Belo Horizonte

Posted in Brazil, Travels by Ashley Z Harper

If you haven’t noticed, São Paulo has a lot of holidays. November has been extra special because it had the special “bridge” holiday where Thursday, Nov. 15 and Tuesday, Nov. 20 were both holidays so many people take off from Thursday – Tuesday which is super sweet because you get a 6 day weekend and two 3 day work weeks. Obviously we wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to explore more of Brazil so Michael planned a fabulous trip for us to the state of Minas Gerais.

Our first stop in Minas Gerais was to the capital city, Belo Horizonte. Belo Horizonte is the third largest city in Brazil (following São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) and is about an hour and a half flight from us. The population of the city is about 2.5 million and it’s amazing how SMALL it felt coming from SP.

Also, there is this amazing little thing in Brazil called pão de queijo (bread of cheese). Pão de queijo originated in Minas Gerais and they are known for having the best so… we may or may not have researched to find the best pdq spots along our tour and stopped to eat at all of them. Here is a bit of our trip to BH:

Breakfast & already on PDQ stop #2 of the day:

Walking around — Another thing that Minas Gerais is famous for is its production of local cachaça – also known as pinga. Palácio da Liberdade
In their main square they have a giant digital countdown for the World Cup — love the enthusiasm! — unfortunately the camera couldn’t capture the digital part… We really enjoyed the local museum and would totally recommend checking it out if you visit: Memorial Minas Gerais Vale. (Free and very interesting!) Inside of the museum:Cachaça room in the museum: Next we headed to the local market (mercadão). The market is a must-see — they have EVERYthing. We entered in the animal section and were greeted by chickens, puppies, fish, kittens, birds, rabbits and everything in between. The market also sold everything from clothing to gifts and souvenirs to household items to lots and lots of food including every kind of meat and cheese, spices, nuts, candies, and more. They also had a few cafes — two of which had some great pão de queijo. PDQ Stop #3 for the day at Donna Diva.PDQ Stop #4: Sabores & Ideas.
Before leaving the market, we stopped for a couple of tasty local beers at Botiquin do Antonio. That evening, Michael and I met up with Luiz – a Brazilian attorney who Michael initially connected with at a conference and with whom he has since become buds. Luiz currently lives in São Paulo but is originally from Belo Horizonte and he was home, visiting family for the holiday. It was so cool to have a local show us around that evening. Luiz gave us a great driving tour of the city and then we went to a really cool bar for drinks followed by dinner at a restaurant that served very traditional Minas Gerais food — chicken stews of sorts that were delicious. However, our first stops were at a couple of amazing lookout points that give a dramatic and beautiful view of the city. Michael and Luiz: **UP NEXT: Our next stop in Ouro Preto!**

24Nov2012

Workin’ Girl

Posted in Brazil by Ashley Z Harper

Well, I am happy to report that a MIRACLE has occurred and I got a job in Brazil! A super sweet job that I am super excited about. Let me tell you all about it…from the beginning…

Back in April, some of Michael’s family (Sharon, Ollie, Lise and Shannon) came to visit us in Brazil. Very soon after the visit, Shannon, who at the time was working for a family foundation, attended a conference in LA. At the end of the conference, Shannon randomly shared a cab to the airport with a fabulous Brazilian woman named Helena. Shannon told her about her recent visit to São Paulo and about her family living in Brazil, and Helena told her about the non-profit that she ran in Brazil. So Shannon, being the amazing person that she is, connected the two of us.

Fast forward to late October when I heard from Helena that they were looking to hire someone! Preferably someone who could work as a consultant out of the US because although the only office is in São Paulo, the company is a US non-profit for tax and infrastructure reasons. (Translation: no work-visa problems for me!) So, I interviewed, I was hired and I started on Wednesday working for WINGS!

WINGS is a non-profit organization that works to strengthen philanthropy and a culture of giving worldwide through mutual learning and support, knowledge-sharing and professional development. It’s a little hard to explain, but basically there are foundations that give money away to non-profits and other causes/organizations. Then, in most countries there are associations that organize and connect these foundations so that they can learn from each other, collaborate, etc. So WINGS brings together these associations of foundations from all over the world to promote smart, efficient philanthropy and to look for ways these organizations can work together to solve global issues. Pretty cool right? And every 4 years WINGS hosts a conference where all of these organizations can connect in person. This conference is called WINGSForum and the next one will be in the Spring of 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey. And among other things, the focus of my job is to help plan this conference!

The WINGS office is about a 20 minute walk from our apartment and I work with two other Brazilian women, Helena and Ana. We share the office space with two more Brazilian women so it’s a really fun work environment. Because the work is international, the working language is English, however since everyone else is Brazilian, the spoken language in the office is Portuguese which is like a DREAM for me. I am really hoping that this will help me improve my Portuguese. I’ve just started on a part-time basis, working Monday – Thursday from 10-5 which has made it a nice, easy, perfect transition.

Anyway, all in all it has felt like a total miracle + dream come true. When we moved here, I knew that this is where God was calling us to be and it was so clear with Michael’s career that this was the right thing. However I always struggled with what the move meant for my career. And now I feel like I can’t imagine anything better for me. I am really excited about so many aspects of the job — all that I am going to learn about the sector from a global perspective, the amazing people all over the word with whom I get to work, the great work environment here… everything. Such a blessing.

SO…that was a long-winded and overly detailed way of saying that after 9 months I finally have a job & I’m pumped! 🙂 Woohoo!!

