Oi, we have left Francisco Morato (sadly). It was really hard to get on that bus and we postponed the departure as best we could. We are in Brazil for 2 more nights before heading home. I have lots of photos and more stories to tell you. Keep checking for updates later this week.
Xoxo Annessa :)
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Time flys when you're digging dirt
Wow wow wow wow wow. It's our last day of soccer camp before our departure and I have an hour before we start the walk/dance/ run down to the concrete open aired gym. It's hard to sit and write right now because the kids are already kicking the ball around on the front porch, but I don't know when the computer will be free next.
Yesterday was an interesting day. The soccer field we were digging got covered in poop for the second time. This time Marcello hit the guys sewer line, and we stopped the digging. I'm not sure if we will be able to get back out there before we leave. We never really know the plan around here.. Partly because of the language barrier and partly because it's always changing. So we stopped the digging for now and some of us went on to clear the grass from the path uphill to a neighbouring house while others picked up garbage and created a garbage landing in a tree away from chickens and dogs.
One of the main ways to dispose of garbage around here is to burn it. On any given day you can count the fires from the smoke you see on surrounding hillsides. It is getting in to winter now and these fires can cause a problem because they spread over grass and fields. Yesterday the field beside the base was on fire and it slowly crept up to the grass and trees around the base. It was pretty nerve racking and Marcel said it was bad but none of the locals were worrying. I located my passport just in case and some of the girls had their carry-ons packed. One of the teenagers, Jonathon, who was at the base said "big problem, big problem" then left. We saw him on his roof 2 doors down flying a kite on the roof a minute later HAHA. We were fine and after the fire passed up the hill the smoke remained in the air throughout the night. I can't smell it or see it now but I'm sure we all smell great today. After the fire passed we all went to the uphill market to get ice cream. There were kids playing in the street and kids in the shop, all the while the drug lord of the area was sitting across the street hanging out with friends. What an interestingly crazy day. Poop incidents, kite flying and ice cream with drug dealers.
Today is our last soccer day and the walk down and back from the field is some of the time I treasure most about this trip. 20 kids to goof around and smile with for a few hours of the day is purely heart filling to me. I'm looking forward to today's adventures but it will be sad once the walk back is over and I won't see most of these boys again as only some of them will hang around the base over our remaining days here. It is good though that the numbers at the soccer camp are growing. I was talking to Marcello at breakfast the other day and he was talking about how soon they will have to start going more often because the space is small for 20+ kids at one time. I can't wait to hear about the progress to be reported back by the global team next year.
I hope all is well back home, I miss you all and can't wait to catch up upon my return on June 4th. Cheers :)
Annessa Nina
Yesterday was an interesting day. The soccer field we were digging got covered in poop for the second time. This time Marcello hit the guys sewer line, and we stopped the digging. I'm not sure if we will be able to get back out there before we leave. We never really know the plan around here.. Partly because of the language barrier and partly because it's always changing. So we stopped the digging for now and some of us went on to clear the grass from the path uphill to a neighbouring house while others picked up garbage and created a garbage landing in a tree away from chickens and dogs.
One of the main ways to dispose of garbage around here is to burn it. On any given day you can count the fires from the smoke you see on surrounding hillsides. It is getting in to winter now and these fires can cause a problem because they spread over grass and fields. Yesterday the field beside the base was on fire and it slowly crept up to the grass and trees around the base. It was pretty nerve racking and Marcel said it was bad but none of the locals were worrying. I located my passport just in case and some of the girls had their carry-ons packed. One of the teenagers, Jonathon, who was at the base said "big problem, big problem" then left. We saw him on his roof 2 doors down flying a kite on the roof a minute later HAHA. We were fine and after the fire passed up the hill the smoke remained in the air throughout the night. I can't smell it or see it now but I'm sure we all smell great today. After the fire passed we all went to the uphill market to get ice cream. There were kids playing in the street and kids in the shop, all the while the drug lord of the area was sitting across the street hanging out with friends. What an interestingly crazy day. Poop incidents, kite flying and ice cream with drug dealers.
Today is our last soccer day and the walk down and back from the field is some of the time I treasure most about this trip. 20 kids to goof around and smile with for a few hours of the day is purely heart filling to me. I'm looking forward to today's adventures but it will be sad once the walk back is over and I won't see most of these boys again as only some of them will hang around the base over our remaining days here. It is good though that the numbers at the soccer camp are growing. I was talking to Marcello at breakfast the other day and he was talking about how soon they will have to start going more often because the space is small for 20+ kids at one time. I can't wait to hear about the progress to be reported back by the global team next year.
