Friday, June 08, 2007
with a holiday here today, we have got into the spirit of ´festa´as you will see below ... just before it is time to fly home again on friday ... (mark stays on until sunday, and is going to the vila to try to find his sponsored child, who hasn´t been seen at voice for change for a few weeks ...
if you would like to sponsor a child, come to brasil, or help out in any way, please contact us for more information on how you can help ....
if you would like to sponsor a child, come to brasil, or help out in any way, please contact us for more information on how you can help ....
the story of this week in a few pictures ..... the new chairs are delivered to the vila centre and a group of children gather to say thanks for gift, with darla, priscila and keith
then a flying visit at the weekend to guaratuba to check out the water quality - the picture says it all!!
but in brasil there is always time for a quick ´jogo de futebol ´ wherever you are, especially on the beach!more pictures follow, with more detailed explanations below!!
a break in the training schedule gives time for a photo session
in the sun for the vfc brasil staff!!
thursday morning dawned sunny again, and there is always time for a bit of fun with mark, or a cuddle from denise!
it´s a long wait while 24 meals are prepared for tuim and dona cida, but for angelica it gives plenty of time to play on the mcplayground! if it is your first time at mcdonalds, it´s quite an occasion. for most of these children, it is their first visit to the últimate´in children´s destinations!! what a marketing machine they must have - in brazil, it is expensive and poor quality, but they love it ...
the mctoys are given out , and then
off to the circus, where a good time was had by all, as you can see!
Thursday, June 07, 2007
there´s been no blog for a couple of days because we have been away at the training venue for all the staff, and working long hours into the night with meetings with some staff and with the brasilian leaders of vfc, skip and debbie.
these have all gone really well. it seems to take almost the first day of training for everyone to be comfortable with one another, and then we really start to make progress! it was great to have all the team together from all the different aspects of the work of voice for change, and to cover many areas and topics as we basically looked at the five main ways that children receive love, and the ways in which we need to think, feel and behave towards them as we work with them, both in our casas, and also in the favela work.
in the evenings we have also spent ´quality time´with most people, and have been reviewing the past 3 months and discussing future plans for many areas of our activity, so much that that we have been worn out by the time we have crawled into bed, and then got up again at 7 am to be ready for the next day´s training....!
the team was really flowing well after 2 days together, and we are coming together again today.
but by far the most dramatic event took place yesterday as we were leaving the training venue when skip and debbie´s car engine caught fire, flames dropping onto the tarmac and, when the bonnet was opened, leaping 2 metres in the air. this one took 4 fire extinguishers to put out and and meant an extra night here for s and d, but nobody was harmed and nothing lost except a car engine ... so we are grateful for that! this is the second car fire we have had in our cars in 4 days ..... with the same thing happeneing on sunday to the casa dourada kombi .. what is that all about?
it is a holiday in brasil today, not too sure why, but this means that schools are off for both today and tomorrow ... so we decided yesterday that the whole vfc ´family´in curitiba will go to mcdonalds for lunch today (a very rare ´treat´for the children, as this restaurant is so expensive for normal brasilieros and most of them will go for the first time today, but as in the rest of the world, for many kids it is seen as the últimate´destination restaurant!!) ..
that´s 24 people going there at 1 o´clock !!
then we are going to surprise the children by going to the 3.30 performance of the circus which has pitched up in the city, quite close to here, which looks like a really good one ... we went to buy the tickets last night and we got a really good deal to take everyone, and they have trapeze, elephants, tigers, camels etc, all of which can be visited after the performance, so it should be a truly memory-building treat for everyone, and a really special day for them... but the most excited person is val!!! she loves the circus and can´t wait to get there! the children don´t know yet, of course, but we are excited just anticipating their delight when they realise what is happening as they arrive there and see the show!!
we have a few more mundane (but important) things to do too in the next 24 hours or so before this visit officially comes to an end, like another meeting at the city sports administration office, tracking down ´project mercy´, the professional support system which we hope to plug into, and finalising the may accounting and next 12 months budgets for vfc in brasil!
it is still sunny and cold, like a crisp october day with a slight chill in the air, but we have been really blessed with this lovely weather.
