Letter to Marian, December 6, 1963

 Christmas Card 1963, Loanda, Brazil

Dear Marian,

Greetings from the hot interior of Brazil.  We have been having a terrific hot spell.  Rachel has a lot of heat rash.  We bought a fan which we appreciate very much even though the electricity goes off at 11 p.m.

My ankles have been swollen which sometimes makes it hard to walk.  I had an x-ray which ruled out twins.  The baby hasn't been as active as Rachel was so Cliff says we will probably have a boy.  If our baby is born here and not in Londrina during the conference, we will have to take our buggy to the hospital for they don't have a nursery.  We also have to supply sheets, diapers, blankets, etc.  for the baby which is probably just as well for we will know the things will be clean.

We were very shocked when we heard of Jack Kennedy's death.  When our neighbors told us I asked if he died of a heart attack.  We heard the details from Voice of America.  One of our neighbors said that 99% of the people want Brazil's president out of office and they wouldn't be surprised if he were assassinated.

We are going to spend Thanksgiving with the Olsen's in Cianorte, a four hour drive on poor roads, but since it rained for six days before, the roads were unfit for driving.  This last week we visited Jack Aamot in Paranavai, a two hour drive from here.  When we were there we bought toys for Christmas for Rachel.  I gave her some of them now.  She especially enjoys the buggy for her doll.

 Rachel with Doll, Loanda, Parana, Brazil.  1963

A Baptist couple from England will be moving here in March.  they were our back door neighbors for three months in Campinas but we didn't get to know them very well.  The lady is very quiet and was sick with morning sickness, thus I hardly got to know her.  As of now, we are the only foreigners here.  We have visited with a German couple in a neighboring town, Santa Isabel.  The wife speaks English quite well but her husband doesn't know any English and since we don't know German, we converse with him in Portuguese.  This German couple is strongly Catholic.

We had to buy water for a few days.  I was happy to see it was for only a few days for I figured that it would cost $12 a month for our small family.  Some of the people in this town have been buying water for months.

Rachel is starting to say words that include two words such as horseshoe, sun suit, watermelon, butterfly, etc.  She has learned some new Portuguese words but most are English for she seldom plays with other children.  Rachel gave me a scare one day when she fell from the top of the sofa-chair and hit her head hard.  When I picked her up, she couldn't breath.  I gave her mouth to mouth respiration and she was running around within 5 minutes.  I thought she was dying but she probably was unconscious for a few seconds.

 "Bye, Bobby..."  Rachel in the car.

Andy Olsen's from Cianorte visited us one weekend in November.  It was good to see them for we got to know them well when we were in language school together.  When they were here, our dog, Bobby, jumped the gate and followed the car about half ways to the neighboring town.  We didn't stop for we had just enough time to get to  church and I thought he would find his way home but we haven't seen him for three weeks.  Rachel still talks about him.  We are going to get another dog after conference in January.

Rachel Biel with dog, Bobby, in Loanda, Parana, Brazil

1963

My small women's group in church will be making sacks of goodies for the Christmas program.  Many poor children will come.  My group of women think Cliff and I should go around and ask stores to give donations and other people such as some Germans who supposedly are Lutherans.  We don't agree with their idea and are going to keep it as work done by the church.

I went to the doctor to get my left ear irrigated for i couldn't hear in that ear due to excess ear wax.  We have been feeling fine and hope the same is true with you.

Donna ends here, Joey starts here.

I suppose that you'd like to hear a word about our work, too.  Right now it doesn't amount to much more than study (language and sermons and preparing Bible studies).  Naturally, I have plans for the future which include a lot of visitation and open-air meetings.  Right now I feel that preparation is of great importance.  This isn't to say that I've done nothing "evangelistic".  However, my contacts outside of the already organized work have been limited.

The coming conference in Londrina should be a highly decisive one. The main topic of conversation will probably be about our relationship with the German Lutheran Church of Brasil.  They have a critical shortage of pastors and are hampered by the usual diseases of the State Church and of the tensions of a transplanted culture.  In this case, they have little regard for reaching the Brazilians, and they try to maintain the German language and customs.  The young people, however are rebelling.  Doesn't all of this sound just a little familiar, to us in the United States?  Watch for developments.

