The Ruth is out there (and now she's back again). We're very pleased to welcome back Ruth Leckenby after her 4 week mission trip in Olinda. Ruth was a very welcome guest last year (see her excellent guest blog entries on here) and now with Portuguese phrase book under one arm, a plate of beans in the other she is confronting Brazil - and her fear of frogs - like a seasoned traveller. After an exhauting and at times hairy few weeks working with Brazil's most disadvantaged, Ruth is recouping (we hope) in sunny Natal. Ruth very generously brought us a bevvy of gifts from the UK, including specially selected food items based on the "Things I miss..." section of this blog. So, as the picture above testifies, I was able to have a more or less English breakfast with the essential ingredient of Baked Beans.

NB. Brazilians are very curious about the famous Heinz Baked Beans because Brazilians take their beans very seriously. Generally, on tasting them, Brazilians don't rate them too highly preferring to rapidly reach for a pot of their famous feijão instead. In other words - it's just like English football: We hear a lot about it, but the quality isn't a patch on the home grown variety.

July pictures. July was a packed month with a lot going on - some pictures here if you're interested. (Facebook people will already have seen these).

Nelson sleeps to 6.54am shock! By cutting our son's daytime naps down we have induced a spate of post-6 lie-ins. And, given that Gloria doesn't trouble anyone until 7.30am, my sleep silos are slowly being replenished, praise God!

Welcome Isla Kippin, sister to Esme and Scott. More baby girls in the Maclure side of the family. Congratulations to Anna and Richard!

Guest blogger Ruth Leckenby.
The time I thought: "Praise God!!!"

There were a lot of praise god moments but I think the whole of the last day, the Monday that I flew back to England, was probably the time I said it most. The day after going getting back to York I was to fly to Italy for a family holiday. It turned out that I had a 16-hour turnaround so I felt like being a bit packed and ready would be useful! My plan was to wash and dry, and then pack all my things for Italy in a bag that Rachel had given me this would then leave room in my big bag for the many presents I had bought! So I woke up early and got one load of washing on and then the heavens opened and a huge Brazilian rainstorm poured its contents on my high spirits! But there had been a few occasions that the rain had only lasted a short while so I tried not to get too despondent. Due to contacts at Cultura, Rachel had obtained some free tickets for a boat ride in Pirangi, the coast south of natal so we headed of nice and early to avoid any traffic. Basically to cut a long story short, we arrived at the boat early so got the hour earlier trip which due to another couple of passengers and their imminent flight, was half an hour shorter, meant that we had a very relaxing enjoyable boat trip and also had time to look around the market at the worlds biggest cashew tree. We got home to find that the sun had well and truly dried everything and my clothes were now crispy and ready to be packed. This also meant that Rachel and I had time to visit the shop around the corner, I still cant remember the name of it [Palader Setanager - Ed Dave] and generally enjoy a relaxing afternoon. Altogether it felt like Gods hand had just been guiding us so smoothly throughout the day and getting on the plane in the evening I felt so relaxed and ready to take on anything that life threw at me next. Later that evening as I walked through the security gate at the tiny Natal airport with Rachel waving and little Nelson waving, blowing kisses and giving his version of thumbs up, to me, I praised God for the immense time I had had in his wonderful country! Standing there thinking about what I’d done in the 6weeks, almost to the hour, of arriving, I got quite overwhelmed, at the beauty, the tastes and sights and sounds, and the immense welcome I had received from Rachel, Dave, Nelsio and the whole extended family. I cried a little, which prompted a little lady in front of me to pat my arm and say a few reassuring sounding Brazilian words to me, another simple act but so comforting and calming!!! A flipping good holiday I’d say!!!!

