Yes, we´re still alive. We are alive and anxiously awaiting the day that our stove works, we have a telephone and I can type these posts on an English keyboard (the layout is a little different and there are some extra buttons on a Portuguese one).

But things are good. We´ve been in Portuguese classes for about a week and everyone is enjoying them (as well as anyone can enjoy school!) I think we made the right choice of language schools. The teachers are very nice and work us hard. Mary, Travis and I are even getting the chance to pratice giving Bible lessons to our teacher. We view it as more than practice. It´s a real window of opportunity for us! Our teacher is full of questions about the Bible after our lessons. We pray we make the most of this opportunity!

Not having a working oven has been a blessing to us too! Not only do we spend more meals with our teammates, we´ve had the chance to discover some great restaurants in the area. We actually went out for Mexican food the other night! It was a little different than we are used to- a mix between Tex-Mex and Brazilian- but still, chips, guacamole, tortillas- we couldn´t ask for more! (Okay, maybe a little queso would be nice...) Last night we tried a great Chinese restaurant. Incredible food. People know how to eat in this country!

It´s okay that we´re enjoying these great meals because we walk to class. It´s about a thirty minute walk for everyone (except for the Porters because their class meets at their apartment!) We´ve had some heavy rain in the past week, so it´s made the walk a little more interesting, but we enjoy starting our day that way. (We leave at about 7:15.)

Got to run now- we´ve got a team meeting in a few minutes. Even without a church, there´s a lot to meet about!