New Destiny
We´re in Brazil! It is different again, we were in Peru, we were in Belize, we were in Guatemala, we were in the USA, we were in Mexico, and this place is different to all of the above. We stayed for a few nights with a Brazilian family and got a bit of the Brazilian vibe. There is a big divide as far as I can tell between the Brazilian Christian lifestyle and the ´normal´Brazilian lifestyle, so it was interesting staying with this family because some people were Christians and some people weren´t. The ´normal´ side of the family; that is the younger brother, and the dad but the younger broher is more interesting. He would go out all day drinking, apparently he had a job putting up Christmas decorations around the town but that really doesn´t figure in my head, then he would come home, cry a lot because his friend had just been shot dead. If he was in during the day then he would play funk music in the middle of the house at its maximum volume on a big sound system. It was tricky to have conversations while that was happeningSo the Christians, don´t listen to funk music because it is associated with crazy how do I say this, sexualised dancing, and stick in their groups because outside of their groups is a lot of drug trafficking, a lot of money grabbing and a lot of violence.
We heard a lot of stories of people getting shot, and general violence when we arrived, I was worried about falling asleep at night, I felt quite vulnerable and wondered how so many people were still alive having heard all the awful stories and all the words of warning about how to carry yourself about town. We´re all alive though, that is the main thing.
Now we are staying and working at a farm come adventure centre in the countryside where the greatest threat is mosquitoes. The adventure centre has been set up for people who live in the slums, where all the violence happens, to come away for weekends, get away from the places they live in, get some self esteem and hear a bit about God. It is pretty amazing. So this is where Christianity meets ´normal people´. Last weekend a group of nine boys/men came to stay. They look really average then you hear a bit about their lives and it is quite shocking. Again, see City of God.
Some of them had to borrow shoes to come for the weekend, they need trainers to go on the activities that are set up for them. So this one guy had his feet squeezed into these shoes that must have been his mum´s or something, they looked tiny on him, it must have been painful.
The girl Morven who dreamed this place up and her Brazilian husband who came from the slums himself, run the place. Morven´s mum and dad used to be my pastors while I was at university have retired out here and play a major role in running the place. During the week we are doing physical labour, helping to get the place more together, there is a long way to go before the place is how they want it to be. Anyway its all quite amazing, watch the film City of God and you get an idea of the place where the boys who come to the farm live. It is quite crazy.
Its really good to be here, we´ll be here for Christmas when another set of boys will be arriving, so its going to be a bit different, probably lots of fun.
Also its really nice to be with British people, we get to eat normal food again, we had cheese and biscuits the other day, what a luxury!
posted by Lucia @ 16:17
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