Olinda!

Olinda is right. This is the oldest town in Brazil. It means, Oh Beautiful City. For when the man who came to this spot, he said 'oh, what a beautiful place for a city.' One of the reasons we went is bitter sweet.
Jon Wright and Betsy Galbraith are leaving this Friday. We are all very sad for them to go. Not only has it been nice having them around, but they have also done a lot of great work since they have been here. Since they are leaving, we were all blessed with a trip to Recife and Olinda Saturday. This was a great 9 1/2 hour day. First, we went to one of the original streets of Olinda, which is basically a northern suburb of Recife. Like I said, it is the oldest city in Brazil. It was originally settled by the Dutch. It had a mix of Jewish people and Christian Dutch. You can tell the Dutch influence, because apparantly they are big into the bright pastel colored buildings. It was very cool to see all the colors and old, old architecture. When the Portuguese came, their forceful Catholic dominance and persecuting looting drove the Dutch out. When they left, they went straight to what is now called New York. (Kinda interesting)

The second picture you see is from on top of the highest point in the town. It was an awe inspiring view. You can see almost all of Recife with its ridiculous amount of skyscrapers. The old architecture and colorful paint filled the streets: as did all the tourist street vendors.
Afterward, we went to the mall and hung out to cool off in the A/C. It was nice to hang and talk for awhile. Then, we were treated to one of the best restaurants that I have ever eaten at. It was a Brazilian steakhouse you only hear about! Of course, we had the green sign for go on the meat, or the red sign that says, ENOUGH, I can't take anymore! The food was so good that I couldn't hardly stand it. It was also very nice to speak with Tele and Heather more. It was so kind of them to make us feel very welcomed and spend time with us all. We talked, laughed, and just hung out: it was cool. There are good people here and God is really with this place.