Wem and the toys he makes with weeds

On a morning walk, Wem showed Max how to make different toys from the weeds on the road sides. This one was a rocket ship that went about10 feet into the air. We are on the road that goes past the WTC complex and near a farm with lots of cows.

A memorable sunset

I had been weeding and watering and turned around to look at the western sky and it looked like a volcano had erupted. Just this one cloud was lit with a fiery red, orange glow. I went to another side of the complex and it was blah. Must have been just my luck to catch this one. Sara says they have a lot more during the rainy season when there are many more clouds.

Roof Redo on Housing for Professors with Families

The rebuild and reroof job are on a two story house just to the right (west) of the main classroom building. They have removed the old, essentially flat roof structure, and are replacing with a pitched roof with hot air space which will make the upper rooms much more comfortable in the summer. Wem says the shiny layer visible on the roof right now is an aluminum sheeting that is supposed to reflect the heat back up into the red tile shingles that will be applied next. The size of the building can be judged by the guy on the roof who is carrying some red tiles to begin the shingling job at the far left corner. The reddish triangular area to the right side is the buildup of the front and back ends of the house to allow for the pitched roof. This was essentially flat before they removed the old roof.

Sara and Wemerson coming up the hill from classrooms

At 10:30 each school day morning they serve a snack and juice/coffee in the cafeteria. I am standing on the steps looking South. Wem and Sara are coming up the hill from the classroom, library, and administration building. The classrooms are on the second floor to the left of the tan middle stairwell. The large meeting/church room is on third floor, the library on first floor to the left and in the basement. and the administration on the first floor to the right. Also in the basement level (not visible) is a laundry and 2 shop/maintenance rooms. Attendance is down this semester, so they are planning some recruiting activities to bring up thed single student population. Married housing is full and 2 more teaching couples are due to arrive later this year.

Today, Ronaldo is working on a leak in the main cafeteria so we have been hearing loud pounding and breaking of concrete/red brick as he tries to isolate the problem in an upstairs bathroom.

Two Monkeys other than Max and Lucas

These big squirrel sized monkeys were all over the complex today. On top of our house, in the trees between the houses, by the gazebo, in the jabutchicaba, and in the park. They have the cutest faces, but I have yet to get a good picture in focus, as the black faces don´t reflect any light!! Thought I had a great one, but it was blurry and indistinct. They make a little chirping noise to talk to each other and they were really scolding me as I was following them around trying to get a good shot. There are actually parts of three monkeys in the tree, the tail end of the one on the right side shows that their tail is about as long as their bodies. The kids love them.

Haricut by Max

These are before pictures. The after shots are in the birthday party scenes. Make sure to go to `older posts`as I couldn´t find some of the stuff I started with this afternoon. There should be about 11 new photos

Game Center At Shopping Mall

On the same level as the theaters is a very nice play place for kids and youngsters of all ages. Max was playing a shuffleboard type game with one of Pastor Tharso´s girls. Lucas of course wanted in on the action. Wem liked the video games that were prevalent for youngsters of advanced age. You paid for the machines by buying a credit card device and then swiping it through a reader. When the money amount was used, the card could be recharged.

Friday Night Shopping

On Friday evening 2 carloads of families and friends headed for a new shopping center for the rich!! We only bought a couple of items, but did enjoy asai (the healthy fruit) ice dessert and coffee. This photo is Max and Wem as the toured the theater mezzanine. A couple of good shows are soon to arrive and they will probably plan another night out to see Ice Age III. We took Claudia in our car and Tharso and family took Joanne. Joanne has been a missionary for over 20 years, 17 years in Africa, and now is in charge of the library and teaching at Montes Claros. She is from Mecca, OHIO!! Yes, it is a real place. She gets lots of wierd looks when she just says she is from Mecca.

Cupcake on His Birthday

His foot is in the way or you could see the remains of the cupcake that he sat upon after eating a few bites. Don´t know how I got this font, but it is a change. A couple of the presents he received are in the background. The white thing with black wheels is pull dog. The box contains tools for him to help daddy. He got a nice 3 piece train set with removable round people, a neat spider pull toy that is quite friendly, and a winter hat.

Night Has Fallen

The kid would not stop. Maybe it was the 2 or 3 cupcakes and a bag of popcorn and whatever others were able to feed him. Gramps was taking this shift to keep him busy while adults talked and the older kids did their things.

Blue Icing

Look at Lucas´s lips. It blends in with the blue on the Superman top. This was about 5:30

Should be nine kids

The birthday scene with 8 kids showing.

