Hey there. It's been more than a year but I thought I should make another contribution.
I was last telling folks about Manoel, our Brazilian high school student who stayed with us between February and the end of June last year. He was wonderful...shy at first but a very charismatic individual really. He arrived frozen on Feb 1st and we plopped him immediately into the middle of Winter Warmer, a little music festival i have started here in St Andrews (www.winterwarmerfestival.ca who says there's nothing to do in winter??!).
Manoel was brave enough to introduce himself in his limited English to the folks he ran into or was introduced to. He quickly became part of our family and we feel blessed to have had him be a part of our lives. He quickly showed us that he was a serious student.... we did homework with him every night and he shone in school....in fact learning in English he ended up with an average in the mid 80's!!! Manoel was also keen to experience winter.... even tho he was cold he tried skating, tobogganing, snowshoeing, downhill and cross country skiing, tubing and snowman and fort making!!!The winter was good for that around here. He also shoveled his fair share of and drank his limit of Hot Chocolate...imagine a Brazilian kid liking Hot Chocolate!!!
We took him to Quebec City at March break, he attended music events (kitchen parties), he was a hit at Easter and he was adored by our regular Irish guest Stephen Clifford and his young daughter Naomi. He was eager to learn how to cook and have me cook some of his family recipes (rice and beans and corned beef, pastelles (like a cornish pasties) among other delicacies). We laughed and then cried when it was time for him to leave.
It made us realise how wonderful the world is and how remarkable the people in it are. Something we should constantly remind ourselves given what we see and hear daily. We can't ever know everything that happens, or all the people out there. It just seems so wrong that many of the impressions we are given are not what its really like at all.
It's another great winter here. Lots of snow, some great X country skiing and snowshoeing, wonderful laughs with great friends and some incredible meals.... oh yeah Winter Warmer just finished too....more magical musical moments!
Live Lie folks...and love it...all of it!
Cheers!
Jamie
