Staying Flexible on the Field!

With the protests going on here in Rio, our neighborhood has been extremely quiet today.  Most Brazilians are staying home and many shops and businesses closed at 2:00 today. We've seen on the news that the main highway in front of our neighborhood has been closed, as well as the main highway to the airport. 

The public schools were closed today in Rio and we couldn't go and teach our classes, so our team instead spent a good part of the day studying the book, "When Helping Hurts," by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.  To get out and about a little, we walked with our Rio Trio interns to a nearby mall where most of the shops were closed. 

Our team has acquired a small green mascot, named "Brian", from a cereal box!  Brian has been traveling with us this week jumping into our pictures, as you'll see below---kind of like the well-known "Flat Stanley"!  He keeps us laughing, especially in some stressful situations in this chaotic city of 14 million people!

Joyfully serving together,

Diane, Jeff and the Rio Trio