Singing Happy Birthday

This is the cake, cupcakes, Superman poster, Max, Sara and Lucas. We blew up about 100 balloons for this arch!!

Party Time

The party got going right at 4pm with the first wave of people. This photo was about 5pm and some had already departed. In all Sara counted about 40 people. The day was quite windy which made decorations and table stuff difficult. Wem is just in front of the door and the balloon arch is behind him. The table and cake are under the balloons.

A preparty tasting and messing

Sara had made a couple of batches of cupcakes to make sure everything would work ok for the party and the reason for the party gave his approval. I do not know if it was an accident or if he was copying his brother, who wards of evil with this crossed hand expression. Might have been mom´s evil stare when she saw the mess. More than likely she was laughing too hard to glare.

Paragliders over Montes Claros

While watering some flowers I looked to the southern sky and was treated to these paragliders dangling over the city. I was later told that they were for publicity for a big shopping center. One of the ladies at WEC was hit by one of the guys as he tried to land in the middle of a circle of mounted police. We have seen them a couple of times and Wem is certain that they jump out of an airplane to the west of the city and then glide over and around the neighborhoods. Don´t know where they land.

Best Picture of the Day

This was the best photo we took on Saturday. It was while we were decorating the outside for the party and Lucas was crawling under the table and chairs. We have been without internet service til now, so apologize to all who were expecting new blog posts. It is now 4pm Sunday afternoon.

LUCAS TRYING TO PICK A NUMBER

How old am I now, Mommy?? This is part of a floor puzzle that is quite nice to stand on as it is cushiony. We will be busy today getting ready for the party at 4pm. Wem and I will do some maintenance items as part of his scholarship. The sun is bright and the temp is warmer than the last few mornings. Will try to get some good party pictures today and do more blogging tomorrow.

Back end of the church bus

While we were throwing stones into the irrigation ditch on Sunday morn, the hired larger bus came out of the complex and headed down the dirt/rock road towards town. It carries most of the students and some of the staff to different churches in town. Wem and Sars´s church has sunday school in morn and service in evening. Wem does his outreach on Sunday morn with youth in prison. The youth only have free time on Sunday and families visit in the afternoon, so Sunday morning is it for the imprisoned youth ministry. This makes Sunday evening the only time they can worship at the church they were ASSIGNED!.

HEY LOOK, IT´S MY FIRST BIRTHDAY, TODAY

Today is Lucas´s official birthday. We are celebrating on Saturday at the house with cake, cupcakes, M & Ms, treat bags, and 2 pinatas of the world (made by Sara and Max). The theme is Super Homen - Superman!! I mowed the lawn yesterday, so the outside will look nice. The weather is cool this morning with most people in sweatshirts and definitely in long sleeves. We have room for more guests if you would like to attend. Plan a minimum of 36 hours to get here unless you charter a private jet and land at the Montes Claros airport. You can set your own time table then. Oh, yes, I am the only one here who remembered today was the day. All others have Saturday as THE day.

The gardner grandson is keen on sprinklers

Lucas is fascinated with anything that is different. He migrated immediately to the sprinkler while we were taking pictures of Max jumping off the log. He immediately finds the buttons to push on toys and especially the remote.

He did not have a good weekend, however, as he was running a slight fever, very fussy, not as active as normal and even threw up some mucous, etc!! No grandpa didn´t watch and Sara was very quick to remove him from the room and to clean up. It is 3pm on Monday and Wemerson has taken him to the doctor for a consult. Sara has kitchen duty and I´m here with Max who is taking a nap and is starting to rouse, so I will sigh off for the day. ttfn

We are learning to be more adventuresome

With Sara´s assurance that he could do it, Max took the leap off the old log that is out front of the cafeteria and between the main school and the cafeteria. Sara says these logs ore used to take the group photos each year.

Tall trees Trio

We are pointing at the very tall eucalyptus trees that line the lane near the gate. They have removed about 5 of them near the buildings, as they didn´t want them to fall on the structures. One example of preventative maintenance. I am transplanting a couple of palms to this area where there is a void along the tree lined road. One of their ´favorites´is a type of weeping willow that is a scraggly cousin to the ones we have in the states. It is more of a drooping willow!!

Up close and personal

This closeup shows the rose much better than the view with the kids. In the background is the covered area where staff parks their cars during the week days. The white volkswagon bus in the upper left is the church vehicle that takes the students and staff to town and on their missions to the community. They call it the Kombi.

