That weekend also saw the Comunidade Shalom Church's couple's retreat at Acampamento Shalom. While the Oregon team was leaving the country, and while the Indiana team was moved downtown into a hotel due to the need for every square inch of space at the camp, I was one of the lucky few who stayed at the camp. They actually had people stay in town and come to the camp every day, since they didn't have room at the camp for all who wished to attend. I stayed in the one guest room in the house that wouldn't be suitable for a couple because the bed is too small. The featured speaker and his family was in the other guest room in the house. The featured speaker of the camp was Pastor JacÛ of the Marin· church. Apparently, JacÛ got a little irritated and the lighting situation in the camp's chapel. As some of you remember, they were using the old fluorescent fixtures that Tom had to occasionally hit with a long steel rod to get working. Notice I said "were using". During the camp, JacÛ broke off his message and said something along the lines of "It's dark in here. Is there anyone here who is willing to help fix the lighting problem in here? I'll tell you what. Here is my name, and I am willing to help. I will put it on this piece of paper like this. Who else is willing to help? Put your name on this paper like so." The bottom line result is that it is now 1 week and 1 day after the retreat, and in a city where everything happens slowly when it comes to fixing things, the camp chapel now has a new set of working interior lights, new spotlights at the front of the chapel (the bulbs haven't been installed yet), a new set of switches for the spotlights, and considerably re-worked electrical conduit, and the camp didn't have to pay a dime to get it done.

A certain person in the mid-west sent the camp a care package that arrived recently that included a new blender for Margaret, so they don't have to share a blender between the camp kitchen and Margaret's personal kitchen. The timing of that arrival was very interesting, because we had just gone through a stage where the blender was being moved back and forth between the two kitchens on a daily basis, and I made the comment "Margaret, we have GOT to find a way of getting you another blender." Then, Poof, there it was.

Staying at the camp during the couple's retreat allowed me to help Tom and Margaret a little there. I must admit that it gave me a new appreciation for how big a job it is to run the camp when it is in full operation, as I managed to have to deliver a few things to the camp kitchen during meal preparation time. Imagine Margaret, dona Lucila ( the one who did all the cooking for us when it was just us at the camp ), dona Vinnie ( the one who did our laundry for us, and is pressed into service as a cook when she is needed ) and about 5 other Brazilian cooks all crammed into that kitchen in the dining hall, and not a single one of them in the least bit idle. From what I saw, Margaret could easily be an excellent military commander as well as a wonderful hostess.

This past Tuesady, I spent some time helping David Roof finish up the parts of the house that were incomplete. The painter that was working on the house was impressed enough with the actions of the groups that were here that significant progress was made in making him a Christian. If you think actions speak louder than words, this is certainly the case in a situation where the one who is watching the actions can't speak a word of the language of those whose actions are being watched. He hasn't converted yet, but keep up the prayers and hope for the best. David got a great chance to spend several hours talking to the man about his religious opinions when they had a conversation started when a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses stopped by and talked to the painter. ( You would think that someone would have more sense than to send those people knocking on the doors of a Christian seminary, but then again if you are the enemy of Christianity than what better people to try to get at than those who are being trained to be leaders in the church? )

The two teams that were here also visited Maringý, and were reasonably impressed with the orphanage operation out there. Due to certain problems at the orphanage, members of both teams are actually talking about maybe having a work project at the orphanage sometime soon. The place can hold over 100 children, but right now has only 35 due to problems in some of the houses ( Unlike certain other orphanages, this one operates with the idea that the children are best looked after by families, and therefore it is divided up into several houses, and one family with children looks after certain orphans, and essentially adopts them as their own in terms of raising them. This is why structural problems in several houses don't necessarily close the whole thing. ). Pastor JacÛ and Frank are apparently very interested as well.

For those who were on the teams that worked at the ISBL campus repairing the sidewalk, I found out that the ISBL seminary has a web site. The URL is http://www.isbl.org

For those who were members of the English camp team, please be aware that Silvia Flores' ( the one everyone called "crazy Silvia" ) sister passed away. She seems to be in good spirits most of the time still, but I am sure that it has been hard on her. This coming Sunday will be the second English speaking service of the Semester in the ISBL chapel, and Silvia will deliver a brief message as part of that service. I helped her grammar in what she wants to say. It should be good.

We received very good news that one of our missionaries here, Laura Edwards, had her US citizenship approved. It is unfortunate, but they had to leave their children in the care of people here, and make an emergency trip from here to Indianapolis for an "interview" with an INS officer in Indianapolis. Apparently an application for US citizenship from someone living outside US boarders sets off some strange processes, even if they are married to an American, and have completed the other paperwork while they were living in the USA. Assorted jokes certain people are telling about me getting married to a Brazilian aside, watching what they have gone through is enough to assure me that bi-nationality marriage is not something most people should try to do. It's bad enough having two families trying to come together behind their respective spouses, let alone two respective immigration services.

