It´s Saturday morning and I already feel so refreshed after one night of rest out of the Fazenda. The kids have one more week until school starts and so you can imagine the tension built up. It´s not like when I worked at Christopher House in Chicago because 1) the kids went home after 5:30 and 2) they weren´t all practically siblings. We had some really beautiful moments this week while studying China and Japan (you can see photos below). They threw a huge fit when I asked them to practice Chinese letters the first day. All papers went into the trash. Then, the next day Marcos showed up asking for the alphabet because he wanted to write on his piggy bank in Chinese. That started the frenzy and they mostly opened up to try new things. (They drive me CRAZY. one attempt and if they can´t do it, they crumple the paper in rage and have a fit. Are most kids like that? We´re trying to remember what normal children are like.) All in all, they exhaust me. I am on a much needed weekend of rest.
Last weekend I slept in Passagem, the neighborhood where we make our visits. There was a group of 10 missionaries from Rio de Janeiro that came to work in Passagem for a week. They visited every single house in Passagem (even the hidden houses that are hard to get to) and prayed with the families. Our biggest desire was to get back into touch with the Catholic families that no longer participate. There is a serious Crisis for marriage in this tiny town where most people believe marriage will just ruin a relationship. Therefore, you have kids from one man and kids from another man, etc etc. And to remind them about baptizing their children. I went on Friday night to participate until Sunday afternoon. I arrived by motorcycle. They didnt want to drive a car just to take me, so they sent me with one of the workers on his way out. I prayed hail Mary´s all the way and held on for dear life. I told him to drop me at the street entrance, but he wanted to take me all the way to the house. Down a bumpy, dirt road. With everyone looking at me and calling my name. We pulled up to the house and everyone laughed that I, Erica, arrived by motorcycle.
I stayed in a house the size of my parents´downstairs with SIXTEEN people. It is the family of three of the girls who participate in my girls weekends. There are 11 children (all from the same two people), the girlfriend of one of the sons and their baby, Ian. There are other girlfriends as well. Plus, at any moment of the day, you find neighbor children playing in the yard or sitting on the couch. Then us (me and sunny). I don´t know how to explain the beauty I experienced there (mostly because I still haven´t been able to process it all). They don´t have much--things are simple, yet EVERYTHING is tidy, clean, and in its place. We visit many houses with two kids and the house is a disaster, yet with 11 children, she manages. She cooks every.single.day. for all of the kids and visitors. Our places were at the table and everyone else sat on the floor to eat lunch. She was not pleased with our tiny stomachs and wanted us to always eat more. She went fishing from 8pm to 3am to be able to serve us crab and shrimp and fish. We slept on the queen bed together the first night and then the second night I shared it with one of the kids (with 8 year old Fabriçio snoring like an 80year old man). The bed felt like a wood slat. The pillows of styrofoam kernals. People were coming and going all night. And I was HAPPIER than ever. The simplicity of life and the love that engulfs that house is unlike anything I have ever been able to experience. And will be a time that marks me for the rest of my life. How I will remember the way they treated their guests (two people had to sleep in the living room. they put four chairs to hold the mosquito net), how the mother serves her children in deep love for them, how she has to sweep the house 10 times a day because of everyone who marches through.
The weekend was beautiful. We had a kids day and a teen night full of prayer and worship. But more than anything, I just really loved being a part of my people for three days. AND I almost forgot. I spent my one year anniversary there with my friends. It couldn´t have been more perfect. I have more to say, but this is already so long and poorly written that I will let you go. I have BIG BIG news to share. Sorry to leave you in suspense!
Pray for me as I pray for you,
Love Erica
france week. we had a fashion show. sorry the pictures are like this. i turned them all, but they did not upload correctly!
joão lucas wanted to be a priest
i spent three days in passagem. saturday was kid´s day. more to come on my experience there...
these babies really intrigued me. i was trying to capture their essence. it never really worked.
CHINA
daniel just wants his yoyo
i tried to capture better the school house. i dont think it really worked that well.
sewing class
japonese fish kites
marcos helping bea and bea sleeping
chinese dragons
there was this group from Rio de Janeiro doing a mission in passagem. it was Ian´s birthday. The kid´s made a cake for him. So cute.
i love this little terror
and my beauty too
