the rest of the trip

so.... the rest of my trip was a blast! I went to my mission and visited some people who are very important to me. I then took an amazon tour outside of Manus and camped in the rain forest, fished for piranha, saw white and pink dolphins, jumping fish and crocodiles and lots of cool birds, and and we caught a jacare.

After this we went to the capital, Brasilia, visited a good mission friend of mine, and saw a lot of the national government buildings. Next was foz de Igussu, and then Sao Paulo. In Sao Paulo we went to an island called Ilha Bela, which means beautiful island. Yep,it was really cool. We hiked and went to some natural water slides, much fun. Before returning to Rio, i spent 2 more days visiting old mission friends who live in Sao Paulo. On my last day in Rio, i just hung out at the Employment center, we had a little party and i wanted to spend all the time i could with my friends there. I'll really miss our classes that we gave and especially the people at the center. After all is said and done, i love Brazil, but it's good to be home. I'm excited to see everyone at Christmas!

bye bye Miss American Pie

so.. I thought the name was perfect! I made 6 Thanksgiving pies last night and today along with a lot of other yummy food. We had an amazing last party with our favorite people from the employment center, man i'm really gunna miss these people... anyway, tomorrow we will take off for two weeks of travel around Brasil. You know, i'm excited to travel, but sad to leave. Anywho, see you all at Christmas!

yea!

Sherry is superly duperly excited as she just finished all of her homework for the semester, well, she hopes....

Chagas!

Chirlenie Chagas, a really good mission friend, came to visit this weekend, we had a ball! Here are a few pics at the opera Carman. It was great, yet not as great when you're tired. but still great.

Happy Turkey day!

Happy Turkey Day!

Today has been a great Turkey day thus far! We taught our early morning English class to make turkeys by tracing their hands and writing what they are thankful for on the fingers/ feathers. In our Employment course we had the class go around the room and talk about what is important in their lives and then we ate yummy grub. We actually went to a really old restaurant (built in 1894) in the historical district downtown and I had a turkey, pineapple, cream cheese and lettuce Sandwich. It was tasty and big. It was almost appropriate for the holiday as the restaurant was called Columbo, after Christopher Columbus. Although he really had nothing to do with Thanksgiving, he was a pioneer/ pilgrim, and therefore counts.
Oh, and next Thursday we will have a big Thanksgiving feast with the people we work with at the Employment Center. Yea!


On a completely unrelated topic, I have found a way for you to visit me without having to buy a plane ticket if you like. Google maps is amazing. I really recommend you checking out this link and reading the written driving directions. Oh, and you can take simple detours on the way to visit John in MO, Jimmy in GA, You'll enjoy it. Happy Turkey day!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&saddr=tigard+Oregon&daddr=Copacabana,+Rio+de+Janeiro+-+RJ,+Brazil&sll=4.915833,-74.53125&sspn=91.446534,191.601563&ie=UTF8&ll=11.350797,-77.34375&spn=90.526044,191.601563&z=3&om=1

another update... yep.

This weekend has been mucho productive! I pretty much locked myself in for 2 days and managed to finish all of my courses, except for 2 final exams (one of which I think I’ll have to end up taking in Provo) and 6-ish papers on cultural experiences... I still have to stay on it enough, but I feel as if a huge burden has been lifted! Wahoo! Anyway, tomorrow we have a day off so we're going to sight see a bit, hopefully go to the beach and I’ll do my final. Yes, I’m excited. It really is crazy how quickly time is passing; we only have 2 more weeks in Rio, and then about 2 weeks to Travel around the country. I'm excited to travel and then come home for Christmas, but at the same time, really don't want to leave this place behind. I really do love it here. Everything seems so simple here. Life really is good. Yesterday my friend Kali and I had the chance to attend and sing at the baptism of a friend at the center. It has been a huge blessing to see how much this course has been a doorway for people to not only learn about how to recognize their talents and gifts and how to apply them in the professional world, but also has been effective in helping myself and the students learn about the spiritual blessings that Heavily Father wants to pour upon us is as well. Although this baptism was of a volunteer at the center, we have seen many of our students accept the invitation to hear about the gospel and grow spiritually as well. Again, I really love this program, the people here in Brazil and the place. I'm not sure what it is about this place, but i really do love it.