I hope all is well back home, I miss you all and can't wait to catch up upon my return on June 4th. Cheers :)
Annessa Nina
Sunday, May 22, 2011
SUNDAY FUN DAY
Everyone has gone to bed and I can hear the boys laughing away and giggling in their room. The girls are in our room as well probably talking about something hilarious. It is passed my bed time and I am usually the first one to sleep, but after our long day we just spent in Sao Paulo and some evening coffe I am not quite ready to go to bed yet.
We had our last "free day" before debrief today (wow does time fly!). On Wednesday Katie, Tom, Sarah and Kevin went to an english school in a neighbouring town pretty much as a show and tell. The students asked them questions about Canada and held conversations with them and in true Brazillian fashion they had breakfast prepared for them when they arrived. The english teacher was really nice and invited himself over to our base. Said he would show up on Friday and was here on Saturday (Brazillian time). So we all met Clayton and his partner Ronaldo. They were nice and kind enough to take us to some interesting places in Sao Paulo today.
Along with those guys showing up came a real surprise. Pedro, a funny YWAM (Youth With A Mission) guy we met at the Sao Paulo base, showed up unexpectedly. We were out hacking away at the hillside with our hoes and shovels when all of a sudden we hear ROOOBHINNO and Pedro comes running out with hugs and kisses for everyone. It was a short visit and I think we might get to see him again next Saturday before we leave but it was so nice to see a friendly face and crazy to think about all of the amazing people we have met so far.
Today we all woke up early, had breakfast (buns with butter and coffee), and went to test the waters of taking the bus and train sans translators. As you can tell by this blog entry we made it.. Hip Hip Hoooooorayyy. Ronaldo and Clayton met us at one of the train stops and hopped in our cabin. They brought us chocolate, that was delicious, and then took us on the subway to a HUGE park. This park had museums and entertainment. Tonnes of people were trying this new trend called running. Oh and I forgot one of the best parts... Before we got to the park there were a bunch of people protesting (peaceful protesting). They were protesting against the government's green policy. They had t-shirts with the brazillian flag showing more green on it. There was music and and banners waving, it was great. Now, in the park we got some sort of Acai berry smoothy for a snack, delicious, and went to this really interesting Afro-Brazillian museum. We learned as much as we could, in portugese, about the slave trade and Afro-Brazillian culture, and saw some amazing photography and art. After this we took a bus to the Japanese part of the city and had lunch at a resteraunt there.. Yummm. couldn't move afterwards. We walked through the market after this and then went back to the train station to head home. We were so greatful that these two strangers dedicated their day to us. I'm sure all of us are going to go out of our way now to do the same at home. Brazillian hospitality is nuts.
One thing we do here with our team is tell our life story. Every 2 nights someone gets a turn to tell their whole life story to the team. It can be kind of nerve racking, but it is interesting to hear where everyone comes from. Tonight was my night and it went well, but I much prefer to listen to everyone elses. Each one of us is shaped so differently and it's so neat to see where people get their morals and values from, we have 3 left to hear and I can't wait.
We have one week left at this base before heading to Ubatuba for debrief/relaxing at a hostel before heading home. We are going to be working hard to finish as much of this soccer field out back as we can. It is going to take a lot of effort as we have to pick away at the dirt and carry it off in a wheel barrow. It will be so rewarding to see it finished though. I think the hard part will be dividing up time between labour work and hanging out with the kids, which is just as important. Although the kids will usually come hang out with us in the back, sometimes helping, but mostly making fun of us. These guys have such character, I love it. I look forward to the last two soccer sessions and the activity days this week. I have to remind myself to cherish those moments because I know I'll be sad to leave them behind once it's time to go home. It's so hard to leave behind these strong connections you create and as good as these social programs are for these kids you have to wonder how they feel about people coming for 3 weeks only to leave again. I understand why many people just see money when they see us. We come, try to learn and create brief relationships, bring some donations and leave. It is really good though that Global comes in yearly and it is something to be relied upon. We are told that the social aspect of what we do here is greatly beneficial to the community as well. With Francisco Morato being the poorest city in Sao Paulo and they average yearly income being about 5000 real per household I just hope that these kids we see at the base everyday are positively influenced and can in return influence those around them and their children to live a healthy educated drug-free lifestyle.
Well final week.. Bring It On!
LOVE
Annessa Nina :)
We had our last "free day" before debrief today (wow does time fly!). On Wednesday Katie, Tom, Sarah and Kevin went to an english school in a neighbouring town pretty much as a show and tell. The students asked them questions about Canada and held conversations with them and in true Brazillian fashion they had breakfast prepared for them when they arrived. The english teacher was really nice and invited himself over to our base. Said he would show up on Friday and was here on Saturday (Brazillian time). So we all met Clayton and his partner Ronaldo. They were nice and kind enough to take us to some interesting places in Sao Paulo today.
