Ellie and Yago

Several weeks ago I wrote some stories about 2 of the kids who have impacted me most(at that time)So, here are the pics of them(I finally to permission to post).

Believe me since writing about those 2 kids, so many more have enriched my life, y'all have NO idea. I came here to give them something and they GAVE to me,,,,God sure knows how to squeeze your heart when He puts precious children like these in your life, know I now WHY I'm here not to change anything here in Brasil but to have Brasil change ME!!!!

I didn't think I would end up writing a note about this but I guess I did.

More to come with more pictures of these sweet kids.

More from Brasil!!!

It has been awhile since I have blogged, not for lack of interest or anything to say but definitely for lack of internet time and availability. So, with that said and a little block of time I will give you all some of the happenings since I last wrote.

Several of our team members have been going through a rough patch. Let me say right away that no one told us (me and Pauline) about “Culture Shock”, which is a very real thing! Some say, “well you should have know that”! Well, I for one, have only been on one other “mission” trip and that was for 10 days (2 of those days were traveling) and my friend Pauline had never been on one, yes, she had been out of the USA but only for pleasure and not for a period of time we are talking about here. So, one of our team members recently said that they did have a class about it right from the very start and she was wondering why we hadn’t remembered that class. We didn’t get here to Brasil until about 10 days after all the others arrived and they had that class without us. So, that is why we were unaware of the evil “Culture Shock”.

There was a period of time when 4 of us had to go to the emergency room for various ailments. I had a chest cold, Sidney and Andre had fevers and another one of our pastors here also had a fever. Now, these were ailments that had been going on for some time. Our team here in Brasil don’t just go to the ER for any simple reasons. ER’s here are seriously different than in the USA. Sometimes (most of the time) the wait time is about 8-10 hours. We, on the other hand, that night had God’s favor we, all 4 of us were in and out within 6 hours. Most of us ended up with IV’s and Sidney was thought to have “Dengue” fever, that is from mosquito bite, the symptoms are severe headache and high fever. Fortunately that was not the case, because it takes several days to get better and he had already been sick for 2 days with this high fever.

God is so good, He makes sure that He is with us even though at times we think He is far from us during times of illness or sadness or homesickness or “Culture Shock” situations. We, our team, have all been through it but God in His goodness and mercy seen to it that not all of us went through it at the same time but individually, so we had each other to cling too along with Him and His unfailing Word. I praise Him and thank Him for my team members and my best friend Pauline, she always puts things into perspective for me J

We have adventures as well. One of them being a trip to the Campinas Mall and I think I already wrote about that, how we got off the bus at the wrong stop only to take another bus and was made to get off that one and ended up deep in the Favella (slum) and had to walk up a mountainous hill(the locals call them hills I call them mountains)Fortunately it was early in the morning and not at night or in the dark J We were also looking for one of the team who was supposed to go with us but decided not to and sleep in instead, but because of the lack of phones and communication being what it is here we didn’t know that until later that day. We had a great day the 3 of us, all women, who ended up with loaded back packs with shoes, food, juices and many other such items.

Last night we were invited to Sidney and Eli Ruama’s house for dinner. A special time for us because we don’t get to go out much during the week and they are very busy with being the directors of the Social parents (they are the ones in charge of the boys) so, it was a pleasant time with great food and fellowship. After dinner we watched a movie and didn’t get back to our house until around 11 PM. Pictures will be posted with this note.

That is it for now, more to come soon…….

Grampaw

Usually most of my notes are on thebedouinwoman.blogspot.com but today I felt the need to write about a certain little boy here at the Cidade dos Meninos(City of Hope). He shall remain nameless as I don't want to get in trouble for writing about him. But he stole my heart and here's why. Last Friday the students had some special points of interests, some history from their country, there was games, sweets, particular to this area. It was fabulous, as I was relaxing under a tree, feeling some nice breezes a small boy, that I took to be about 12 years old, came to sit by me, we exchanged smiles and hellos(that is about all I have learned so far)and we just sat there enjoying the cool. I knew that he was somewhat developmentally disabled but not to a large degree. He saw some friends and made a hasty retreat and smiled his lopsided smile of ciao(goodbye)to me.

A while later as I was taking some pictures a lady came to me and told me the story of this incredible young man. Apparently when he was born with disabilities, his mom, probably very young, "threw him away". Now I'm not sure what exactly that meant but this boy did end up in a orphanage of some sort, and by the time he came to CM, he was not walking, talking or feeding himself. After a period of time and much therapy, he is now talking, walking and feeding himself. Because he is the oldest of the boys, now 19 years old, the other boys fondly call him "grampa". He does continue to get help outside of CM and enjoys most activities within the school.

This boy will grab the heart of any human being, I know he will forever be ingrained in mine.

Elli

Elli

Let me tell you about Elli, she is a developmentally challenged young woman who lives at the Chakra in Casa 3. I must say when I first met Elli she scared me! Elli, at times is very loud and she is no small framed woman. Sometimes DCA(developmentally challenged adults)can be loud. Elli scared me! When I found out I was having dinner at Casa 3 I was a little concerned and we sat facing each other which made me nervous, because she stared at me without saying a word. But for the most part she didn’t do much of anything but eat her food. I breathed a sigh of relief and the next time I ate at Casa 3 it went about the same. When I got to know her a little better Elli didn’t scare me anymore.

The clincher came the night Pauline, Michelle and I were praying for the Tias(pronounced chee a’s)and Elli was on the swing close to where we were and she decided to come and see what we were doing. We were standing by the pool so I moved closer to the dryer land Jjust in case Ellie felt like tossing someone in the pool, it wouldn’t be me! Then Ellie said something that would forever change my attitude toward her and also plainly melt my heart.

Avo, a simple word that has so much meaning. Tia Delores, said that I reminded Elli of her Avo, her grandmother. As Ellie was repeating this in Portuguese, she was also stroking my arm and gently squeezing(the fat, dangling part of my arm J)and looking right into my eyes and smiling at me. This gesture and those sweet words totally changed my attitude towards Elli She hugged me with all the tenderness of my own granddaughter.

By the way this young lady is twenty years old, and oh, one more thing, I’m not afraid of Elli anymore, she is becoming my friend and I have become her Avo!