Guest blogger Ruth Leckenby.
The time I thought: "I miss this from York…"

There were also number of times I thought back to good old England and missed a few things about it. Probably the biggest thing was feeling safe on the roads! Brazilian drivers tend to be fairly horrendous! On a dual carriageway there may appear another one or two lanes from nowhere so along a 2 lane stretch you have 4 cars side-by-side! And the quality of Brazilian roads is a somewhat lesser standard than English roads!!! Potholes all over the road, speed humps on the main ‘motorway’ that usually aren’t signposted, dogs and children running about in the road, discarded bits of coconut or building materials or bits of car to avoid! Driving is not for the faint hearted!!! Getting back in the car with my dad at Gatwick airport was a comforting feeling and I was able to chat to my sister the whole way back without stopping to catch my breath following the latest death defying occurrence, every few seconds!!!

Guest blogger Ruth Leckenby.
The time I thought: "I wish they had this in England!!!"

There are a few things I wish they had in England. I really enjoyed not worrying whether I’d need a jacket or not as the weather was always hot enough to not need anything!!! I wish there was a more carefree attitude. It may have been because I was on holiday that I felt the attitude as very relaxed or it may be that its just too hot in brazil to get rushed and in a fluster. But whatever it is, I loved it! I came home with a much more relaxed chilled out attitude which I think can only be a good thing!!! There are a few consumable things that I wish we had in England. Guarana, a soft drink that at first taste I wasn’t too keen on, but by the end of my stay found it the most refreshing drink there!!! I also wish we had some of the abundance of fresh fruit, fruit that may have travelled a couple of miles from the plantations, not thousands of miles so its shrivelled or artificially enhanced!!!

Guest blogger Ruth Leckenby.
The time I thought: "I'm utterly exhausted!!!"

I spent a lot of team at or near the beach in Natal, which I absolutely loved. There were 2 incidents that I feel could fall under the statement: “I’m utterly exhausted!!!” The first was at a snorkelling trip to Maracajau. We were taken on a little catamaran about half an hour from the beach to a little reef were we snorkelled about and looked at the abundance of pretty fish, and some darn ugly ones too!!! The thing I noticed as I splashed off the boat was the strong current, you couldn’t bob about in one place without moving, either you were swimming to stay still or you were drifting off across the reefs! I let myself drift for a while, watching the fish, then decided I should head back towards the boat. It took about 5 times as long to get back to the boat as it did to drift! And there were times that I thought…ah, it’d be easier to drift back to the shore, I’ll just bob back!!!

The second incident I felt utterly exhausted was on my last full day. It was father’s day in Brazil and we went to Pipa! I absolutely love Pipa and think it’s the most beautiful beach, and quirky little town I’ve ever seen! We had a great day eating and relaxing but I think I’ll remember mostly for the size and power of the waves on Praia de Madeiro. I’ve been to Cornwall a couple of times to surf but never seen or felt anything as strong as these waves!!! The force of them was just crazy! I’m struggling to find words to describe it!!! The undercurrent was so strong it pulled my feet from underneath me and the curling waves would push me over from above, creating a summersault effect. There were a few times this happened and I had to put my hands out to stop my head getting hit into the sand. Looking back on it I don’t know how safe it was, especially as at one point I saw a fairy sizeable tree trunk being tossed about like a twig. But I felt I should get the very most out of my last day. And I certainly did. The exhilaration I felt from riding some enormous waves on a little body board was something I’ll remember forever! And when I got into the car on the way home I thought…”I am utterly exhausted!!!”

Guest blogger Ruth Leckenby.
The time I thought: "It’s been a pleasure meeting you!!!"

Ok, I think this was one of my favourite experiences that just seems to sum up the attitude of the Brazilians I met, towards English people. I really love visiting supermarkets in countries I stay in; I think it gives a good picture of the area you’re visiting.

One afternoon, Rachel, Nelson and I had gone to pick up some bits and bobs and were chatting away, walking up and down the isles, laughing at the random names for stuff, picking the things that looked nice. As we went down one isle, an assistant came up to us and asked in very broken English if there was anything he could help us with. We replied no thanks and he said “please, one minute, please” and then scuttled off. A few minutes later he returned with a smart looking chap who said something to Rachel before turning to me and saying in flawless English…” can I help you with anything, is there anything you need or don’t understand?” I shook my head, all I was doing was shopping! He went on…”that is good, really good. Well I would like to welcome you to my shop and to Natal and to Brazil. Are you here on holiday, I hope you have a wonderful time, do you like the country, it is a beautiful place, I hope you are very happy and enjoy your stay. Please, if you have any questions do ask me or one of the staff. Please do not leave with any questions. Have a nice stay.” He then chatted with Rachel for a bit and left. I was stunned! It was so nice, to be welcomed that way and in a supermarket!!! I thought later about how a foreigner would be treated in an English supermarket?! I doubted they’d get the same welcome!