Along with those guys showing up came a real surprise. Pedro, a funny YWAM (Youth With A Mission) guy we met at the Sao Paulo base, showed up unexpectedly. We were out hacking away at the hillside with our hoes and shovels when all of a sudden we hear ROOOBHINNO and Pedro comes running out with hugs and kisses for everyone. It was a short visit and I think we might get to see him again next Saturday before we leave but it was so nice to see a friendly face and crazy to think about all of the amazing people we have met so far.
Today we all woke up early, had breakfast (buns with butter and coffee), and went to test the waters of taking the bus and train sans translators. As you can tell by this blog entry we made it.. Hip Hip Hoooooorayyy. Ronaldo and Clayton met us at one of the train stops and hopped in our cabin. They brought us chocolate, that was delicious, and then took us on the subway to a HUGE park. This park had museums and entertainment. Tonnes of people were trying this new trend called running. Oh and I forgot one of the best parts... Before we got to the park there were a bunch of people protesting (peaceful protesting). They were protesting against the government's green policy. They had t-shirts with the brazillian flag showing more green on it. There was music and and banners waving, it was great. Now, in the park we got some sort of Acai berry smoothy for a snack, delicious, and went to this really interesting Afro-Brazillian museum. We learned as much as we could, in portugese, about the slave trade and Afro-Brazillian culture, and saw some amazing photography and art. After this we took a bus to the Japanese part of the city and had lunch at a resteraunt there.. Yummm. couldn't move afterwards. We walked through the market after this and then went back to the train station to head home. We were so greatful that these two strangers dedicated their day to us. I'm sure all of us are going to go out of our way now to do the same at home. Brazillian hospitality is nuts.
One thing we do here with our team is tell our life story. Every 2 nights someone gets a turn to tell their whole life story to the team. It can be kind of nerve racking, but it is interesting to hear where everyone comes from. Tonight was my night and it went well, but I much prefer to listen to everyone elses. Each one of us is shaped so differently and it's so neat to see where people get their morals and values from, we have 3 left to hear and I can't wait.
We have one week left at this base before heading to Ubatuba for debrief/relaxing at a hostel before heading home. We are going to be working hard to finish as much of this soccer field out back as we can. It is going to take a lot of effort as we have to pick away at the dirt and carry it off in a wheel barrow. It will be so rewarding to see it finished though. I think the hard part will be dividing up time between labour work and hanging out with the kids, which is just as important. Although the kids will usually come hang out with us in the back, sometimes helping, but mostly making fun of us. These guys have such character, I love it. I look forward to the last two soccer sessions and the activity days this week. I have to remind myself to cherish those moments because I know I'll be sad to leave them behind once it's time to go home. It's so hard to leave behind these strong connections you create and as good as these social programs are for these kids you have to wonder how they feel about people coming for 3 weeks only to leave again. I understand why many people just see money when they see us. We come, try to learn and create brief relationships, bring some donations and leave. It is really good though that Global comes in yearly and it is something to be relied upon. We are told that the social aspect of what we do here is greatly beneficial to the community as well. With Francisco Morato being the poorest city in Sao Paulo and they average yearly income being about 5000 real per household I just hope that these kids we see at the base everyday are positively influenced and can in return influence those around them and their children to live a healthy educated drug-free lifestyle.
Well final week.. Bring It On!
LOVE
Annessa Nina :)
Friday, May 20, 2011
Dig Dig Dig, Soccer Field
TGIF hahahhahahhahahaha, that has no meaning here. The only reason I can recall the date is because I write it in my journal. Even then I must check my last entry. Oh the joys of keeping time in non- north american countries.
Last Sunday was another church day. We ended up on a bus ride to the train station, a train ride to Sao Paulo, and then another long bus ride to the church. It took us about three hours to get there with a few check ins at the local pub to see what was going on in the football (soccer) match. The church was small and welcoming, we got to go up and introduce ourselves and one of our team members gave her testament. The best part was that we had a supper prepared and waiting for us in the back room after.
The reason we have been going to church is not because we are a religious group, it's because the place we are staying at is a Youth With A Mission base... So we get invited, say yes and haven't been let down yet.
This past week has been going by so fast that it's hard to remember what has happened. On Monday, our "free day", some of us went in to Sao Paulo (bus, train, bus) to exchange our money from dollar to real. We didn't really want to be walking around night with a bunch of money on us so we just went back to the base after eating a delicious brazillian buffet styled supper. The coconut cake with chocolate was amazing, although I'm not sure of it's true brazillian ethnicity.