Guess that's it for now.  I feel a little like the hypothetical man who was always promising to write more later, and on his dying day called for paper and pencil and scratched, "Sorry I didn't write much before, but MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

Another note from Donna:

We sent slides to our sponsoring church and put Saetersdal on the list so maybe you can see them.  We are sending a tape to you folks and hope it gets there for Christmas.  One side is mostly of Rachel.

We wrote and asked your parents if they would like to invite a Brazilian girl to their home for a weekend.  She is living with missionaries on furlough in Northfield.  We know the girl and thought some weekend you could pick her up on your way home.  This girl speaks English well and is going to high school in Northfield.

Did you contact the Peterson's at the Seminary?  The Landvik's in Northfield said they will bring anything for us when they come in July.

Love,

Donna, Joey, and Rachel

Letter to Marian, December 9, 1968

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.  They were not entered chronologically.  The best way to sort through them is to use the index on the sidebar and view them by year.


Dear Marian and Frank,

Thanksgiving has come and gone and soon Christmas will be here.  This year we celebrated Thanksgiving twice.  We were in Cianorte the day before Thanksgiving and seven families were present.  There were few children as most were in the hostel for school.  We had turkey for the first time since we have been in Brazil.  We didn't have a long visit as it had been raining and started again on our way home.  We almost spent the night on the road as it was terribly slippery.  I took us two hours to go 22 miles until we got to the tarred road.  The other dinner was here in Maringa with about 60 present- 2 Baptist families, 2 Methodist, about 7 from the United Missionary Society and us.  After dinner the school children gave a program.  Both dinners were pot luck.  I made 5 pumpkin pies and salad.

Our church held its annual fund raising drive the 24th of November.  Some of the men came here three days before and made wooden benches, tables and put up canvas on top for shade.  The women had a bazaar of embroidered pillowcases, aprons, tablecloths, and little girls' clothes.  Women made potato salad for dinner and steaks were barbecued by the men.  In the afternoon, cakes were sold.  We ended up throwing some potato salad away and cakes were sold very cheap to get rid of them as the attendance was poor.  It was a lot of work plus very hot in the days of preparation and the day of occasion.  It was a lot of work, but the fun and fellowship- and the profit made it all worthwhile.  One of our missionaries told of his church which prepared 170 chickens and 3 steaks and had 65 chickens left and many steaks.

On the day of our bazaar, Rachel woke me up at 1 a.m. to tell me that Velvet, our dog, was having puppies under her bed.  I thought the gestation period was 3 months instead of 55 days so thought we had premature puppies.  There are 3 male and 1 female.  They are mostly white with a little black on them and have a smooth fur- the mother is part poodle and all black.  The children are delighted to have puppies around.  We have an empty bedroom upstairs where they stay but at times Velvet moves them under Rachel's bed.

Rachel and Charles's baner-ha school had a bazaar for which I baked 9 duz. cookies and gave 2 aprons from our bazaar.  Rachel is having graduation on the 19th of this month from kindergarten.  She is over half-way done in first grade Calvert.  Rachel is doing very well in school.  On most tests in this course she has gotten 100.  She loves to read and reads her books to Charles.  We plan to send her to Brazilian first grade in February.  In August we hope the mission school here will have second grade.  Charles didn't get many stars for good behavior at nursery school.  He was the youngest one there and even though he couldn't sit still for long he has learned some songs.  While I teach Rachel Calvert in the afternoon he plays next door with a 4 year old boy and gets along well with him.  Helen is starting the "why" age.  She has several little friends that she plays with and older girls like to take her for a walk.

For Christmas we are expecting the Dahlen family.  They are in our language school.  I helped her shop in early march while our husbands were at a conference.  They have a girl Rachel's age and Charles age- a boy.  She will stay with me while her husband visits other mission homes which can only be reached by dirt roads and she doesn't want to go with due to arrival of a baby in February.