Traventure v. the combined acts of adventure and travel.

This weekend on the road we had a traventure. And it was good. I had the privilege of being ripped off by an anti-american bus station ticket agent, just in time for the opportunity of a lifetime of waiting for my night bus back to Rio for an extra few hours as the original bus got in an accident and another needed to be sent in our direction. During this time a kind, and very talkative elderly man decided that he really wanted to tell me all of the childrens stories that he had written, and even gave me a four page hand written story about an elephant and monkey with lice that couldn't go to the party because they refused to wear fancy clothes. I'm sure it would have been oh so much more interesting if i wasn't struggling to stay awake. When the bus finally arrived, i decided to use the genetic super power reserved for Dickinsons to sleep on one of the winding-est roads ever. (or at least between Ouro Preto and Rio de Janeiro) because of this unfortunate delay, we hit trafic in the wee hours of the morn and barely made it to work on time to throw on some semi-clean wrinkled clothing from our backpacks to teach. Yes our return home was surely a traventure.

Belo Horizante e Ouro Preto

Well, we took a weekend trip to Belo Horizante and Ouro Preto, Both really neat places. Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics.

Jardim Botanico do Rio

Cristo Redentor

we went to the 'Cristo Redentor' statue. It is one of the 7 modern wonders of the world and really is amazing! If you're ever passing through Rio, it's worth the train ride up. It's got a cool history and is fun to see all over the city. Up close it's even better. Anyway, it's a great reminder to me, and for the city that Christs arms are always open for us. I'll really miss this statue when I return.

guess what!!!

Today is better than my birthday because i finnished my Statistics class!!! I now have 2 classes down and only 3 to go, but 2 of them are nearing complete, and ther other i left for last as it is much more fun! yea!!! I'm very excited about not sitting inside doing math when it's hot outside. anywya, i just thought i'd share my excitement!

more adventures! yea!

Note how I don't look super short. Have I mentioned that I love brazil!?

So, monday we had a day off and explored rio a bit. We went on a hike and wandered, and such... much fun. We saw monkeys and lizards and an octopus that a crazy guy caught snorkling in filthy water. oh, and today we carved a pumpkin in our english class.. yea again.

weekly update

so, this is the weekly report that we sent to BYU, um, it's a little weird, but hey, i thought i'd post it anyway. Enjoy!

We got back from Sao Paulo on Tuesday morning just in time to sleep for an hour before we taught our class. Our class this week was fun, we had a good group. On Saturday we taught a class in Campo Grande, which is about 1.5 hours away from us. That class was fun too, since it was all members so we could talk about some things that we usually don't bring into our class (like how to use callings in power statements).Today when we went to church two of our non-member students were there visiting the ward, since they have started investigating the church as a result of the class. We are happy about this.Sherry thinks Kali has dengue fever. Kali continues kexplaining to her that part of dengue fever is 'fever' which she does not have. Kali came back from SP with a pretty bad cold, but it is slowly getting better. Today she can talk, which is a good thing since it makes Sherry's life easier when we are teaching. Kali bought a thermometer (to make sure Kali does not have dengue), but Sherry broke it after Kali took took her temperature twice. Okay, sherry didn't really break it, it fell on the floor. Apparently Brazilian mercury is not dangerous. Sherry doesn't really think Kali has dengue, but she tells Kali that she has dengue 20 times a day. Kali thinks it's funny. Kali laughs, but then she coughs. Sherry had a really good experience today. A kid she taught on her mission lives in Rio now, and he came to church with us today. We're going to work on reactivating him. He now has a goal to read 7 chapters in the scriptures this week, and we'll follow up next sunday and see if he did it or not. And we know some people who we think live in his ward, so we're going to make him be friends with them.We also made brownies and banana bread this week. It was very exciting. And Sherry went to the beach. And finished a class. Kali just wasted time being sick. Oh, and she got a sunburn. And lots of borrachulo bites. Burrachudos do not carry dengue. But that was last week. This week Kali is feeling the effects of the sunburn and bugbites. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!We hope your week was exciting as well.

