Mission: Impossible. American Sports

Have you ever tried to teach a friend about sports? It usually works out pretty easily and you walk away understanding everything. Now, imagine teaching brasilians who are learning english a new sport, in english, without using portuguese. Yeah, it's not an easy task!


We went to a school today called the American School in Recife. It is a pretty cool school because they teach in both english and portuguese for all grades, and in the end you earn your brasilian and english high school diploma. It is a pretty cool idea, but costs about 10k a year to have your kids in there. So yeah, a tad expensive. But while there we were working with some students who actually don't go there, but are studying  portuguese in an immersion program to try to help them in their lives. We were told to teach a certain sport to the kids in english, and I got to teach baseball. It's funny how simple we see baseball but how complicated everything becomes when they have NO concept whatsoever about it and it is in a language they are still learning. Yeah, it got complicated and a lot of stuff wasn't understood, but it was still fun. The best part was how often I had to tell people to hit the ball softly because we were in a small area and the first girl drove one right at me and I barely got my hand up in time to not get hit. Of course I had to act like that is totally normal and I do that every day, but it definitely kept me on my toes for the next few that were shot at me! The funniest thing was having people come up to me all the time asking if they could add me as their friend on facebook. I am currently expecting a flood of random friend requests haha.


Later in the day, we went back to work at the CCJ to keep painting. We still have a lot to do. Luckily I had a good crew and we busted out quite a bit in a short time. We decided to take the train back today, just to see if it went any faster than taking the bus, and it might seem funny but I was pretty excited to get on the train! I never get to ride them and maybe it's just a kid thing in me but I like to ride trains whenever I can, so I looked forward to the trip. I really liked it, especially the air conditioning, but it is amazing how many people get on the bus to sell things or ask for money. A little kid came up asking for 25 cents and he'd give me some gummy candy things. I gave it to him just because he was forced to do it by his dad who was pushing him around and trying to get him to hurry more than he was. They have to do whatever it takes sometimes to get money for living. The rest of the way home was uneventful.

When I got home Cindy wasn't here and I asked the bishop if she was home yet (we had divided in two groups today and we were in separate groups) and he said no. So I called Cristina and asked her how long ago they had come home and she said an hour and a half ago, so.....instant panic. I walk quickly to the bedroom, open the door, and Cindy is taking a nap and her left foot is sticking out from under the blanket. A good way to get the heart running and end the day!