This week we have taken the kids down to play soccer twice. The walk there and back is one of my favourites. The kids are nuts. They sing, dance, do cartwheels and flips while passing around a soccer ball the whole way down. Then the same thing happens on the way back up with a few foot races thrown in. Usually in the gym we lead some sort of warm up and a few drills before getting in to a scrimmage. I almost thought our team wasn't going to get to play yesterday before time ran out, I would have been upset.
On Wednesday we started digging up the backyard to put in a soccer field. Since the backyard is on a hill and we have to dig down pretty far. We definitely have our work cut out for us. It took us a day to get a system figured out, but yesterday morning we were going strong and got a good portion of it dug out. We worked all morning and I think it took quite a bit of energy for everyone to make it to soccer. But we did and after dinner the team played an awesome game of telephone pictionary. This is a game where you start off by writing a phrase like "home sweet home" and the next person has to draw it and fold over the writing, the next person has to write what they think the drawing is and the next person has to draw that and so on.. It was hilarious. One girl wrote "Mike Tyson's tiger" and ended up with "lumpy people love cats".
Today we are probably going to dig out the field some more in the morning, go on home visits (sometimes known to include random MJ dance parties) in the afternoon and we have a BBQ scheduled with the kids for this evening. Fun fun fun.
Cheers :)
Annessa Nina
Last Sunday was another church day. We ended up on a bus ride to the train station, a train ride to Sao Paulo, and then another long bus ride to the church. It took us about three hours to get there with a few check ins at the local pub to see what was going on in the football (soccer) match. The church was small and welcoming, we got to go up and introduce ourselves and one of our team members gave her testament. The best part was that we had a supper prepared and waiting for us in the back room after.
The reason we have been going to church is not because we are a religious group, it's because the place we are staying at is a Youth With A Mission base... So we get invited, say yes and haven't been let down yet.
This past week has been going by so fast that it's hard to remember what has happened. On Monday, our "free day", some of us went in to Sao Paulo (bus, train, bus) to exchange our money from dollar to real. We didn't really want to be walking around night with a bunch of money on us so we just went back to the base after eating a delicious brazillian buffet styled supper. The coconut cake with chocolate was amazing, although I'm not sure of it's true brazillian ethnicity.
This week we have taken the kids down to play soccer twice. The walk there and back is one of my favourites. The kids are nuts. They sing, dance, do cartwheels and flips while passing around a soccer ball the whole way down. Then the same thing happens on the way back up with a few foot races thrown in. Usually in the gym we lead some sort of warm up and a few drills before getting in to a scrimmage. I almost thought our team wasn't going to get to play yesterday before time ran out, I would have been upset.
On Wednesday we started digging up the backyard to put in a soccer field. Since the backyard is on a hill and we have to dig down pretty far. We definitely have our work cut out for us. It took us a day to get a system figured out, but yesterday morning we were going strong and got a good portion of it dug out. We worked all morning and I think it took quite a bit of energy for everyone to make it to soccer. But we did and after dinner the team played an awesome game of telephone pictionary. This is a game where you start off by writing a phrase like "home sweet home" and the next person has to draw it and fold over the writing, the next person has to write what they think the drawing is and the next person has to draw that and so on.. It was hilarious. One girl wrote "Mike Tyson's tiger" and ended up with "lumpy people love cats".
Today we are probably going to dig out the field some more in the morning, go on home visits (sometimes known to include random MJ dance parties) in the afternoon and we have a BBQ scheduled with the kids for this evening. Fun fun fun.
Cheers :)
Annessa Nina
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Small town of one million
Here we are in Francisco Morato. We have been here nearly a week now and it already feels like a month has gone by. The drive from Sao Paulo was about an hour and a half with a view of favelas, people, horses, and an endless amount of windy dirt roads. So much has happened since my last post that I am thinking I'm going to have to start writing this blog more frequently to keep everyone accurately updated.
Time is always changing here and we can never rely on a set time or schedule. Last Sunday, a rest day and our last day in Sao Paulo, we were invited to go to church with Pedro. There was a lot of confusion at first with the language barrier which was quite funny. First we were going to church, then they were making dinner for us and we didn't want to be rude and leave, then the other people at the base were going to a different church and not coming back, then we were having dinner before, then after at Habib's (who is Habib?) ... We ended up having supper before we left, saying goodbye to our friends that we made there, and getting on a bus. We ended up walking through the streets led by this crazy funny guy Pedro for awhile. We didn't know where we were going but we felt pretty safe with Pedro leading us accross streets and to a night club looking place with bouncers "come on kids". This was the church. It was huge, and full of crying men and women. We walked in with the Pastor leading some sort of prayer/song with a band and I have never seen so many grown men crying in one room. These people are passionate about their god. It was really cool, there were a lot of people our age as well, it was a young church and very welcoming. After this concert/church experience we went to Habib's (yes! 2 suppers). Habib's is a fast food sit down resteraunt with good service. We had desserts and mini pizzas, delicious. The highlight of that experience though was not the food, it was the mechanical ship on the patio. Some of us ran to sit in it and then one of the workers came out and got it going, I thought it was going to go in a full circle with mini handle bars strapping us in. Yikes, hahah it was fun and didn't do a full loop so we were safe. Who knew going to church could be so fun. Tomorrow is another church day and one of the guys from the Sao Paulo base invited us to go back to another church in Sao Paulo, of course we said yes and can't wait to see the adventures that await.
