Setting Off (repost from April 21, 2017)

 One year ago I was lying in bed trying to get to sleep and I thought of the picture of a piano I had put up on my pantry a few years ago.  I sighed and said, "God, when am I going to be able to get a piano?"  Immediately into my head popped the answer, "What about those shares?"  

Shares?  

Oh!  That's right!  I was a member of NIB when they floated as a public company and I got shares.  "Probably worth a couple of thousand by now, I guess," I mused.  Maybe enough for a basic small upright piano.  Nothing fancy.

Early that same year Ian Miller, the senior pastor at my church, had prophesied to me, "just you wait and see what God's gonna do for you this year!"  Number 1: a long desired piano!  Thank you Lord.  

As it turned out, I had several thousand dollars left over from the purchase of the piano.  I wondered what to do with this money.  Re-invest?  Put it into the mortgage?  Hmmm.  I decided I didn't want it to just get 'absorbed' into the mortgage but that I would prefer to have something specific to show for it.  

At that time I was also very low.  I felt lost in mundanity (my new word), ineffective, uninspired, like I was just trying to get through each day till I could die.  If that sounds bleak, well it was.  I was in a dark rut with deep sides.  No, a rut would feel like it was going somewhere.  I think I was in a pock mark in the landscape of my life.

Sitting in my little studio early one morning, and musing on my melancholic slump, I asked God, "What shall I do with this money?"  GO TO BRAZIL.  

Of course!  

So, with a bit of argy-bargy around dates, I am now off to Rio de Janeiro.  
 

I'm not much of a 'skim the surface by seeing the sights and then returning home' person.  I decided I'd rather do some work while there, so as to meet locals and get more engaged in the place.  After a little research I decided to book myself into a 'voluntourism' project through RCDP International.  The organization on the ground in Brazil is called "Community in Action".  I'll be teaching English in the mornings and assisting with art projects in the afternoons Monday-Friday.  I will be doing this for 4 weeks.  

In case you are curious here are the website links:
http://www.rcdpinternationalvolunteer.org/lpl/volunteer-abroad.php
http://communityinaction.org

Well, time to switch off as boarding is about to commence, and being a 'premium economy' traveler, I'll be boarding early.  :D 
 

More soon! Love ya's all!

Linda

P.S.  Airport food has definitely gone up in my estimation thanks to "Kitchen" by Mike

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