The middle of January we are going to a Bible camp about an 11 hour drive from here.  Other families enjoyed it while we were here on furlough.  All of our missionaries should be there and it will be the only time we get to see several of the families.

Once a month Cliff goes to where we lived before (Loanda) and serves 3 other places, too.  The farthest is a 4 hour drive from here.  When he goes, we won't have church services here.  Due to his traveling or having church services in the morning once a month in our country church, I give Confirmation two or three times out of four in the month.  It is held at the same time as Sunday School.  the youth in our country church and one here are planning to present a play for Christmas.  The Sunday School will have some poems and sing, our adult choir will sing two hymns and the same for the youth.

The end of October we had a one day women's retreat.  Women came from several cities nearby and from our country church.  In all we had 75.  Our women's group made chicken-rice soup for dinner and cakes for coffee in the afternoon.  Dona Ana from Curitiba was our speaker.  We discussed the ecumenical movement and evangelism in our church.  We divided into two groups- one German (led by a pastor's wife who is from Germany) and I led one of the two Portuguese groups.  The points discussed are to be sent to Switzerland in preparation for study of the Lutheran World Federation to be held in Brazil in 1970.  We think the study could have been more profitable had we been able to discuss this in each church before this meeting and leaders would have been better prepared for the discussion groups.

Since there is summer vacation from school now until the middle of February, we are planning to have a week of Vacation Bible School in the city and another in our country church.  VBS was held in July for the first time in these congregations and enjoyed very much by all.

We had some very hot weather- 98 to 100, but now it is cooler at 85 to 88.  We have had very little rain which has been bad for the crops.  Some larger cities have had to ration water but thankfully, we have plenty of water.

Pete and Elna Mathiesen

Karen, Mark, Kristine and Paul

(courtesy Karen Mathiesen)

We continue to have many guests- example this week- the family of the German missionary who lives in a neighboring town, an intern from a seminary in the U.S. who spent 16 months in church in Curitiba, and Mathiason's from Cianorte.  We enjoy the visits for we seldom had them in Loanda.  I have a good helper so the extra company isn't more than we can handle.  The lady who helps me now is married and a sister to the last one I had who left to get married.

We wish you a Blessed Christmas and happiness for the New Year.

Love,

Donna and Joey

 The day Rachel printed her letter to you she was mad at her friend Lillian and wouldn't put her name down.  Charles started coloring the picture.  Each stripe on the shirt is a different color and the girl has purple hair.  I will try to send it later.  How does Lisa like Erik?  Is he as good as she is?  Your son arrived on Brasil's day of Independence and Grandma Biel's birthday.

Letter to Marian and Frank, March 30, 1968

 Biels in 1968

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.  They were not entered chronologically.  The best way to sort through them is to use the index on the sidebar and view them by year.


Dear Marian and Frank,

You soon will be getting a form letter from Ohio but I thought I would write you some things that aren't in that letter. 

While Cliff was at the conference in Londrina, the Children and I stayed in Campinas.  I helped two new families- one that came three days before the conference started.  They have a boy Charles's age and a girl Rachel's age, so they enjoyed playing with each other.  I helped enroll the boy in a Brazilian nursery school.  Rachel and Charles went for a week and thought it was fun.  The teacher speaks English as well as Portuguese.  Twice I took Joan Dahlen to an open market to buy fruits and vegetables, to a store to buy food and once downtown by bus to go shopping.  We did a lot of walking and got sunburned. 

Cliff was gone for six days.  When he came back, Helen just looked and looked at him, almost as if she had forgotten him.  The new houseparents, Aarsvolds, from Kassen, Minnesota, were at the conference, too.  We visited with them the evening before we left Campinas.  They are adjusting very well.

We didn't have any difficulty coming through customs.  The day we landed was the biggest day of Carnaval.  None of our suitcases were opened.  We are missing our cartridge tape recorder and Japanese camera that we had in a briefcase on the plane.  We couldn't lock the briefcase and should have taken these things out of it and taken them to our seat.  We wrote to the pastor in Brooklyn, New York, to see if we had left those things at his house and received an answer that we didn't leave them there.