Weekend trip to Sao Paulo!

This is Rocha, me, and Chagas at the Sao Paulo Temple! A great reunion!

This is Rocha and I near her place of living, and below is Chagas near hers.


This here is sunday dinner with Chagas, her fiance, her mom, another missionary from our mission who happens to be in her ward, the missionaries and some members of the ward. A good ol' fashoned Brazilian feast! yum!


Well, this weekend I went to Sao Paulo to Visit a few mission friends... and some of my favorite people in the whole wide world , Rocha and Chagas (well, as they were called in the mission). It was a blast! It's always good to see old friends. We went to the Sao Paulo temple, and explored the city a bit. Mostly it was just fun to see them and get to know their families. Anyway, we took the night bus back and got back home (?) to Rio this morning just in time to sleep for a half hour more and get ready to go teach a new set of students. I think our class today was a lot of fun, but that may be because we were kind of out of it as we taught. meh, mer. oh, and with the help of Rocha, I was able to get in touch with a boy we taught in Joao Pessoa who has since moved to Rio. I'm very excited to see if i can't help re-activate him while i'm here! Anyway, life is good!

yea for Brasil!

By popular demand (blame Elizabeth) i have posted a picture of my iron wounds. Just be glad i'm not posting the close up picture. Again, please don't try this at home.

The time is flying way, way, way too fast!!! What are they to do? Work harder, and play harder.
As for Kali and Sherry, they started teaching a very fun English class called Super Rad English, notice the S.R.E. (initials for Employment Recourse Services in Portuguese) yep. It's pretty cool. The class is for the employees and volunteers at the center to get them to arrive on time, well the volunteers, at 8:00. We do lots of activities, are learning useful skills, a hymn and are focusing on a scripture that our manager wants us all to memorize in English, D&C 4:2.
We absolutely love the manager, Saul, the assistant manager, Carlos, and all around amazing other employee, Maria Jose, who pretty much does everything at the center. Without any of these people our experience would just not be the same. We are already dreading leaving them at the end.
As for our experiences of late, Kali has found much joy in the National Museum. She's pretty much enthralled with everything, literally, very much an anthropologic nerd. it was quite funny.
Sherry, on the other hand, had fun ironing her foot. Don't try this at home, it is painful. Third degree burns hurt.
Together they enjoyed being denied entrance to the national library as apparently you aren’t allowed to bring your own books. Who would have guessed?
Together they learned to do contacts with the help of the great Carlos. Now they "confidently" are able to look for job opportunities to post at the center.
An example of one of these such contacts was today at lunch, when they mistakenly thought the restaurant accepted credit cards, when in fact it only accepted debit. With their wit, beauty, and loose change they managed to talk to the manager and avoid doing dished to pay for their meal.
Kali had an interesting experience as a transvestite commented on her pretty eyes in an enclosed elevator. mrr?
Fortunately both have recovered from their recent unrelated illness are feeling on top of the weather.
On the extra positive side, their current favorite student rang the victory bell this week! The victory bell is a bell with a pleasant chime. As pleasant as the chime is, even more pleasant is the meaning behind it. One of their students from the previous week applied their wise teachings to his job hunt and found work. yea! (Sherry)Woot!( Kali)
As for now, the adventure of Kali and Sherry will continue. What will happen next? Stay tuned.

group 2

Our second group was a blast! Very energetic, yep, what can I say more. They were a whole lot of fun. And... i think they think we're psycho. They wanted to know if all Americans are
like us... how do you respond to that? until next time- Sherry

