Day 3 - May 11 - Friday

We spent most of the day in our bus/van thing... we drove from 11am to 9pm with about an hour's worth of stopping for lunch and a snack. The biggest highlight on the ride was an incredible lightening storm that we saw at a great distance about an hour after darkness fell. When we finally arrived at the church in Tupã, we got debriefed by the pastor there, Sillas (See-luss) Campos, and his wife Wanger (Vahn-jur). The youth pastor, Renato (Hey-nah-too)also talked with us briefly. Even though we have just met these people, they act as though we have been friends for years! I love it! :D They took us out to get pizza and guarana at a nearby restaurant, then we got dropped off at our respective host homes. Mr. Wilson and Emilie will be staying with the Campos family, Mark and Donny are staying with one of the church families and Mike and Zach with another, and all of us girls (minus Emilie) are staying with the Scarpelli family, who are also members of the church. Our "Dad" and "Mom" are named Eduardo (Ed-war-doo) and Rosangela (Hose-ahn-jela), or "Doo" and "Ho" for short, and we have two "sisters" named Juliana (Zhoo-lee-ah-na) and Mariana (Mah-ree-ah-na). We also have a fluffy little grey poodle named Maggie. :) Juliana is the only one in our family who speaks English well enough to translate for us, although Ho can say a few phrases, and Doo can say "the books are on the table". :) Apparently it's one of the phrases that Brasilians first learn when speaking English, and he loves to say it to us. He's a really funny guy! Ho loves to mother us in every way possible... she set up our rooms for us (we're sleeping in two different rooms - Lizzy and I are sharing a mattress on the floor, and Chantelle has a bed next to us, and the other three have the other room), made sure we had all of our stuff settled in, gave us a tour of the house, offered to make us food, talked a little with Rebeka (who is fluent in Spanish, so they can communicate a little), etc. Juliana translated for her parents and was very welcoming, and Mariana seems sweet, although she's shy around us because we can't communicate at all. So far, I love living with our host family! :)