From Campinas we had a two hour bus ride to Sao Paulo where we got a plane to Londrina which was a 3 hr. flight.  In Londrina, Cliff hired a truck to take the things we had stored there.  While in Londrina I visited two missionary families there.  The children and I were in Londrina for two days, then Cliff came back to get us and we went on a two hour bus ride to Maringa where we are living.

We got to our home on the 14th, late in the afternoon.  One day Cliff went to Loanda to get film strips, flannel-graph, and a projector that was there.  It was a three hour trip from here, one way.  We had been here ten days when he took off for Cianorte- two hours from here by jeep to teach for a week at the Bible School.  After the school was over, he went to Campo Mourao, 2 hours from here and will have two services today and two tomorrow before he comes here for an evening service.  He will be serving these other churches once a month for six months while the pastor is in Germany on furlough. 

Last night, I went to a baby shower for a teacher of the United Missioner Society.  There are five families living here from that mission.  A Southern Baptist couple who live four blocks from us and the American wife of a Brazilian doctor were at this party.  I had a nice time getting acquainted with these people.  They have a school for missionary children with about 25 students.  We hope Rachel will go there to first grade in September but we don't know yet if they will have first grade.  There are several first grade age children but they don't live in this city and sometimes parents teach them the first year through Calvert which I may have to do.

Letter ends here.

Letter to Marian and Frank, November 29, 1966

 Clifford Biel, Charles and Rachel

1966

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here. 

Dear Marian and Frank,

Baby Lisa

Well, Nels was right.  He said you would have a girl and waht a big one!  We were glad to hear that everything went well.  You certainly were fortunate to find enough money to get tot the hospital.  What an experience!  I like the name Lisa- one of the missionaries has a girl named Lisa.  I agree with you as to delivery without pain- so far, Rachel's was the easiest- I had Demerol.  In February, my sister, Olive, had had boy without pain but my deliveries have been too difficult to go without a hypo.


I hope you don't get discouraged and give up on breast feeding for when you give cereal and soon food, she will be content.  I am still breast feeding Helen.  Now she is a cheerful and smiling baby but in the first 2 months she had a lot of gas pains.  She still wakes up to be fed at night.  At 3 months, Helen weighed 15 lbs.  Since we don't have baby food, she doesn't get more than cereal- occasionally, with egg yolk in it, bananas, and sometimes carrots.  When she turned 3 months old she started turning from the back to her abdomen.  She likes to sit in the corner of the sofa chair.  When we talk to her she coos and coos.

You must have lost all of your weight gain since Lisa weighed 9 lbs.  Did Cynthia lose all of the weight she had gained?  She  wrote that the doctor said she is in good physical condition.  Hope they will have a baby soon.

We will find out in January when we will go on furlough.  I wrote that we could go home early but the earliest would be March and probably won't be until July.  We are anxious to see everyone.  When Louie and Rosie get married I hope that we can have a family picture taken to keep on our dresser.  Louie to be transferred about now.  To where will he go?

 Louie and Rosie's wedding photos, 

which did indeed, sit on my Mom's dresser for years.

This last week we spent in Paranavai where Joey helped with special services which had films.  The Olsen's go home when we do but they decided not to come back due to their adopted children.  Three have Indian blood.  Here adoption is frowned on and they think that heredity is stronger than the environment and that Olsen's girls could become prostitutes later in life.  Here couples who are childless usually remain that way.

 Sharon and Randy

Native American children adopted by Ardys and Andy Olsen

Our house was sprayed by government employees for the first time.  It is to kill a bug that looks something like a cockroach and transmits a disease called chagas disease.  It affects the heart and a person lives to 2 to 3 years after he is bitten.  This is common in Northern Brazil, but I haven't seen the bug here.

Helen has already had the typhoid vaccine.   Ardys Olsen brought oral vaccines from Sao Paulo.  There were many cases of typhoid in Paranavai- 3 cases here and 2 deaths.  Helen just had her firs polio shot- there is an oral one here, too.  The 4i n 1 shot is hard to get here but the doctor says that if it is given, the whooping cough vaccine isn't as strong.  And since many children have whooping cough here I am going to give the 3 in 1.