13Nov2012

Whites

Posted in Brazil by Ashley Z Harper

Laundry day in Brazil

#nodryer

30Oct2012

Here & There – Pictures

Posted in Brazil, Friends by Ashley Z Harper

No major updates — just a few random photos from the past month or so!

Michael at BOS*BBQ

Celebrating April’s birthday — photo by Jana.

Homemade tortilla chips & guac!

Fun Saturday — friends, beers and coxinhas at Bar Veloso! — w/ Joey!

São Paulo easily has the best sushi I’ve ever had. –At Temakeria e Cia.

Group dinner at Tordesilhas (yum!) followed by jazz at Nos Fundos.

Michael hanging out w/ his boy, Neymar, at the Congonhas airport. NBD.

Double date with Trent & Paige at D’Olivino!

Ridiculous flowers from Michael in celebration of two & a half amazing years of marriage!

25Oct2012

The 7 Month Slump

Posted in Brazil, Reflect by Ashley Z Harper

Generally, I’m a pretty positive person. And I’m going to go ahead and pat myself on the back for having been pretty cool about this whole moving to Brazil thing. I think I’ve handled it really well. And for the most part – for the first 7 months – it wasn’t THAT tough because I was genuinely happy and super excited to be here. It was a decision that Michael and I made together, after careful thought and much prayer. It was an opportunity that Michael worked many long hours to make happen. And it was an adventure. For us. Together. And I love a good adventure!

Then came 7 months. The 7 Month Slump. Suddenly – and it was literally overnight – I started getting frustrated so easily by the big and the little things about life in Brazil. The streets are dirty, people are always smoking, the air is terribly polluted, it smells bad, everything is extremely overpriced, our apartment layout is weird, I don’t have a real job, things never work right, everything is ten times more difficult and more bureaucratic than it should be, the internet is always kicking me offline, I’m living permanently without a microwave, a dryer & a disposal, my oven is too small to fit a regular cookie sheet and my dishwasher, well, you can see what I am working with here, I miss my friends and family from home and sometimes Portuguese really gets on my nerves. UGH.

I love that this graph is called the “Happy Meter” and that it describes the slump as “Hostility” which I think is pretty accurate.

Poor Michael — for a couple of weeks every little thing about Brazil and our life here was getting to me. I just didn’t feel relaxed — it was almost like I was waiting for something to happen (like for us to MOVE) but there was nothing to wait for. We were not moving and this country was not changing.

Throughout life we are called, over and over, to make the choice to persevere in love through difficulty and challenges. Just because something is hard – be it a job, a marriage, children, friendships, pursuing a dream – it doesn’t mean that you’re doing it wrong or even that you necessarily need to change anything. Sometimes things are hard because you’re doing them RIGHT. I mean, some things are just tough. So although it was a challenge, it was also an opportunity to practice choosing joy and making the best of something that I wasn’t FEELING that great about.

We have now been in Brazil for over 8 months and I can confidently say that I am the happiest here yet and there is nowhere else I would rather be. I know that it’s not always this quick and easy to “bounce back” from something and I know that this challenge was small compared to all of the problems out there – and for that I am truly thankful! – but for me it was a good reminder that love and joy are not always feelings but are often choices made in opposition to our feelings. The hope is that these choices eventually do lead to a change of heart and renewed feelings, but that is not the goal. The goal is to be obedient to God’s call on our lives.

Anyway, I know that all of this is a normal part of adjusting to life in a new country, and somehow, after coming out of it, I feel much more settled here. More content. More permanent. More at home.

23Oct2012

Desperate Times

Posted in Brazil, Friends by Ashley Z Harper

Call for desperate measures.

Not sure if you’re aware, but last night was kiiiind of a major night in television for the Harpers. First, we had the Giants playing, at home, in Game 7 of the National League Championship (where our old apartment building was frequently featured on TV!) AND the final presidential debate. Currently, Brazil is 2 hours ahead of EST which meant that the debate was on from 11-12:30. Although our preferred bedtime is more like… 10:30 (don’t judge) we persevered.

Just as the Giants locked up the win to head to the WORLD SERIES! (woop woop) and we turned our attention 100% to the debate, our TV and internet inexplicably stopped working. We freaked out. We were frantically unplugging, replugging, pressing buttons… to no avail. Foiled again by this crazy country!!

Thankfully we have friends down here – Trent & Paige – who we knew were also watching the debate. They actually don’t even own a TV (which is totally ridiculous but not totally relevant at this point) but they were watching it through YouTube. So, we called them and listened to the last 40 minutes of the debate through speakerphone. People. THIS is how dedicated we are.

18Oct2012

Countryside Getaway

Posted in Brazil, Friends, Travels by Ashley Z Harper

Last weekend there was yet another glorious Brazilian holiday. I’m not exactly sure what this holiday is for but I have heard rumblings that it is in celebration of the Virgin Mary as the Patron Saint of Brazil, whatever that means. Regardless, for me, it was a sweet escape from the city to spend a weekend laying in hammocks, eating amazing food, snuggling with puppies and hanging out with friends.

One of our friends down here has been working tirelessly updating, renovating, furnishing and building on an incredible property in the countryside of São Paulo. His family purchased a gorgeous estate and he has been working hard to make it absolutely out-of-this-world. Because it is a personal property I don’t want to overshare photos of every single room, but trust me…it was unreal. Michael and I both said that we had never been anywhere like it.

Here are some snapshots of the weekend that included 14 friends, lots of incredible home-cooking, a boys’ golfing trip, silly pool-games, little hikes around the property, and lots of lazy fun.