Well, it’s been quite a while since my last blog post, and as I’m sure you could imagine, tons of stuff has been going on…
After our first 2 months of separated work in Gama and Samambaia, our whole team spent all of January and February together. The entire month of January consisted of us traveling to the different Mennonite churches in the Distrito Federal to help with a Vacation Bible School of sorts. It was a great experience overall. We got to know some of the kids from the churches and neighborhoods a little better and managed to have lots of fun while we were at it. Some themes from the Bible Schools ranged from Heroes of the Bible to the story of Daniel. We told the stories through skits, monologues, and all sorts of other different ways. We spent one week with the churches in Gama and Samambaia, and then 2 weeks in Ceilandia. We spent 2 weeks in Ceilandia because there are 2 churches there, one actually in Ceilandia and then another sort or starter church for children in a nearby town called Sol Nascente. Sol Nascente, for lack of a better word, would most likely be referred to as a favela or a sort of slum. The roads there are all dirt and riddled with potholes, which made for an interesting commute each day. I feel like our group really connected with the kids that we got to know in Sol Nascente and we’re hoping to be able to work with some of the weekly kid’s gatherings there if the opportunity presents itself. Overall, January was a great month! Despite the fact that it was a busy month, filled with lots of moving around, it was still a very good experience.
The first two weeks of February were set aside as time for “Team Retreat.” After a lot of discussion, we decided to go to Recife (a city located in the state of Pernambuco, in the northeast of Brazil) for our vacation. We flew up to Recife and were greeted at the airport by Keith, an MCC worker, who then took us to the MCC house where we would set up camp for our 2 week stay. We stayed at the MCC house for a few days, exploring the city and enjoying our time off after a hectic month of working with kids, before taking a bus ride down the coast to the beautiful Porto de Galinhas. Porto de Galinhas, named for a sort of code that was used for the illegal slave trade that was very prominent there, is easily disputed as being home to some of the best beaches in Brazil. We stayed at a small Pousada for 4 nights, soaking up some rays at the beach, relaxing, and reflecting as a team on the first half of our time here abroad. After our short stay in Porto de Galinhas, we hopped a bus back to Recife where we stayed for a few more days before venturing off a little more into the interior or Brazil. MCC has had projects in the northeast of Brazil for quite some time now, and this was one of the main deciding factors for us when picking a vacation spot. The second week of our vacation was spent exploring the interior of Pernambuco, making stops at the various projects that MCC has with the SALT program there. Overall, our team retreat was great! We managed to relax and have a small vacation as well as get to know some of the other great projects that are going on in other parts of Brazil. I also think that it deserves to be said that our retreat would not have been anywhere near as fantastic as it was if it hadn’t been for Betty and Otis, who were an enormous help with the planning and reservations.
So, after we returned to Brasilia, it was just a few days before we were on the move again. With the temporary addition of Dani’s boyfriend, Natanael (visiting from Argentina), all five of us hopped a 3-hour bus trip to a city called Goiania, in the state of Goias. Goiania is home to, I believe, 4 Mennonite churches in all, but we were only able to spend time with one of them. A lot of interesting things happened during our week in Goiania, but I think some of them deserve a whole blog post in and of themselves, so I’ll have to get to that later. Anyways, our week in Goiania went by a little slow at times just due to a shortage of things to do, but it was still fun to get to know another Mennonite church from the area.
This pretty much concludes the rather hectic first two months of 2009 for our team. After roughly 6 different ‘homes’ in 2 months, I was definitely ready for the chance to settle down again. We moved into our new homes the first Sunday of March, with Sheralynn and I settling in to our houses in Samambaia while Dan and Dani made their way to Ceilandia. It was very relieving to retire our backpacks that had housed all of our needed things up until this point in 2009 and be able to unpack into a new room, knowing that it would be my home for the next 2 months. I’ll be back to give an update on classes and to give some thought into some of the goings on from Goiania in the next couple of days.