we may also just try to celebrate (slightly belatedly) mark´s birthday this evening with a trip to a nice restaurant, divino maestro, where the food is fantastic and the birthday celebrations quite extreme, singing, plates dropping on the floor etc, its pretty amazing. we did this for margaret´s birthday last time we were here (although she has had another birthday since then, many happy returns!) - and it will be a very civilised way to end a very positive visit to brasil. mark is staying for the weekend, to have a short rest before flying home on sunday/monday - and we fly back on friday/saturday, so bracing ourselves for the long haul back through sao paulo and amsterdam, from 1 pm on day one to 6 pm on day 2 !!!
thanks again for reading and supporting us so brilliantly!!
keith and denise
these have all gone really well. it seems to take almost the first day of training for everyone to be comfortable with one another, and then we really start to make progress! it was great to have all the team together from all the different aspects of the work of voice for change, and to cover many areas and topics as we basically looked at the five main ways that children receive love, and the ways in which we need to think, feel and behave towards them as we work with them, both in our casas, and also in the favela work.
in the evenings we have also spent ´quality time´with most people, and have been reviewing the past 3 months and discussing future plans for many areas of our activity, so much that that we have been worn out by the time we have crawled into bed, and then got up again at 7 am to be ready for the next day´s training....!
the team was really flowing well after 2 days together, and we are coming together again today.
but by far the most dramatic event took place yesterday as we were leaving the training venue when skip and debbie´s car engine caught fire, flames dropping onto the tarmac and, when the bonnet was opened, leaping 2 metres in the air. this one took 4 fire extinguishers to put out and and meant an extra night here for s and d, but nobody was harmed and nothing lost except a car engine ... so we are grateful for that! this is the second car fire we have had in our cars in 4 days ..... with the same thing happeneing on sunday to the casa dourada kombi .. what is that all about?
it is a holiday in brasil today, not too sure why, but this means that schools are off for both today and tomorrow ... so we decided yesterday that the whole vfc ´family´in curitiba will go to mcdonalds for lunch today (a very rare ´treat´for the children, as this restaurant is so expensive for normal brasilieros and most of them will go for the first time today, but as in the rest of the world, for many kids it is seen as the últimate´destination restaurant!!) ..
that´s 24 people going there at 1 o´clock !!
then we are going to surprise the children by going to the 3.30 performance of the circus which has pitched up in the city, quite close to here, which looks like a really good one ... we went to buy the tickets last night and we got a really good deal to take everyone, and they have trapeze, elephants, tigers, camels etc, all of which can be visited after the performance, so it should be a truly memory-building treat for everyone, and a really special day for them... but the most excited person is val!!! she loves the circus and can´t wait to get there! the children don´t know yet, of course, but we are excited just anticipating their delight when they realise what is happening as they arrive there and see the show!!
we have a few more mundane (but important) things to do too in the next 24 hours or so before this visit officially comes to an end, like another meeting at the city sports administration office, tracking down ´project mercy´, the professional support system which we hope to plug into, and finalising the may accounting and next 12 months budgets for vfc in brasil!
it is still sunny and cold, like a crisp october day with a slight chill in the air, but we have been really blessed with this lovely weather.
we may also just try to celebrate (slightly belatedly) mark´s birthday this evening with a trip to a nice restaurant, divino maestro, where the food is fantastic and the birthday celebrations quite extreme, singing, plates dropping on the floor etc, its pretty amazing. we did this for margaret´s birthday last time we were here (although she has had another birthday since then, many happy returns!) - and it will be a very civilised way to end a very positive visit to brasil. mark is staying for the weekend, to have a short rest before flying home on sunday/monday - and we fly back on friday/saturday, so bracing ourselves for the long haul back through sao paulo and amsterdam, from 1 pm on day one to 6 pm on day 2 !!!
thanks again for reading and supporting us so brilliantly!!
keith and denise
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
today (monday) has been a very busy day for us! val was determined to work despite still not really being well, and survived until 5.15 when she went home very tired. it was really helpful to have her around all day, but we are hoping she gets the bug out of her system overnight!
mark and darla visited the local school, where all the casa branca children attend, and signed the contracts for the uk/brasil exchange programme which is successfully run by schools in the bristol area - spending a couple of hours in the school and visiting classrooms, making good contacts and setting up the foundations of what we hope will be a very productive partnership going forward.
denise continued her preparations for the two days of training which will take place all day on tuesday and wednesday - covering the material in the book ´ the five love languages of children´ - quality time, words of affirmation, physical touch, acts of service and gifts - which should fill our days and prove very interesting in this context for this team.
