Hey all!!!

I hope everyone is doing well and are having a great week/weekend! First off I want to thank God so much or this amazing opportunity. All your support, love and prayers have been a major blessing and I as well as my team would not be where we are without them, so Thank You!!! I'll try to give you the "day by day play by play" since we left home, can't promise I'll remember everything. And I will post the videos here as well as on Facebook as soon as I can!

Day one was filled with a little over 24 hours of travel. I slept for about 19 of them haha! I went through three different time zones and never really got a grasp on any of them until this morning. Our drive to San Fran was dark because it was so early- I slept. I can't tell you about the take off or the safety procedures of the first flight or if we even had any- I got on the plane and fell right asleep... classic. We got to Sao Paulo around 5:30am Friday morning and after a long line of customs and passport checking we met Tati (pronounced Tachi) at the airport and took their bus to Camp California. We got to camp, settled in, I slept for 3 1/2 hours, ate dinner (the food here is AMAZING!), went over lesson plans, and hung out waiting for the kids. They were about an hour late, but still full of energy. We didn't get to go to bed until about 12:30am Brazil time and Karli only slept 4 hours.... no good...

Day two was our first full day of camp. It started out with breakfast (again, extremely amazing), followed by the kids being sorted into three groups which rotated to three stations: Games, Bible lesson, and arts & crafts. I was stationed at bible lessons where my acting skills were really put to the test (I had to play God for one of the skits!) After rotations was free time where we could play with the kids. The language barrier was a challenge, but I think it ended up being more frustrating for us that it was for them! We all wanted to be able to just speak Portuguese! There were translators, but not always on hand, so we made due with pointing and hand gestures (nice once of coarse ;] ). After free time we had lunch, another set of rotations and free time again. The e24 kids watched these little boys play soccer who literally took their clothes off to play in their chonnies- for whatever reason it was absolutely hysterical. We ate dinner and then had a whole camp bible lesson, worship session, competition games, and a skit. The kids had fun, but were most excited when we busted out the s'more materials! Pretty sure every one (including myself) had about three each. Lindsey won best marshmallow roasting, but I am quickly learning her ways ;) . To top off the night we did a camp game in the dark. It was basically hide and seek where the leaders hid and the kids came looking for us. If you were found you gave the kids however many glow sticks you had. I had seven and probably had the best hiding spot, aside from Jody and Tyler. I hid in a pine tree in my dark, dark blue jeans, a black sweatshirt and an inside out black shirt to hide my bright yellow CalPoly Long Beach logo, and my hood over my head which I tied so tight that all you could see were my eyes. Oh yes, I was ninja. I was never found. I also fell asleep and Tyler and Eddie had to come get me out of the tree. Then, as we were getting ready for bed, I made my "Cecilia" video, which I may or may not post due to the embarrassment my retainer would cause me, haha! After Jacey and I talked for two hours while Lindsey passed out in about two seconds, we followed suit after being told to be quiet :)

Day three, which leads me to today, was long, but everyday has been long since we've arrived- we're on Brazilian time! We got some breakfast, did one set of rotations, had freetime (where Karli got thrown in the pool- NOT COOL Tyler and Beanyo) (PS: Pretty sure "Beanyo" is spelled wrong, but that's how it's pronounced. After the pool incident, however, I started calling him "Bean-O" ["Take Bean-o before, they'll be no after!]), lunch, and then said goodbye to the kids which proved harder to do than I thought. We left for the hotel shortly after and stopped at a place when translated is called "Corn Palace" or "Corn Castle". Every food they have there is literally made from or made with corn; corn pudding, corn bread, corn ice cream and milkshakes, corn pizza, corn tamales, corn milk, it goes on and on. I tried the milkshake (we got chocolate), bread, tamale, and pudding (it had cinnamon on top!) All I ended up liking was the corn bread and pudding... go figure-AMERICAN! We arrived at the hotel shortly afterward where we hung out for a couple hours and then got ready for church. (Mom, you'd be proud of me- I didn't wear a T-shirt and workout shorts, even though I really wanted to.) The service was really cool to listen to and was (thankfully) translated for us as the pastor spoke. We were asked to come upfront and introduce ourselves- kind of embarrassing, but they could tell we were American the second we walked in so I guess it was OK. The music was great too and the singer, Wellington, literally has the voice of an angel. Wellington is also one of the lead counselors at the camp and it has been really cool getting to know him over the passed couple days. Now, I'm not sure how observant you, the reader, are but if you know me well at all you may realize I haven't mentioned much food since the corn palace. We didn't have dinner until 9:30! We were kind of crabby about it too haha, but it ended up being some of the best pizza I've ever had- who knew? Now I'm in bed writing to you at 7:40pm your time, if you're a Californian. And I would really like to go to bed now, so I'm gonna, haha! Thankfully we don't have to be at the day center until 10am tomorrow so we get to sleep in a bit and a breakfast we get fruit! YAY!!! I'll keep you all posted over the next few days!

Already God has given such an amazing outlook on this trip, the people I'm with, the people I have met and the people I have yet to meet! Keep it coming, God!

I love and miss you all!!

-Karli