New Digs

Thought I´d have a chance to post during the week but this is Brazil and plans are always changing! I´m now back living with Caio and Dorothee which is a blessing after a long three weeks living in Casa Semear. It´s really not the most sociable of places - there isn´t a lot to be done in the local area to pass the time!

The New Office

So, what´s new this week? We have an office! Now that we have a full-time social worker she needs somewhere to work! So, the back bedroom has now been converted to an office for her. It´s still in need of a few things but most importantly we have a computer and phone-line now.  With the ministry rapidly expanding these things are becoming essential. Eliane is working hard to build up files of all the families that we are currently in contact with. So far we have listed around 45 families from the kids that come on a regular basis. Of these families we are prioritising five of the most in-need or at-risk to visit in the favela tomorrow (Friday). These families include some who, until recently, having been living on the street in the city centre, those who are in the most desperate circumstances economically and those for whom there is distinct family crisis. One of our young boys is currently under threat from his mother who has attempted to kill him on more than one occasion. Robert and Silvana have been praying that the children and families who are most in need will be the ones who come through the doors of Casa Semear. So far we´ve seen evidence of this happening and now we need to pray further than we can help them.

On Tuesday afternoon Robert, Celio and myself had a skype meeting with the Casa Abba team in Glasgow. It was really good to hear some Scottish accents again! We discussed some of the financial needs of Casa Semear/ABBA and updated the team on the progress of the work here. . Good news: We received a large donation of 6000 euroes (around R$13,000) from a church in Holland to help complete the building work of the houses out the back. It´s almost enough - Robert reckons we need R$20,000 in total to finish it by the time you include inside furnishings. Snr Luis will be back on the job as soon as he finishes his current work - hopefully leaving us enough time to raise the rest and have everything done in one go. Gloria Deus for that!

Our weekend get-away

It´s been a long week at Casa Semear. Dot has started up the Super Woman club again for the teen girls, with a focus on the concept of ´perfect love´. This will be a good opportunity to explore some of the issues that many of them are currently facing.  Some days the kids, although few in numbers, have been high in energy. We have an increasing number of young kids under 8 who require a lot of attention and supervision so we are all coming home utterly exhausted from trying to keep them focused on activities. Thankfully this weekend we are off to the beach at Bertioga from Friday to Sunday for a well-earned rest. It will be a good opportunity for me to spend my final free days with the team and enjoy their company, as next week will be so busy that we won´t have much time together in the lead-up to my departure.  I´ve enjoyed almost every bit of my time here but home is definitly calling now.

If there´s anything you want me to find out about / post about / photograph etc. before I leave, then please drop me a comment over the weekend and I shall do my best to get it done!

Greetings from Rio de Janeiro

I'm in Copacabana, Rio!

I have been wonderfully blessed to have made some new friends here who offered to take me away for the weekend. The offer came at a good time - I was getting pretty tired and a little homesick after a long week at Casa Semear. It took a ten hour drive through some long and windy mountain roads but we arrived last night around 10pm. Today we went up to the famous Redeemer statue and saw a little of the city. The sights are great but it's the good company that makes any journey a memorable experience. Once again I've been blessed.

Things at Casa Semear have been relatively quiet with fewer kids than usual some days. It's been great having Dot & Caio back - especially since they brought me back some tea! Dora has been wonderful as always, looking after me and keeping my fridge well stocked. She doesn't always get the praise and recognition she deserves but she is just a wonderful asset to the team. Sadly her support runs out in two months so if anyone has solutions to suggest, send them this way! 

I could say a lot more but it's late - so I'll try to post something more comprehensive plus photos later in the week! Thanks again for all the comments and messages.

Life Goes On

I'm posting tonight from the "Smoak Compound".  Thomas and Suzanna invited me to stay with them for the weekend at their house so I'll be getting to know the Smoak family a little better! Thomas used to be the head of ABBA and now works for Action US with responsibility for people across the whole of Latin America. 

So, what have I been upto since I last posted?! Working at Casa Semear full-time is keeping me busy! Most days we have about 15 kids in the morning and up to 40 in the afternoon. I've started teaching some english for the 5-10 year olds. My portuguese is improving enough and I'm able to have a good laugh with the kids when we play games and do activities. It's still frustrating though when I see kids who need to talk about important or serious things and I can't engage in conversation well enough, but we get by and I'm building a lot of positive relationships. 

