It takes a long time to become young. - Pablo Picasso

Well, One more year, gone! Just like that! Today is my birthday, which I share, with my good friend Dion and Keanu Reeves (and apparently the second cousin of one of the girls at our project) . To tell you the truth people, I'm not getting any prettier, nor do I think that I'm getting any wiser, in fact it feels just the opposite, when I was a teenager I'm pretty sure I knew everything, it's been downhill since then. So all I have to hope for is that I am getting more patient and kinder, but there is yet to be evidence of that, so I won't be putting that on my resume just yet!

Just because it's my birthday, and I'm in a reminiscing mood I would like to point out some of the contrasts between this birthday and others. Firstly and fore mostly, I am pretty sure that I had a warm shower last year. Yep, still talking about the cold showers, they are still just as hard to get used too! More than likely last year on my birthday I would have been at work. I can't remember right now! Oh wait, no I do, Sarah Jefferies had come out to Finland to visit me for my birthday. The year before that I received 3 birthday cakes whilst at Latin Link Orientation! (3 because Gemma Crank also had a birthday around that time and she had two birthday cakes, and I hinted that well, I would also like two birthday cakes and the Brazil team outdid the Argentina team and got me three! Thank you very much Ali, Sarah and Georgina - I'm lucky to have Ali and Georgina still here in Recife with me, but it's yet to be seen if they will want to outdo themselves, some how I think that four cakes would perhaps be a little too greedy so I won't hold my breathe. But I sure hope they are reading my blog this morning!)

Last night the Cha Da Cruz teenagers had made me a cake and sang happy birthday after the worship service, and it seems like people here, they make a big deal of people's birthdays, the kids this morning came by with little presents and made tons of cards and sang many times, and it's not even lunch time yet. I myself, am not a fan of the old birthday singing, I feel a little awkward and never really know where to look, or what to do or how to react, I've always struggled a little with the whole 'Happy Birthday' Experience, but I think I can try to be graceful and accept it this time around!

We have started classes at the seminary this week, and I had Drama and Art (my new classes) which were full this week, it's all a little complicated with the kids, because they don't yet trust each other enough to be free in the classes, and in drama this leads to a lot of awkward mumbling, and looking at the floor, so that is something that I am going to have to work out, and in art we are doing different studies with crayons (mainly because that is what our supplies mainly consist of!) and the kids seem to be enjoying it, we learnt about contrasts and Andy Warhol, when I see we learnt, I mean that no one learnt anything apart from how to colour in the table instead of the picture, but we'll get there eventually. Things seem to be settling down quite a bit here, there haven't been any major incidents, and there are new kids every day. We are still trying to get things off the ground and the rules have yet to be obeyed, but we are getting there! Only by the grace of God though!!

I'm off the eat my Birthday lunch, best part of the day
much love
Ems

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