Attack of the Termites!

For those of you who are already cringing, it is gross. We learned this week that when termites or "Cupins" in Portuguese hatch in the spring they have wings and are ready to mate. One evening this week, while I was making dinner we had our windows and doors open to get the nice breeze. But of course the sun was already going down and so we also had the lights on. Joe had gone upstairs to change out of his work clothes and when he can down he went into the living/dining room, and immediately made and shrill that I know as the "disgusting noise". Meaning something has just creeped him out, so I turn the corner from the kitchen to see what he is looking at, the reason behind his noise. I then made the same noise upon seeing hundreds on these little big winged bugs swarming around the light above our dinner table, the one we were going to be eating at in a few minutes. So as more of these things start moving in and taking over all the light fixtures in the house, Joe and I try to figure out how to get rid of them! So we decide(still not knowing what they are)to turn off all the lights(which really just makes them settle to the floor) and turn on the porch light to attract them outside. We then closed all the windows and doors, turned the lights back on and decided to smash the stragglers. Luckily we got out the majority the first time. But then learned when you swat at them, their wings fall off and the land on you. Hopefully you can picture the chaos. We eventually killed them all and we able to eat dinner(which I burned since my attention was elsewhere). Luckily for us Cupin mating season only lasted a few days! So what's buzzing around in your house?

Pastor Encouragement

OK...So part of Joe/Our job is to encourage pastors through out the project. Sometimes that looks like us going to their church, other times it just means making a phone call. Last night we went to a Methodist church in an area called Butanta. It is a very poor neighborhood, also known as a favela. They can be dangerous, but mostly to an American who stands out like a clown in a chorus line, it was just scary. The taxi driver that took us was using a GPS to guide his way. After winding down several roads they GPS said we had reached our destination! We looked around and first you notice the dancing that looks similar to that of a college frat party and then you notice the beer cans. I looked at Joe and said "If this is a church, I'm not getting out of the car". So Joe tells the cab driver to go forward a little so everyone at the party would stop staring at us. Then we realize that the number address was different and so we turned around we up the street, through the party (again) and then found the church nestled on the corner of a hilly street.
Experiences like last night are so humbling! The people of this church we so friendly and had such great faith! After the pastor finished describing the project and asked who in the congregation would like to participate, 12 out of 30 members stood up! Which is an amazing percentage of participation! God will truly bless this little church...
And a quick prayer update, the broadcast will take place on November 6,7,8 at 9:00pm on Banderantes TV. Please pray for the people who will watch the program as well as Matthews who invite them!

Sorry for the silence

Hey Everyone, Welcome Back! Sorry for the silence. For a quick recap/defense arguement. Beginning the end of June we were held in the U.S. slightly against our will for 6 weeks. Techniquely speaking we came home to renew our visa's. We were very confident that nothing would go wrong, so we sent them off to D.C. through a passport service, and headed to the beach with my family. Upon returning to Charlotte, we learned that we were denied for "jurisdiction issues". Meaning since Joe's last residence was Virginia and mine was North Carolina, so on paper we look like a married couple that don't live in the same state. So the next week we made the 7 hour drive to DC to turn them in, in person...because we were told if we turned them in ourselves they had to service us. So we drove up and drove right back. Not in our case. After waiting our 4 days we drove back to D.C. to find out we were still denied for the same reason and now they want an FBI fingerprint clearance form. My first question was how do we get that? After too many details to explain and two weeks of waiting we finally recieved our FBI clearance...A sheet with a non special stamp that said "no arrests on record". Duh, I could have told them that. Anyway we went back to good friends at the car rental company to pick up our 3rd car in 3 weeks, and headed to Atlanta. Why Atlanta this time? While we waited for the FBI papers we changed Joe's residency to NC. So now we were both listed as from the same address as our "perminent" address. Atlanta was such a different experience. The people were nicer, the experience was easier and their was a one day turn around! So crossing our fingers and saying our prayers we went back the next afternoon, AND WERE HANDED VISA's!!!! To those of you were able see it was wonderful, and we wish we could have seen everyone! So now we are back in the normalcy of Latin Life in Sao Paulo.

Colonel Mustard in the Library with the candlestick?

