When it rains...

It floods. At least that is definitely how I would describe my life for the past two weeks. We actually got a respite from the rain for about three days in a row, but last night the storms returned with a vengence. The thunder was so constant it set the car alarm off four times! (Keep in mind this is at 1:30 am). The following pictures were taken this morning - as you can see, the school grounds are more suitable for wading that walking. I guess that's why they built the sidewalks (and here I thought they were to protect the grass...silly me).

Who knows when we'll get to play outside for recess again. Of course the kids were all about going swimming. I was able to convince them it would not be a good idea - but I'm afraid eventually the temptation will be to great and at least one child will just have to know what it's like!

My life is also flooded with activity at the moment. I was hoping this week would be a little calmer after the whirlwind of last week, but it just didn't quite settle down the way I'd hoped. In addition to my usual weekly activities (Bible study and prayer meeting) I added a trip to the clothing feria with Laura, Brittany, and Jarod (Jarod is a new teacher at SCCLC who just arrived three weeks ago. He had not been to any kind of market before...I think he was a tad overwhelmed). Friday night we had another Princess Conference meeting to go over the drama again (we had to get a new lead actress since the former princess couldn't make it) and re-decorate the room. Afterwards the Strebigs invited the singles over for pizza. It was delicious (homemade) and we had a great time, but it meant kind of a late night. We were up again early Saturday morning for day 3 of the Conference. We tried to shorten it some, but we ended up running behind all day. I was put at a table again, fortunately with Katie so between the two of us we were able to understand most of what the girls said. Two of them were from ICM (Iglesia Christiana Missionara) which is the church that I've started attending regularly. So it was fun to get to know them.

After the conference I went home and collapsed for a couple hours - and it was good that I did, since Lidia decided that we should all go and watch the pre-Carnival parade that was happening downtown. We got there late and had to run to try and get ahead of the parade. I think we missed about half of it, but that was all right since every group was pretty much the same (they all danced - can you imagine how exhausting it would be to dance vigorously for an entire parade?) It was a fun "cultural experience" and much safer than the actual Carnival parade - I've heard it's really wild. People bring water and paint to throw on everyone, and there's a ton of drinking. It's not as bad as in Rio, but it's pretty crazy! Carnival is the weekend after next, and all the churches have camps outside the city for the four days that it goes on. I'll probably go with ICM, which will be really good for my language practice I'm sure!

Sunday after church several missionaries went out to lunch at a Brazilian buffet (good, but it didn't hold a candle to real Brazilian food) then we got together again at the Kinzle's for the Superbowl. We were pretty disappointed at first when we found out that the broadcast was in Spanish (you can't get English ESPN here) and that they wouldn't be playing American commercials. But since it was a good game everyone enjoyed themselves. We ended up staying for the whole game, which made for yet another late night. I think I'm going to have to go to bed at 7 in order to make up for all the sleep I've missed the last two weeks!

Elliott and Jeff watching intently...or are they just trying to understand the announcers?

Maybe this week will be calmer...doubtful, but hey, hope springs eternal!