Bon Dia! Ese quatro dia en Campinas (That's Portuguese Sissy)

These are pictures of our friends Toni and Alex, our hosts in Brazil. They are great friends. I've known Alex for some time through NYI, and Terry got to know him in South Africa. She said she had to meet the woman who lives with this man. Toni is a gem, and they have two beautiful girls, with a third on the way. The picture on the left is Toni with Gabriella and Rebecca. She is reading one of the books that "Miss Terry" brought for the girls. Toni has been confined to bed rest, awaiting the arrival of the third lady to the group, Julianna.

The picture on the right is me with Alex, standing next to me, and (from right to left), Christian Ventura, from Paraguay, SAM's Regional NYI coordinator, with Alexandre da Silva, SAM's Regional NYI president. I'll get a better picture of the Fonseca family later this week.

Well, as you can tell by the time of this blog, I'm adjusting to the two hour time difference. I woke up before 5:00, Chicago time. Again, its a beautiful day here in Campinas. The sky has never been anything but blue, and it's already 65. I could get used to this.

As you can also tell, I'm doing my best to butcher this beautiful language. I'm sure the conjugation is terrible for my greeting this morning, but wanted to impress you with what little I have learned to this point. There are some similarities between Portuguese and Spanish, but not enough to help, and the pronounciation is more like Italian, which I know nothing about. The syllables are different too, so in Spanish, you can still sing the songs, not here. In some ways, it's more beautiful; sorry too my Spanish speaking friends.

Wanted to post a few pictures as well so you can have some sense of what is happening down here at the conference.

These are a couple of pictures, one from the service last night, and the one on the right is their NYC staff. A little nuts, might I add, the staff that is. I speak this morning, so if you get this before 9:30 Chicago time, a pray shot to heaven for me would be appreciated.

This is an incredible trip, with an incredible group of people. I love Brazil!