Saturday 20 July 2013

No sleep tonight!

Day 52 - 20 de Julho: Paulinia

Today was saturday, so the family slept in a bit today. We didn't have to meet until 9, but I was up early. Yesterday, the family asked what they do with the maple syrup that Alex gave them. So, this morning I decided to make them a good old fashioned Canadian pancake breakfast. I showed Laisa how to make them as well, so she can make them when she wants. I overcooked the first one, not knowing how hot their stove was (even on the lowest temperature setting), so the next few, i had to hold the pan up above the flame to get the right temperature. They turned out great, even with no measuring spoons and regular milk instead of buttermilk. They ate, then we left for the church. There was a bit more food there, but soon, we were right into a group talk (brazilians and canadians together). It was time to say our goodbye speeches. A couple people got up first, and to understand, we had a translator in front. After a little bit, i really wanted to go up and express my gratitude to everyone. But i decided to challenge myself. I spoke my whole speech in portuguese and everyone understood! I felt very accomplished. My family came up too and said some very nice things about me. I in turn said more to the family. At the end of everything, everyone was a bit emotional. Nobody wants to say goodbye. We still had the next activities though. We put on some skits for everyone next. We got random props and our theme was hope. We had fifteen minutes to practice and i think we did well. Next there was a nice prayer service, followed by a delicious barbecue lunch. It reminded me of the campfire meat we would eat on the jungle excursions. I ate at a table with my family so we were able to talk about many things. We left soon after lunch. In our down time at home, i taught my brazilian siblings some canadian geography on google earth. They in turn taught me some geography of rio de janiero. Later on, we had one more adventure - and it was a big one! We were going to a mass in a big stadium with several other countries that had their missionary week in the archdiocese of Campinas. The archbishop put in on and the mass was in many languages. The energy here was massive - some of the countries actually surprised me with this. Italy wasn't nearly as loud as they usually are and Korea had huge energy. There was actually a huge korean presence here and i didn't even know they had a catholic presence. Very cool. Afterwards, we said goodbye to the locals and took our bus back to Paulinia. I was getting really tired, but we still had a bit to go. We had pizza at some family friend's house. They gave us some beautiful parting gifts (rosary, chocolates, chain). It was amazing, and they didn't even really know us all that well. I can't believe that our time here is already ending. Tomorrow morning is really early and i got to get at least a couple hours of sleep now. Goodnight!



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