A very hot Christmas!

Sing to the Lord a new song,

for he has done marvellous things;

his right hand and his holy arm 

have worked salvation for him.

The Lord has made his salvation known

and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

He has remembered his love

and his faithfulness to Israel;

all the ends of the earth have seen 

the salvation of our God. 

Psalm 98:1-3

It’s been a fantastic week celebrating Jesus’ birth with my Brazilian family and friends and enjoying the privilege of getting to see Christmas in a different culture (and climate!) My Brazilian family and I had an early Christmas present on the 23rd in the form of six tiny Pug puppies born to our dog Bella and since then it’s been a bit of a blur of having a constant stream of visitors to see them and getting up in the night to make sure they all feed enough! 

It’s Monday afternoon and Im in the back of the car with Bella the dog in a box between me and my Brazilian sister Clara. Bella’s in labour and we have decided to go to the vets as her first puppy arrived stillborn; however soon we realise the second one is arriving. Everyone starts to shout, Clara’s panicking and everyone’s yelling instructions at me in Portuguese... Why didn’t we learn this vocabulary at uni?! By the time we arrive at the vets I’ve somehow delivered a tiny, healthy puppy, who is wriggling around in my hands and as I hand her over to the vet I’m speechless in the face of how incredible nature is. 

I’m sitting on the sofa at my Brazilian Grandpa’s house and it’s Christmas Eve, which is when the big Christmas dinner is here. Earlier on in the evening we went to church as a family and even got to sing Silent Night in Portuguese! However now it is nearly midnight, when the dinner starts and next to me on the table there is a delicious looking collection of foods, including a turkey (yey!), a cod and potato dish, rice and chicken. At midnight we join hands and Lucas (my Brazilian brother) and I pray and we sing a hymn to the words of this prayer by Francis of Assisi.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace; 

Where there is hatred, let me sow love; 

Where there is injury, pardon; 

Where there is error, truth; 

Where there is doubt, faith; 

Where there is despair, hope; 

Where there is darkness, light; 

And where there is sadness, joy. 

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek 

To be consoled as to console; 

To be understood as to understand; 

To be loved as to love. 

For it is in giving that we receive; 

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; 

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. 

I've never met some of the family members who are there but there’s something pretty uniting about spending Christmas together and it’s a great night of laughter and eating and chatting. There’s also something very familiar about my Brazilian Grandpa putting more and more food onto everyone’s plates, whether they want it or not! 

With Clara and below with Lucas

It’s Christmas day afternoon and after not very much sleep I’m sitting on the beach eating crab with the family. They laugh at my inane grin every time I remember that it’s Christmas and try and get my head round how hot it is! Before we head back to check on the puppies we eat ice cream and it’s melting so quickly and I end up laughing so much that I end up pretty covered in ice cream... some things don’t change! 

Other highlights from the last week...

Eating what my family here call “Brazilagne” (Brazilian lasagne – which has ham instead of mince!)

The Christmas service at my church last Sunday and the dinner afterwards – which 400 people came to.

A Christmas party with friends, during which I tried to introduce them to apple crumble. 

The Christmas show at the project where I work in Barra de Jangada and the chance to meet some of the children’s families. 

The ‘mocidade’ (my age group at church) Christmas pool party (!) and playing a game very like Articulate with them.

Spending time getting to know Lucas, my Brazilian brother, before he heads off to Mexico in January - particularly enjoying his love of English Christmas songs and coming home to hearing Hark the Herald Angles being played at top volume.

Seeing 10 year old Eviliásio learning to read little by little.

The Children's party with their church 'madrinhas' (godmothers) where they received presents and were reminded that they are an important part of the church family.

Judith and 12 year old Erica receiving her present

I hope that wherever you were you had a very Merry Christmas and that it's a Happy New Year! Thank you so much for all your lovely Christmas messages/cards/skypes :)

Christmas morning Puppy Watch!

Papai Noel, puddles and Portuguese fails!

It’s 8:30 pm and I’m in the kitchen cooking with my Brazilian Brother Lucas and Dad Boê, I’m being given a lesson on the art of Brazilian spaghetti cooking, which it turns out is a lot more complicated than my standard uni throw-it-in-a-pan and wait! I’m attempting to tell a story when everyone starts to laugh. I’d said what i thought meant “my friend’s Dad is a butcher,” but through their laughter I manage to work out that I actually said “my friend’s Dad is a sheep”. Another one to add to the list of Flor’s Portuguese fails! My favourite one so far still has to be when I got the words for lazy and dangerous confused and announced “this morning I am feeling dangerous” (!!!)... at least it was only to my Brazilian sister!

