Cold fingers...brrr!

       Another heavenly breakfast of fresh fruits, cheeses, lunch meats, about 10 different kinds of breads and rolls, including the famous pao de queijo, perfect scrambled eggs, and little pizzetas, followed by espresso. Though it started out foggy, the sun persisted and finally broke through to show us blue skies over Curitiba.

       Our first school was in Campo Largo--it looks like all our concerts will be outside, in the "sport court" as they refer to it. The pavilions are all enclosed by chain link fences, with cement floors and metal roofs. Everything went very well--these children were very well-behaved, and responsive. In the middle of each concert, Camp talks about the instruments, and has one person give a little demonstration of how his or her instrument sounds. The teachers had prepared coffee and tea for us afterward. The Brazilians are always so hospitable.

The kids love the music!

Douglas, one of the nationals who plays with us, demonstrates his tuba for the children.
He's a pediatrician, and he comes and plays when he doesn't have patients.

"Here we've all been waiting for you. Welcome."

       Lunch (if it sounds as if we're always eating, it's because we are!) was at restaurante Madalosso. There is no menu, and one does not place an order. We were seated at one long table, coke and guarana bottles were placed in the middle, and then the parade began. Waiters brought out green salad, potato salad, yucca fries, risotto with chicken, chicken livers, which they placed between about every four people, and then kept returning with various pasta dishes, which they served to us. We tried, but couldn't eat all the food they heaped on the table. There was even pasta filled with dates and covered in a white sauce. Not bad.

       A few minutes to browse in the shop across the street, then the bus brought us back to PIB for a meeting with the staff of the Life & Music Space (LMS). These are some of the same people who have been playing with the Celebration Orchestra, and they are the teachers for the LMS with the kids from the projects (favelas). They gave us an overview of the concept, to keep the kids off the streets by teaching them to play instruments, and teaching them about Jesus. They also will teach the parents if they want to learn. These are the kids we will be playing with on Saturday for the Children's Winter Concert, for which we rehearsed last night. These kids play extremely well! They love their instruments and are so grateful for the opportunity to play. There are obviously not enough instruments for every kid, and of course, in some cases, it's not a good idea to give the instruments to certain kids, so their only practice time is at their lessons--2 a week. After the child has been playing a while, and if the teacher knows the family, and thinks they would take care of the instrument and not sell it, they will give them one. Our group brought quite a few donated instruments, and the LMS staff will decide to whom these will be given.

Paula and Andre telling us about one of the children in the projects who received a violin because he really worked hard at his lessons. His name is Matteus (Matthew), and he was recently featured on the cover story of the news. He just happens to be my stand mate for the Children's Winter Concert!

Our evening concert was at the Senhorina School, where the kids from the evening classes came with their parents. They all cheer when Camp tells them we are playing to the glory of God. All the groups love it when we play "Jericho" because Camp sets up the story, telling them how Joshua and the men marched around the city once a day for 6 days and then on the seventh, they marched around 7 times and, "what happened then?" Most everyone motions with their hands the walls falling down. He promises them, as we play, they will hear the walls fall.

In the foreground, my evening stand mate, one of the adults from the projects who came and read those charts down cold! Background are 2 of our "dixieland band" guys playing "Celebration of American Spirituals"

Camp setting up one of the songs while Andre translates. Andre is one of the teachers in the LMS.

       As we set up, someone plugged the sound system into the 220 plug. Ooops. Big boom. So we played without microphones. This time, of course, the brass overpowered everyone else. I was playing so hard on my violin, I was sure I'd break something. But God always takes our feeble efforts and turns them around to create a good sound. It was 57 degrees, and I wish I'd had my fingerless gloves, but, again, when I'm playing, I'm so wrapped up in the message of the songs, and so grateful to be here, I don't feel the cold. As long as the wind doesn't blow the music off the stand, we're good.
       The school served our dinner, hot dogs, tapioca pudding, and grape juice, and as usual, everyone wants to come up and speak English with us. When I begin in Portuguese, they are always so surprised. "Voce fala portuguese?"
       Another long bus ride to the hotel, where most of us decided to crash. Only a few of the die-hards wanted to go to Karinas for milkshakes! (not me...I look forward to seeing Terry's face on Face Time.) This week is flying. It's great to be so busy and have so much interaction with the kids.