Jacob's International Experiences: 6 Week Mission = Lifetime of Memories

Brazil was my first major overseas adventure. While on this adventure I feel that I grew spiritually exponentially. I just want to tell ya a few of my memories from Brazil outside of LST.

The picture below is of a neighborhood in Florianopolis(also called Floripa).

The Higher up you live the poorer you are. Thats all I know.

The below shots of Floripa were taken from the boat from our day cruise. The bridge below was designed and built by the same man who built the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA.

One key thing that the Brazilians beat us hands down at is their version of a barbecue. Oh My, WOW! You haven't had a barbecue until you have had a Churrasco (Brazilian word for barbecue). There are many different types of meats and all of them of their own unique way of being prepared. My team and I were blessed to partake in two Churrascos while we were there. They are usually for some type of event or celebration. A party. Lots of people. A very, VERY social occasion. As one type of meat was finished and served, the other was on the grill being prepared and cooked. There are pictures below of one of the parties I went to. It was a birthday party for one of the members of the church. His nickname meant "Mountain", for he was so tall. This party lasted for about 4 0r 5 hours, it was a blast. It was awesome

My favorite soda is the little green bottle you see above. Guarana. It is SO good. It comes from a fruit grown in the Amazon. The best description would be like mixing a Gingerale with a Sprite but that really gives it no justice.

Going into this mission trip, I initially felt a little scared and out of place. My host family made me feel at home and very welcome. I stayed with the Machado family; Maurcio, Fernanda, Thomas, Theo, and Tito.

For the picture below, from the left: Fernanda Machado, Mauricio Machado, Thomas Machado, Sarah Borgelt, Theo Machado, Will Brown, Ben Graves, Alexandre, Priscilla, Sarah Vinzant, Myself, Larissa, and her son.

This is pic of the families who hosted us for the summer. 3 families. There two people missing. Larissa's husband and Tito Machado.

We hung out every evening with the Machados. We also got to know most of the youth group. We went to the movies alot. You see, there was a nice mall down the road about a mile from the machados home. It was called Iguatemi. Inside was the newest theatre in town. So needless to say...like most people here in the states. We went to the movies. Below are photos of Iguatemi and some of our movie night groups. Our very last movie night we invited everyone-our students from class, the youth group, everyone we grew close to during those fast 6wks. It was a blast. In total we saw three movies in theaters (Pirates of the Carribean 3, Zodiac, and Fantastic Four: Silver Surfer) and countless movies at home. We had a blast. Ok...here are the photos.

Another thing I did in Brazil was sand surf. That was a first for me. We went twice. The First time it was just Will, Theo, and I. We went out near Joaquina (Sp) Beach to the sand dunes. We took a board, sorta like a snow board, and off we went. It was a blast. The hills were a pain to climb. Somtimes we lost control of the board(s). We never knew what was going to happen. Will and I were both amateurs at the sport but we did our best to have fun. I believe Theo got a real good laugh out of the whole thing.

Another cool thing was the little wild fire we came across one time on our way home. We were heading home from the church. Ok, a little pre-story to the story. During our stay in Floripa we we moved once. You see the Machados sold their home while we were there. They use to live in the main part of Floripa near the University. We moved out to a rental-like home next door to their beach home. They were still remodeling the beach house and weren't ready to move in. The house is located about 25 minutes outside of the town on the South part of the island. ok, back to the story. We were driving past this field and we saw A LOT of smoke. So Maurcio stopped to see what was up and if he could help. You see he is sorta like a neighborhood leader. The field was about a 3 minute drive from their house. It was pretty close.

We stopped. Got Out. Watched the fire as the firefighters did their work. You see, they used a mop~like looking thing to beat out the flames they found in the field. I found this very interesting. So after a while we got back into our car and a couple of the firefighters got into the car with us. We went around to a back part of the field. We went looking to see if the fire had spread. That was cool. So I got to meet some of the firefighters from Brazil. Here are some the photos from that night.