Happy Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving,

 

I'm still on the rig as of this morning.  I may get a flight back to shore today, depending on the weather.  It really doesn't feel like a holiday- there's no unwanted snow falling, no real football on TV, no pumpkin pie.  And everyone knows that those are the things that make Thanksgiving the great American holiday that it is.  Haha.  Well, we'll see what they serve for lunch and dinner today.  Maybe we four Americans on the rig will get lucky, and the cafeteria will serve up some turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy.  I'm crossing my fingers. 

 

Anyway, I wanted to include ya'll in my reflections on some of the things that I'm thankful for. 

• My relationship with God who loves me and pursues me and never lets go of me
• My family who has been through lots of stuff and still loves God and loves each other in authentic relationships
• My friends that are like family to me- loving me, praying for me, asking the hard questions and not letting me take the easy way out
• The ridiculous amounts of grace that I've been shown by God, family, and friends
• My job that has been a blessing in getting to travel, experience different cultures and people, and being stretched in my limits of what I thought I could do
• My safety working in a foreign country, and in a working environment filled with high-risk activities
• The opportunity to go to Colombia and experience a new culture, meet more of God's loved creations, and trust him that I have a purpose there
• My health and ability to run, exercise, and do active things I enjoy
• Financial security and the ability to bless others with what I've been blessed with
• New Life Church in Ann Arbor, MI and community there that changed my life and continues to change it, a continent away
• Being able to see the sunrise and sunset in the same day from a rig, and experience the power and beauty of creation
• The moments each day that are completely priceless
• Belly laughs with friends
• An email list of friends and family who actually care how I'm doing and look forward to my emails :)

Well, thanks for reading this.  I hope you all have an opportunity to reflect on some of the things you're thankful for today.  I hope that most of you are with family, and appreciate what a true blessing that is. 

 

Missing home today,

Everything is more complicated offshore

Hey everyone,

 

I'm still offshore.  At the moment, we're waiting for the sea conditions to improve to continue with the operation.  The forecast is for things to get better by Tuesday.  Today is Sunday.  Ho hum... that means lots of time to hang around the rig.  I slept all day yesterday, thinking that we were going to be working this morning at 4am.  When the sea conditions worsened, it meant that we weren't going to be working this morning and that I could sleep all night.  Oh darn!!  It's rather difficult to sleep when you're completely well rested.

 

I decided to go use the gym to use up some energy and be able to sleep through the night.  I started running on the treadmill, and it was, by far, the most interesting treadmill experience I have ever had.  Running on a treadmill is normally a simple thing- you just run forward.  There's no incline unless you program it; there are no bumps or cracks in the sidewalk, no puddles to jump over or avoid.  Very basic.  Anyway, this is the mentality of someone who's never run on a treadmill on a floating rig with poor sea conditions.  I started running at my normal pace, but despite the fact that the velocity of the treadmill never changed, I was running all over the place.  Because of the action of the waves and the rocking of the rig, I was running in circles and running forward at the same time.  Sometimes I would be almost falling off the back of the treadmill, encroaching on the front, or side-stepping to keep from catching my foot on the edge of tread and stationary frame.  If you tracked my actual position on the treadmill, I'm pretty sure it would look like something a drunk person created with a Spirograph (toy from my childhood... look it up on Wikipedia if you've never played with one).  I thought the whole experience was really funny, and I was really glad I was in there by myself for the majority of my run.