Could it be....no, just my wonderful husband in the living room with a hanger and a hot dog cooking dinner! For those of you who assume that because it is called SOUTH America it can't possible ever be cold, you are wrong. They have winter too. And finally it has gotten cold enough to use our fireplace. We had a wonderful picnic one evening this week...Hot dogs, mac and cheese, steamed broccoli all set out on our living room rug in front of our fire. One silly thing about Sao Paulo is the weather is very unpredictable and everyone will tell you that you can have all four seasons in one day...or at least all in one week, which did happen this week. Monday and Tuesday were freezing (low 40's) and then Wednesday was a little warmer, and then Thursday and Friday we were back to the high 70's. An interesting side note about the way construction is done here is everything is made out of concrete and central heating and air don't exist even though it gets hot enough and cold enough that it should. So when you get a couple of really cold days it cools down the apartment and traps it in, so many times we have to open up all the windows and doors on the warm days to allow the apartment to warm up again. This picture below is just a quick recap from last year on how cold it really got in Uruguay! And for those of you who can't tell what I'm wearing, I have on a t-shirt, a long john turtleneck, a heavy wool turtleneck sweater, a polartec fleece jacket, and a wind repellent shell, a wool scarf and gloves, a fleece ear protector, my hood and a blanket on top of that, all to ride a bus to a little colonial town and we still froze! But we still loved it!

Lights, Camera, Sing!

This past week was super busy for us. So much so that most of it is a blur. But one of the more exciting events was Joe helped shoot/produce a music video, and I got to tag along and keep the singers wives company! I guess I always assumed that to shoot a music video you started from the beginning of a song and sang it all the way to the end. Nope, it is chopped up into sections and different parts of the video are done at different times and different locations. They started the shooting process early on Wednesday at a studio designed to look like the inside of a house, with a baby grand piano(I didn't participate on Wednesday.) But I did on Thursday...We went to the beach to shoot. The day started with the alarm going off at 3:30am...yeah I know, Early. We hopped into the van, grabbed the rest of the people going and met up with the camera crew. After the two hour trek to the beach, the camera crew immediately starting dragging generators, lights and a jig(a crane arm that you mount the camera on, this is how they get really cool sweeping shots) out on a string of rocks surrounded by the ocean, that we used as our stage. Technically speaking we filmed two videos at once, one in English and the same song in Portuguese. The song was originally sung in Spanish by Ricardo Rodriguez, he himself sang it in English this past week and then Paulo Baruk sang the Portuguese version. All in all it was an amazing experience. Both couples, singers and their wives were interesting to get to know and spend time with.

Suffering for the Lord

Recently a terrible thing happened in the Mott household. I (Joe) was being a good husband and washing the dishes after dinner. It was a quiet evening. Music was playing in the background. All was well until the coffee pot slipped in my hand and cracked! Tragedy was brewing. Joe without coffee is like...well I’m not really sure. There's no analogy to properly describe what would happen without a coffee.

My loving wife suggested, as if it was no big deal, "Well, we'll just get another one when we go back to the states at the end of the month." She smiled. Apparently she thought this was a viable solution. She must have thought, "it'll be good for him to cut down on the coffee for a little while.”

I looked at my wife with a confused expression. "That's a month away," I reasoned, "You want to just not have coffee for a whole month?" The caffeine headaches seemed to already be arriving. In the back of my mind, I began to worry about the future of my marriage. After all, for her to just flippantly think it's no big deal not to have coffee, clearly shows a lack of understanding in our relationship.

Now you must understand. In the US we would simply by another coffee pot the next day at Wal-Mart. We'd spend 15 bucks, and it'd be no big deal. However for some odd reason, certain things have obscene prices here in Brazil. A 15 dollar coffee pot, runs for a good 45 dollars here. And I just have issues with paying 45 dollars for a piece of plastic, that doesn't even heat the coffee up to a respectable temperature.

Long story short…my wife, while not personally affected by this tragedy, out of the love of her heart hunted for the cure to my problems. This picture shows the short-term solution. That's right; the missionaries are suffering in the third-world country. Have pity on us. Life is hard. ;)

Silly Brazilians

Two very interesting things have happened in the past week. The first, happened last Thursday, which was holiday and so neither of us worked. We woke up late, had just gotten our coffee and were headed to sit on the porch. I look out and see this giant hot air balloon looking thing falling from the sky. All week I asked around about it, and basically everyone said that I was seeing things, except I got a picture of it.

Ok, so after watching this balao as the Portuguese call them, they are gang related and completely illegal. They are fueled by alcohol and fire connected to a fuse. At the end of the fuse, are a bunch of firecrackers. So, the gangs launch these and send them towards the airport, but ours got a little off track.

The second interesting event happened last night, from our apartment we overlook a large road that also leads to the football(soccer) stadium where their was a big game last night. Our dinner was interrupted by fireworks and singing/chanting, and when we looked outside we saw a long line of traffic and the drivers waving huge flags...and everyone thinks tailgaters are crazy: listen to this.