Same technique Dad was using.

We have some 4-H books that a friend of mine sent.  She is working for the State of Oregon and was a college roommate.   Joey made a beautiful design from the cover of two cans and in the center put a picture of himself, Rachel and Charles.  The lid is cut into many sections and then with pliers he curled the strips and bent some in other directions.  He also made bells and plans to make angels.


Rachel and Charles talk about Auntie Marian all the time- saying Auntie Marian gave me this or that.  I don't know if you will be able to stand them for very long- they are such live wires- both extroverts and talk continuously.  I told Rachel I wished she was a radio so that I could shut her off sometimes.  You will be anxiously waiting to have Lisa start talking but when they come to the question age it is hard on one's patience.

 Charles and Rachel with Bobby

We are having a heat spell.  I'm glad we don't have water shortages as some of our neighbors do.  Poor Helen has had a cold for a week.  It is windy in the morning but hot and stuffy in the afternoon and evening.  It is hard to get into the Christmas mood.

Our children are always so dirty and clothes soon get holes in them from scrubbing.  I'm looking forward to seeing them clean.

Love,

Donna and Joey

Letter to Marian and Frank, October 24, 1966

 In our front yard, Loanda, 1966.

My Aunt Marian kept many of the letters my mother, Donna Biel, wrote to her.  She returned them in 2010.  Most are recorded here.

Dear Marian and Frank-

Here I thought we were getting news of the arrival of your little one.  It is good to hear tht you have been feeling fine.

It's apparent you didn't get the letter I wrote answering your questions.  I sent it a few days before we got a letter from you saying you had changed your address, but I had hoped it would be forwarded to you.  I wrote that you shouldn't send us anything unless you want to send more candy.  For one thing, custom duty is too high and we will be ready to go on furlough by the time it gets to us.  We don't want to get new clothes until we are in the U.s. for we are limited to certain weight on the plane.  We have given a lot of old clothes away to the poor.  There is a possibility that we may be home before July- we will know at a conference in January.  It is certain that this station will be closed so we could go in February but Joey has to teach 2 weeks in Bible School in Cianorte which starts in March so we may be here until April or July.  The reason I think we may go home early is that next year there will be nine families to go and some will have to go earlier than others to spread out mission expense and not to leave so many churches vacant.  So who knows?  We may see you before you go to Europe.

In the other letter, I wrote that I had read "Bloody Morning" and enjoyed it.  It tells about the Hungarian revolution.  Last night we heard that it was the 10th Anniversary since the revolution started.  We think the embroidered things that you sent are lovely.  Someday I would like to hear of Frank's experiences when he left Hungary.

In the other letter I had thanked you for the presents you sent.  Charles likes to bang on things with his plastic hammer.  Today Joey was working on his car.  Charles took some of Joey's tools and was banging on his tricycle (my car, he says).  Rachel is forever taking some of Helen's clothes to put on the doll you gave her.  I gave her booties, a cap, and a couple things that are too small for Helen to use.  The necktie you sent is about the only one Joey uses and I use the half slip all the time.

This month has been lonely for Joey has been traveling.  He was gone one week to Umuarama, where special services were held in a tent.  Joey was the technician, so to speak, for he used his motor to show films as the town doesn't have any lights.  The following week he was here and Andy Olsen from Paranavai was special speaker at services held here.  Beautiful films that came from the U.S. in August were shown every night.  Films were shown outside and attendance was good bus, as usual, hardly any new ones come to services that are held regularly.  Last week, Joey and Andy went to a town 2 hours from Paranavai for the same film and service campaign.  It is a German community which Andy serves.  Tomorrow Andy comes here and they go for four days to a town one hour from here.  They both serve this German church but many members are spiritually dead so they are praying for a revival.  All of this has left Joey with slight liver trouple and upset stomach, but after a day of rest he is better.  Charles was so thrilled to see Joey the first week after he was gone that he couldn't say anything but laughed and laughed.