then mark and denise reviewed the education programme in the vila with darla, whilst val and i went to the bank to set up online giving in brasil from the voice for change website - and after much discussion decided that taking payment for anything in brasil via the internet simply doesn´t exist, so we have to think laterally about this!
then off to the office of the city´s sports department, whgich organises and runs the curitiba marathon annually in november. we were very warmly received there, and we can put together a really good programme for runners who want to take part in brasil´s number one marathon in future, working with the city of curitiba. this will help raise their profile in the running world, and our profile in brasil too, as well as raising thousands of pounds for vfc .... the concept of running a marathon and being sponsored for charity was completely alien to the organisers of this run!! they do a full marathon, 10km run and a walk, all along the same route at the end of november each year. so get out your running shoes and start training! we hope to put together a package for 2008 and beyond, and the city is keen to provide hotels, sightseeing and other assistance to get runners from england to brasil.
we then went to the cambio to exchange some money for vfc and then to the extra supermarket to buy the refreshments and other bits and pieces for training sessions, and then to casa dourada for tea - a mandioca soup with bacon and roast chicken, which was adequate and delicious! a drawing and colouring session followed, with angelica producing a stunning portrait of mark which we will publish on the web somehow, soon, and denise producing yet another amazing copy of spiderman for jhonathan, who sat patiently for over an hour while she did the detailed drawing, which is a remarkable change and maturation for him, for those who know him. all the children were so engrossed in their work that they continued at the table while we slid away to come home to close down the day!!
tomorrow is staff training all day ..
p.s. we have frost tonight!!
keith
mark and darla visited the local school, where all the casa branca children attend, and signed the contracts for the uk/brasil exchange programme which is successfully run by schools in the bristol area - spending a couple of hours in the school and visiting classrooms, making good contacts and setting up the foundations of what we hope will be a very productive partnership going forward.
denise continued her preparations for the two days of training which will take place all day on tuesday and wednesday - covering the material in the book ´ the five love languages of children´ - quality time, words of affirmation, physical touch, acts of service and gifts - which should fill our days and prove very interesting in this context for this team.
then mark and denise reviewed the education programme in the vila with darla, whilst val and i went to the bank to set up online giving in brasil from the voice for change website - and after much discussion decided that taking payment for anything in brasil via the internet simply doesn´t exist, so we have to think laterally about this!
then off to the office of the city´s sports department, whgich organises and runs the curitiba marathon annually in november. we were very warmly received there, and we can put together a really good programme for runners who want to take part in brasil´s number one marathon in future, working with the city of curitiba. this will help raise their profile in the running world, and our profile in brasil too, as well as raising thousands of pounds for vfc .... the concept of running a marathon and being sponsored for charity was completely alien to the organisers of this run!! they do a full marathon, 10km run and a walk, all along the same route at the end of november each year. so get out your running shoes and start training! we hope to put together a package for 2008 and beyond, and the city is keen to provide hotels, sightseeing and other assistance to get runners from england to brasil.
we then went to the cambio to exchange some money for vfc and then to the extra supermarket to buy the refreshments and other bits and pieces for training sessions, and then to casa dourada for tea - a mandioca soup with bacon and roast chicken, which was adequate and delicious! a drawing and colouring session followed, with angelica producing a stunning portrait of mark which we will publish on the web somehow, soon, and denise producing yet another amazing copy of spiderman for jhonathan, who sat patiently for over an hour while she did the detailed drawing, which is a remarkable change and maturation for him, for those who know him. all the children were so engrossed in their work that they continued at the table while we slid away to come home to close down the day!!
tomorrow is staff training all day ..
p.s. we have frost tonight!!
keith
Monday, June 04, 2007
every one is a special individual
do these children need our help?
they all live in abject poverty in a favela in the city of curitiba, but look at the joy on their faces as they come to the voice for change centre in the favela - for food, education, love and care ......
well, sunday ... it appeared sunny when we woke this morning, so we walked upo to the baker´s shop to buy bread and milk for breakfast. i wore my shorts and flip-flops to go, which was a bit of a mistake, as my toes were numb with cold after about 100m!! managed to survive and get back without losing any toes, and val came for breakfast after having gone to bed following her party last night at 3 am!
went to the ´hippy fair´to stock up on things to sell in the uk for helping voice for change fundraising, and did really well there with our purchases - at the end we had a drink and a ´pastel´- a deep-fried pastry and meat concoction. unfortunately this has given val a stomach ache which has been with her for the rest of the day, and she has gone to bed feeling distictly unwell tonight.
