There Is Nothing Wrong With Having Nothing To Say Unless You Insist On Saying It


Hey there!

I had a surreal day the other day. I was on one of my famous days off (I.E. headed to work last minute because there was a crisis), this would have been quite a nice saturday morning, if it wasn't for the fact that this job was ridiculously far away, and I had no idea how to get there, so had to wake up at some time of the morning that I generally don't see (not as early as I am trying to make it sound). Having dragged myself out of bed, stuck a banana in my mouth and put some Brazilian samba on my ipod, I started walking towards the bus stop (turned out to be the wrong bus stop, that first one, and the second one that I went too). I then bumped into a friend of mine Bom Cabello, one of the capoeiristas in Helsinki, and my first human interaction of the day was in portuguese. Next I was sat at the right bus stop (eventually) and was sat enjoying sunshine in Helsinki (in AUGUST!) when the couple next to me started arguing. In Portuguese. I kid thee not. They were confused about where they were going, so I helped them out. To the best of my ability. I sometimes can't keep my lefts and rights right in English, so I hope that I didn't send them to the wrong place. So I get on the bus, thinking about what a random morning. And I receive a text, from a friend. In portuguese. Yeah.. I know what you're thinking, well I don't because I don't really know what I was thinking. For a while I stared hard out of the window making sure that I was still in Helsinki. But it doesn't end there, later on in the day, towards the end of my shift, I had a three top. You guessed it, with Brazilians. Just off a cruiseliner, on their way home. In the end I was quite pleased with my ability to communicate in portuguese all day (although it got harder as the day went by, talking to a friend about capoeira, easy, talking to older people about where things are in Helsinki, harder, working in portuguese, hardest). In any case, it seems that it is a small world, and that I am fully able to practise my portuguese almost as well in Helsinki as anywhere else.

And as you may have guessed now, I have very little to say this week. I have spent most of the previous week sat at work, listening to podcast sermons, filling the house with books of all sorts, much to my mothers displeasure (but who am I kidding, most of what I do at the moment is displeasurable to her, since I forgot to put my hand in front of my face whilst coughing in my sleep and have apparently given her my sickness). One of the things that I learned this week, relates to one of my favorite passages James 1:27, where it encourages us to take care of the orphans and widows. Jay Pathik points out that widows in the current society includes single parent families, people who have been left alone through divorce and not only death, and that we mustn't forget about them. I took it to heart, and hope you do too.

Visa Update: Some papers sent over to Brasil for some more stamps etc, and the embassy people are waiting on the salvation army people for another paper.

Love and Blessings
Ems

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