The day we arrived in Francisco Morato it was raining a bit and the bus had to stop at the top of this hill because it would be too dangerous to go down this muddy red dirt road, I almost fell down a couple of times. We unpacked right away and set up a schedule to prepare food and clean dishes, we were instantly home. These past few days here have been about getting to know the children who hang out at the base all day everyday. They are the sweetest boys ever, always joking around with you and playing soccer non-stop. There aren't too many girls that hang out here, but yesterday we met a few who came to play volleyball, so hopefully we can convince some more to come out and play. There hasn't been too much of a language barrier, we are all trying to learn as much portugese as we can and there is a guy here who can speak english and has been translating for us. The people of this village have been really welcoming, on our first day here we walked down to visit a family and got invited to a birthday party and to go for juice at another house. The hospitality is unreal. We have done some home visits and heard the stories of some people here. One that stuck out was of this grandmother, a really sweet lady, who has a drinking problem. It started after her son, who was an addict, was shot by the police and put on her doorstep because they thought he was a dealer. She now brings up her grandson, this man's son, while his mother has other children to worry about and lives elsewhere. Her place was on some land surrounded by fruit trees and at the base of one of the trees near the house was a pile of bottles, in the tree above was this young boy just hanging out.
Yesterday we had a really interesting discussion with Diego (the guy who speaks english). He was telling us a bit about the education system and how in order to go to university it is nearly impossible for a kid growing up poor (economically). The universities are public but in order to get in you have to pass a really hard test and I think pay for this test, or for education to take this test. If you can pass the test then you may get some funding for room and board and transportation. So the wealthy can be educated and the poor stay poor. The kids don't even dream of university, they may go in to trades and that's pretty much it. The women take care of families it seems like. We also talked about the favelas and how the people who live there prefer organized crime to run them rather than regular police because of corruption and police violence. If the criminals run a favela the people can leave their doors unlocked and keys in their vehicles. There are 2 major crime organizations that are both linked so there isn't much gang violence. A huge win that Diego was telling us was about a major favela in Rio that was taken over by military police, it was the first time that this has happened. The military police (not corrupt) came in and took out the drug dealers and installed some education and government systems. The people of this favela are happy to have the drugs out and some healthy structure. This gives some hope for the future of brazillian favelas.
Two days ago we did the 4 km walk to the soccer gym with the kids. It was indoor and concrete, pretty nice. It was different from what I was expecting. The people of Brazil sure do love their soccer. The mentality of the kids while playing soccer is kind of cool, they don't get caught up in poor plays or slower players. They just keep up the fast pace and want to get the ball in the other net. The only controversy I have seen is over goals being scored. Even those of us with minimal soccer experience feel welcomed to join in without our ego's being hurt. Even though we walked to this gym, we play soccer on the deck all day long. On the way back from the gym I had some uphill races with Daniel, one of the boys here, I won. As we were walking the boys kind of walked on our circumference at one point, there were these 3 guys walking by and we were later informed that one of them was the druglord of this area. The kids were unphased by it. Wow. It's crazy how protected you can feel by a group of young kids. One of the things Diego mentioned was that the druglords would never touch anyone with the church, many were brought up with the church and don't want to go to hell. If they are killed after harming someone from the church you can imagine their afterlife ;)
Francisco Morato is set on many hills and there is a tonne of green around, lots of winding roads and a few paved ones. There are wild horses roaming around and lots of chickens, but what takes the animal cake are the dogs, every family it seems has a minimal one dog, dogs everywhere. Barking all night with confused chickens cockadoodledooing at all hours sometimes makes for an interesting sleep, but we make it work. Our team is becoming closer, Ben and I even shared a morning rapping about our feelings and Sarah started with the first of the life story series. This place is beautiful, the people are beautiful, the handwashed laundry.. well.. we make it work and I can't wait to see what the next three weeks have in store for us.