 Loanda, 1966 with Bobby

Our dog had a cut on a a leg that got inflamed with bugs.  Joey put medicine on it twice and that apparently killed the bugs for after a week of hardly eating anything and staying in the hole under our tool shed, Bobby now is barking as usual.

Rachel is super active and always into something.  One day she dumped out my perfume and filled the bottle with water to use in her playhouse.  She and Charles fight from morning until night.  If Helen turns out to be like them, I will be grey soon.  People can't believe Rachel is four because she is the size of three 8 year old girls on this street.  She weighs 46 lbs. and Charles is a chunk, too- weighing 35 lbs.

Helen at 2 months weighed 13 lbs 4 ozs.  Quite a fattie!  Besides breast feeding, she has cereal twice a day and sometimes a banana.  It is quite a chore to make baby food as there isn't anything available except in large cities and then it is only soup or bananas.  She doesn't have a tummy ache much anymore.  Since 3 weeks old she has been smiling and now laughs out loud.  Rachel likes to hold her and Charles gets upset if I let her cry for more than a minute.  He calls her "my baby" and refers to her as "he".

Are you going to breast feed?  It is nice that one can eat a lot and not gain weight.  I am at my normal weight now.  The biggest disadvantage is that whenever I go out for any length of time I have to take her along to feed her but it is nice not to have bottles to wash and prepare.

One hears such sad stories.  A young woman who had eight children (one every year) discovered she was pregnant again.  The baby is 4 months old.  This lady put a stick up inter her uterus to try to have an abortion.  A piece of the stick broke off and lodged there.  She died of tetanus.  Many babies die of tetanus because the mid-wife or whoever delivers the baby don't tie the cord with an antiseptic string.  As yet there aren't any planned parent clinics.  The middle and upper class use pills.

The doctor, who is good and very nice, was with me most of the time I was in the delivery room.  He took fetal heart tones just four times in nine hours before delivery.  The "nurses" here aren't trained to do much but they are good at giving shots.  Blood pressure was never checked nor flow of blood (except right after delivery I was given a shot for hemorrhage) and on the second day when I told the doctor I was passing large clots he took my blood pressure.  Blood flow didn't stop until two months- with Rachel and Charles it was three weeks.

Love, Donna

Notes along the side of the letter:

We are getting excited about going on furlough soon.  Rachel is anxious to go to kindergarten.  The children want to ride on a tractor with Grandpa and think it is great there are many farms to visit.

Louie Biel

We were surprised that Louie has already joined the Catholic church.  If only he could see how corrupt that church is here and pagan like with their processions.  Rarely does one meet a Catholic who reads the Bible or who knows anything about what it in the Bible.

Feliz Natal! Merry Christmas!

 

Every year I like to make a fun Christmas graphic and this year I used a picture of me when I was about two years old.  This was in front of our Christmas tree in Loanda, Parana.  On either side are my two dogs, Juba and Laila.  

Wishing all of you a wonderful Chistmas 

and all the best in 2011!

Cada ano eu gosto de fazer uma grafica original para o Natal.  Este ano, usei uma foto de mim tirada em Loanda quando eu tinha uns dois anos.  Estou em frente da nossa arvore de Natal.  Os meus cachorros, Juba e Laila, estao do meu lado.  

Desejando um Feliz Natal e tudo de bom 

em 2011 para todos voces!

Conte Sua História/Tell Your Story

Biels in Brazil started as a desire to capture some of the memories we have as a family during the years we lived in Brazil, 1962-1980.  There are five of us.  Dad (Clifford Biel), Mom (Donna Biel), me (Rachel Biel), my sister (Helen Faber) and my brother (Charles Biel).  I thought we would all jump in with different stories and between us, give an interesting picture of that special time in both our lives and of Brazilian history.  Although we were all there at the same time and had similar experiences, we translated them very differently as we are all unique to our own personalities, insights and interests. 