There are some changes to the team: We now have one full-time social worker who will be responsible for helping the families and putting together information about the children who come to Semear. Caio and Dorothee return from Holland on Monday and return to Casa Semear on Thursday. So, we'll have a full team back on track which is a blessing because sometimes we struggle when 40+ kids turn up! However, people cost money and there are the usual struggles of how to finance the team when the current budget is barely being met. It's a day to day struggle just to keep the ministry above water financially and there is a lot of work to be done to ensure that we can afford to have so many people with us. On Sunday we also have another Scottish person arriving - a friend's niece who is coming for three weeks to work at Casa Semear, so that will be more company for me!  

On Thursdays the team stay at Casa Semear for lunch and a team meeting. We've been discussing ways to move the ministry forward, what some of the most pressing needs are and what we can think about for future work.  There are some serious issues regarding the infants who get brought to the kids club - some of the girls age between 8-14 years old arrive with little brothers and sisters under the age of three. First and foremost we're not currently equipped to cope with having too many infants in our care, yet some days find ourselves with four or five of them being brought. Secondly, many of them are 'failing to thrive' (FTT). I've noticed a lot of young children with serious developmental delays due to their living conditions and the lack of developmental stimulation at home. Some infants are completely unresponsive and aren't developing cognitively the way they should be. This is something to be taken into consideration for the future ministry of Casa Semear. We'd love to be able to provide better care for the little ones but at the moment with only four of us working every day it's difficult.

On Fridays we do the visits to the families in the favela where the kids come from. Today was particularly hard. We met the mother of a couple of the kids who was telling us that when it rains the house floods, sometimes up to their waists, with sewage water and the kids have so sit up on top of the bunkbeds for a couple of days until it goes down. Of course it means they can't use the electricity (including the cooker etc.) and everything is covered with sewage. We also met a young girl who is eight months pregnant. The baby currently only weighs about 1kg and she hasn't eat for a couple of days because she literally has no food. These are just two cases and there are hundreds more like them. Having the kids playing around at the kids club during the day sometimes makes it easy to forget the horrific circumstances they come from. Sometimes it is disheartening for the team as they try to work out how best to help the kids and their families when there is so much need. 

On a brighter note, it looks like some of the boys from the Elohim house are going to be returned to their family. A couple of weeks ago I went with Delton - one of ABBA's social workers - to visit the family of the three brothers who had been dropped off at ABBA the day I arrived. The visit was a positive experience - the family seemed to regret losing custody of the boys and were willing to work out how to get them back. It's a rare but precious blessing when families are reunited and we're still praying that things work out for the boys. Last weekend was the first birthday of Mike and Hedi's son, Samuel. Mike is the head of the Elohim house. He and his wife live in a big house out in the country with a swimming pool etc. I was invited to go along and join the celebrations. The greatest thing about it was that all the boys from Elohim were also invited. For them it was a real experience of family celebration and time to make some good memories. Hopefully for the next couple of weeks I'll be working at Elohim again so that I can spent some more time with the boys and the team there before I leave. 

So, that's about it for now. For the next few weeks it will be more of the same - but every week has it's suprises and I've learned (again) to expect the unexpected! One thing I can say is that the hospitality of the ABBA family is immense. I'm always being invited out, people make a point of speaking to me, offering things I might need etc. and I am always humbled to watch the people who give so selflessly to this work every day. I can't believe I only have three weeks left here. It might not be enough.... 

Still Alive

Just posting to say I'm still alive! Currently living  and working full time at Casa Semear and enjoying spending everyday with the kids. Casa ABBA received a HUGE anonymous donation the other day which will hopefully allow the rest of the building work (or most of it) to be completed. Happy days! Dora is keeping me well fed and looked after. I actually miss the boys at Elohim but I still get to see them once a week at the weekly  ABBA team meeting. Not missing home too much but my tea supplies are running dangerously low! Due to the cold (it's been much like a Scottish February here) I've been ill for a couple of days but now on my way to recovery. Thanks again for all the comments. Sorry if I haven't responded to emails etc. but my internet access is limited so I can't manage them all!