having fun!

Hello from the sunny climes of Brazil! Having a great time here - its such a fantastic experience already. Its so wierd actually being here and not just seeing it on photos. The jungle noises on nature documentaries are very true too - insects buzzing and making all kinds of noises, monkeys, frogs, all sorts! Its so loud at night too, so its really strange having to sleep like that!
This is a pic of part of the garden of the place im staying in - its big and sandy, with lots of fruit trees!

Cous cous for breakfast! They eat some random breakfasts here! Went to the beach at Aquiraz on Tuesday. Its so pretty - so different to lowestoft too! There are palm sunshades, and tables and chairs so people can keep out of the sun as its so hot. Found loads of cool shells. Think i may have to make something with those!

Watched Brazil win the football on tv, with my new Brazil shirt on! I thought the English like football, but obviously not. In Brazil, when the country are playing football, everything stops! ---> decoration in the street which we passed.
Literally everything - the shops shut, any entertainment shuts, even the 24hour places shut so people can watch football! Everyone finds people to watch the game with and eats popcorn watching it, like a film! Its quite funny to watch! We now have both Brazil and England playing on saturday!
Went to the YWAM church in the evening. Couldn't understand a word except what Jo translated for me, but it was cool. They are obviously passionate!
The mosquitos and ants like biting me. They also like causing allergic reactions! One of my bites on tuesday was the size of 6 10p pieces put together! Yes, i did measure it..... They're smaller now, but i have more!

We've invited a few girls from Manah, a local church project around twice a week for the time im here to do things! 3 came yesterday, and had a whale of a time making beaded stars, and lots of them! They talked to me a lot, not that i could understand them!
Zak's nursery was in the afternoon. I ended up reading lots of books! In english though, which was nice! Zak is really funny, and puts me in my place all the time! He likes bossing me around, and regularly says 'I need you to look after me!' Hannah just wants to join in everything, and gets very upset when she cant! She's only 1 and a bit, but shes very independant!
Manah was in the evening. That was interesting! The building is mad, bricks all slung together, The light cables are all hanging from the ceiling, with bare lightbulbs, and there is no running water! We have to take all the tables and chairs from here too. Its everything it cant possibly be like with health and safety in England! We had 27 children, and its very much like Whitton, just in Brazil, with slightly poorer kids. It was fun though, and the kids had a good time making straw snakes in Brazillian colours, and playing. The language really is the hard thing, as theres only so many things you can say with hand gestures and thank you!

Today we had toddlers, with Zak and his friends - all bilingual children between the ages of 1 and 5. The wheels on the bus was fun!
Some boys came from Manah in the afternoon, to do a study club with Allan. I made some cardboard cars with them which worked well, and then they raced!
Visited the first world again today, and went to the shopping centre in central Fortaleza! They were even playing English music! The shopping centre has very good ice cream - i think we may have to go there again!
Slightly tired now - its been a busy day, coupled with me setting my alarm clock on my phone last night, forgetting it was still set in English time, so it woke me up at 3am this morning, 4 hours early! Oops!
Hope you like the pics!
Ciao!

i have luggage!

Woo, i have luggage!! :D :D

Brazil!

So here i am, having now spent 24 hours in Brazil!
Its so different here! I arrived at Jo and Allan's house to find that all the nature noises you hear on nature documentaries are actually real! This was something that made it very hard to sleep, along with the tropical rain that fell heavily last night! I also became aquainted with a cockroach running on me in the night, and a small lizard on my window this morning!
Later on i have become aquainted with: The monkeys that are in the garden (and this isnt just two small children in the form of Hannah and Zak!), some bigger lizards, some birds that chirp a lot, some very big butterflies, the fresh fruit and amazing fresh lemon juice, and an amazingly huge variety of ants, some of whom are far too friendly and like to bite! I already have 10 bites or so to show for it!
There are palm trees in the garden with fresh coconuts, lemon trees, mango trees, cashew trees and banana trees!
Zak gave me a guided tour earlier, and its a great place - so much space! And lots of sand! The flip flops that i bought at heathrow and stuffed in my hand luggage have come in very useful!
Two boys came round earlier to do some activities with Allan. They made a really cool animal in the sand, using leaves and fruit and things from the garden. Needed a helicopter to see it properly though!
Went into Messejana this afternoon and bought a Brazil football shirt ready for the game tomorrow! We all got one, so we'll all be wearing them tomorrow!
The 4 hour time difference is starting to catch up, so sleep is calling!
Adeus! x

Things i have discovered about aeroplanes!