Biels in Brazil começou com o desejo de capturar algumas das memórias que nós tivemos durante os anos que moramos no Brasil (1962-1980).  Somos em cinco.  Meu pai (Pastor Biel), minha mãe (Dona Donna), eu (Raquel Biel), a minha irmã (Helena Faber), e o meu irmão (Charles Biel).  Pensei que todos entráriamos aqui com nossas histórias diferentes e que, entre nós, acabaríamos com uma história interessante desta época especial das nossas vidas e na história Brasileira.  Embora estivemos lá durante o mesmo tempo e tivemos experiências semelhantes, traduzimos essas experiencias em maneiras únicas como somos individuos com personalidades, entendimentos e interesses bastante diferente um do outro.

Caminhão em Loanda, Paraná, 1964

So far, I have been the only one who has been posting, so I thought I would open it to the public at large.  I do want to keep it to those years, 1962-1980 so that there is some cohesiveness in the telling.  This time in Brazil's history was also one of great change, so there is a lot of material that could be covered here.  Plus, photos from the 60's and 70's are always great!  You can submit as many as you want.  A blog works best when there is a page that can be read quickly.  So, if you have a lot of stories to tell, make each of them a separate one for the blog.  I think other missionary families would enjoy reading about each other and seeing the old photos.  But, you can also share a specific event that moved you, talk about Brazilian history, culture, politics, religion or anything else you want to share with others.  Of course, if you want to write a book, you might want to start your own blog!  (Heh, heh!)  I enjoy doing this and would love to see it grow, but it is a side thing.

Até agora, só eu estou escrevendo estas memórias.  Entáo, pensei que seria legal abrir o blog para o público e quem quizer pode contribuir também.  Quero limitar as histórias a esta época, de 1962-1980.  Este período na história do Brasil foi um tempo de mudanças enormes no país e temos muito material interessante para cubrir.  E, as fotos dos anos 60 e 70 são sempre tão legais para ver!  Você pode submetir quantas você quizer.  Um blog funciona bem quando as entradas são curtas, uma página.  Se voce tiver muitas histórias para contar, faça cada um uma entrada.  Acho que as famílias missionárias gostaríam de ver fotos e ler sobre as outras famílias.  Mas, voce também pode me mandar eventos específicos que foram importantes na tura vida ou falar sobre o Brasil em termos de política, religião, cultura, ou qualquer interêsse importante para você.  Lógicamente, se voce quizer escrever um livro, talvez seja melhor começar o seu próprio blog!  (Ha, ha...)  Tenho prazer em trabalhar neste blog e gostaria muito de desenvolver este tema, mas ao mesmo tempo, é um hobby.

Dona Donna tomando chimarrão.

How to do it:

In the right side bar, you will see where you can contact us.  Click on my name and it will open an email.  Send me your info there.  I will load it on the blog and tag it.  It will be tagged with your name, so if you write more than one post, you will find all of them under your name.  I will need:

• The text.
• Any photos that you want to include attached as jpegs.  You must own the photos or give credit to whoever owns them. 
  
• A short bio of you (small paragraph)
• Any links on the internet that you refer to or that you own.

If you have your own blog, we can link the story to it and I will add you (if it relates to Brazil) on to my blog roll.

Como Contar a Sua História:


Na coluna da direita, voce verá os nossos nomes embaixo do contato.  Clique e você poderá mandar-nos um email.  Mande a sua história para mim, Raquel.  Colocarei as palavras usadas no índice e você terá um com o teu nome.  Se você mandar mais de uma história, você poderá encontrar-las todas juntas assim.  Precisarei:

• O texto.
• Qualquer fotos que você quizer incluir anexadas em formato jpeg.  Você precisa ser dono das fotos ou ter permissão para usar as fotos que você incluir.
• Uma biografia curta sobre você (um parágrafo).
• Qualquer endereço da internet que voce quizer ter referência (você tem um website, blog ou o teu assunto pode ser referido a algum lugar?)

Se voce tiver um blog, podemos fazer um link entre a sua história e o teu blog e se o tema do teu blog tiver algo relevante ao Brasil, te colocarei na minha lista de blogs.

Igreja Evangélica do Advento

Tell your story!

Conte a sua história!