American Beauties

The rose bush is just outside their kitchen window which is in the background. I like this dark red rose better than the pink one up by the cafeteria. Carol refreshed my memory on how Grandma Watson used to start roses, so I cut off a growing chunk and made sure I buried two trimmed nodes in soil-sand mixture. Since I haven´t seen any fruit jars I cut off some clear plastic 2 liter bottles and put them over the cuttings to act as a terrarium. We will see if anything grows in a couple of weeks.

Dahlia and Palm Trunk

There are three, tall, gangly dahlias in the garden east of the cafeteria. I am working to improve the garden, as it is primarily grass and weeds with a few surprise lilies and a row of small bushy flowers with x-shaped red or yellow flowers. I´ve split the surprise lilies and transplanted some other large bulbs with large leaves to the area and hope to find something else to fill in the empty spaces. Sara says Wem´s grandmother in Belo had a ground cover that kept everything else from growing and provided a carpet like background. Would like to find some of it and get it started in this bed.

Don´t know what type of palm it is. Will have to ask Anna.

Three Jabuticaba Tree and Electric Mower

I have been mowing and cleaning weeds from around the jabuticaba trees which are near our apartments. With the week vacation and the lack of a full time maintenance man, some of the areas have been neglected. I am trying to work outward from the main buildings and beautify as much as possible

The trees have an interesting whitish bark. That is were the little grape sized fruits will start appearing. I´ve heard soon or in November so don´t know if I will see them grow. Wem says the trees are quite sensitive and he doesn´t think we should plant impatients under the trees as the flowers will compete with the trees for nutrients an water.

We are going for a walk to try to find the elusive big blue butterfly. Hope to have pictures, but today is cloudy and grey.

Grandpa is really still here

I normally have the camera so don´t show up a lot in the blog, so I thought I would send a shot with me in it. Not the best, but it does show how Lucas can stand with the aid of something. He has only taken a few steps by himself and that was with the lady in the creche(day care on the complex).

Lucas is starting to mimic sounds and I´m sure he will be telling us lots of things that we can´t understand in the next couple of weeks.

Max, daddy and Lucas just took a walk to the gate and brought back more rocks for Grandma Carol. Wem and I will be leaving soon to do projects for his maintenance internship. This will reduce the out of pocket tuition expenses somewhat.

Brasilian Blouses

A missionary who does administrative work at the Montes Claros site designs and decorates blouses as a way to raise funds. The composite picture is an example of some of the types of designs and colors available. If you are interested in any of them or have questions, e-mail me or contact Carol. They cost about $12-$13. I will have lots of room available on return trip and these are very light weight.

Most of the styles have sequines and design buttons which I´m sure she would leave off if you asked.

Wrens are Everywhere

This little Fellow was singing his heart out on top of the neighbors house today. I thought I was home and the pair that is raising a family in the Georgia O´Keefe birdhouse was here in Brasil. Don´t know where this one lives, but there are lots of trees, buildings etc that would make good nesting areas.

We saw the little squirrel sized monkey in a dormant tree near the house today. They are very fast but quite cute.

Septic Repair

This view is the backside of Sara and Wem´s house. Between the houses is a concrete septic tank that has/had a plugged pipe and the houses were getting sewer odor. Behind the houses is a concrete walkway which covers the pipes from each apartment. A 3-4 foot concrete retaining wall holds back the hillside The concrete lid had to be divided so they could repair the problem. Yesterday afternoon they were pounding on the cement and the kids were napping about 15 feet away in their bedroom. They did fine!! Wem is not convinced that the repair they did will correct the problem, but he is not in charge of maintenance and doesn´t want to cause any troubles at this early entry into the WEC complex.

Yes, the afternoon air was filled with fragrance, not exactly the odor we wanted to smell.

A Bubble Blowing Party for Sammi´s Birthday

We couldn´t come to Sammi´s birthday party, so we had a bubble blowing party with some of the neighbor kids. We hope the cake was delicious, Sammi. Did you blow out ALL the candles on the first try? It gets harder as you get older, but then you also get bigger lungs and more breath!!

