As if our lives in the Amazon didn't have enough adventure already, my dad decided that we should start a family tradition of having a family adventure every year. The very first one that was the start to this traditon was the Green River trip. My dad had been to the Green river on other occasions and he thought is was so beautiful he wanted to bring us all there for a camping trip. So we planned it all, packed hammocks, mosquito nets, tarps, food and water and a few clothes, fishing poles and my great dane Mandy, and headed out one day to spend a long weekend there. To get there you had to go down the Madeira river, then about 2 more rivers till you made it to the spot. My dad's outboard motor was having some issues and it kept stopping. We were travelling downriver to get to the river we wanted to go to and we stopped several times on sandbanks to be able for him to fix the motor. Finally we made it to the Green river and my dad found a suitable spot on the side of the river ...
I grew up in a family who lived and breathed adventure. I mean, who packs up their life and travels to a foreign country without knowing the language and goes to live with a Brazilian family who also doesn't speak English? And then go to the middle of the deep Amazon jungle and try to make contact with hostile native Indians? You have to have ADVENTURE as your middle name to do that, maybe even as your first name! Growing up like that me and my brothers were always into crazy things and doing things that most people never would attempt. More of those stories later though. This story is about one of our crazy, fun adventures we did for fun, not for life. My dad decided that it would be a good bonding thing to do a family fun adventure every year. Each year the adventure varied and was different but the goal was to create a memory and bond as a family. I'd say it definitely worked. This particular year we decided that we'd like to kayak down this river called Rio das Garca...
In my early twenties I came to a turning point in my life. I felt like I had two paths to choose from as far as which direction to go with life in general and as I prayed about what to do and asked God for clear direction I felt like either one was a path He would bless and allow me to walk on. My first choice was to go to Veterinary college and become a vet. Now in Brazil, to get into college is different from getting into college here in the United States. You have to know what degree you want to pursue and which college you want to attend and then you go take a long college entrance test for that degree and if you pass you are allowed to go to that college for that subject. Before this turning point I had spent about a month or so in Rio de Janeiro with some missionary friends of ours and I saw in the newspaper that a college there was offering this test and one of their degrees was Veterinary Medicine. I had up to that point never really considered trying to get into college in Br...
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