Buzios and physical labor..

To all my favorite people:

I made it back to Brazil safely a week ago. I've been pretty busy since I
got here. It took a total of 27 hours travel time to get from my house in
Grand Rapids to my base in Macae. Whew!! It's a lot of cars, planes, cabs,
and vans... and exhaustion.

I moved into my staff house and met one of my roommates. Her name is Gabi.
She's nice, very social, and I've basically been her shadow since I met
her. She invited me to come to Buzios with her and her friends for the
weekend. I decided to go, although I was worried about being lost when
everyone else was speaking Portuguese. How did it go you ask? Well.. I was
lost in the Portuguese conversation 75% of the time, but I still had a lot
of fun. 15% of the time, the conversation was in English, and the other 10%
was Portuguese that I could figure out. I did made some new friends. Some
of them I like more than others, but that's to be expected, right? We
walked around the town, went out to dinner, went to a dance club (don't
worry too much about that, Mom and Dad), and went to the beach the next

day. I bought some Havaianas (the Old Navy flip flops of Brazil- everybody
has them), and we drank coconut milk right out of the coconut in the shade
by the water with a cool breeze blowing through the trees. It was fun, and

I'm very glad that I went. I put up pictures for everyone to see on my
gmail account: http://picasaweb.google.com/Jessica.J.Schulte There are
pictures from Rio, my first weekend in Macae, and some from Buzios (I'm
still working on uploading the rest). I will try to add captions so you
have some context for what you're seeing. It might take me a while though..


As far as work goes, I have been getting my hands dirty for the first time.
I have been working outside off the base with all of our screens (30ft long
sections of pipe with holes and mesh and such). I painted approximately 40
pieces of wash pipe at 30ft a piece yesterday with this black sealant that
we thinned with solvent. I think they're trying to make me high or
something. It's spattered all over my cute orange coveralls. I now
resemble an orange Dalmatian or something. Adorable..

I made some New Year's resolutions. The ones that are going well include:
flossing every day, reading My Utmost for His Highest every day, keeping my
room clean (yes, Mom, it's true), and staying away from the Brazilian guys
(except as friends). You should all be very proud of me. :) Laundry and
the dishes are actually taken care of by the maid that comes 3 times a
week. Crazy.. I just leave dishes in the sink, and they get cleaned and put
away! It's like magic. It's strange to not do my own laundry.. but I like
it. :)

I'm learning more Portuguese phrases. I also learned how to help with heavy
lifting. I was helping the forklift operator move pipes and screens. It
was nice to actually feel useful. We work outside rain or shine. And boy
has it rained and shined on me. I feel like a construction worker sometimes
because we stand around a lot if the machinery we need is in use elsewhere
(and we wear orange). Overall, it's not too bad. I'm still trying to
decide if I actually like the work here. I haven't had enough exposure yet
to know. As for now, I'm assuming it's going to be great.

Well.. that update wasn't very exciting, but hopefully you will enjoy the
pictures. I'll think of some wittier remarks next time.

Tchao tchao,