Lucas Pointing

Grandma Carol, Lucas is pointing for you. He was very excited this afternoon about 4pm when we tried to get you on the web-cam. Everytime the call would ring thru the computer he would point and give a little jump. This picture was taken a couple of days ago on the grassy area between rows of houses. We did some grocery shopping with the kids this afternoon while Wem studied with some other students. Sara is taking a cooking class as an elective for credit and has learned how to make pao du casio (cheese bread balls) using an oven on top of the stove. They don´t last long, as they are REALLY good. Right now Sara and Wem are showing a young couple some of their pictures and talking loud. The kids are having a `picnic` on the veranda/porch. Today was quite hot but the evenings get pleasantly cool for me and cold for the Brasilians.

Lego Trains That Max Loves

Sara would like to have a set of lego trains and tracks for Max. If anyone sees them on garage sale or flea market let us know. Evidently the tracks can be put together many ways. This set belongs to Big Lucas, the son of the administrator of WTC Montes Claros. Big Lucas caused a scare in his private school, yesterday, as a toy fell on his forehead and made a cut that bled profusely. They took him to a doctor who put in one stitch. Evidently the blood caused concern but the doctor wasn´t even concerned and probably put the stitch in to satisfy the teachers and parents. The schools have insurance for such events, so Big Lucas´s parents told him he can only get sick or hurt at school. The MTC insurance program is merely a plan that allows for payment after the fact and gets about 20% discount.

A nice sunset to the west of the complex

This is a fairly typical scene about 5:45 pm (17:45) each evening. That is about the time I head to the cafeteria area for the evening meal. With the dry season starting the clouds banks are not quite as predominant. The foothill straight ahead is pretty common, but they don´t seem to build much on them. Most of the housing and businesses are in the valleys or gently rising hillsides.

Max putting on the paste

Max enjoys brushing his teeth so grandpa took a photo of him doing it all by himself. He even knows enough to brush his tongue. Do you??

Red Butterfly

While mowing this morning I noticed quite a few smaller butterflies fluttering around the area, so ran back to Casa 13 (yes, I know this does´t bode well for one with triskadeckaphobia) and retrieved my camera and began a picture list for the blog and for Carol E. to identify. If we get the common or scientific name I will put them in the Labels area. I´ll put most of them in the side panel photos. We must finally be entering the dry season which reportedly goes to November. Any flowers will need to be watered routinely until then.

Downtown Montes Claros

Sara and I went shopping on Saturday morn without the kids. The downtown shopping area features fairly narrow one way streets and sometimes crowded sidewalks so doing any serious moving from store to store would have been difficult with munchkins. Our main goals were to find Superman related items to decorate for Lucas´s first birthday, find good leather gloves for me, find lace curtains for Sara´s kitchen, find single edge razor blades to remove paint splatters from tiles and windows, and other related items. We did good on the birthday. The rest still need to be resolved.

Downtown Montes is much less hectic and much cleaner than Belo or Nova Vista (small village closest to Sara in Belo). This picture was taken when no traffic was coming and I could get part way into the street. There are a few 10-12 story buildings but most are 4 stories or less. The same proliferation of small shops was present in Montes, also.

We were downtown about 3 hours and went into at least 15 shops looking for what we wanted. They had leather gloves, but they were very heavy and not flexible. I want them for pulling weeds that have sandburs mixed in with other greenery. Not a very pleasant task with cotton gloves. It only took one good grab before I found a pair of rubber gloves, but they are TOO hot.

Super Grandkids Have to Have Playtime, too.

I think the pan makes the statement about the noises that were happening!!

Week Day Trip To The Creche

On weekdays, the creche (day care facility) is open from 8 - 12 for the children of the complex. Sara uses it whenever it is open while some of the parents use it sporadically. In this photo she is pushing the carhinho (stroller) with Lucas and directly in front is Max on the motorcycle. She is on the level area just north of the married couples apartments and will soon turn left up the hill to the creche. The building in front is where the single female staff live. Up behind the building is the fenced soccer area. The surrounding greenery is typical of the area. I do have a picture somewhere of the farming area to the right which features a well layed out vegetable garden which is watered by pumping (diesel engine) from the river thru a series of sprayer nozzles like we use at the lake.

AVOCADOS GROW ON TREES

My first official duty as a worker was to help Rosanne (from Bahia - lived on the beach her whole life) pick fruits from the trees that are on the complex. I had a fruit picking pole with the wire basket at the top and filled a large container quite quickly with the `large grapefruit sized - pear shaped`fruits. Rosanne was trying to find ripe caja (a lemon sized fruit that grows on several trees around the houses. They are supposed to be yellow colored, but most of them are still green. When they fall to the ground, they often split and then ferment. You guessed it!! The little gnats and flies are thick around them. Not necessarily the best tree to be near houses. They do offer good shade as does the avocado tree.