With a little boy called Vinícius

As I cross the favela to go and read with João Vítor the sun is hot on my shoulders. Brazilian summer has definitely arrived and it feels hotter and hotter each day, I can feel the ground burning even through my flip flops and taking off my sunglasses is a challenge. As I get near to the house where I’m heading there are four small children running around outside in their pants. They aren’t children that I really know but when they see me the two oldest girls shout “TIAAAA” (Auntie) and I grin as they run over. Then Junior, who must only be one, totters over and tries to say “tia” too, he manages something that sounds like “teaaaa” and lifts his arms up, I give him a hug. After we read a few stories I head to Diana and Erica’s house, where they are still helping the builder shift sand out in the hot sun. Judith and Adrian, the couple I’m helping, have paid for a proper bathroom for the family, this has just been finished and now the builder is making a bedroom for the girls, hopefully in time for Christmas. I sit outside talking to 12 year old Larissa, Porta Larga is near the airport and every time a plane passes we cover our heads because we are sitting underneath a mango tree and mangos keep falling. Before I head home Erica comes running out to show me her brand new flip flops that Judith got her, they have a wedged heel and she is so excited about getting to wear them for church on Sunday!

Sunday school has just finished and Lila and I are on the metro going to visit the Home for disabled children where she helps. It’s my first time on the metro (there’s no line near where I live) and Lila’s laughing at my excitement. At the next stop a man gets on and starts asking for money, he shows us what looks like a bullet wound in his ankle, it is open and dirty and it must be agony to walk on. I’ve got so many questions and I don’t understand why he’s not in a free public hospital, but the other people in the carriage don’t seem shocked at all. The home is on the other side of Recife, the children are beautiful but I feel shocked again at how it’s clearly understaffed and no one’s washed up from lunch yet and one little girl is eating sand outside. The children are living here because they have been abused or neglected or abandoned. Again there are so many questions, they are so vulnerable, so needy and so incredible and I feel so powerless, I wish I could love them more, give them more and yet all I can do is under my breath ask God to protect them and pray that they will find the love they so need in Him. We get the children onto a bus and I sit with two year old Emily on my knee, she falls asleep in my arms and wakes up just as we arrive in the army barracks where there is a big Christmas party already in full swing. There are trampolines, bouncy castles, blow up slides, face paint, popcorn, a chocolate fountain and so much more and the children’s faces are a picture as they take it in. But little Emily seems overwhelmed by it all, she doesn’t want to play and won’t let me put her down, so we walk around, both of us looking in amazement at the bright colours and laughter and santa hats. A few hours later we head down to a field and Papai Noel (Father Christmas) arrives IN A HELICOPTER! The children are speechless and for a moment, there in the hot sun, the wheelchairs and learning difficulties and behavioural problems fade away and they are like any children, lost in the magic of Christmas.

Extreme excitement at being on the metro! 

It’s Sunday evening and I’m at a different church this week. It’s the church attached to the project where I work on Mondays and Wednesdays and this evening Pastor Roberto is introducing me to the church. On the bus on the way here you could tell it was Sunday as more than half of the passangers were dressed up clutching a Bible and when the man next to me noticed my enormous trilingual Bible he turned to me and said ‘Graça e paz’ (grace and peace). Actually, thinking about it, he had to say it a few times as I didn’t understand the first couple! I’m sitting near the front of the church with Tia Silvánia, one of the other volunteers, and Pastor Roberto’s wife is giving the notices; all the chidlren are invited to their daughter’s birthday party on Friday and the choir can pick up their new ties after the service. This church is smaller and louder than mine and everyone is being so lovely and friendly to me. After a great sermon, I’m invited up front and they pray for me, to my relief Pastor Roberto does the talking and then I stand with him meeting everyone as they leave church. With each person I’m trying to guess whether it’s going to be a handshake, a hug, one kiss, two kisses or the Brazilian older generation ‘sniff’ that I’m struggling to get my head around! There are several the awkward moments when I go for two and they go for one and we end up bumping noses, but I’m pretty used to that now so it doesn’t bother me too much. Pastor Roberto gives me a lift home and in the car his two daughters proudly tell me all the English they know, then as I’m getting out his wife hands me a plate of delicious looking cake. I jump into the lift, zoom up 17 floors, leave my huge Bible and plate on the kitchen table and head out again to eat yet more cake, this time with my friend Rafa.

The children;s Christmas cantata at church last Sunday

It’s a Wednesday and it’s been a hectic day. Today I have...