Until next time, much love
Annessa Nina :)
Time is always changing here and we can never rely on a set time or schedule. Last Sunday, a rest day and our last day in Sao Paulo, we were invited to go to church with Pedro. There was a lot of confusion at first with the language barrier which was quite funny. First we were going to church, then they were making dinner for us and we didn't want to be rude and leave, then the other people at the base were going to a different church and not coming back, then we were having dinner before, then after at Habib's (who is Habib?) ... We ended up having supper before we left, saying goodbye to our friends that we made there, and getting on a bus. We ended up walking through the streets led by this crazy funny guy Pedro for awhile. We didn't know where we were going but we felt pretty safe with Pedro leading us accross streets and to a night club looking place with bouncers "come on kids". This was the church. It was huge, and full of crying men and women. We walked in with the Pastor leading some sort of prayer/song with a band and I have never seen so many grown men crying in one room. These people are passionate about their god. It was really cool, there were a lot of people our age as well, it was a young church and very welcoming. After this concert/church experience we went to Habib's (yes! 2 suppers). Habib's is a fast food sit down resteraunt with good service. We had desserts and mini pizzas, delicious. The highlight of that experience though was not the food, it was the mechanical ship on the patio. Some of us ran to sit in it and then one of the workers came out and got it going, I thought it was going to go in a full circle with mini handle bars strapping us in. Yikes, hahah it was fun and didn't do a full loop so we were safe. Who knew going to church could be so fun. Tomorrow is another church day and one of the guys from the Sao Paulo base invited us to go back to another church in Sao Paulo, of course we said yes and can't wait to see the adventures that await.
The day we arrived in Francisco Morato it was raining a bit and the bus had to stop at the top of this hill because it would be too dangerous to go down this muddy red dirt road, I almost fell down a couple of times. We unpacked right away and set up a schedule to prepare food and clean dishes, we were instantly home. These past few days here have been about getting to know the children who hang out at the base all day everyday. They are the sweetest boys ever, always joking around with you and playing soccer non-stop. There aren't too many girls that hang out here, but yesterday we met a few who came to play volleyball, so hopefully we can convince some more to come out and play. There hasn't been too much of a language barrier, we are all trying to learn as much portugese as we can and there is a guy here who can speak english and has been translating for us. The people of this village have been really welcoming, on our first day here we walked down to visit a family and got invited to a birthday party and to go for juice at another house. The hospitality is unreal. We have done some home visits and heard the stories of some people here. One that stuck out was of this grandmother, a really sweet lady, who has a drinking problem. It started after her son, who was an addict, was shot by the police and put on her doorstep because they thought he was a dealer. She now brings up her grandson, this man's son, while his mother has other children to worry about and lives elsewhere. Her place was on some land surrounded by fruit trees and at the base of one of the trees near the house was a pile of bottles, in the tree above was this young boy just hanging out.
Yesterday we had a really interesting discussion with Diego (the guy who speaks english). He was telling us a bit about the education system and how in order to go to university it is nearly impossible for a kid growing up poor (economically). The universities are public but in order to get in you have to pass a really hard test and I think pay for this test, or for education to take this test. If you can pass the test then you may get some funding for room and board and transportation. So the wealthy can be educated and the poor stay poor. The kids don't even dream of university, they may go in to trades and that's pretty much it. The women take care of families it seems like. We also talked about the favelas and how the people who live there prefer organized crime to run them rather than regular police because of corruption and police violence. If the criminals run a favela the people can leave their doors unlocked and keys in their vehicles. There are 2 major crime organizations that are both linked so there isn't much gang violence. A huge win that Diego was telling us was about a major favela in Rio that was taken over by military police, it was the first time that this has happened. The military police (not corrupt) came in and took out the drug dealers and installed some education and government systems. The people of this favela are happy to have the drugs out and some healthy structure. This gives some hope for the future of brazillian favelas.
Two days ago we did the 4 km walk to the soccer gym with the kids. It was indoor and concrete, pretty nice. It was different from what I was expecting. The people of Brazil sure do love their soccer. The mentality of the kids while playing soccer is kind of cool, they don't get caught up in poor plays or slower players. They just keep up the fast pace and want to get the ball in the other net. The only controversy I have seen is over goals being scored. Even those of us with minimal soccer experience feel welcomed to join in without our ego's being hurt. Even though we walked to this gym, we play soccer on the deck all day long. On the way back from the gym I had some uphill races with Daniel, one of the boys here, I won. As we were walking the boys kind of walked on our circumference at one point, there were these 3 guys walking by and we were later informed that one of them was the druglord of this area. The kids were unphased by it. Wow. It's crazy how protected you can feel by a group of young kids. One of the things Diego mentioned was that the druglords would never touch anyone with the church, many were brought up with the church and don't want to go to hell. If they are killed after harming someone from the church you can imagine their afterlife ;)
Francisco Morato is set on many hills and there is a tonne of green around, lots of winding roads and a few paved ones. There are wild horses roaming around and lots of chickens, but what takes the animal cake are the dogs, every family it seems has a minimal one dog, dogs everywhere. Barking all night with confused chickens cockadoodledooing at all hours sometimes makes for an interesting sleep, but we make it work. Our team is becoming closer, Ben and I even shared a morning rapping about our feelings and Sarah started with the first of the life story series. This place is beautiful, the people are beautiful, the handwashed laundry.. well.. we make it work and I can't wait to see what the next three weeks have in store for us.
