School stuff, food and sport

This last week has been mainly concerned with getting used to the school I am working in here in Manaus. The journey too and from school is magnificent as it is practically in the jungle.
I am teaching a number of different English classes, years 4, 5 and 6. I am teaching a Year 3 History class and have taught lots of Bible, which has been great. It is such a difference from the UK, first of all we can teach Bible, no of course is a no-no in the 'tolerant' UK (sorry if this statement is contraversial for some! Oh the irony) , the class sizes are small but by no means easy. Some students are much easier to engage than others and the difference in ability can sometimes be challenging, as in any classroom. It is nice to see lots of different nationalities in the school: Brazilians, Koreans, Finnish, American and some from the UK. I am getting used to using the different scheme now so it's all good!

Friday night I went to an 18th Birthday party, an American missionary's child. It was a nice evening, the Brazilians just love singing and as a result there was plenty of singing at the party, all of which was in Portugeuse, which means I was mainly talking to the American missionary. Andy (one of the people I am staying with) and this missionary are at British Guyana this weekend on missionary business, sounds very exciting to me!

The food in Brazil is ace, the fruit is great, the staple food is nice, but most importantly they love meat... which is great because I do too! I ate out again yesterday, seems to be a regular thing in Brazil, at lunchtime at a restuarant where the meat came out still sizzling on a pan... it was veryyy nice! After this we went to the local zoo, which had some wonderful animals in, as you would expect, which was a nice experience. The weather over in the UK sounds pleasant. It has been in the mid 30s over here and the humidity is a killer, but I am beginning to get used to it.

I have been quite active exercise wise this week. I played football with some native Indians on Wedsnesday. I scored a couple of goals, so hopefully I won't have let the Europeans down. I have also been playing a lot of volleyball, which has been good, as I am about a foot taller than everyone!

I'll leave on a note about how the Brazilians think of the Europeans... 'They all stink' they keep telling me, because they only have one or two showers a day. I am getting used to having 3 or 4 now... so hopefully I won't be too much of a smelly European for them!

Hope you are all doing well, thanks for your prayer and support
Daniel