tor · cer (v) to cheer and support one's team

Any proper update must start with news of the World Cup since that is the preeminent happening in Brazil. So far, I have watched both Brazilian games at people's houses (fairly low-key environments). Brazil has won both of its games so far (beating Croatia 1-0 and Australia 2-0) but Brazilian fans are aggravated that the victories haven't been more pronounced, as they fully expected them to be. That, however, does not stop people from setting off firecrackers and having parades and parties during and after the games. Other than the plazas set up with giant-screen TVs for public viewing, the streets are completely empty during the games. It seems that only 1% of the population isn't watching because they choose not to--everybody else that isn't working is someplace with a television (and many people who have to work have access to televisions during the games). Some of the other visiting Americans and I were trying to make a comparison to a similar event in the U.S., but there isn't one. The Super Bowl is about as close as it gets, and that does not involve a national team, and a significant fraction of the population doesn't watch it.

I think it was Wednesday when we visited one of the Shade and Fresh Water projects in the neighboring community of Betim because that was the project that our visitor's church was sponsoring. Even though the project wasn't actually functioning that day, several children and volunteers turned up to greet us. This rural area had mostly dirt roads, and it is located out past the "Industrial City" section of Belo Horizonte. The project serves about 50 children in two shifts, and the local women also do embroidering and other handicrafts to raise money. I'm including some photos that I took at this project.



Some of the kids examining the paper they made from recycled paper

A couple of shy little boys in Betim

Little feet


I have survived my first experience as the only guide for an incoming group from Georgia. Last Thursday, I took a bus (6.5 hours, which is starting to not be such a long bus ride for me) to Rio with the American visitor who was staying in our apartment. She'd never seen Rio, so she went with me to meet the work team and spend the day touring with them on Friday before heading up to meet the EvangeMed boat in Manaus. I knew that a bus driver would be picking me up at the hotel to take me to meet the team at the airport, but he arrived almost two hours early. Marcelo, the driver, was a funny guy, and I had lots of time to hear his interesting stories.

The team from Park Avenue UMC in Valdosta, Georgia arrived at the international airport in Rio late Thursday night. I was a little nervous because all of the flights above theirs on the display board said "delayed" or "canceled," and I thought there must be some issue with fog or something that was preventing planes from coming in. Marcelo pointed out that all of those flights were with Varig, the failing Brazilian airline. Before the team exited customs, I asked Marcelo if the currency exchanges were, as they appeared to be, closed. He went to investigate and came back with two alternate "unofficial" places we could have the team exchange money. It turns out the unassuming little man dressed like a porter who'd been standing by the door runs his own unofficial currency exchange, and he was able to immediately change some money for everybody. The bus driver spotted the team right away in their yellow t-shirts. He and I were both surprised at the amount of luggage they had with them--it turns out that they'd received several requests to carry stuff with them to deliver to folks here. The van we had was a 15-seater, but after some skillful packing, we were able to get all 11 of us and all of the suitcases in the van.

Guiding the team was pretty easy because they actually followed the suggested rules (e.g. not going out alone, flashing money around, etc.). Thankfully, there were no major incidents. We went to Corcovado (Jesus statue on the mountain) in the morning and Sugarloaf (mountain with two cable cars up to the top) in the afternoon, and both places were crowded compared to my previous visit in May. It turns out there was a special promotion for locals to be able to go for 1/2 price that day. The weather held out just long enough for us to come down from Sugarloaf, at which point it started to rain. We then drove back to the hotel via several beaches, including one where many hangliders land, and we got to see two hangliders and one parachuter land right there. The team's flight to Belo Horizonte was moved to a flight early Saturday morning, so everybody was ready to leave the hotel at 7 AM to head back to the airport. Thankfully, again, there weren't any problems with them getting checked in and boarding their flight. My big accomplishment was finding and catching the right bus to take me back into town (after passing by the bus station, the other airport, and several other neighborhoods) and getting off at the right place to walk to my hotel. When I talked to the work team later, it turns out that a large group from their host church met them with banners and great fanfare at the airport in Belo Horizonte. I got to fly back to Belo Horizonte later on Saturday afternoon because my boss was able to find a really cheap flight.

Probably the hardest translation I had to do for the group was in Sunday school yesterday morning at the church where they'll be working this week. Thankfully, by the afternoon meeting to plan their work and the evening worship service, more qualified translators were there to help. It seems right now that translating English into Portuguese is harder for me than Portuguese into English.