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