Other than going back to my normal routine of helping tutor students, I was also called upon to take over a class for one evening when Jan became so exhausted that she absolutely had to take a break. Considering the short notice, I apparently did reasonably well, and there is talk of me actually being pressed into service as an actual teacher here for maybe one or two courses - at least until I return to the states. Jan is currently considering having me teach two half-courses. The idea would be to have me take over the level 3 and level 4 classes for one day per week, and both are taught twice per week. This would still allow her to rest, but also allow her to continue the things in the courses that she is best at doing ( such as teaching the music ).

However, I will wind up taking over both classes for at least one week, as Jan has to go deal with some US citizenship issues in her own family ( her two daughters ). Those of you on the English camp team may remember Jan talking about one round of that process required Jan to dig up her academic records dating back to Kidnergarden. Since Jan is a US citizen I would hope that her daughters would be made US citizens easily enough, but it requires a visit to the American Consulate office in S“o Paulo to do the next phase, and while she is gone someone has to teach her classes. With all the English classes going on, and all the other stuff she does, she really doesn't need a battle with the INS as well. I can tell that something has added a lot to her stress level in recent weeks, and I honestly think that this may be a significant part of this problem. There are a few times when I wonder if I made the correct decision in staying here, but the fact is that there isn't a whole lot of other people around to help right now.

The first class I taught was on an extremely warm evening. We were assigned to a classroom at the noisiest corner of the ISBL campus, where the noise of street traffic is a constant problem, and the air conditioner doesn't work. I found out that the classroom next door, which is next to only one busy street and has an air conditioner that works, was empty. Therefore, I "accidentally" misread the classroom assignment and moved everyone over there. Since that time, a large thunderstorm moved through the area, and cooled it off about 15 degrees. It is still warm enough that I go around at 10:30 at night without a jacket on, but it is much more comfortable than it was.

I am also helping out with an inventory of major assets held at ISBL. They wanted to put everything on a database. Since they have a site license for Microsoft Office, I am using Microsoft's Access database program. I must admit that I am not particularly impressed with this program. There doesn't appear to be any particularly easy way of setting up default values for fields, and in fact there isn't even an intuitive way of pasting repetitive information. Each item needs to have its own record, including description, asset ID number, condition, and so on. The lack of ability to paste large amounts of information, means that, for example, "chair" had to be entered 130 separate times for the 130 separate chairs that exist in the Seminary's chapel. Thankfully it at least allowed me to paste the word "chair" those 130 times, which means that it is a step above the 1991 version of dBase used at the Portland UPS office that I fought with there. If I had an infinite amount of time on my hands, my first impression that "Even I could probably write better software than this." might very well be put to a test here. However, that is not the case, and so we must use what we have. The other little irritation with it is that it doesn't seem to want to change alphabets from English to Portuguese using the commands that all other programs ( including other Microsoft products) I have seen here use.

They have re-processed my airline ticket with a later departure date in mind. It is now set for my departure to be October 26, and according to the airlines that is the absolute latest date that I could leave without "significant punishment". Several people are still asking me if there is any possibility of me being able to stay here longer. This wasn't an easy choice to make the first time, and the second time it is still not going to be easy. I very much want to stay here and help the work continue here, at least until the end of this semester when the current group of teachers Jan is training will be available to teach classes at the Webb school, and making the current staffing crisis a little easier. However, the fact is that I can't live off of a net negative income forever, and besides I also know that the people at work are really wanting me to return to them very soon.

As you may notice, the e-mail address has changed again. It is my hope that this will be kept from changing again, as I have converted to a web-based free e-mail service available from Brazil On-Line. Although I would not be able to use this from Acampamento Shalom, since they only have e-mail service there, I will probably not be living at Acampamento Shalom any more during this visit. I tried several such services, and quite honestly this seemed to be the one with the least obnoxious advertisements. We will see how it actually performs. My biggest complaint so far ( all two days of it ) has been that it can only send a message to a limited number of addresses.

Phone number here is the same first digits as before, but the last 7 digits are 344-0219. While it is true that if you call, the person who answers the phone ( no matter who it is ) will answer in portuguÍs, anyone who answers will speak various degrees of English. Speak slowly, and you will probably be able to get some sort of message to me.

Now, for some extremely important information the people at work have been asking me about for the past 2 years, since my first visit to this city. If one plugs up the sink in this city, and then unplugs it, the water spins in the counter-clockwise direction as it goes down the drain. I tried this several times, while I was washing the dishes tonight, and it always went the same direction. I do believe this is the opposite direction of what it does north of the equator.

There is much more that I wish I could write about, but it is hard to find time to write it all.

-Glenn