however, such is her sense of duty that she made it without complaint to guaratuba, an hour´s drive away from curitiba, where mark and i went paddling in the sea, in the bay there, and we were sizing up the town as a possible place to take children for holidays, teams for weekend retreats and staff for respite.
also val´s sister lives there, and she has just had a new baby boy, enzo, so we paid a flying visit to see the baby, val´s mum, down from the north to look after the new mum and baby, and all her other sisters who were there also! her uncle, aunt and cousin were also there, so it was a grand family reunion, and quite an emotional time for val, especially on a dodgy tummy!!
denise entertained us all with her expert childcare methods, and came away bitten by a couple of times by mosquitos!! they always go for her!
when we got back a few moments ago, we discovered that the motor in the kombi van which is used by casa dourada caught fire on the way to church this evening, and the children had to be evacuated, the fire brigade called, and they are left without their kombi! this is unlikely to be covered by the insurance because the value of the vehicle is probably less than the cost of repairing it ..... we shall find out more tomorrow.
one of the children at casa branca (9 years old) has a father who had told him that he didn´t want to see him again, when he got himself a ´new´family... now he has come back, having ´lost´that family and got another ´new ´family (but nowhere to live) and he wants his son back ... but the authorities won´t allow this unless he has a house, and the son doesn´t want to go, because he knows what leaving here will mean for him ...
and skip´s car is broken down, which will give him and debbie difficulties in getting here for the training on tuesday ...
life is not a bed of roses in this work!
keith
went to the ´hippy fair´to stock up on things to sell in the uk for helping voice for change fundraising, and did really well there with our purchases - at the end we had a drink and a ´pastel´- a deep-fried pastry and meat concoction. unfortunately this has given val a stomach ache which has been with her for the rest of the day, and she has gone to bed feeling distictly unwell tonight.
however, such is her sense of duty that she made it without complaint to guaratuba, an hour´s drive away from curitiba, where mark and i went paddling in the sea, in the bay there, and we were sizing up the town as a possible place to take children for holidays, teams for weekend retreats and staff for respite.
also val´s sister lives there, and she has just had a new baby boy, enzo, so we paid a flying visit to see the baby, val´s mum, down from the north to look after the new mum and baby, and all her other sisters who were there also! her uncle, aunt and cousin were also there, so it was a grand family reunion, and quite an emotional time for val, especially on a dodgy tummy!!
denise entertained us all with her expert childcare methods, and came away bitten by a couple of times by mosquitos!! they always go for her!
when we got back a few moments ago, we discovered that the motor in the kombi van which is used by casa dourada caught fire on the way to church this evening, and the children had to be evacuated, the fire brigade called, and they are left without their kombi! this is unlikely to be covered by the insurance because the value of the vehicle is probably less than the cost of repairing it ..... we shall find out more tomorrow.
one of the children at casa branca (9 years old) has a father who had told him that he didn´t want to see him again, when he got himself a ´new´family... now he has come back, having ´lost´that family and got another ´new ´family (but nowhere to live) and he wants his son back ... but the authorities won´t allow this unless he has a house, and the son doesn´t want to go, because he knows what leaving here will mean for him ...
and skip´s car is broken down, which will give him and debbie difficulties in getting here for the training on tuesday ...
life is not a bed of roses in this work!
keith
Sunday, June 03, 2007
our warmest day yet - 18c on saturday, and we set off for campo largo to visit the ópen hands´project there, with samuel and his family. his daughter and son-in-law, who work with kids in russia (moscow) were home on holiday, and had great english, so we learned much more about what is happening in both campo largo and moscow!
after many months of protracted negotiations, they are hoping to start to build their first houses for homeless families in the next month, and then they plan to welcome their first team from the uk visiting in july.
they helped us with their knowledge of some of the professional resources in curitiba which they use, and have given us addresses where we can make contacts to help our children, especially those with learning difficulties. we had a very nice time over a delicious lunch in their house, and gave us a vital insight into the workings of the authorities here and also how favelas and the people who live in them evolve and change over time. we invited samuel and his team to join us next november on our training sessions, because our two organisations´work will overlap in some ways, in working with favela children, and it will be good for both teams to share insights and encourage one another.
