Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

The Fifth Grade 
 
Katherine Heigl played Marty in the movie from the book, “Love Comes Softly” by Janette Oke. She said to the little girl that she was trying to teach to read, “Once you can read, you can have every adventure you ever dreamed of….there are no limits where you can go.”
 
When I was in Mrs. Grable’s World Geography class in fifth grade, I decided that the most appealing place in the world for me was Brazil. Of course, my reasons for wanting to go there at that time were strictly selfish. I loved bananas and chocolate and Brazil had both.  I had no idea at the time that I would ever go there, nor did I ever expect to go there. Many of you know that my family served in Brazil as missionaries with The Oriental Missionary Society from 1964 through most of 1972.
 
On our mission campus, where we lived in Londrina, Parana’, Brazil, we had a banana grove under a rain spout that grew the biggest bananas that I ever saw. And cacao and coffee beans are grown everywhere with prolific Nestle chocolate companies and coffee bushes with companies to process them. We had a coffee processing factory just outside of Londrina. The scent of coffee hung in the air. The city of Londrina was actually built because of the need to transport coffee….black gold as the Brazilians call it.
 
So you see, the things that teachers and books instill in their students are often life changing and lifelong. The photos in this blog were taken by the daughter of one of our Brazilian friends on July 14, 2020 on their farm just outside of Londrina. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does.

©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography by Gisele/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck