Picture Perfect

You cant lead the people if you don’t love the people. You cant save the people
if you don’t serve the people. Cornel West

Chelsea, Cleide and I were walking home from the River today when an ambulance pulled up next to us to ask where a specific street was. He slowly drove off, passed a road, reversed, and turned onto the wrong road. Some things you just learn not to count on here...

But that's not the only thing that makes Altamira unique from Westerville (or for that matter, any city in the US).

I take walks through the city or through different parts of Altamira almost every day. It's a perfect way to talk one-on-one with somebody, enjoy nature, and become increasingly familiar with my surroundings. Here's a little bit of what I see...

The sky here is gorgeous and if I could start a ministry for sky-gazing, I'd snatch it up in a heart beat. Unfortunately I don't think that's realistic. The sky is bright blue and the clouds are distinct, multi-layered, and incredibly surreal. How can I describe clouds without it sounding like clouds that we've all seen before? I don't think I can but you've got to take my word for it. They pop out, entrance you, and hold you captivated. It's so hard not to stare.

I live on a hill and when I look down I see the city of Altamira. Down below are an assortment of houses,all different shapes and sizes, all unique in and of themselves. Their vibrant colors paint the city and all in-between-space is filled with a lush green from all the vegetation.

In a two-deminsional view the little city would color the bottom, the dynamic sky would paint the top, and the Xingu River would snake in between, bringing it all together in perfect harmony. It's the third deminsion that takes your breath away. It's incredible.

What else is different? Well, when you walk somewhere, you are never alone. Accompanying you on the road are probably a herd of cattle, a couple horses, disease infested dogs, or hungry vultures. People generally walk or ride bicycles, but motorcycles, volkswagen beetles, and donkey and carriages also share the roads. A couple of main roads are paved, but most are 'dirt' (redish-orange clay) roads, lined with trash and poorly, poorly, poorly managed sewer/draining system. Despite the fact that it rains here every day, the city is incredibly filthy.

On our walk yesterday I was commenting on the amazing color contrast between the color of a house, the trees hugging it, and the deep blue sky behind it. But to see it, we needed to overlook the mound of trash and dead carcasses along the road leading up to the house. We laughed and said, just do a little cropping and it's perfect. [Photoshop] Picture Perfect.

A couple other things...

When people go to other people's houses they clap, and if you enter the house you always take off your shoes. No exceptions.

There's no double dipping policy, no five second rule, and there's almost always a community cup for drinking.

It's not weird to see a boat sitting on the side of the road, policemen guarding the bank with ak-47s, or half of the frame of the head of a truck sitting in a corn field.

Amiga

Elizangela is a girl (27yrs) here who I have become really good friends with. Since she is studying English, and I Portuguese, we love to help each other with grammar and pronunciation. Aside from our conversations, we enjoy practicing pronunciation by reading the Proverbs together. She will read a chapter in English and I will help her with specific words, and then I will read the same chapter in Portuguese and she corrects me. I love doing this with her :) . We also go to the same small group and take many walks together. Elizangela is one of my best friends here and I am so blessed to have her in my life.

Prayer

Continue to keep my health in your prayers. Amongst other things, I'm very weak, dizzy and at a loss for energy.

Thank you for all of your prayer support! It is so wonderful to be blessed with the friends and I family I have.