Guest blogger Ruth Leckenby.
The time I thought: "Could someone please tell me what’s going on?!!!"

O the joys of speaking about 10 words of Portuguese!!! This meant I was frequently asking or thinking this phrase!!! I found this particularly in shops. The second your foot steps on, or even hovers over the threshold, the shop assistants stampede to you! They usually start uncomplicated enough with a “ola!” or a “bom dia!” maybe even a “tudo bem?” Then they start chattering away presumably saying something like…”can I help you?” but I had absolutely no idea and so the phrase I used the most was probably…”desculpe nao fala Portuguese” (sorry I don’t speak Portuguese) it didn’t usually stop them though and they’d trot off around the shop pulling out random items they thought I might like and speaking in a torrent of Portuguese with the occasional word of English! They sold with such enthusiasm, rarely seen in the UK. It was really fun!!!

Guest blogger Ruth Leckenby.
The time I thought: "Yummy!!!"

There are so many things that I could tell you about that were yummy!!! Shrimps are very popular and readily available in the northeast. I enjoyed some delicious dishes, the taste of them and the way they were beautifully presented, sometimes in pineapples or coconuts. I also really loved the availability of fresh fruit, and how this fruit is turned into juices. If you ordered pineapple juice, they aren’t going to open a carton, but take a fresh pineapple, blitz it up, add some ice and sugar and serve it like that!!! As mentioned above I tried to try all but didn’t quite manage it!!! Passion fruit was my favourite and I made that a couple of times. With passion fruit as cheap as they were, 6 big juicy ones for the equivalent of about 50p, it was hard to go wrong!!! .

Guest blogger Ruth Leckenby.
The time I thought: "I’m not eating that again!!!"

I had a few weird culinary experiences whilst in Brazil!!! The worst was a meal made for the teachers at Cultura Inglesa, that gave us all food poisoning!!! But that was totally a one off and despite trying some weird and wonderful dishes, I certhianly thought I’d be ill after it but I don’t think any of them were too traumatic!!! Some of the things I tried were not too appetising to start with but grew on me after a while!!! Manioc chips were one of those things, they are like potato chips, maybe a bit more starchy and less taste to them but sprinkled in lots of salt they weren’t too bad. I think the thing I felt most strongly about was mungaba juice. I was pretty determined to try every type of juice on offer (and it was a challenge, as there are a lot!!!) so on the last day I was there I tried mungaba juice. The first sip was ok, a kind of apple-y taste, but the after taste was how I’d imagine the taste of oak to be, bleurgh, I didn’t like it at all but Nelsio did so that was ok!!!

Guest blogger Ruth Leckenby
The time I thought: "Booooring!!!"

It’s a long way to Natal from England, and the journey home took about 24 hours door to door. I was with TAP so was well looked after but after an hour or so sleep, I was very fidgety and with out a TV, the one thing wrong with the flight, I amused myself playing peek-a-boo with a child who looked and acted very similar to Nelson. He’d look at you and then point at some random part of the plane as though expecting an answer or an explanation of what it was!!!

That wasn’t particularly related to my time in Brazil but I think the journey back was the only thing that fitted into the category of boring!!!

Guest blogger Ruth Leckenby.
The time I thought: "That was somewhat surreal!!!"

The first morning in Natal, I was woken by the sound of a man coaxing a reluctant donkey up the street. The donkey was pulling a cart laden with fridges and front doors and bits of chairs. Seems like he was the local recycling service, or maybe the fix it man! A short time later a car drove up the street with a loud hailer strapped to the roof of the car and a man driving and shouting out of it. Again I had no idea what he was saying but the car was busting at the seams with fresh fruit and vegetables in all shapes and sizes. The local green grocer isn’t a shop but a car with very cheap fruit!!! They came around most mornings so after a while I started to recognise certain words, maracajau (passion fruit) coco (coconuts) laranja (oranges).

