Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte

This is the day we went to the city of Belo Horizonte. Up at 6:30 am for devotions, to boys house for breakfast. Let me explain the different houses and where they are in Lagoa Santa.

The girls and the boys are separated and each have a house. The girls house is like a normal house but with larger bedrooms to hold 2-3 sets of bunk beds. I say “normal house” this would be normal for Brazil but not for the USA. Houses are mostly brick and there are a lot of stairs and gates. Windows have no screens so bugs in your “casa”(house)is very normal. The kitchen is very small with limited cupboard and counter space. The stove is gas operated and sometimes we run out. The living room is fairly large but in ours we had our suitcases, but that was ok because there is no furniture other than plastic chairs.

The boys house is somewhat bigger with a larger kitchen(most of the cooking is done here)they share bunk beds as well and again, there is one bathroom and shower among the 7-8 guys. Their living room is about the same size, they do have some furniture because most of the meetings and devotions take place there.

Pauline and I shared rooms with 2-3 other girls. There is one bathroom and one shower and when the shower turns one the lights dim. I know what you are thinking, the electricity is very primitive.

Beans and rice area main stay in lunch and dinner. Greens and potatoes in some form and also some kind of meat is included.

The boys house is where we ate lunch and dinner most days. In the morning two girls go to the Padaria(bakery)for fresh rolls, we eat them with either milk or juice or water. Lunch is cooked by two or three people, depending how extensive the meal is, as well as dinner. Similar to E3D each person washes their own plate and fork. Another person washes the pots and pans and the floor gets swept after each meal.

For the most part Pauline and I had someone with us if we went anywhere. One day one of the girls, Mandy(pronounced Ma’ngi)took us to the Super Mercado(super market)and we finally got to get some coffee, even though it was instant, at that point with some sugar and leite(milk)it tasted like heaven!

Everywhere we go, we walk, and that is ok because I needed some exercise. The first day we arrived in Lagoa Santa we were invited for Pizza, I think I already went through that episode in the past blog but let me tell you we walked and walked and walked I was praying “please God let us arrive” and we did!

After the trip to the super market, Pauline and I felt brave and ventured out on our own it was not far from the house so Pauline felt like we could do it and we did. Then we took an easier way back and realized that there were many more stores on the way back that we never knew about and never got to visit because the very next day we were leaving Lagoa Santa for Campinas.

Our trip to Belo Horizonte will forever be etched in my mind because what is illegal in the USA is legal, or maybe not exactly legal, but it’s not looked upon as illegal. Does that even make sense? What I mean is they, the Policia(Police)look the other way. We did some shopping in the shopping area and then almost right around the corner is the area of prostitution. Right in broad daylight, right in the heart of town men go in and out all day long into the brothels. One of the girls that was here last did a video of this and here I was right in the middle of it. These women are anywhere in age from well, lets just say very, very young to very, very old. The prices they charge are so cheap $20 Reais(pronounced hay-I’s)about $16 dollars in American money. For the old women 50-60 years old the price is so much lower $2 Reais this is all per hour. These women rent the hotel room for $1000 Reais a month and never make enough to get them out of the prostitution life, so sad! Let me interject here that we did some walking and praying!

Ok, my blogs cannot cover half as much as we have experienced so far in our 1 plus week here.

All that aside, God Is amazing and I can’t wait to see what He is going to do through me and in me. I may come back fluent in Portuguese (one can only hope J )

Stayed tuned for the next blog when I tell you all about our 8 hour bus ride with 4 carts full of luggage and packages to bring to Campinas. Also about the trip with all this luggage in the back of a pickup truck (no, I was not in the back of the truck I was fortunate enough to be in the cab) J.

Signing off for now from the beautiful mountains of Campinas, Brazil. Ciao