Acampamento Jovens

This weekend was another crazy one, but it was a great time. The Central church had a youth camp from Friday night to Sunday afternoon...the youth here is not the same as in the US. "youth" actually refers to anyone between 15 years old until whenever they feel like stopping...there were married couples there who were in their early thirties, and everyone in between.

When we left on Friday, it was absolutely pouring. No joke, the street was flowing with water. The drive there was slow and really dark and then as we got closer to the camp, which was an hour away, on back country roads, the fog settled down on top of us, and we couldn't see a THING. It was kind of nerve-wrecking, but we arrived safe and sound, and started off a fun weekend. We got there around 10pm and had dinner, and the festivities didn't end until about 2am, and I didn't get to sleep until 3 or 3:30...then the wake up call sounded at 7. Ai ai ai. Saturday was pretty sleepy, that's for sure.

We had a costume dinner on Saturday night, and I was a Care Bear, along with Gwen and 4 other girls. "Ursinhos Carinhosos." It was funny and just goofy...we did a dance that was ridiculous and my mask's eye-holes were too close together, so I was nearly blind. But I suppose it was endearing, and it was fun. Easy, too, because Vanda did all the thinking and the work, and I just wore the costume, haha. The perfect plan.

The first night was really a blessing. I was sitting with Maria and Nice outside the dining hall, and they were singing some songs while Maria was playing the guitar. Apparently Nice had heard me singing "Shout to the Lord" one night, so she begged me to sing it, and I did...then they sang it in Portuguese, while I harmonized in English. I was closing my eyes and singing when I heard whispering and shushing close by. I opened my eyes to see about 15 people standing by, telling each other to "be quiet while Christine sang." The next day, this funny guy Erivelton begged me to sing again, and he jokingly put on sunglasses so no one would see him cry while I did, and then on Sunday morning he asked Pastor Jhonatas if I could sing before the chapel. So I did, and while everyone was yelling "one more, one more!" he said "you can hear one more at church tonight, at 7:30." They were planning on arriving at church at 6 and have a snack, and they wanted everyone to stay for the service. So, many more times on Sunday it was announced that I was going to sing, as an incentive for them to stay. It was kind of funny, and I'm still not sure how that happened, but I know a few people stayed just to hear me last night, so I'm glad my song was able to be used that way. All thanks to my mom who sent me the playback track. ; )

This week will be...interesting. Tomorrow I'm going back to the office again, to work with Gwen. I guess I'll be rooting through their archives and organizing things and doing a lot of busy/dirty work. After having a month at WEBB, this sort of feels like...back to the drawing board, to be honest. But this is something that needs to be done, and I am the measely short-termer who gets to do it. I will also talk with Gwen tomorrow about my schedule for the rest of my time here. I want to be as productive as possible, and be doing as little following around as possible. Because following around is not productive. I think that makes sense. At least to me it seems fairly logical. So I'm praying for some good direction tomorrow, so I can use my time here as best as possible, and figure out a good cut-off date. I'm still not sure exactly when I will leave and go to Assis...it depends on when/if my family comes, and other factors that I feel like considering, such as if I get bored because my schedule never actually gets figured out. We're hoping that is just a worst-case scenario.