Until next time, much love
Annessa Nina :)
Sunday, May 8, 2011
I'M HERE, SAO PAULO
Right now I'm watching the Youth with a Mission students at the base here in Sao Paulo dance and act out christian skitz.
I'm going to start out though talking about last night. Our third night in Brazil and Sao Paulo. Along with young missionaries here and some adults we took a 10-15 minute bus ride in to the city. As we passed a block of hundreds of people sitting by a cement building, a scary scene, I was informed our stop would be next. Walking past hundreds of crack addicts for the first time in my life the quiet part after the walk was kind of a relief. We were at the cracolandia. Then we walked past a couple of "security guards" through a broken door in to an alleyway with a tin roof. Just past the hundreds of crack addicts on the same street under a tin roof lived many children and homeless people. The kids were happy to see us as we brought them candy. Many people didn't come out to see us, but we all crammed in to this one room where a lady had just had a baby. She was happy to see us as we were with the church. A man prayed over her legs and she was able to walk. God is something that people with little can grasp on to here. God is hope. The baby was cute and the kids couldn't get enough candy. After we walked out of there (all close together) the little boys came out and played on the street. We went to the place next door and stepped under some sketchy wires and over holes in the floor covered by plywood but the people there were asleep. Now we walked in to the cracolandia. The language barrier was probably the scariest part. Since we were with the church we were unharmed but still had to keep our guards up. The things we saw there will forever be in our hearts. We talked to one guy who was skin and bone who said he was there because his wealthy family abandoned him when they found out he had AIDS, his name was Allan and he pulled a bible out of his pocket with one hand and had crack in the other. Life and death. When asked if he wanted us to pray for something specific for him he waited a minute and then shook his head no. A boy about fourteen came up to us dancing and singing, he was happy he was going to go see his mother today (mother's day). Many stories of loneliness and loss hope. It sticks with you. I know it will take a while to digest this and think about this but it is something we can all bring back to Canada with us. People were willing to share their stories and didn't ask a dime of us. One man was telling us his story, he was crying because his heart was stone and he was garbage. He told us money was useless to him because money = drugs and he didn't want to live like this anymore. He tried to be a patient and recover but couldn't.
Of the 11 million people in Sao Paulo 1.1 million are homeless.
After this walking in the main streets to the bus stop felt safe, you could breathe, yet a part of me wanted to go back to hear more stories and give hope. Hope takes time, it's a long process. When we got back to the base one of the guys we have gotten to know over the last couple of days told us his story of addiction over google translator. At 15 he was addicted to coke for 4 years. He has been clean for 7 years. After trying crack once he was done. He was orphaned because his mom didn't care and carried baggage when his aunt adopted him. Now he loves life, has a dream and his aunt is proud of him. I'm not saying God is the all mighty but it's something to believe in, religion can be a saviour. This guy is a genuinely nice guy. Everyone here at the base is.
Now backtracking we arrived at this beautiful place on Thursday. The flight over the city was amazing and I had a window seat. 11 million people live in the city of Sao Paulo alone. Buildings for miles. It looked like someone took handfuls of lego and dumped them on the ground not to be cleaned up. Buildings next to buildings. Lots of colour as well. We went on a tour of the city on Friday and got some good photos from a look out point I will share with you. Our contact here picked us up from the airport in a mini bus and took us to this base in the city with trees, goats, ducks, chickens and lots of friendly people. It is enclosed by concrete with broken glass on top. We met all the youth and people living here the first day and they have been non-stop teaching us portugese and taking care of us and laughing with us since. It felt like home on the second day. Bonita (beautiful). As for the weather it is hot and humid during the day wit a bit of a chill (frillo) at night.
There are some beautiful buildings here but many many run down ones. Seems like there is graffiti on everything, mostly writing, some art. Everything is so close together and so different than I'm used to, but I kind of like it. So far we haven't been robbed, but we haven't been taking out money either. One of the guys that took us on the tour had some money taken out of his sock.You have to be careful. Don't worry though mom, we wouldn't go anywhere if it were considered too dangerous.
Tomorrow we will go to Fracisco Morato, it is on the outskirts of Sao Paulo and is the poorest city in the state. Hope all is well with everyone back home and the start of the summer is playing out nicely. Much Love, Happy Mother's day Mom!
