After a long, but thankfully uneventful trip, we arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday morning. There we met up with 2 students from Guatemala and 1 from Mexico. After breezing through customs and immigration, we set out to explore the city. We opted not to be adventurous and instead rented a van and hired a tour guide for the day. We were also blessed to have Tracy’s friend, Simone, a native Brazilian, spend the day with us. Although we were tired, we had a wonderful time. Cris, our guide, did a great job showing us around the city and explaining the culture. We visited Corcovado, also known as The Christ. This is the famous statue of Christ in Rio that is now one of the Wonders of the World. While we were there we were blessed to have a clear sunny day accompanied by a choir singing at the base of the Christ. It gave many of us goose bumps.

After the Christ we went for lunch at a churrascaria otherwise known as a Brazilian steak house. The food was delicious and Cris showed us how to eat the Brazilian way. She then took us to Ipanema and Copacabana to walk off the lunch. We watched the sunset over Copacabana and then headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

On Sunday we rode for 7 hours on the bus and reached Vicosa at 3:30 pm. When we reached the house we were given an orientation to our responsibilities. Who knew we would be feeding chickens and geese while in Brazil!! We promised that we would not eat the chickens!! Actually, the food is here fabulous. There is no chance that we will loose any weight while we are here.

Because the students have been arriving at different times, we did not officially start the program until this afternoon. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that most of the students have already taken some English classes so we have been able to communicate fairly easily. Because of this there has been a lot of laughter and fun.

Blessings from Brazil,
Ann