Those Lutheran Missionaries/Aqueles Misionarios Luteranos

Someone is going to have to help with the names. I recognize Louie Becker, Jim Peterson, Uncle Don, Dad (of course), Gaylord Grant, Bob Fedde and I'm not sure about the rest. This must have been very early in the 1960's. Maybe even Campinas?

Alguem vai ter que me ajudar com os nomes. Reconheco alguns, mas nao outros. Deve ter sido bem logo depois que os meus pais chegaram em 1962. Talvez Campinas?


The tall and short of it all. Dad on the left, Otto in the middle, and not sure who that is at the right. My family was known as the "Giraffes" at our missionary meetings...
Os altos e baixos de tudo. O Pai na esquerda, Otto Tollefson no meio e nao sei o nome do que esta na direita. A minha familia era conhecida como os "girafas" nas reunioes dos missionarios...

When I look at these old photos, I am often amazed at how young all of these missionaries were when they took off to some unknown country in the time that they did. Most of them were in their 20's and 30's. Mom and Dad were younger than I am now when they left Brazil in 1980. I kind of like to think of them as having the cowboy spirit of adventure, except that instead of carrying a gun, they waved a Bible.

Quando olho estas fotos velhas, fico admirada de como estes misionarios eram tao jovens quando foram para um pais desconhecido na epoca em que eles foram. A maioria tinha 20 e poucos anos. Os meus pais eram mais novos do que eu sou agora quando eles sairam do Brasil em 1980. Eu gosto de imaginar estes misionarios como cowboys, tendo o mesmo espirito de aventura, so que em vez de um revolver, carregavam uma Biblia.

Mom was only 24 years old when she found herself in Loanda, in the middle of nowhere. Dad was often gone for days at various distant preaching points or church activities. She had a small baby (me), the streets were not paved and she didn't yet command Portuguese. What courage! They both talk about how that whole region in Parana was being burned and prepped for farmland. Xuxu, which I detest, was often the only vegetable Mom could get. The sky would be covered with smoke for days on end. Dad remembered driving through roads with flames of fire leaping up on both sides. I'm a chicken compared to them!


A minha mae tinha so 24 anos quando ela se achou em Loanda, no fim do mundo. O meu pai viajava bastante pregando em varios lugares distantes. Ela tinha um nene pequeno (eu), as ruas nao tinham pavimento, e ela ainda nao tinha comando do portugues. Que coragem! Os dois contam como aquela regiao toda do Parana estava sendo desmatado e queimado em preparacao para a agricultura. Muitas vezes ela so conseguia xuxu, que eu detesto, como a unica verdura. O ceu escurecia com cinzas por dias e dias. O Pai lembra passagens que ele dirigia aonde o fogo pulava pelos dois lados da estrada. Eu sou uma medronha comparada a eles!

The Story of Coffee

Coffee was the big agricultural product in our area in the early 1960's.  It's hard work, labor intensive and frustrating to grow coffee.  Our state was a borderline one climate-wise.  A coffee plant takes four years to produce and a freeze can kill the bush.  After several of these freezes, coffee moved further North, giving way to other crops that brought great prosperity to the area: corn, wheat, soy and other grains.  

In the middle of it all, there are two missionary kids, Ruthie Foehringer and me.  Ruthie and I later lived together for a year at the missionary hostel while we went to the Escola Americana de Campinas.  I believe she has been involved in deaf education for the last several years.

___

A historia do cafe voces ja sabem.  Ai estou eu com a filha do Pastor Foehringer do Rio de Janeiro, Ruthie.  Quando eramos jovens moramos juntas em Campinas quando estudamos na Escola Americana.  Ouvi dizer que ela e professora de surdos.

Rachel/Raquel

Boiada

Many Brazilian songs talk about the "Boiada", and this is what you see here, a bunch of cattle crossing the road.  Definitely early 1960's.  Probably around Loanda...

Muitas cancoes Brasileiras cantam sobre a boiada, e vemos uma aqui, um monte de boi cruzando a estrada.  Deve ser no comeco da decada dos 1960.  Provavelmente perto de Loanda...

-Rachel/Raquel