SUPER HOMEN -- Supermen!!

The superman pajamas are really a big hit with the kids. They are so popular that the theme of Lucas´s first birthday will be Superman. There are party stores that carry theme items and Superman is quite popular.

BOYS MUST THROW ROCKS INTO WATER

Just outside the main gate at the WTC Complex is an irrigation ditch which the kids call the RIVER. The water runs through a culvert under the road. It is the farthest point from their house when they walk. There are lots of rocks which will eventually end up in the river as the boys have to pick them up and throw them into the water to see the splash! Reminds me of Sam who threws rocks into the lake by our dock ramp, many years ago. Have a great graduation, Sam. I won´t be there to see you, SORRY. The irrigation ditch runs thru the property and forms a divide for the living/playing/school area versus the farming space. The students used to do the farming as a way to learn good work habits and provide edibles for the kitchen, but they have recently leased out the property to area farmers to allow for more concentration on academics. It was also difficult to monitor and train students who had never had any farming experience. Now the work portion of the program is to maintain the grounds and clean the facilities on Friday afternoons from 2 - 6.

Oooppss. Just previewed the blog and this picture does not have enough light on the people. Hope your imagination can fill in the action! The narrow dirt roadway that runs by WTC is lit nicely.

PICKING UP ROCKS FOR GRANDMA CAROL

We took a long walk with the 2 kids on Saturday morning. On the way back we walk up a lightly improved roadway which has lots of stones and Max filled my left pocket with treasures for Grandma Carol. He knows that she likes rocks and had a few already before Grandpa Ron arrived.

PARK ON WTC PROPERTY

The children´s park is fenced to keep out the watch dogs and other bigger kids from playing in the sand and breaking the equipment. This was taken on a Saturday afternoon when a couple of father´s were watching a large bunch of kids. Max is sort of in the middle. It has 3 swings, a big teeter totter, two slides and a large jungle gyms with monkey bars under one long bridge over. Sand covers the main play area and a specific sand box with lots of toys is a fun place. Sara will not let her kids go unless an adult is present.

The park is right behind the row of homes that Sara and Wem live.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Since Sara had invited people over for Sunday lunch, I took her out for Mother´s Day on Saturday evening. She of course chose a pizza place with a kids play area. This was the best photo of the evening. We had Portuguese pizza which featured a thin crust with thin ham slices, mild pepperoni, and lots of cheese. No, there wasn´t any tomato sauce!! Had to add catsup in packets to get that taste. The kids loved the slides and Max really had a ball on the jumpalene (small trampolene and that is Sammi´s name for Trampolene) Hope everyone had an enjoyable day. We are having ground chicken lasagna, as Wem is not supposed to have red meat.

Dining hall for students and staff

The dining hall is quite large and even with 40 people around tables (6 persons per table) it is less than half full. Wemerson bakes bread in the morning to the right of the photo. All the chairs and tables are to the left. Large rolling glass doors on either end (out past the people and behind the camera) are used to secure the area at night and when no kitchen personnel are present. Yes, that is Sara walking away on the left. The gentlemen looking at the camera is Cornelius who is manager of the physical plant and maintenance.

Breathing saturated NaCl air for less snoring

Max has become quite good at doing deep breathing with this appartus which is currently on Wem´s nose. It seems to help them with breathing at night and Sara says he doesn´t snore as much. Same results with Wem.

Grandpa and Lucas

This is a typical early morning routine with Grandpa Ron coming by at 6:30 to 7am and having bread with Sara, Max and Lucas. The munchkin is very comfortable sitting on Grandpa´s lap and eating and drinking. Max is too big for Grandpa´s lap while eating. Lucas is learning to use a spoon and gets a goodly portion in his mouth with repeated practice.

Sara´s Veranda

Sara and Wem play a lot more on their veranda than other families in the complex. I have seen the Venezuelan man playing with his little girl, but seldom is there a group of kids. Could be that Max and Lucas have more interesting toys or that Sara or Wem are usually outside involved in the activities. The girl in pink is Julia, Brasilian daughter of a professor, and the girl in red is Andrea, one year old Venezuelan whose mom and dad are students.

We need to get another hummingbird feeder, as they buzz through often but have no reason to stop.

We did see a flock of 20-30 yellowish colored birds with top knots fly from tree to tree in the complex yesterday. They were about the size and shape of a mockingbird. Wish I could have taken a photo to better describe them. We think they are migrating.