 

Well, that's all for now.  I'm heading off to the Sunday churrasco lunch, complete with non-alcoholic beer.  Later it's the big game (soccer of course) on TV and watching movies on my computer.  Maybe I'll head up to the gym again this afternoon :)

 

Love,

Random topics from a girl who should be sleeping

Hey Fine People,

 

I´m offshore again.  I have more responsibilities this time, and I´m enjoying it.  It´s been ridiculously hot the past couple days.  It´s actually the humidity that´s killing me.  I stepped outside this morning at 6am and I was instantly sweating the kind of sweat that doesn´t dry... ever.  Our operation started this morning, and I´m going to supervise the middle part.  That means that I´m supposed to be resting right now while the other guys are up there working.  The problem is that I´ve already slept all that I can sleep.  It´s rather sad- I know that I´ll have to be awake and alert for hours upon hours later (all night), but there are only so many hours you can sleep when you´re already well-rested.  It´s like I have a sleep cup that I can fill up, but then any extra just overflows and doesn´t get saved.  I wish I had a sleep bank, where I could just keep making deposits and watch the savings grow... with interest.  :) 

 

There are a couple American and Canadian guys that work here on the rig.  It´s pretty cool to speak some of my native tongue with other natives.  Oh, funny story: On this rig, we have little, cloth booties (in Portuguese they´re pantufas=slippers) that we put on over our dirty boots when we come into the living quarters of the rig from outside in the working area.  They help the inside stay nice and clean and hospitable.  You have to take them off and keep them in your pocket when you go back outside.  One of the guys that I´m offshore with, Edivaldo (ed-jee-VAL-do), forgot to take his booties off and walked all over the rig yesterday before someone told him about it.  Okay... maybe it´s more of a "you had to be there" kind of story, but now we´re calling him Ed "Pantufas" (EDGE-pan-TOO-fuss).  And I think it´s really funny (I´m laughing out loud to myself again, alone in the Technicians Office).  I´m glad my nickname isn´t Jessica "Slippers."

 

So I wanted to elaborate on the PS of my last email (for those of you who made it all the way to the bottom- like I made it to the bottom of The Peak).  I´m not sure if I have mentioned it before, but my Brazilian visa expires in December.  At that point, I won´t legally be able to work in Brazil anymore.  I have to leave the country for three months, and then I can apply for a new work visa.  The visa renewal process will take six to eight weeks after I apply for it.  I was waiting for a while to figure out where my bosses were going to send me for the four to five months that I can´t work in Brazil.  The final decision is Bogotá, Colombia.  I´ll probably be leaving for Colombia in mid-December.  If anyone wants to come down to South America for Christmas, I´d be happy to have guests!

 

At first I was pretty nervous about the decision.  All you ever hear in the US about Colombia is related to drug trafficking and kidnappings.  I´ve spoken with various friends who have been there, and they have decent things to say about it.  Apparently it´s become a lot better than it used to be in the 90´s.  Hopefully it will be as good as they say it is.  It will be a much cooler climate, because the city is in the mountains.  I´m sad to think about leaving all my friends here in Brazil.  I think I´ll be coming back for a couple months in Brazil, but to be honest, I´m not totally sure.  It will depend on how soon the guys want me back in Houston, TX. 

 

So, I´m going to go eat dinner now and then try to sleep again.  Maybe I´ll just lay in the dark with my eyes closed for hours.  Sounds like fun!!!  See you there!  Hahaha... anyway, I apologize for the rambling nature of this email. 

 

Love ya´ll,

The Peak

Hey Everyone,

I realize that it has been forever and half since I wrote last. A lot has been happening, and I will try to fill you in on the important stuff.

I was back in the US for a week in October, because my paternal grandmother passed away. She had been sick with liver cancer for a couple months, so we all knew it was going to happen, but that didn't make it any less sad when it actually did come to pass. I found out on a Saturday morning that she was gone after I had slept for just two hours in the past twenty-four. I called my parents and my boss, bought a plane ticket, packed in hurry, and flew back to the US that same evening. When I arrived in the airport in Grand Rapids twenty-two hours after I left Macaé, my luggage didn't. I was jet-lagged, sleep deprived, and grieving, and I almost lost it in the airport. I ended up getting my bag back that evening, so it was okay. My family went over to Milwaukee, WI for the funeral. The circumstances were really sad, but it was really good to be with my family (immediate and extended).