My favourite thing to do in the mornings was to sit on the balcony reading and waiting for the bin men. I used to sit by the window on bin day when I was little and waved to the driver who usually looked up and waved back. But the Brazilian way of doing bins is far removed from the slow amble and general disdain to bins that the English bin men show. In Brazil rubbish collecting seems like a sport. The truck drives at a steady speed, and not particularly slowly, and the men run along behind picking up the bags and hurling them at the back of the truck as it trundles up the cobbled pot-holey road. All the while that they are doing this they have a chant going, I’ve no idea what they were saying but it sounded motivational!!! They were enchanting to watch, and could certainly teach the English bin men a thing or two!!!

Guest blogger: Ruth Leckenby. Ruth stayed with us for 6 weeks a few months ago and we miss her lots. I asked Ruth to pen some of her thoughts about her time here - as somebody who had not been to Brazil before and as somebody who had not lived in a Maclure household before. It took her several months to get her write-up to me (evidentally she had a lot to cover with her psychiatrist when she got back). Ruth has a passion for wildlife, guarana and exclamation marks and I have not edited her entries. So, every day for the next 12 days, I will post a contribution from her. And here is the first...

Guest blogger Ruth Leckenby.
The time I thought: "Arrgghh!!!! I'm going to die"

There were times in Brazil when I thought this but I think it was one of the most amazing parts of my trip. My comfort levels were pushed way beyond anything I thought I could deal with, and yet I came back fine, better than fine in fact. A lot of my friends would probably have described me as a bit of a control freak before I went, when we went out for the day or evening I was the one counting everyone, making sure we were still all there, that everyone had sufficient food and money and generally keeping a watch over. Then the second anything went mildly wrong, I’d get in a flap and become Miss Neurotic. However over my time in Brazil, this attitude got chipped away at until I was Miss Laid-back! I got into the habit of when I was scared, when the thoughts “Arrrgh I’m going to die!” popped into my head, I’d question them. Why are you scared? What is actually going to happen? You’re not actually going to die are you? And this pattern of thinking calmed me down a lot.

The time I had to use this rational thinking the most was the day we went on a sand dune buggy ride. These are little buggy cars that drive the sand dunes that line much of the coast of Rio Grande de Norte. The first thing that I found disconcerting was that we had to stop for fuel as our driver told us, the fuel-o-meter, has broken, its corroded from the salt like a lot of the other parts of the car!!
The ‘ride’ took us into the government-protected sand dunes and we headed up a nice little bank. It got steeper though and to our left and right were very high, near vertical drops. Up ahead I saw that we were heading for a clump of shrubs, I thought “This is going to be a tight squeeze!” but I didn’t have long to think about it as, just before we ploughed through the middle of the cacti, we veered sharply to the left and plummeted down one of the previously mentioned vertical drops. My heart was in my mouth, I started to scream before realising that I was actually too scared to scream! We got to the bottom and headed for a sand bank that had tyre tracks in it, I thought…we cant be going up there can we?! And this was where the logical thinking kicked in. my thought process went something like this: “Oh my goodness, we’re going to die. Hang on, why would the driver put herself at risk. If we die, she dies too. She’d probably been doing this a while. And also, we have nelson in the car, she wouldn’t want to have the death of a one year old on her conscience. We aren’t actually going to die are we?! And I think if we were, we already would have done, so shut up and enjoy it!”

So I did and there began my way of dealing with the “Arrrgh I’m going to die” thoughts. These stopped me from being scared of finding myself disorientated in a heaving shopping mall, snorkelling when I didn’t think I had enough strength to swim back to the boat, being at the top of a flight of concrete staircase with a jubilant football crowed trying to push past me! Ok, so some of these may have been a little dangerous but with the power of prayer and a little logical thinking, I didn’t die, obviously! And I came back with a much more relaxed, care-free attitude!!!