We were invited to come out to PQQ, the school were Jevon grew up about 20 miles from Manaus as the crow flies, but a whole different world. Manaus is a cement jungle. PQQ is surrounded by green jungle on three sides and the sprawling Amazon river in front of it. It was fun to see the backdrop of so many of Jevon’s stories, and to meet our co-workers who live out there. They took turns sharing meals with us in their homes, so we felt like we got to spend time with quite a few of them.
We also got to take our first family hike in the jungle, which was quite an experience because we took the wrong path twice and we were going slowly anyways with Kiki on foot…by the time we got back we were pretty hot and tired and hungry. But the Amazonas jungle is beautiful. Cali and Karina were pleasantly surprised to see that there were not snakes and jaguars waiting at every step in the trail (in fact we are thankful that we did not see a single one that whole hike)! Instead we saw the hugest and most brilliant blue butterflies we have ever seen in our lives. After getting home and googling it I think it was the Morpho butterfly, so since we were not able to get a picture you can google it yourself or go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpho
I would say they were about 4 inches wide – no smaller, for sure – and as blue as the bright blue jays in Wisconsin. That was a treat from our Creator.
We also took our first dip in the Amazon river, and you can laugh but it was a big step of faith for me…although not as big a step of faith as crossing the street in Manaus.
And Jevon brought me a coconut, with the top cut off and a hole cut in it so I could drink the juice, which I thought was very fun and romantic.
On Sunday night we were asked to speak in the chapel meeting, to share our stories of how God brought us here and some encouragement for everyone. So Jevon and I took turns speaking through an interpreter, which was a very different experience. Jevon enjoyed it very much; he said that waiting for the interpreter took the pressure off and gave him time to collect his thoughts. He did very well. I found it alot more difficult, maybe because I tended to loose my train of thought while waiting instead of catching it while waiting. 🙂 We both took alot longer than we thought we would to say alot less. But it was a good experience and people said they were encouraged, which is the main thing.
Monday morning a coworker gave us a ride in a speedboat back to Manaus, where we got a taxi to take us home to our apartment. PQQ is beautiful, but Manaus is where we need to be right now to learn Portuguese and become something more like Brazilian. We are soooooooooooooo thankful to be here.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.