Friday, February 10, 2006

There’s something about the trials in life that make me smile. I don’t think it’s because I like: fracturing my back, breaking my foot or falling into septic tanks (among other things), but I figure I must either be a little crazy, or have a decent understanding how trials can make me a better person; thus I smile. Or it’s merely because smiles and laughter are my body’s way of coping instead of crying. Either way…

Walking the few kilometers from the chapel of Kobrasol to the Lazer Copy Xerox store -in the rain, with a suitcase full of teaching equipment and only one umbrella between Dave and I - brought back some good memories of the mission, and a smile.

In preparation for the 50 participants in Joinville, Dave and I made 50 copies of our CASP student manual; we only had 20 to start out with, and wanted to make sure everyone got a copy. Irmão Plínio is the second counselor of the São José Stake, and the owner of Lazer Copy, so he was more than willing to help. And because of the heavy rain, he gave us a lift to the bus terminal a few blocks away, and helped us arrange our tickets to Joinville.

On a side note – that’s probably only interesting to my father – while waiting for the noon-bus, a Caterpillar Service vehicle (VW Golf) pulled up with parts to ship on our bus to Joinville. I really wanted to strike up a conversation, but as I imagined how it would sound – “So, you work at Caterpillar? Neat, I did, too, and so does my father. Yup, way up there in the U.S. at the headquarters. Welp, see ya.” – I decided against it.

The highway to Joinville I believe is Highway 1, and accompanies the Atlantic for most of the three and a half out trek. Gorgeous view, by the way. Wouldn’t mind owning a beach house anywhere along there – peaceful, beautiful, very nice.

Here is a map, courtesy of Google Earth, showing where we are living (São José), Florianópolis, Porto Alegre, Joinville, and then other major cities in Brazil – São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.


On the way we received a phone call from our director in Porto Alegre. He politely informed me that I was an idiot and hadn’t attached some information in the email I had sent him a few days before, like I thought I had. I started to panic; I didn’t bring my computer to Joinville, now how am I going to send him the information he needed? Then I remembered; I’m not sure why, but on Thursday, after sending the empty email, I copied the file onto my jump-drive. What a blessing! I told them I’d shoot them an email as soon as we got to the hotel.

“It’s been raining none stop for the past few days,” said our taxi driver from the bus station in Joinville to the Mercury Prinz hotel, just a few blocks away.

By 5 we had gotten settled in our room, I had paid the extra R$10,00 to use the internet and send the file to Humberto and we were off to the chapel to set up for our class at 7:30 pm. Again, since it was pouring, we took a taxi – and again, because they’re jerks, he drove in circles ripping us off. When we got out I tried to give him a tip, but he didn’t accept it, probably because he felt bad for ripping us off. His driving in circles would cause problems for us later in the night.

Uncharacteristically loud, thumping music welcomed us to the Joinville chapel – tonight was not only a night for the Career Workshop, but they were preparing for an all-Ward Dance; just our luck.

The Joinville Stake Employment Specialist, Manoel, welcomed us as we arrived. He showed us to the High Council’s room (the only with air conditioning) and told us that 40 people had confirmed their participation, but probably less would make it (that’s how it was in Porto Alegre also). We then began preparing the chairs and looking for tables – that was harder than it sounds. Because of the dance, at first we didn’t think we’d find any tables, but after rummaging around through each room and even in the attic (they have 3 class rooms in a type of attic above the stage, pretty cool actually) we came up with enough tables, big and small, to make a big U around the room. Our plan was to have participants sit on both the outside, and the inside of the U – those on the inside still facing towards the front of the room.

By 7:15 we had about five participants; by 7:30 we had roughly 15. When we started the class at 7:40, 22 or so people had arrived.

To teach the 12-hour course, we were scheduled to begin with 2 1/2 hours Friday night, and finish up Saturday morning and afternoon.

We had a great group of participants! Most everyone paid attention and the activities went well. We ended the night teaching the “Me in 30-Seconds” and challenging them to practice it over the night before the next morning’s class.

Most participants were members of the Joinville Stake, and those who were having their first impression of the church I think really enjoyed everyone’s company and that atmosphere we had – though the American accents of Dave and I took a while for them to get used to it seemed.

I know this is a well-known fact, but Mormon-world is a small place. Let me give you three quick examples why:
1. Pablo, one of the participants in the course, is a return missionary from the Provo, Utah mission. He was a companion of Craig Guincho who lived in the Portuguese house with me over the summer term at BYU.
a. Pablo taught David’s BYU Portuguese teacher the gospel and David was at her baptism.
2. Élida Ripole is a friend of Pablo and while talking with them I discovered she is a return missionary from the Rio de Janeiro North mission; she got home while I was in the MTC in São Paulo at the beginning of 2003, so we never crossed paths in Rio.
a. Élida’s mother thought that maybe my sister Jenna had served with her daughter. Jenna served her mission in Joinville 10 years ago, about the same time Élida’s sister served as a ‘part-time’ missionary with an American Sister, her mother thought it may have been ‘Sister McAllister’.
3. While learning Forró (more details to come) I spotted Elder Portela, my third companion from the mission. He is from Curitiba (2 1/2 hours away) but came down for work and to ‘get to know’ a girl (he was specific to say they weren’t dating, yet). Boy was he surprised to see me!

So that’s what I mean by, Mormon-world is a small place.

For those who don’t know, David, my friend and partner here, is quite the dancer. He’s been on a few teams at BYU (Folkdance and Ballroom) and wanted to give the Brazilian dance a try. And than there’s me: I think I was injected with a DANCE vaccine as a kid, because there is seriously a chemical reaction that takes place in my body where I usually end up, well, rejecting the atmosphere. In other words, I’m not much of a dancer. Trust me, I’ve given it a try a few times (boy have I tried), but I’m just chemically not made to dance. With that said, after noticing Dave was taking a long time to come back, I wondered to the cultural hall to see him dancing Forró with some girl. I meandered over to the food tables and was disappointed to notice everything was gone. Then, within 30 seconds I was being called by one of the sisters (mothers) in the room. “Geoff,” (she remembered my name) “come dance with Élida.” I stammered back a reply, “But irmã, I don’t know how.” Ha… that didn’t work, of course. “Oh she’ll teach you,” was her response. So I found my way to the dance floor and Élida was nice and patient enough to show me how to dance Forró. It was actually pretty fun, and easy.

While we were dancing was when I looked up and saw my companion from the mission, Elder Portela. You can actually see him in the background of this picture. The arrow is pointing to him.


Obviously the dancing was interrupted by our reunion and it was fun catching up. I’m pretty sure he forgot my name, which was fine because I couldn’t remember his for the life of me. Ha… but after a few minutes we figured it out.

It wasn’t much later that Dave and I left and headed back to our hotel… or so we thought.

Like I said, the taxi driver drove in unnecessary circles, and that messed me up when we left the church. I thought we were supposed to walk one direction, and after 10 minutes walking that way we stopped at a pizza restaurant to order to be delivered and as we looked at a map, explaining where we were staying, I noticed we had been walking the opposite direction!

By 12:30 am we made it to the hotel. From there I called the same pizza parlor and they delivered – probably the tastiest pizza I’ve had in Brazil.

By the way, the hotel was probably one of the nicest I’ve ever stayed in. Unfortunately, everything else cost money – breakfast, internet. (pictures can be found at http://www.accorhotels.com.br/guiahoteis/mercure/hotel_main.asp?cd_hotel=269 )

Watched Legally Blonde on TV while we ate pizza, then went to bed.