• Nov 2

  … and then there was one!

  Filed under General News, Trips
  … now that the rest of the team has returned to the UK, Bernie is left alone in Brazil…

  Friday & Saturday

  Spent a few days at Ed & Gio´s which is a nice rest and time with the family. Gio is not very happy with me for being more at Washington Pires than her house so I have some amends to make! Went to the supermarket on the Friday which meant walking there and going home by combi van. Spent the rest of the day washing clothes, playing with the kids, relaxing and speaking to Amy & Simon on Skype.

  On Saturday Karen, Gio & I went out shopping. This meant a very evil bus ride, literally every bone in your body rattles as you are thrown around and lifted off your seat. Then we looked around an outdoor market and drank fresh coconut juice, yum. Followed by Pastel a very traditional kind of light pastry filled with meat or cheese, followed by ice-cream… by now you are getting the idea of what a Shopping trip is! Couldn´t find a coffee shop though :o(

  Then around 5pm when we were at home it started raining. This turned into the worst storm they have seen since Gio was a child. It went from blazing sun to hail the size of golf balls. The road outside her house was literally a flowing river over the deep pavements, a garage wall collapsed onto the car 3 doors away. Then we noticed water was running down the upstairs walls inside so we had to shut the electric off, move all the furniture into the middle and mop up with towels. very scary! It went on for over an hour and people were clearing up outside for hours afterwards. Ed went out with a jug collecting ice for Ciaparinas ha ha. We were due to go to a church service and celebration dinner for a 50th wedding anniversary so continued to get ready for that. We were late arriving but that´s not a problem in Brazil!

   

  Sunday

  Again spent the day relaxing with Gio´s extended family, also helped Ed with an English class he was doing. Spoke to Graham & Jess on Skype :o) so it was a good day. I returned to Washington Pires in time for church in the evening and to settle in Elias & Milene´s house. Church was a bit strange without the team there and no other English speakers, but everyone was very friendly. Ricardo took the service as Elias had to take Milene to the hospital. I got a bit scared when Ricardo called me to the front but it was only to pray for the church. Phew, I managed half in English & half in Portuguese :o)

   

  Monday

  Spent the morning at the project preparing English classes for the week. I´m really grateful for Amy´s material which has been very helpful and also decided to extend the food topic as it´s such a passion for Brazilians ;o) Also some of the older kids came after school & before lunch for me to help them with their English homework. Next time I would love to do Homework clubs here, they would work really well.

  In the afternoon I spent time with Milene at the house as she is still unwell. She is 3 months pregnant and has some problems so prayer for her would be good. From what I can gather her pregnancy with Nicole was difficult as well, and I´ve already met several women here who have had stillbirths or lost children within days of birth. They also have a good friend who is a pharmacist so that´s been very helpful as well.

  In the evening we all just chilled watching a kind of X factor only 20 times cheesier! This was a great evening for me as it´s the first time I´ve really seen Elias relax with his family. Already this week I am seeing more of a normal routine and it´s good to experience.

  Tuesday

  Spent the day at the project taking an English class in the morning for 10 young kids. I loved it. I just lavished love & praise on them and if they learnt anything I saw it as a bonus ;o) Actually they are really keen and have remembered stuff from the week before and now learnt new stuff. They just lap up the praise and affirmation which is so important for them. Most of these kids are very poor and I´m finding out more about their home situations which are very sad.

  In the afternoon I took a class for adults and teenagers. This time more women from the favela came. Again they were very keen to learn and appreciated the praise. They were also keen to know when the next class was. After that I helped bag up fresh food the project had just collected from the food bank to be given away in the morning. As we were doing it several kids came, obviously hungry to try to get some food early. They had probably been sent by their mums. They were given bread and told to return in the morning for more.

  If you got to this point…thanks for reading ;o) Appreciate your emails and prayers especially as I´m not too well at the moment. Also prayer for continued growth with the language would be good. I´m studying every spare minute I can as it´s easier here when you´re surrounded with the language, but I´m not convinced how much is staying in my brain ;o) Finally prayer to make the most of the rest of my time here and concentrate on what God wants me to do would be fab.

   
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