WOW, what a lot has been happening here!!!
Dave has had his birthday, which was a nice relaxing day. We also celebrate birthdays here with all of the team (usually with a special lunch). After the special lunch, Gideon and I had to dash off for his first day at Brazilian school!!! He has now been at school for over a week, and is still loving it. He has 12 in his class, including someone who speaks really good English, for those moments when he really doesn't understand.
We also had a major storm here, and lightning struck a telephone line, just outside 'Luzeiro'. This lightning 'fried' 5 computers, including some parts of ours. So, we were trying to work out how to resolve some of these problems......Dave decided to try to buy another laptop (as shipping in parts can often be heavily taxed), and had a rather strange experience doing a deal in Portuguese. However, this laptop then kept crashing, as it had a hardware fault. So, back to the shop to try to get a refund.....BUT in Brazil they won't give refunds, just an exchange. After a lot of arguing, in Portuguese, without a translator, he came away with a better laptop for the same money. It used a lot of time, was quite an unpleasant experience for all, but Dave says he learnt (and practised) more Portuguese in that hour than in the last few months.

posted by josiah:

After looking around, I realised that the kind of beetle we would probably get would be one like the picture. My parents even think that vw beetles are expensive so we would have to get a cheap one.

Beckie responds:
Don't worry guys, we won't be buying one like this, I'd quite like some seats, and an engine!

Well, we are now in the process of trying to buy a car and sort out Dave's driving license. We will need a car to get Josiah and Gideon to school, otherwise we will spend a fortune on bus fares and use 4 hrs every day!! THIS ISN'T OUR CAR! However, we would like to buy one of these. They were made in Brazil up until 1996, but they don't have the same kind of cult status as England. In fact, the VW Beetle ('fusca' here) is the lowest of the low, no Brazilian would want to own one, the equivalent of a Skoda. Hence, they are cheaper, but cars here are still incredibly expensive, or maybe cars in England are cheap. We'll publish the real photo when we get a car, who knows if it will be a Beetle.

I visited the school's again, to talk through the process of enrolment, and both schools think that it is better for the boys to begin as soon as possible (before this school year ends in December), to help them to adjust. It's a bit of a surprise, but it's ok, the only problem being that we don't have the right documents for Josiah to start. We need certain forms from his school in England, they need to be legalised at a Brazilian embassy and then posted to us, which delays the process. The paperwork feels like it's here just to wear us down, but I'm sure it will be easily resolved (thanks to family living in the UK).

We're still not much further with schooling, but are hoping to arrange more appointments for Tuesday, then maybe we will be closer to a decision.
This afternoon we had 'Sunday with God', it was great that lots of the children (over 100) from the favela came, and even some of the Mum's stayed and heard the message. Some of the children were from the poorest area of this slum (they have never been to things here before), so this was great. These families sort through rubbish, trying to find things they can sell to a recyling plant, they need to collect an awful lot. At times, you can see a child running up the street here and excitedly opening a rubbish bag to get the plastic bottle out. It's times like this that I am made aware of the great needs here.

WOW What a long time has passed!?!?!
Lots of things have been happening here, mainly in our household, with trying to sort out visa renewels and find a school for the boys. We have had so many things to think about, and it seems like we have lots of hurdles to jump. We keep getting only part of the information, which is very confusing, so we are constantly checking the validly of what we hear. For example, we were told that to renew our visas our children HAD to attend a school, which felt like we no longer had any options, however, this is not the case. We do feel it would have long term benefits to send them to a school though. So we have been looking at schools that have been recommended to us. One is a very large Baptist school with one of the best reputations in Brazil. It seems like it will be a great school for Josiah to go to, but since talking more with the year co-ordinator it seems that it wouldn't be good for Gideon. So, we were recommended to look at another school nearby for him, that has only 6 children per class. However, this school says that Brazilian law doesn't recognise homeschooling, so in effect, Gideon would not have completed grade 3 (year4 in England). Which means he would have to be held back a year. Is this the case? Is it also the same for Josiah? One idea that this school suggested was to attend the last 2 months of this year, therefore it could be said he has done grade 3. We really want some clarity on this..... It seems that the transfer from an informal education to a school based one is a very complicated process, made worse by the language barrier (meaning that Josiah and Gideon would be unable to show their ability in a formal written Portuguese test).
Please pray with us over this, it's good to trust in God when it seems that things are all a bit cloudy.