Paraty

These pictures were taken on a trip to Paraty. Paraty is a quaint village that is located along the coast in the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is historically preserved. The design of the city was for the tide to come into the streets to act as a natural street cleaner. The homes and businesses are all Colonial in appearance and only foot traffic is allowed in the original historical center. The village is about a four hour drive north from Sao Paulo. Paraty is situated near a large reserve of the Atlantic Rainforest. It was an amazing trip. My mother and two aunts were here visiting and this was one of the areas we visited together. Below are some of the photos that were taken.

On Life and Godlessness

Last night, Nathaniel and I sat down to watch a rented video. We turned on the video and the automatic mechanism to run the trailers of upcoming films clicked into gear. One of the trailers struck a cord in my memory of something I learned back in college. The trailer was promoting a new film about an action packed survival show about people who kill off other people on a remote island. The point of the movie was survival of these real life people while others watch the “show” on their television sets. Now I’m sure the idea of this film was rendered from the real-life T.V. series Survivor, but the film struck such a deep root at the real issue surrounding all of those reality TV shows. The thought that crossed my mind though was isn’t this much like back in the ancient Roman civilization? Isn’t that what the coliseum was built for? To watch gladiators as they battle the ills for the mere pleasure of entertainment. It is definately something to think about with regard to entertainment.

Lost Tooth

Joshua also recently lost his first tooth. Here is his toothless grin!!

Graduation

As our school year closed, we had a young man graduate from kindergarten. Joshua is now a proud 1st grader! He was very happy to graduate and below are a couple examples from graduation. The boy in the green robe was his senior buddy. This senior was very influential in being a positive role model for Joshua.