Brazil trip - Day 8...

Today was our last day of scheduled clinic, of course we know that apt to change at any moment.  Apparently half the year this village is very large, but right now a lot of the people have moved away

until the waters recede some.  We ended up seeing only about 30 patients or so, so it made for an easy morning.  It appears this village has a contaminated water source as several of the people complained of recent trouble with diarrhea.  Sad that there is still this problem in the day that we live in.  Since the clinic wasn't busy, I went and helped Flavia while she was teaching Bible stories to the children and singing songs with them.  They sure enjoyed it and then they all got a whistle and another prize after...talk about smiles!  It was then time to head back to the boat but on the way we picked guava straight from the trees and ate it...yum!  After lunch we set sail for Sao Sebastian.  It was a bright clear day for sailing.  Once we got to Sao Sebastian, I saw there was a small park near where the ship was docked and asked Lynn if it would be safe to run there.  He said we should be fine, so Jeanette and I made plans to run together later in the day.  The whole team took a field trip down to the industrial area of town.  It mainly consisted of areas where they make and/or repair boats and also made made handmade furniture.  It was neat to see the boats in varying degrees of completion.  It was a super hot day today so I came back to the boat to cool off and rehydrate before our run.  Then it was off for my marathon training run.  It was HOT - probably 90+ degrees but it felt great to get out moving and sweat!  Plus Jeanette and I had a good time talking through some stuff.  God has big things in store for that girl!  Pretty sure the Brazilians thought we were crazy and a few young Brazilian boys kept yelling phrases at us like "hello" and "I love you."  Kept us laughing for sure.  I was actually hoping for a cold shower tonight, but unfortunately it was lukewarm...probably the only time I'll be thinking that.  We had Brazilian pizza tonight for dinner which was really good.  It had ham, sausage, tomato, onions, peppers, and egg on it.  Some of them had corn and peas too, but I opted for the less is more option!  During dinner, Lynn told us we were

invited to a surprise birthday party for Ronaldo, the local pastor.  We had to walk a mile or so to his house and also had to make a pit stop at a local ice cream shop to pick up some ice cream. While were standing there waiting, a group across the street started singing "As the Deer" in Portuguese of course, so we joined along in English which was kind of cool.  It was fun to saunter through the city streets and see all the shops, restaurants, and even the local hospital.  Once we got to Ronaldo's house we were able to meet some of his family and church congregation before he got there.  He seemed surprised when he finally arrived.  It must be a Brazilian tradition, but while he was preparing to blow out the candles someone popped a balloon above his head that was filled with flour, so he was covered in it!  Gave everybody a good laugh.  He had a soccer cake that was coconut and lots more other food of course.  Most us just had a little cake since it hadn't been too long since we'd had dinner.  The party was going strong when we left but we were all getting tired and still had the trek back to the boat.   My highlight of the day had to be seeing Jeanette get baptized in the Amazon!  She had made the decision earlier in the trip, but was waiting for the better waters of Sao Sebastian!  What a cool experience for her as well as us.  Well I told the team the next training run would commence at 5:30 am tomorrow so I guess I better get some sleep.  We will see if any one else shows up!  Tomorrow is our last day in Sao Sebastian and we are having a Brazilian BBQ at Pastor Ronaldo's house before we head back to Manaus for the last leg of the journey home.  I really started thinking today about how I wanted to call my family and tell them everything that has been going on...but only about 72 hours to go!