall about 2 hours away.  First of all, the hike was beautiful.  There were birds, snakes, monkeys, piranas... ok, just kidding...  there were birds and snakes, we just didn't see any.  But, we did see plenty of cool plants, vines, and paths.

After we went on the trail shown on the left, we reached a freshwater pool fed by a waterfall.  Just a little ways past the first smaller waterfall, the inclining hike became a vertical climb.  As an understatement, it was a little too steep for the kids to climb, so we had to turn back.  We went back to the waterfall and swam in the FREEZING cold water.  I had a blast!

Honestly, I fell a couple of times making my way up to that point by the waterfall.  It really felt way higher than it was.  All of the rocks were covered in moss and I bit it pretty good on my way up.  It was all worth it when I jumped in though.

Also, on Friday at school, my class had just finished lunch when the high schoolers came up saying, "Did you guys see the rainbow?"  We hadn't seen it, but, of course, we had seen rainbows before.  However, when I looked up I was amazed!  A complete circle of a rainbow all the way around the sun!  I have NEVER seen anything like it!



"This is the most awesome day eveeeeerrrrrrr!"

Skipping and shouting, "This is the most awesome day eveeeerrrr," Mia, the four-year old girl that I live with was really enjoying herself.  As we were walking outside in the mist the afternoon picking mulberries from the trees in the neighborhood, we picked just about every ripe, or almost ripe, but still sour, mulberry we could find.  We snacked as we picked. And stored some in Anne's backpack while we snacked.  Soon to find out that Anne's backpack had a hole in it and these berries would dye a huge section of the back of her favorite shirt!  The berries When we came home, Anne, Joseph, and Mia helped me make Mulberry Muffins.  But, I was wondering why we say Mulberry Bush.... when here in Brazil, it's clearly a tree!

"I took my science test today and I cheated!"

Kids are so honest!  When my new third grader said this the other day after recess, one of my co-workers turned her head so fast and said, "Excuse me?"  The student responded, "I used my book; I cheated!"  However, she did not inform the other teacher that because she had just began my class the day before, her test was open book.

"Those volcanos haven't interrupted yet." - Joseph

Today, I visited the church that is only 3 blocks from my house.  When I arrived, the greeters were so friendly and asked me to fill out a visitor card.  They said all kinds of other stuff, but of course, they said it at their regular speed, which for me is super-duper-too-fast, and I said, "Eu nao falo portugues muito." He smiled and I proceeded to take a seat for the service.  The worship was neat, consisting mostly of hymns that I already knew in English and could catch the rhythm and melody quickly enough to try to sing along.  There were times that I could not help but laugh at myself for what I probably looked or sounded like, (possibly a Japanese cartoon where the mouth didn't match up to the words).  After the service when I was leaving, a polite man told me something and again, I did not understand him.  So, I smiled and said "Nao se." He smiled back and then I left.  Oh, the joy of confusion.