·         Helped make a huge Brazilian cake for tomorrow’s children’s party; the cake had subsidence issues so had to be propped up on the pastor’s kitchen table with strict instructions not to be moved overnight.

·         Spent 20 minutes laughing with my Brazilian sister Clara trying to move her Dad’s motorbike so she could get out in the car. Then massively overestimated my fitness levels in trying to run up all 17 flights of stairs.

·         Got two buses, on one of which they were playing the Portuguese version of “How he loves me” and I met an eleven year old girl called Raíssa.

·         Played dominoes with a 5 and 3 year old, neither of whom understood how to play, which made for a fun game!

·         Watched the children act out Jonah and the Whale.

·         Been to the builders merchants to buy a window.

·         Come home to find my room turned upside down by someone fixing the internet!

·         Accidentally eaten a chilli and then downed a lot of water.

·         Had my Quiet Time (time to read Bible and pray) sitting on the wall on the edge of the beach in the shade of a palm tree and been amazed once more at how beautiful this world is.

·         Spent the evening with some friends, chatting and sheltering from torrential Brazilian rain  in a doorway!

With some of the children and volunteers at Project CCM in Barra

Thursday morning and the rain has continued, it’s the first time it’s rained for ages and the air is hot and humid and it’s absolutely pouring. As I walk through Barra de Jangada to the project’s party the ‘road/track is under water, and some of it is a suspicious looking greeny black colour. I’m hopping all over the place trying to find a pathway through when a horse and cart passes and I get even wetter. It’s worth it though to see the smiles on the children’s faces when they see the cake and fizzy drinks and balloons. I try and do some balloon modelling but my skills are severely limited (a ‘dog’ and a ‘giraffe’ that is just a dog with a long neck!) but we have fun as balloons keep popping. After the party we have a last minute rehearsal for Saturday’s Christmas show. As well as their Christmas rap they are singing the Portuguese version of “Mighty to Save” with one girl ballet dancing at the front, it’s looking really good... if only Ítalo wasn’t punching Allan in the front row!

Todos necessitam de um amor perfeito, - Everyone needs a perfect love
Perdão e compaixão - forgiveness and compassion
Todos necessitam de graça e esperança - Everyone needs the grace and hope
De um Deus que salva - of a God who saves

Christmas will soon be here and I’m really excited to see what it’s like in Brazil! I hope you have a great time and a chance to remember the real meaning of Christmas – that this God who saves came in complete humility as a tiny baby who would grow up to be our saviour.

Merry Christmas/Feliz Natal

A classic Brazilian gangster pose picture (featuring the huge cake I helped make!)

A photo from a couple of weeks ago of me and My Brazilian Mum, Sandra

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Me and Evilásio and Gustavo, two boys I help with their reading

Christmas is definitely well on the way here in Brazil, over the last few weeks everything has turned into a rush of ‘confraternizações’ (Christmas parties), end of term exams, Christmas trees, so many sparkly lights and a gazillion last minute rehearsals for Christmas concerts or services. It’s been a hectic week with lots on but one of lots of laughter, excitement and seeing God at work in incredible ways.

One of my last theology classes of term, lacking a suspicious number of people due to it being the day our work was due in!

Some moments from the last week or so...

We’re sitting in Thursday morning’s Library session. Today the children are making Christmas cards for their ‘madrinhas’ (godmothers). These are ladies from within the church family who have chosen to be godmothers to a child from Porta Larga (the community where I’m working), looking out for them at church, loving and welcoming them and of course, as the children are excitedly remembering, providing a longed for new pair of clothes at Christmas. I realise just how much this means to each child as I listen and read what they want to say to thank them, Rosanna, aged 13, writes “you have a special place in my heart”. I watch Evilásio, aged 10, with his brow furrowed in concentration as he slowly manages to write his own name inside the card and proudly shows it to me. Evilásio is one of the little boys I’m trying to help with his reading.

It’s Tuesday morning, I’m sitting on the bed that Evilásio shares with his brother and sister and we’re trying to learn the sound of the letter C . I can see from his face that he’s trying so hard but moving from spelling out the letters to saying the word is something we’re just not quite reaching yet. I wish I could do more to help him but these moments sitting here trying to read the word “carro” ‘car’ feel precious and I love the chance to sit here with this family and be a part of their lives. I want to give them moments like I had as a child, sitting on my Mum’s knee as she patiently listened to me read time and time again.

