Ugly Bird - Postcard From Brazil

     I post this Black Vulture just in case you think that all birds here in Brazil are beautiful and colorful!

Letícia - People of Brazil

     Letícia is one of the little girls who was able to come to VBS last fall.  We were happy to have her visit with some of her relatives who are faithful members of the church here. 

Has Anyone Ever Seen This Happen Before?

   I don't remember ever being squeamish about cutting into a tomato before, but when I cut into this particular one, I dropped it like a hot potato (pun intended) and gasped. I thought that it was full of worms! It looked like a bunch of little squirming varmints were popping out of it! It took me a few seconds to realize that it was seedlings that had germinated INSIDE the tomato. 

   Omar took the tomato out and shallowly planted it in our yard, but it never rooted in the ground. I guess all it was good for was giving me a good scare.....and a blog post.

Ernesto - People of Brazil

    Ernesto is one of the men from a sister church here in Cuiabá.  I have been able to get to know him, thanks to the Camp that the churches here all attend.  It's also nice that our children get to play together. I posted a picture of his son Óliver last summer, here.

The Jacaré - Postcard from Brazil

    Here in the center of South America, we have plenty of Jacaré, a type of Caiman of the Crocodile family. (Wiki)  Although we don't necessarily have them here in our suburb of Cuiabá, you don't have to go far out of town to start seeing them!  They supposedly do not harm or interfere with humans, but I prefer to keep my distance just in case!

Mahalia and Friends

     If there is one thing our kids do not lack, it is attention.  Mahalia especially gets an overload of attention, mostly because of her extra-white skin and the fact that she's still small enough to be picked up!  

    Though she'd often just be left to run on her own, getting all the attention does have it's benefits at times - like an occasional lick of a friend's candy . . .  (eeew!)

    We really do appreciate that the Brazilian people are so nice to us and our kids!  It is such a blessing to have so many friends here in Brazil!

Mugshots and Fingerprinting

      Every year when we re-apply for our visas, we have to get fingerprinted and mug shot - (how on earth do you make that into a verb?!)  Last year was all ink, and it was such a mess, that with a 2 year old and 7 month old, no one had a clean hand to take pictures. :)  
      

     This year they're a bit more sophisticated. We only had to ink our right thumbs. Everything else was done digitally. It might have been less messy, but it took FOREVER! Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the kids (and the fingerprinter-er) being patient through the long process. I think it took about an hour for all four of us to get done.