Update from the road

This is our second day in Sao Paulo, and I've made several interesting discoveries.

Discovery One: Sao Paulo is a really, really big city. I have never seen so many humans, and most of them are walking ON THE SIDEWALK. It's impossible to walk in a straight line when you're on the sidewalks because they are packed with people. Here is a photo of Sao Paulo from the air:

Discovery Two: The people who aren't walking on the street are DRIVING. Really fast. If there are any rules governing driving in this city, I don't think anyone one follows them. Because there are so many cars, a lot of people travel by motorcycle. Motorcycles drive between the lanes that are already packed with cars, like this:

What makes this whole thing really interesting is that cars change lanes and cut each other off constantly, with no prior warning. So you have these cars weaving back and forth and a constant stream of motorcycles driving between the lanes about twice as fast as the cars. The traffic fatality rate has to be incredible. To solve the problem, the rich business people do this:

There are helicopter pads all over the city, and unfortunately one of them is right next to our HOTEL ROOM. When we arrived yesterday at 7:30 AM after leaving Salt Lake at 1:30 PM the previous day, we checked into our room for a couple of hours of sleep. When our building started shuddering, we looked out the window to see the helipad, which actually was kind of cool, but it didn't do much for our naptime.

The good news was that our first three business visits went wonderfully. We leave for Salvador tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Bye, now

We'll see you in about 10 days!

As if you haven't had enough

I know, I know....you can only take so much beauty, but we're going to be gone for 10 days and I want our yard to be well documented.



Here's a shot of Les's house. Note the absence of big bushes and the tearing down of the great concrete wall.

It gets better and better

We only get one more day to admire what mother nature took ALL YEAR to create. Sigh.

Our neighbor, Ben Haslam, took these:

And in other house news, our neighbors are busily tearing out practically everything Les did to his house when he lived there, including the planters, stone walls, fences, and most importantly, the awful, huge bushes that lined the driveway on our side. If you look at that top photo, you can see that it's possible to look all the way down the street from our driveway now. Yippee!

Tomorrow I will try to take some photos so you can see all the destruction (and I mean this in the most positive and loving way) that is taking place over there. So far, I really like our neighbors, even though I haven't even seen them yet. (Logies, they are about your age.)

What a difference a week makes

The snow went away and suddenly things started popping! In fact, this is the very clump of tulips that was covered in snow just last week.

Bob has been out trimming, fertilizing and mowing, and it's likely that all of our tulips will be in bloom--including the two or three hundred new ones we planted last fall--just in time for us to LEAVE FOR BRAZIL. This is a giant bummer, but we're hoping Chris (who will be staying in the house while we're gone) will take pictures every day. Some consolation--but I guess it's better than nothing.

We're leaving on the 28th (about a week from today) and won't return until May 8th. At least our neighbors will enjoy the gorgeousness of our yard.

Tomorrow is my last "real" class of the semester, and Friday we have our final session before leaving for Brazil, so I am getting in the mood for summer fun. I have a couple of projects to finish in May, then two big things to work on over the summer (the Gore book and a courage study)....but no classes to teach. I have the best job in the whole wide world. Life is grand!

And the winner is....

Okay, there weren't many contest entries, but we decided to sing Down by the Bay in Portuguese to our orphanage children! (Thanks Lin!) There are six or seven Portuguese speakers in our group (mainly students who did their missions in Brazil) and we're going to have them sing the "mother" lines ("Did you ever see a bear, combing his hair?"). The rest of us will sing the verses. I think it'll be fabulous.

In case you've forgotten Down by the Bay, here it is. Feel free to sing along. Loudly.

And again....this time in Portuguese! (Google translator is a wonderful thing.) All together now:

Para baixo pela baía, onde as melancias crescem
De volta a meu repouso, eu ouso não ir
Para se eu faço, minha mãe dirá
"Você viu nunca um urso pentear seu cabelo para baixo pela baía? "

Para baixo pela baía, onde as melancias crescem
De volta a meu repouso, eu ouso não ir
Para se eu faço, minha mãe dirá
"Você viu nunca uma abelha com um joelho queimado para baixo pela baía?"

Para baixo pela baía, onde as melancias crescem
De volta a meu repouso, eu ouso não ir
Para se eu faço, minha mãe dirá
"Você viu nunca um alce beijar um ganso para baixo pela baía?"

Para baixo pela baía, onde as melancias crescem
De volta a meu repouso, eu ouso não ir
Para se eu faço, minha mãe dirá
"Você viu nunca uma baleia com um ponto de polca atar para baixo pela baía?"

Suggestions: Children's songs and presents

When we go to Brazil later this month, we are going to visit the Organização de Auxílio Fraterno, an orphanage for kids from several months to 20 years of age. The number of kids matches the number of people who are going on our trip, so our students all "adopted" a child, wrote him or her a letter, and we're going to bring each one a small gift.

While we're there, we're also going to stop at Wal-Mart (Can you believe it? Wal-Mart!) to buy linens and some other things they need, and we're going to have a little (very informal) talent show. Do you have any suggestions for kids' songs we can sing for them? I'm thinking Rubber Ducky, Cotton Fields, etc. We also want to take some little general gifts for the kids. Any ideas?

Young men don't deserve cancer

One of my favorite students was just diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer that usually attacks men 60 and older. Some of you know him: Brandon Plewe. He was in Lindy's class and he married Katie Crockett--who I think went to school with you, Dunc. Brandon and Katie were just married last year, and he has two classes to go before he finishes his MBA.

I am just devastated that this vibrant, kind-hearted, talented young man has to deal with this when he has his whole life ahead of him. He will begin chemo this week. Katie has set up a Web site to keep friends and family informed: http://www.brandonplewe.com/.

Bob and I have a friend who is recovering from removal of a brain tumor, and he said the support, kindness and messages sent to him while he was sick made a huge difference in his recovery and outlook on life....so go to his Web site and send Brandon and his family your best thoughts. If anyone deserves to recover from this cancer, it's Brandon.