After my first ever flight yesterday, well my first two, i discovered a few things about aeroplanes!
These are a few of my findings:
we generally flying at an altitude of 11000m, and flying at 570km/h or something like that!
They have a strange choice in music - for example, upon landing in Lisbon, 'fly me to the moon' was playing, upon leaving Lisbon, they were playing 'yesterday', and landing in Fortaleza they were playing a random instrumental version of 'killing me softly'!
They appear to presume that vegetarians not just dont eat meat, but also dont eat cake. I mean, who doesnt eat cake?! I however, got a lot of salad and lots more oranges than everyone else.....
It is not a good idea to try drinking water in a turbulent area. It may attempt to go up your nose.
They had a plant bed in the airport at Fortaleza! I found that bit quite amusing.

The day before my flight, i had a very lovely and relaxing day lazing by the pool at my neighbour's daugter's house near london. Started to get my tan in already, and i hadnt even got to Brazil by that point!
I was very brave and didnt cry before i went - not even when i said goodbye to my mum or Dan on the phone. Was very hard though! Wasnt i brave?!
The flights generally were ok, once i was on them. There was a delay of nearly an hour and a quater at Heathrow, so knowing i only had an hour and a quarter to change at Lisbon was a slight panic. When watching tv programmes, you never imagine something like that will really happen, and the drama it is really like! As soon as i got off the plane, me and a few other people got wisked into a small minibus, and driven by an incredibly manic driver, who 'needed to go faster as we needed to get to the plane as it was just leaving'. I was quite scared of his driving, and there were no seatbelts!
The second flight was just boring, especially after the half time drama, and not many people appeared to speak english. I sat reading the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy and listening to music. It really does give a new meaning to the song 'All over the World'. Watching the fluffy clouds was cool, and looking down and seeing the rippling see. Its so incomprehendable how huge the world is. The sunset was especially beautiful - and the sky goes an amazing colour - really light at the bottom, and really dark blue going up into the distance.
Arriving at Fortaleza airport, i was very intruigued to find an indoor garden! was quite random in an airport! Went through customs and immigration, then looked for my baggage. Which was not there.
After looking for ages, i decided to ask about my luggage, only to find out that in the chaos at Lisbon, they only had time to put me on the flights and not my luggage! Admittedly its better i got there as i wouldnt have wanted to be stuck in Lisbon for the night, but it is quite inconvenient! Here i discovered:
You should always take spare underwear in hand luggage
pack a spare t shirt
pack toothpaste and toothbrush
as it is much more difficult without them!
My luggage should arrive tonight, but here is me only hoping!
I'll update more about my day later!
Adeus

In Brazil!

Just to let you know i'm here! Unfortunately my luggage isn't, but thats another story! Will update properly tomorrow hopefully!
Adeus!

last post in Lowestoft!

Well, this is my last post in Lowestoft for 4 weeks! Possibly slightly pointless as i updated earlier, but never mind! This is still a novelty at the moment! Everything is now packed and ready to go! Leave first thing in the morning, possibly before i've even woken up! Have fun here!
Bye!

Time is ticking!

Time is ticking away! It's scary how quickly it goes when you have lots to do! I leave here at 7.30am tomorrow, and i still have another whole suitcase to pack! I think i may need magical packing powers! Possibly those that come in the form of my mother!
It's getting quite scary now actually - I go tomorrow! I'm not going to see people for 4 weeks, and I'm going to a country where i don't even speak the language. Apart from saying 'thankyou'... I think i may have to turn into the 'Yes man', except saying thank you instead! Could lead me into some interesting situations...Obrigado.
Please keep in touch, and stay in touch with my exciting adventures!
Anna

First Blog

I have been ordered to come on here and do a blog! So here is my first post! Ok, there is a reason for this - On sunday i go to Brazil for 4 weeks (very exciting and scary!) so now, i can record my adventures and let people know how i'm doing!