Hello and Farewell

On Tuesday this week Rick and Heather Neufeld arrived for their 4 months of language learning in Brazil. After a few stops in Curitiba, the capital, for a bit of shopping and some supper, we took them to the little wooden house that will be their home for the next while. Despite the fact that it's rather small and has no special features, they seemed quite happy with it and thankful to have a place with dividing walls for a change (from the garage they moved out of).

"Orientation"

One of our main priorities this week was help Rick and Heather settle in and and get plugged in to their new surroundings and the mission. Among many other things, they've learned how to get from their little house to the mission, the grocery store, the drug store, the pizza place etc. (and not necessarily in that order). Official Portuguese lessons start next week, but they've picked some up already.

Today we attended the mission's annual general meeting and met with the Brazilian gentleman who does translation work for our leadership training materials. Tomorrow is our last day, which is hard to believe! We're going to try to fit in a church service, lunch with friends, a bus trip to Curitiba's "feirinha" (a fun learning experience for Rick and Heather...and us :)), and last but not least, packing our suitcases! I'll be sad to leave Brazil and the people here but happy at the same time to go home. Home Jones! (One of those sayings that's been in our family a long, long time.)