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Published: July 27th 2010
Olá Pessoal! (Hey Everybody!)
Our trip is underway! Team Thrivent has been in Brazil for two full days. Our team consists of 11 people, 10 citizens of the U.S. and one native Brazilian from Fortaleza, Henrique, who is our translator. Our team leaders are Mark and Bobby who work at Thrivent Financial, and they organized and planned the entire trip. Mark's son, Derek, who has been to Brazil once before on vacation joins his father, and Bobby's mother, Mary, and sister, Sharie, who are first timers in Brazil. Joining us are Karen and Ed (aka Senhor Eduardo) from Indiana, Glen from North Carolina, Marladean, and Rosemary.
We all met up in Recife Saturday night at Hotel Jangadeiro on the coast for a welcome dinner and introductions. Dinner was buffet style, including fish, fruit, salads, soups, and rice. For dessert there were different custard-style cakes. Our hotel was on the ocean, and the weather was windy and rainy and the palm trees seemed as if they were going to blow away. After a day and a half (or more) of travel, we were anxious to get some sleep.
Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, fruit, cereal, eggs, omeletes, tapioca, bread, ham, and fresh cheese. Ham and cheese sandwiches seem to be a staple of Brazilian cuisine, or at least it is served everywhere us tourists eat. We walked along the beach and talked about swimming, but aparently there are more shark attacks in Recife than anywhere else in Brazil, so we settled for just dipping our toes in the tide.
That afternoon we met Antônio who is our Habitat coordinator in Brazil. We boarded the bus for Limoeiro, with a short stop in Olinda to visit the oldest church in Brazil. The church has been under the influence of different countries throughout its history. Depending on which country was influencing Olinda at the time, the church was transformed with different architecture. French, Spanish, English, Dutch, and finally back to its original Portuguese granduer. A recent priest, Dom Helder, was highly revered by the community. He died only a few years ago, and there are shrines to him all over the church. In fact, his body is buried inside! We saw much of the oringial 16th century wood, and veiwed a vestament made of gold! Outside the church in the town of Olinda, we saw and took pictures with macacos. (Look it up!) You know you are all jealous...
In the evening we arrived in Limoeiro at a hotel run by João, a police officer, and his daughter, Bella (who taught us about Recife culture), so we all feel very safe. His hotel is very nice, air conditioning, hot showers, fresh linens, televisions, wi-fi, and balconies. We are well taken care of in Limoeiro, including our own personal body gaurd when we walk to restuarants and back.
A short aside, the first night we didn't know Joao had assigned us a body guard, so we were weary of this old man with a cane following us everywhere. We even hurried into the hotel on the way home because he made us nervous. Little did we know, he was there for our protection, and we felt silly when he followed us into the hotel and we realized he was a "friendly face."
That night we met before dinner so Antonio could fill us in more about the houses we were to build, and about the families that would move in when we were finished. Apparently, women of the community came together to discuss the problems they shared. Most of these women work long and hard hours for little money, in conditions we would consider slave labor. In a later post, I will talk more about these women, their jobs, families, and lives, and also more details about the houses we're building.
We ate at a pizzeria and had five different kinds of pizza. One big difference is there is no tomato sauce on pizzas in Brazil, but we didn't miss it as the pizza Magherita, calabresa (which was like canadian bacon to us U.S.ers) chicken, paulista, and portuguesa were all delicious and we all had seconds and thirds. Derek may have had sixths, I'm not sure.
Early the next morning, 7:45 sharp, we boarded the bus for our work site. Day one, building the foundation for a house. This basically entailed shoveling dirt from different piles into wheelbarrows, and hauling the dirt over to the foundation so tomorrow we can fill it with cement. This was hard work, and it was hot. Luckily it was slightly overcast, so the sun didn't feel as hot as it could have. A few light mists of a rain shower cooled us off from time to time, but only enough to tease us into thinking we would stay cool.
As a team, we really came together to work as a cohesive group, and we created a sort of assembly line of shovelers and haulers, taking turns. A team from Global Village had been working at the site for a week already, so we were able to see the progress of what the houses may look like when we are finished. Also at the site were some women and children who were to recieve a house, as they are required to work a certain number of hours at the site. The enthusiasm and work ethic of the women was incredible, they were smiling, laughing, making jokes, and running, RUNNING!!! with the wheelbarrows. We just watched in awe as one woman, SueElli, would pass us more than once each trip with the wheelbarrow. The excitement of being a homeowner was palpable, and encouraged us to work harder with bigger smiles.
That is all for today. There is much more to tell you, including all about the houses, the people, and a few more people fto introduce you to. For now, Boa Noite from beautiful Limoeiro.
Photos will follow soon, we need to download some software first. Hopefully tomorrow 😊
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Dawn/Kimberly
non-member comment
Amazing
What a great experience for all. You truly are making the world a better place. We loved the story about the body guard and totally think Derek had sixths :D May the rest of the building days be as successful as today. It sounds like SueElli is an inspiration for all.