Three weekends ago, I went to Niterói, the city across the Guandabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro and hometown to my good friend, Bruno. After months of invitations, I finally went to visit him and his girlfriend, Louise. I stayed at her house, and they took me on a "passeo turístico" or tourist circuit. It was really fun. We went to to Pão de Azucar (Sugarloaf Mountain) on Saturday morning. It was pretty hazy up around the top of the mountain as we drove over the bridge over the Bay, connecting Niterói to Rio. I rolled the windows of the car down and did my best to blow the clouds away. We arrived at Sugerloaf and decided to pay the fare to go up to the top in spite of the haze. I'm not sure if it was my amazing lung power or some good luck, but as we got to the top of the cable car ride, the clouds had cleared enough to enjoy the beautiful views of the city- from sandy-white beaches, to green mountains, to the pockets of towering, white buildings, with the Christ statue looking down over everything. It was amazing that right when we decided to head back down, the clouds swooped down and completed covered the mountaintop in fog again. It was all in all, perfect timing.

We drove along the famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema,had a late lunch at a great restaurant in Ipanema called Gula Gula (pronounced GOO-la GOO-la- which is fun to say, I don't care who you are), and headed back across the bridge to Niterói for naps, showers, and went out for frozen margaritas in the evening. It was fun to hang out with their friends, and I had the best nachos I've had yet in Brazil. They were regular tortilla chips instead of nacho flavored Doritos!! I don't know how some many people can mess up something as basic as nachos, but they manage to do a great job of it.

Sunday, after lunch, we went to a beach in Niterói to hike the mountain/hill (henceforth referred to as The Peak because if it's precipitous nature) that rises above the beach. I somehow missed the memo to bring along appropriate gear for a HIKE. I was dressed in a jeans skirt, white halter top, and cute little tennis shoes that weren't made for anything more athletic than normal walking. I decided that I was up for a challenge, and that we should do the hike anyway. The first part was fine. It was through the woods, along a trail that was pretty well defined. The problem came when we hit the tree line. I came face to face with the face of The Peak. I started climbing up. I leaned forward slightly climb with my feet and hands (it was a pretty steep angle). As I started my ascent, all I could seem to think (or talk) about was, "How the heck am I going to climb down this thing?!?" Climbing up was somewhat of a perilous task, but at least on the way up, gravity was working to keep my velocity steady. I kept picturing myself slipping on the way down and rolling, out of control, down The Peak, occasionally hitting a cactus and changing direction.

At one particularly difficult patch of rock, I really freaked out. I "sat down" on the slope and debated continuing up or turning around. The view was already pretty cool, and I really value my life. Haha. Bruno was telling me that the worst was already over, and that I was going to have to go down the hard part anyway, so I might as well keep going to the top. During my period of mental turmoil, I saw a group of people walking down. They were not freaking out at all. It was rather embarrassing. They were dressing in swimsuits and flip-flops. At that point, Bruno promised that if I didn't make it to the top, he would make fun of me for the rest of my life. Louise told him to be nicer and agreed to let me use her tennis shoes. The combination of the new-shoes-instilled confidence and desire to maintain my dignity encouraged me to keep climbing. Five minutes after I decided to keep climbing, we saw a guy with his little dog climbing down. I got made fun of again because the little dog had no problem on the hike.

I did indeed make it to the top. The view was great, and I felt quite proud of myself. We started to head back down with enough time to be down before the sun set completely. I took my time climbing down. I pretended I was skiing and cut back and forth along the diagonal whenever possible and scooted down on my bottom when necessary. The satisfaction resulting from making it to the top was eclipsed by my joy resulting from reaching the bottom. I conquered The Peak!! Maybe that's a little messed up, but that's okay with me. I never claimed to be normal. Haha.

Anyway, this has become a really long email. Bruno is still telling the story to everyone who will listen and laugh at me. I'm heading offshore this afternoon. I'll give you more info soon.

Love,

Jessica

PS. I'm moving to Bogota, Colombia in December because of my expiring Brazilian visa.