Sorry about the long wait for this update–so much has happened that I am not sure where to start.

Last week I stayed in Bauru with my friend Cleber’s family. His mother is an absolute saint and took great care of me. During the day I would get up, walk to the Dirt Family’s house, and then start to work. [A brief explanation is probably in order regarding the Dirt Family. When we first came to Brazil 3 years ago we met this kid who loved to roll around in the dirt, so we promptly nicknamed him Dirt Boy. It turned out that his brother also liked to roll in the dirt, so we named him Older Dirt Boy. Well, imagine our suprise when we learned that there was a whole Dirt Family--Marilza, the mom(widowed), and her 7 children(2 girls and 5 boys)!! For the last few years we have affectionately referred to them all as the Dirts!]

So during the day I worked on building the Dirt’s new house–a duplex that Marilza will share with her sister’s family. A wonderful man named Marcello doing the construction and the whole family has been helping. Make sure to check out the photos to see the house being built. A few things should be mentioned about this house and also Brazilian construction methods. 1)We are building this house because the Dirts do not currently have a house. A few years ago the father was killed and since then Marilza has struggled to take care of her children. She lived for a while in a house with some relatives and now lives in a small shack with her family. She is a very hard worker and makes a living doing odd jobs, recycling, and also making handicrafts. This construction project has been going on for over a year now and it is exciting to see it picking up some steam. 2)Brazilians build everything out of bricks, because lumber is very expensive here. I love watching Marcello level a wall with a weight and make sure the walls are straight by tying some string to 2 bricks and eyeballing the line! It is absolutely insane, but it works.

It is great to see the whole family helping build, from the youngest ones carrying in bricks to myself and the mom mixing cement and helping Marcello. Marcello, by the way, is a father of 3 great girls and is currently living with some relatives. In exchange for him building this house we have agreed to purchase the materials for his new house that he would like to build. It is a really good trade for us and for him.

My portuguese has improved dramatically, mostly thanks to Cleber’s mom’s constant chatting. Her husband says that the reason I go to bed so early is that her talking gives me a headache!! I actually love it, she is so patient and helps me a lot with conjugation.

I left Bauru last weekend and am now relaxing a bit in Sao Paulo, spending time with Joao and Christian and trying to sort out the next steps for our work here.

A few random notes–1) I received a care package from Trish Brunkhart, a great friend and second mom to me from Kentucky. Thanks Trish!!! 2) I have had a random craving for Skittles since I came to Brazil–random because I rarely ate skittles in the States. I found them at the movie theatre, but not in any stores. Needless to say I’m pressuring Joao to take me to the movies again! 3) Portuguese joke of the day–I recently asked a waitress for Suice…I though Juice in my head, but it started to come out like Succo, and got a little mangled along the way… :)

More soon…

Jake

P.S. The kids are all doing great…they really miss the team and constantly ask where their other Tios are…it is amazing to see what an impact the team made in such a short time here.