Week one.. and two.. and maybe a little bit more

My Adventures in Brazil
By. Sherry Dickinson
September 23, 2007
Training and first week of internship
The fun all started as the interns gathered at the University Hotel in Salt Lake City to begin our training. There we spent 5 days learning the course that we would be teaching in our various locations. We studied, practiced and bonded. We were lucky enough to have some great instructors, who brought us to tour Welfare Square and the Humanitarian Center to see an overview of the various services the church offers.
After all of the preparation and waiting, the day to go finally arrived! On Sept 17 My partner Kali and began to get nervous as we entered the plane from Atlanta to Rio where everyone was speaking in Portuguese. Soon…ish, we arrived in Brazil and managed to make it through customs and meet our Office Manager Saul Duarte. Who for the record is great!
I think the next interesting topic thus far is our apartment. Granted it really is great and we are lucky to have it, let me tell you of its fun quirks and perks. First it’s in a great location, a block and a half from the beach, on the 9th of 12 floors, and in a very touristy area. It’s a little out of control on the streets, but fun none the less. The sad part is that since I’ve gotten here, in any free time available, I’ve been buried in my books and haven’t yet been able to swim. Where in the world are my priorities?! It’s close to the subway which we take to the center where the office its, which his nice too.

The funny things are that we have one regular bed and one makeshift coach bed with several old crib mattresses (I think) which are less than an inch thick each. You know. We have an infestation of little cockroaches. And yes, we are grateful that even though there are tons, they are small. We have since taken up roach hunting as a sport. Past the coach roaches, some of our neighbors are also interesting, making us glad that the place appears to be secure as it has four locks in the door (one with a 4 sided key), and 3 peep holes and is on the 9th floor, making climbing through the window out of the question. I think.

The Employment center is very busy with so many non-members coming that there are now specific hours that they are allowed to center to make it available more for the members. They teach three CASP courses (to teach self reliance and employment) per day (morning, afternoon and night). Each course lasts 3 days. Kali and I will be responsible for teaching the morning courses and helping out in the center from 8:00-2:00 from Monday to Thursday each week, as well as doing some weekend travel to other areas to teach the course, train local leaders to teach it, and to teach another course to help people start their own small businesses. This week we made lots of phone calls to businesses that we have contracts with to verify openings that they have. I was nervous to make the calls as communication in another language is always more difficult by phone, but it was actually a lot of fun. We are also being taught to go around to businesses to talk with the managers and try to set up contracts with them to help fill their employment openings in the future. So, summed up, there is a lot of work to do.
While in the office for my first day, 2 different people recognized me from my mission that I never even knew. The world is very small. It’s interesting how we stand out sometimes… for good or bad… and people remember us even after more than a year and a half later. One was a boy in a neighboring ward who in one of my areas who is now a missionary in Rio, and the other is a sister from Rio that served in my mission after I left who apparently saw pictures and heard stories about me from other sisters and families in the wards that we both passed through. Even though I didn’t know either of them personally, the fact that they recognized me and that we have mutual acquaintances, made me feel at home. Apparently someone that I taught who was baptized ended up becoming the missionary’s best friend and I trained the sister who was “killed” by ( finished her mission as comps with) the girl. Kinda fun.
Today I had the chance to go to our ward for the first time. We met lots of fun people and will go to a fireside tonight that the mission president will give. Hopefully I will be able to find time between my volunteer work and my school work to go on splits and help the sisters out. On Wednesday after work, we are planning on accompanying the sisters to go to the “Christo Redentor” statue; you know the famous one in all of the pictures of Rio. Yea!!!

Okay, today is the 27th of sept and we finished teaching our first set of classes! It was quite the adventure. We learned alot and hope that the students did too. Either way it was fun. You know, life's good. We now have internet, which is a huge blessing, and i set up a (801) area code phone line through Skype, so it shouldn't cost anything to call me through the computer if you so desire. you can get the number from mom or dad or Elizabeth. okay dokie. Take care, be good, have fun. –Sherry


oh, last night we were walking through some markets by the coast and talked to this crazy guy who travels around the world painting by day and selling this work by night. There are some really fun people in this world!