Festa Junina

April and I went to a recent Festa Junina and had a great time, here’s a video showing off the party!

Festa Junina from Zane Mcgee on Vimeo.

Going to Rio

This past Sunday we went over to church at the Victory church in Rio de Janeiro. This is the church where I worked as an intern for one summer and where several campaigns both April and I went on visited. It was great to see our old friends and fellow missionaries there and to get to worship with them. On the way home April and I were discussing how surprising it was the different modes of transportation which we took to get there and home so I thought I would share life without a car with you.

Here it goes:
- Walked from our house to the bus stop, the bus never showed up, so…
- Taxi to the boats
- Bus from the boats the church
- Car to lunch with one of the missionaries
- Car to Metro station (Subway)
- Metro to boats
- Boat to Niteroi
- Bus to bus stop
- Walking home from bus stop

Its was a busy day for us!

May 2009 Team Newsletter

Our most recent Team Newsletter is available. You can click on it below to start downloading!

Download: The Bridge, May.pdf

Ferry Ride to Rio

We took the Ferry across to Rio the other day and I was able to get a front-row seat, so here’s a time-lapse video of the journey. I promise the ‘captain’ doesn’t come screeching to the dock as it appears here, and you have to watch it all because the last 10 seconds are the best! Enjoy!

Ferry Timelapse from Zane Mcgee on Vimeo.

Visitors! (or just one…)

This post probably should have been titled “Christmas 2.0″, but since our visitor is the most important, I guess I’ll talk about Christmas 2.0 in a minute. April’s mom was able to come and visit us for a few days this week and it was a great time for us! We were able to show her all of the fun stuff we have here in Brazil and to introduce her to new things, and for her to introduce us to new things too! We went to the fruit market and Susan wanted to try one of every fruit, so it was the first time that April and I had eaten some the fruit we tried! Okay, now to the Christmas part, Susan brought us lots of goodies that we have been missing from the States. Below are some pictures of us with our goods!

April and 10 liters of Dr. Pepper!

Me, sunflower seeds and peanut butter!

Max and his rubber bone

March/April Family Newsletter Available

Our most recent newsletter is available for download by clicking one of the links below. Hope you enjoy it, drops us a note and let us know what you think!

Download: March/April Newsletter.pdf

“That” Post…

Well, I absolutely hate blog posts that start with an apology for how long it has been since writing…but it appears it is my turn to write “that” post. Sorry that it has been so long since I wrote last. There, I said, lets move on, shall we?
Just wanted to share a series of funny events with you which happen repeatedly in my life. In Brazil it is not uncommon for drivers to ask other drivers or pedestrians for directions. Its not uncommon to be in a car with somebody and that person stop and ask for directions 3-4 times during your journey. But even if this is a common practice, I still find it humorous when somebody pulls over and ask ME where something is or what is the best way to get to a certain location. It is kinda like losing the population lottery whenever somebody asks me for directions. There’s about a 50% chance that I will understand what you are asking, if you are successful in the first part there’s another 50% chance I’ll know where it is, and if you succeed in the first two, then there’s a further 50% chance that I’ll know the street names to tell you how to get there. That gives you about a 12% chance overall that I’m going to know what’s going on, add to that the 50% chance that you won’t understand my response and you’ve got about a 6% shot of getting successful directions.
And this isn’t just a one-time thing, its happened almost every week since we arrived. Today a guy in a large deliver truck yelled at me from the street asking for directions (did I mention his truck was loud and that I don’t understand yelling?). So I had to give him the obligatory, “I don’t know” and continue on with my head held in shame. While April and I were recently visiting a city nearby a few weeks ago somebody pulled up and asked me for directions to a store…as I was holding a tourist map in hand trying to find the “Crystal Palace”. Its gives me a little chuckle every time somebody asks me for directions, and leaves me a little saddened that I can’t help them find what they are looking for…I hope they made it home safely!

Bike Ride

This past weekend our apartment building put together a bike ride for all of the people who live in our apartment. We rode from our neighborhood (Santa Rosa) to Sao Francisco (the Nichols neighborhood). After we returned to the apartment we all ate breakfast together. Enjoy the video!

Apartment Bike Ride from Zane Mcgee on Vimeo.

March Team Newsletter

Our team newsletter for the month of March is available for download by clicking below. Enjoy!

Download: The Bridge, Vol. II, Iss. II.pdf

This Week’s Weather

I was watching the news tonight and they said the past week has set new temperature records for the month of March. The average high this week has been 39.5° C while setting a new high record of 43° C. Now let me put it into terms you can understand in the States, the average high has been 103° F and the highest temperature this week was 109° F…I wish I was making this up…but its the facts (at least as its reported to me).