Mimoso

I am on my new assignment which is very exciting. My new assignment involves working on a mission project with a several students from the US. Prior to beginning this assignment the only information I had was that I would be working somewhere in the state of Goias and I am suppose be helping with translation and working with the group on the project. When my boss mentioned that I would be translating, I was somewhat uneasy with the situation. I understand Portuguese fairly well and I am able to communicate but I don't trust myself to be a translator. I explained my preoccupations to my boss and he assured me that he would get someone to translate at the church where the students would be preaching. I would just help them in the day-to-day communication.

I left Campo Grande and made my way to Brasilia but still with no more information. I arrived to Brasilia and after I got my bags, I searched the crowd for my name and I didn't find anyone holding a sign with my name. I had no other option but to sit and wait. After I waited 15 minutes, this guy asked me if I was Grace-Ann and he told me he was there to pick me up. I was curious to know where I would be going. He told me, he was taking me to the Union, where my boss works. He had no more information to offer me.


When I arrived at the Union, I was given some more information. I was told I was going to a town called Mimoso which was 2 hours away. I was going to meet the group I would be working with at 6pm at the airport. I still did not know anything about the size of the group, what the project entailed or my living situation. I returned to the airport at 6pm and as we were waiting for the group who was flying in from Manuas the capital of the Amazons, I met the other translator of the group, Flavio.

The group finally arrived and consisted of five high school students and two adult chaperons. One thing really got my attention during the introductions. I was introduced to the group as the translator who would be translating the children program of the evangelist series. I was expected to stand up in church and speak my broken Portuguese to a group of kids so that they would understand. Yikes! At that moment fear began to build up in me. I am already very self conscious of my Portuguese in regular day to day conversation. So speaking in front of an audience was beyond petrifying. I thought to myself, "The next three weeks are going to be very long."

We loaded our luggage in the bus that was waiting for us and we made our way to dinner. After dinner we had a 2 hour drive from Brasilia to Mimosa. We, 5 students, 2 chaperons and 2 translators would be staying in a three bedroom home in the town. When we arrived to the house ,we were greeted by a thong of people. It seemed like all the members of the church, we would be working with, were there to meet us. They were so excited to see us. They gave us hugs and kisses. The welcome was so warm and sincere. I felt so loved. The house we were staying in was a really nice house. It is apparently one of the best houses in the town. The house had a pool, which was empty, a sauna. and very large court yard. The members of the church had helped to furnish the house for us before we arrived. It was so homey. It felt good to be in living in a house, since I lived in almost everywhere except a house, since I have been in Brazil.

The first order of business when we entered the house was the sleeping situation. The house had only 3 bedrooms and there were 9 of us. Obviously, the rooms were to be divided by gender. We had 4 females and 5 males. The 4 females shared the master bedroom while the 5 males divided themselves between the remaining two rooms. Our room had two beds. One queen size bed and a twin bed. It was obviously short one bed. That meant, one person, namely me, had to sleep on the floor with two extra mattresses, that were provided. There were obvious benefit to having the master bedroom, we had the air conditioning unit in the house and our own bathroom. The air conditioning came in handy during the day when it was very hot.

The first few days in Mimoso was very calm and relaxing. We got an opportunity to explore the little town and learn more about each other, before we got down to work. Everybody in the group immediately clicked. It was amazing how well we all got along considering our ages. The students were seniors in high school and were either 17/18 years old. The translators were in their twenties. One chaperon was i n his thirties and the other chaperon was 69 and had more energy and spunk than the rest of us. She put the rest of us to shame.


As we acquainted ourselves with each other, I was able to put a face to a voice I had heard several times. I am an avid listener of www.audioverse.org, which is a website which has sermons to help strengthen young adults in their walk with Christ. It just so happened that I had listened to and enjoyed several of the sermons of Chester Clark, one of the chaperons, a few weeks before the project. So it was really good to meet him.


During these days, we also helped the church get ready for the meetings, which would be starting in a few days. There would be two sets of meetings each night, an adult meeting and a children meeting. The adult meetings would be held in the church while the site for the children meeting was only decided a few days before we had arrived. The church had recently acquired a piece of land beside the church so we had to help to make a temporary building for the children meetings.

During these days, I also fell in love with this little town and the people. It is really an awesome experience to live in a small town. Being new to the town, people were curious about us. When we would walk down the streets several person would talk with us and practice their English with us. It was pretty cool. One of the main things that grew my attention to the town was the fact that town is in a valley and is surrounded by many mountains and hills. Also near the house was a mountain/hill which allowed you to over look the entire town. On our first Sabbath together, we opened the Sabbath on that hill. I was so amazing to watch the sunset and as we ushered in Sabbath. There is just something awesome for me to spend any portion of the Sabbath in nature. I feel like I am closer to God and like I am getting a little glimpse in to the Creation Week. God is just amazing!