Convention Day One

We arrived at the SP Expo and Convention after a bus ride through narrow streets and morning rush hour traffic! I am so glad we are not renting a car on this trip. The convention center is long and relatively narrow. It holds 45,000 I was told. We received our bag lunches when we got off the bus - a turkey and cheese sandwich on an onion roll, a ham and cheddar on wheat, an apple, 2 bottles of water, a chocolate dipped granola bar, and a juice box similar to Sunny-D. I guess they wanted to make sure we napped in the afternoon! Lol 😆

My first BRAVO 👏🏽 goes to the spoken simultaneous interpreters. They did an incredible job! I understand the work that goes into the process and experiencing it happening for me touched my heart. I also understand the challenges of word choices to match the speaker’s intent, so when they chose a really good word, I’d give them a mental 👍🏽 thumbs up and when they stumbled or faltered, I mentally nodded in understanding. I’m hoping to find where their area is to thank them and give gifts. 

I met a number of the Deaf friends and those who use Brazilian Sign Language and was able to muddle through introductions. Hugs, smiles & 🤟🏽 goes a long way. I also met quite a few from ASL congregations across the US and Dominican Republic. I’ve been invited to move to Northern California and Hawaii to visit. They want me to move, but...😆

Our Bethel speakers yesterday were Bros. Samuel Herd & Gary Breaux. Phenomenal information & good laughs! That’s all - no spoilers from me.

I handed out many gifts and overdid my candy gifts for the little ones. They’re just too cute!! They are of course so polite, but they’ve also learned that selfies are important at conventions! I took more selfies yesterday than I probably have in one day ever. So, I’ll just post a bunch of pictures in a bit.

We had a hiccup with the buses yesterday which made for a long day. We weren’t able to get back to our hotel until 7:55 pm. I went up to the room, dropped my stuff and walked across the street to the mall food court to get supper. Mania Churrasca to the rescue! Three - probably 10 oz. steaks, each with 3 sides, 2 beers and a soda to go all for about $36 ISD. Score!

Ate, charged all the electronics (tablets, keyboards, phones, fm receivers, headphones, camera batteries, watch...), cleaned out bags, showered and was in bed by 10:30. Fell asleep with Kingdom songs running through my head and woke up to LEG CRAMP!!!! a little later. Took awhile to massage it out, stop it from re-cramping and finally sleeping next to my snoring husband. 5:10 am cams too soon!!

Two little cups of hotel coffee (could’ve drank a boatload!) and breakfast and were now back on the bus at 6:30am on our way to the convention center for day two. When I get there, I’ll use the WiFi to upload more pictures!

Have a great day!! Love you all!