Play ball!

This morning was the Big Game between the Lions and the Tigers - an excellent time was had by all! Couldn't tell you who won, but it was recognizable baseball and as far as I could see they kids played by the rules. Hard to believe that 4 days ago most of them had never held a bat, but that's the truth!

After the game, the kids gathered 'round for a pep talk from Coach Sooman. He praised them for their faithfulness in showing up, their persistence and hard work, and their general good behavior - he told them he was proud of them, and they cheered. One of the parents (not from the church) made a lovely speech about how much they appreciated the program and how it was a wonderful thing to do for their children. This was exactly the point of the trip: "WHY would Americans travel all the way to Brazil just to teach our kids baseball?" This comment from the parent gave Sooman the opportunity he needed to explain to the children that the point of this week had not been baseball - it had been RELATIONSHIP - we had become friends, and that God had sent us to do that. They were invited to church tomorrow and given souvenirs with the name of the school and church on it; and everyone received a baseball cap and a certificate of completion with the names of the churches on it.



There were almost twice as many unchurched kids there as church kids, because the church children had invited their friends. One of the Jr. High girls told me that her best friend's parents were Spiritists, and they were present to watch their daughter play ball today. Another man came because he saw the banner on the side of the field fence - he is a real non-conformist nature guy - dreadlocks, sandals, plenty of tattoos. He said he'd just moved to Brazil and had been looking for someone to play baseball with! Whoda thought? He came every day - turns out he's a great player who played ball in Sao Paulo with the Japanese community there (baseball is very big in Japan), and today he came back with his little boy. There was also a very nice Korean gentleman with his 10-year old son who came because his son saw the banner. The little boy came in without his dad at first, and told the registrar at the gate, "My name is Pedro and my dad will come and sign me in soon. You'll know him because he has eyes like mine," and then he made an exaggerated Asian-eyed face. He was certainly surprised to find that his dad had eyes like the 12 coaches! His father said that Belo had no culture of sports for children and he was thrilled that we'd come. He went on for quite awhile about how "one must be smart to play baseball" because one has to think ahead and think quickly. This turned out to be another unchurched family; they left their email address for more information about the future of this program.

So there we have it - a successful mission! We collected names and addresses for about 100 children and their families; the children had interaction with "real" Americans; they learned a new sport well enough to play with some skill; they have made a first contact with the church and they have learned that our motivation for coming was because the Love of God Compelled Us. I'm sure we planted seeds that others will water and harvest.

WEIRDEST BRAZIL FACT: It was my job to create the Excel spreadsheet with the kids names and info on it and take attendance. When it came time to use the list to create the certificates for the kids, we'd begun to suspect that we had some duplicates. The thing was, that every day the kids would come they had a different name. The first day, on their registration sheet, their name might be Eduardo Henrique Castro de la Cruz, so we entered Cruz as his last name. Day two, he gave his name as Eduardo Henrique Castro, so he would get entered under Castro. Day three, he's in a hurry and just gives his name as Eduardo Henrique - now he's under "H."

But it was only MY problem. I thought I should file under their last names. If I had done it the Brazilian way everything would have been filed under their FIRST name. Yep. Everything in Brazil is filed under first names. The phone book is alphabetized by first name - really. Medical records are filed under first names. EVERYTHING is first name ~ first. Wow. Do you realize how many "Maria Luizas" and "Maria Beatriz-s" there are in Brazil? "Hi, I'm Maria Luisa and I'm here to have my operation." "Oh, are you Maria Luisa Silva?" "No, I'm Maria Luisa Silva de Souza." It's incredible that they can make that work, but they do, and they aren't changing.

Turns out that May-July is "country party" season in Brazil. There are lots of parties where people dress like country bumpkins, eat simple down-home foods and dance to local music. So the church put on a country party for us this evening, and BOY was it fun! Everyone had to dress like a bumpkin - mismatched, patched clothing; but the girls could wear country dresses if they wanted to. If anyone arrived without dressing up, they were met by young women who dragged them off to have freckles and beards painted on with makeup, teeth blacked out (ew!), kerchiefs tied around their necks and patches basted on their clothing, and also received a palm leaf hat. No one escaped!

The food was corn on the cob, cornbread, soups, and homemade candies for dessert. The children had games to play with prizes. After dinner, they began to play Brazilian dance music (sort of like salsa) and then people formed a big circle and began to dance around the room. There was a "caller" who called out simple movements (like a square dance) to change partners, ("fly like a bird"), cover your head ("it's raining!") - everyone joined in, including little children. They made circles-within-circles, and then made "bridges" with their hands and the line of dancers went "under the bridge" for the length of the room (under 30 or 40 bridges made by couples). GREAT fun! Then they taught the Americans how to Samba (I just watched, but it's a lot like country swing ~ only better music). Not having any "native dances" to teach the Brazilians the Americans opted to teach them a hip hop line dance that very simple and a lot of fun (and apparently it was a hoot to see "la pastora" boogeying down ~ who am I to spoil their fun?)! The Brazilians really liked the line dance, so we had to do it a couple of times - everyone was very worn out.

I LIKE this party! I think we should do one at home in Oklahoma - ("Okie-Fest"?) - for a fall celebration when it cools off...start practicing your "moves!"

Tomorrow is Sunday school in the morning at 10 - then everyone goes to lunch, then rest, then back to church to worship at 5 (interesting pattern, eh?) All 3 pastors will be teaching adult Sunday School; then Pastor Kye will preach, Pastor Andrew will lead the music part of the worship, and I will do communion. Let's be sure all our churches pray for the other two churches as we worship tomorrow.

Have a wonderful Lord's Day!