I’m doing a Portuguese Christian version of the Macarena with the youngest class at the Barra de Jangada project when Tio Jota Jota (Uncle JJ) arrives for an extra Hip Hop dancing rehearsal. I sit at the edge of the room watching them rehearse for their Christmas show and trying to persuade 6 year old Renato to take part. I could sing the songs in my sleep we’ve rehearsed them so much over the past few weeks and every day I seem to wake up with one of the Christmassy raps in my head.

“É Natal em toda parte, no centro, na favela. No asilo, no presídio, no quarto triste do hospital.”

“It’s Christmas everywhere, in the town centre, in the favela. In the nursing home, in the prison, in the sad hospital room.”

I’m reminded of how this is not only true in terms of Christmas lights going up literally everywhere, but so much more in terms of what Christmas is really about. The hope and salvation that came through a baby being born in a manger, a baby that would grow up to pay the ultimate price for anyone who chooses to trust in him, whether from the luxury beachside apartment, the ramshackle home in a favela, or the darkest of prison cells. Before we go home 6 year old Fernanda, who has a speech impediment, prays. It’s a beautiful moment as we manage to understand her thanking God for all that he has provided and asking him to watch over all their families as another morning in the project draws to a close.  

Ícaro and Evilásio playing in Porta Larga

I’m sitting in church next to a man called Alexandre. He sells chewing gum at the traffic lights on our way to and from church and today Adrian and Judith have picked him up to have an eye test because he needs glasses. Alexandre goes to a different church and he seems on edge in this new place, it reminds me of me in my first few services here as he gazes around taking it all in. On the way home he tells us a bit about how much he works, its long hours every day out in the burning Brazilian sun but he dreams of one day buying his own house. As so often here, I’m reminded of how lucky I am and how little I deserve the life that God has given me.

I’m in the kitchen at home trying to make flapjack for the Christmas party at the seminary where I have my theology classes. My whole Brazilian family is in there too, including Lucas (aged 20 like me) who has arrived back from a year at Bible College in Hungary to spend a month at home before heading off to Mexico for the next year. I’m reaching for the strange Brazilian version of Golden syrup that I found in the supermarket when I manage to knock the butter off the kitchen side. Bruce, one of the pugs, seizes the chance for a midday snack and charges forward. Soon the whole family is trying to wrestle a big chunk of butter out of Bruce’s jaws in fits of laughter, to him it’s the best game ever and he tries to swallow so quickly that he chokes! Gabriel, my Brazilian cousin, manages to salvage most of the butter and we are left with a dog making strange choking noises with butter all over his face and everyone else crying with laughter. Then the food mixer mildly explodes in a flash of sparks and is promptly thrown in the bin, I stir the oats into my flapjack and laugh to myself at my amazing, yet crazy, Brazilian family.

My Brazilian sister Clara and pregnant Bella the pug

Erica blowing up balloons!

Erica and Diana and I are blowing up balloons before the party starts. They are Evilásio’s sisters and it has been a big few weeks for 12 year old Erica, whose church godmother managed to enrol her in volleyball lessons at a local private school. Tuesdays and Thursdays are now the highlight of her week, not only because of the class but because of the chance to help Judith in the library afterwards, counting money, using the photocopier and seeing a completely different side of life. It’s so different from the monotony of day after day in the streets outside her home, where a crowd of men are always drinking with her Dad. She is learning so much from being in a different environment and it’s amazing to see her growing in confidence and realising that there is a whole world outside the community where she has grown up. Tonight she doesn’t even have a class but, as an honorary member of the seminary, she has been invited to our Christmas party and 13 year old Diana has come too. Together they’re like a double act and I’m struggling to keep a straight face long enough to even blow up a balloon, as they provide a hilarious running commentary on everything they see! The Christmas party is a great evening of yummy Brazilian food mixed a little taste of Christmas at home, in the form of a mince pie. It’s lovely to spend time with my classmates and as always there’s lots of laughter, often at my Portuguese fails, such as when I manage to get the words for Piranha and steak mixed up! I come home smiling and even though it’s far too hot for December I realise that I’m starting to feel at home.  

Diana and Erica loving the coxinhas (amazing chicken snacks)

I hope all of you are well and Happy Advent to everyone! Sorry for any fails at replying to things at the moment, December is proving to be very very busy but I am thinking of you and missing you all,

Lots of love,

Flo/Flor/Flower/Florencey!

With Diana and some of my friends in my classes Rafa, Paulo and Davi

Pass the parcel with little challenges and a lot of laughter

For those of you who have impressively read right to the end here's a little video for you of some of the kids acting out Daniel in the Lion's den. Sorry it's awful quality but you get the idea!