Annessa nina :)
I'm going to start out though talking about last night. Our third night in Brazil and Sao Paulo. Along with young missionaries here and some adults we took a 10-15 minute bus ride in to the city. As we passed a block of hundreds of people sitting by a cement building, a scary scene, I was informed our stop would be next. Walking past hundreds of crack addicts for the first time in my life the quiet part after the walk was kind of a relief. We were at the cracolandia. Then we walked past a couple of "security guards" through a broken door in to an alleyway with a tin roof. Just past the hundreds of crack addicts on the same street under a tin roof lived many children and homeless people. The kids were happy to see us as we brought them candy. Many people didn't come out to see us, but we all crammed in to this one room where a lady had just had a baby. She was happy to see us as we were with the church. A man prayed over her legs and she was able to walk. God is something that people with little can grasp on to here. God is hope. The baby was cute and the kids couldn't get enough candy. After we walked out of there (all close together) the little boys came out and played on the street. We went to the place next door and stepped under some sketchy wires and over holes in the floor covered by plywood but the people there were asleep. Now we walked in to the cracolandia. The language barrier was probably the scariest part. Since we were with the church we were unharmed but still had to keep our guards up. The things we saw there will forever be in our hearts. We talked to one guy who was skin and bone who said he was there because his wealthy family abandoned him when they found out he had AIDS, his name was Allan and he pulled a bible out of his pocket with one hand and had crack in the other. Life and death. When asked if he wanted us to pray for something specific for him he waited a minute and then shook his head no. A boy about fourteen came up to us dancing and singing, he was happy he was going to go see his mother today (mother's day). Many stories of loneliness and loss hope. It sticks with you. I know it will take a while to digest this and think about this but it is something we can all bring back to Canada with us. People were willing to share their stories and didn't ask a dime of us. One man was telling us his story, he was crying because his heart was stone and he was garbage. He told us money was useless to him because money = drugs and he didn't want to live like this anymore. He tried to be a patient and recover but couldn't.
Of the 11 million people in Sao Paulo 1.1 million are homeless.
After this walking in the main streets to the bus stop felt safe, you could breathe, yet a part of me wanted to go back to hear more stories and give hope. Hope takes time, it's a long process. When we got back to the base one of the guys we have gotten to know over the last couple of days told us his story of addiction over google translator. At 15 he was addicted to coke for 4 years. He has been clean for 7 years. After trying crack once he was done. He was orphaned because his mom didn't care and carried baggage when his aunt adopted him. Now he loves life, has a dream and his aunt is proud of him. I'm not saying God is the all mighty but it's something to believe in, religion can be a saviour. This guy is a genuinely nice guy. Everyone here at the base is.
Now backtracking we arrived at this beautiful place on Thursday. The flight over the city was amazing and I had a window seat. 11 million people live in the city of Sao Paulo alone. Buildings for miles. It looked like someone took handfuls of lego and dumped them on the ground not to be cleaned up. Buildings next to buildings. Lots of colour as well. We went on a tour of the city on Friday and got some good photos from a look out point I will share with you. Our contact here picked us up from the airport in a mini bus and took us to this base in the city with trees, goats, ducks, chickens and lots of friendly people. It is enclosed by concrete with broken glass on top. We met all the youth and people living here the first day and they have been non-stop teaching us portugese and taking care of us and laughing with us since. It felt like home on the second day. Bonita (beautiful). As for the weather it is hot and humid during the day wit a bit of a chill (frillo) at night.
There are some beautiful buildings here but many many run down ones. Seems like there is graffiti on everything, mostly writing, some art. Everything is so close together and so different than I'm used to, but I kind of like it. So far we haven't been robbed, but we haven't been taking out money either. One of the guys that took us on the tour had some money taken out of his sock.You have to be careful. Don't worry though mom, we wouldn't go anywhere if it were considered too dangerous.
Tomorrow we will go to Fracisco Morato, it is on the outskirts of Sao Paulo and is the poorest city in the state. Hope all is well with everyone back home and the start of the summer is playing out nicely. Much Love, Happy Mother's day Mom!
Annessa nina :)
Sunday, May 1, 2011
OFF TO THE RACES
Tomorrow is the day. We have to be at Mount Royal by 1:30 pm where we start our 2 day orientation. Then Sao Paulo via Houston Texas. Keep reading my blog, I won't be checking facebook so much. Send me an email if you need to contact me. Have a great month everyone and we will be in touch when I return. I will post my weekly blog updates to facebook. Other than that adios, be kind please rewind.. Take care of your self and send positive thoughts our way! Cheers
Annessa Nina
Annessa Nina
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