Brazil #4 - Highlight of the Trip

In my experience the best part about tours are the friendships you make. The first picture is of Rosanna and I. I first met her in Brazil 2 years ago as she came and stayed at a camp we put on. I didn't really get a chance to talk to her much on that tour although she speaks very good English. I will admit when I heard she was in to Spiritism and worshiping different idols I didn't give her much of a chance. Well after leaving Brazil we ended up getting in touch through email and communicated quite a bit over the past 2 years. So when I got to Brazil I made sure to get her the phone numbers to the camp and a couple days later she came to stay a couple nights for our girls camp. Rosanna is an amazing soccer player (she could play D-1 anywhere if given the opportunity) and since we needed another player, Julie and I invited her to play with us for the second half of our trip (5 games). She agreed and ended up staying at the camp with us in the room of another player we adopted in Brazil, Muri Muri (moody moody-nickname).

Muri Muri played with us from the first game when we played her team in Santos. During her first days with our team I was worried we weren't trying hard enough to communicate and make her feel welcome. It can be hard when no English is spoken. Yet by the end of tour, we couldn't shut her up! It was awesome. She taught us Portuguese and we taught her English. Her favorite words to yell out "Water Bottle" and "Coca Butter." She had nicknames for us all by the end, none of which made sense when translated but all sounded really cool in Portuguese.

So when Rosanna joined the team it was a blessing, not only because she was an amazing player and a good friend, but she was with us 24/7, after the translators were in bed, to help us talk with Muri Muri. Our time with the girls was amazing and I will never forget Muri Muri in the bus on the way home from our last game singing "Turn around....Every now and then I fall apart..." I think its Cindy Lauper...Anyway she had someone's ipod and with a terrible English accent/pronunciation she could barley get the chorus out. Classic.

So on our last night we gathered in our classroom in a huge circle and had a sort of open sharing where we could tell Muri Muri and Rosanna what they meant to us...That we would miss them...ect...ect. Then we prayed for them (neither are Christians). Well in the end Rosanna spoke and tearfully told us that her and her mother had just started reading the Bible! God is awesome and I will never stop praying for her. We are not sure if Muri Muri came to know the Lord but I do know she touched the lives of every girl on our tour and she heard countless times in so many ways about the love of Christ and how that was evident in each of our lives. I will never stop praying for her either =).

Brazil #3 - World Cup

So as we walked into the church and grabbed a seat to watch Brazil play in their first match of the World Cup all I could do was think "How in the world can I describe this in a blog." So after careful thought I decided on this:

Being in Brazil during a World Cup match in which they are playing must be a lot like being in Green Bay as the Packers play in the Superbowl.

Waiting for Brazil to score a goal in the World Cup must be what its like counting down to midnight in Times Square on New Years Eve. Not that there was a countdown, I am more imagining the celebrating when the clock hits 12am.

World Cup Brazilian pride looks a lot like the pride America had after 9-11 only with various noise makers, fireworks, and lots of cars honking, before, during and after games.

Brazil might just have more pride then Canada as far as flag flying goes (for those of you who haven't been that way in a while, this is saying a lot).

Words will never describe the energy in a room filled with 100 fanatical fans nor will they do justice to the noise 100 fanatical fans make during the World Cup. America we must take notes and catch the fever! (well, maybe in the next World Cup).

Brazil #2 - The Crazy kids

So as I scroll through pictures trying to choose which ones are the best for my blog...I realize I want to put them all on because every one of them brings back a special memory. But don't worry! I won't do that because there are way too many and I don't have nearly enough time for that. This group of pictures is from various places we visited during the tour.






In Brazil, you are a celebrity if you come from the United States. After games you are mobbed by every young kid in the stands. Its funny because they all want you to sign some tiny scrap of paper they have found or stolen from the kid next to them and they are all sharing one pen. They will all ask for an email address so you know over the next week or two you will receive tons of emails in Portuguese. If you have the luxury of time you can translate them and get the gist of what they are saying thanks to online translators but if you reply in English they will email back saying they do not understand. In a month or so it will all be over but I will not forget the smiles on their faces when you told them to make sure they emailed you and gave them a sticker of an American flag. If only American Children were awe struck by a sticker of a flag.



While in Brazil we were able to visit 3 schools ranging from age 5 through 17. At the schools we were the assembly. Students had prepared questions (some of them from English classes so they were required to ask the question in English...Sometimes we still needed the translator). We learned that in Brazilian public schools anything goes as far as speaking about God. They can actually pray in their schools and I am sure if their pledge contained the phrase "One Nation Under God" they would repeat it daily. It was a great opportunity to share with the kids a small piece of who we are and why we were there.

Back from Brazil

I am back from Brazil! ok ok I have been back for a few days now but I just didnt know where to start after 3 full weeks blogable things going on. So I guess Ill start at the begining and over the next few days try and piece together this amazing adventure I was on. I was in Canada for a few days before the rest of the girls arrived with the two girls in the picture. Julie is on the left, she coordinated this tour and I have known her since my first AIA adventure all those years ago. Sarah is on the left and we were on Soccer Project in Canada for 8 weeks and then both went to Ireland together after that. It was a much needed reunion. A few days later our group arrived and two days later we were headed to Brazil after just 2 practices with our team. From Vancouver, BC we flew the 5 hour flight to Toronto, Ontario where we had around a 6 hour layover. From here we flew the 10.5 hours to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Our first destination was Santos, a city on the coast around 4 hours from the airport. Well as most of you heard we didn't quite make it in that time. We were on a very windy downhill road when our bus driver realized we had no breaks. As he looked at the road ahead he saw two choices, either drive head on into the guardrail, which would for sure stop the bus but possibly injure a lot of people, or he could try and drive the bus against the guard rail hoping it would slow enough so that we wouldnt go over the upcoming cliff. He picked the latter (no one knew what was going on) but as we were scraping against the rail we were not loosing nearly enough speed. Then last minute a semi hit us from the right. This was just enough to stop the bus and save us from...well probably going over the cliff.



In this picture you can see the road ahead and where we would have been headed had we not stopped. We got to use the emergency exit! and the driver told us to make sure we had cameras out! We were stranded on the road for a total of 5 hours before getting picked up and riding the next 45min to Santos. Definatly not the way we expected to start tour but I guess God does that sometimes to show us his power and teach us to trust.