we returned to curitiba for the 4 pm kick-off in the football stadium where the second home game of the season ended in a disappointing performance and a 0-1 defeat for coxa, the team which mark has adopted as his team here .. it looks like another long season in seria b for them, and we will continue to try to coax him away from the green and white, and over to the red and black of athletica, curitiba´s much more successful team! this was a ´man event´with jackson and luis-claudio, and we all had a very good time, with plenty of banter and bonding, even though sitting on the concrete terracing of the stadium gives one a numb bum!! there were only 12,000 people in the stadium but it literally shook when the fanaticos were dancing and drumming on the terraces!
we had a lovely meal out at the ´batata´restaurant in the evening, val went off to an ínto the small hours´birthday party and after attempting and failing to post a blog due to the connections being down again, the rest of us retired to our beds.
sunday morning has dawned, and we are off to the feria-hipie this morning, and then to guaratuba to see the beach!
have a nice day! thanks for sticking with us so far!!
tomorrow we are off to school! and to the city offices of the curitiba marathon!
keith, mark and denise
after many months of protracted negotiations, they are hoping to start to build their first houses for homeless families in the next month, and then they plan to welcome their first team from the uk visiting in july.
they helped us with their knowledge of some of the professional resources in curitiba which they use, and have given us addresses where we can make contacts to help our children, especially those with learning difficulties. we had a very nice time over a delicious lunch in their house, and gave us a vital insight into the workings of the authorities here and also how favelas and the people who live in them evolve and change over time. we invited samuel and his team to join us next november on our training sessions, because our two organisations´work will overlap in some ways, in working with favela children, and it will be good for both teams to share insights and encourage one another.
we returned to curitiba for the 4 pm kick-off in the football stadium where the second home game of the season ended in a disappointing performance and a 0-1 defeat for coxa, the team which mark has adopted as his team here .. it looks like another long season in seria b for them, and we will continue to try to coax him away from the green and white, and over to the red and black of athletica, curitiba´s much more successful team! this was a ´man event´with jackson and luis-claudio, and we all had a very good time, with plenty of banter and bonding, even though sitting on the concrete terracing of the stadium gives one a numb bum!! there were only 12,000 people in the stadium but it literally shook when the fanaticos were dancing and drumming on the terraces!
we had a lovely meal out at the ´batata´restaurant in the evening, val went off to an ínto the small hours´birthday party and after attempting and failing to post a blog due to the connections being down again, the rest of us retired to our beds.
sunday morning has dawned, and we are off to the feria-hipie this morning, and then to guaratuba to see the beach!
have a nice day! thanks for sticking with us so far!!
tomorrow we are off to school! and to the city offices of the curitiba marathon!
keith, mark and denise
here we are playing ball in the sunshine with the children at casa branca, and on the right is luis-felipe
the three sisters at casa branca are growing up fast - here are telma, erica and fernanda in the garden ...
Saturday, June 02, 2007
friday was a good day, visiting all our houses and vila centre again, delivering new chairs and other equipment that was needed and which generously had been provided by donations from our superb supporters.
there was also a great diplomatic result in the wembley friendly, with brazil and england drawing 1-1 with a last-minute equaliser for brazil to keep them happy, and so honours even there!
denise is finalising her plans for the training sessions this week, and the hall family managed to find a badge-making machine, which was brought out here for the training and for leaving for the vila work, but with mark packing the machine, he left out his clothes! so he has to be re-fitted!!
on saturday we are having lunch in campo largo, to see the new project there which our friends samuel and mission direct are setting up, and we are hoping to find some professionals who can help with the learning difficulties of some of our children ..
it´s a very sunny day today, with a temperature around 15c!!
have a nice weekend!
keith
there was also a great diplomatic result in the wembley friendly, with brazil and england drawing 1-1 with a last-minute equaliser for brazil to keep them happy, and so honours even there!
denise is finalising her plans for the training sessions this week, and the hall family managed to find a badge-making machine, which was brought out here for the training and for leaving for the vila work, but with mark packing the machine, he left out his clothes! so he has to be re-fitted!!
on saturday we are having lunch in campo largo, to see the new project there which our friends samuel and mission direct are setting up, and we are hoping to find some professionals who can help with the learning difficulties of some of our children ..
it´s a very sunny day today, with a temperature around 15c!!
have a nice weekend!
keith
Friday, June 01, 2007
it is midnight on day 3 of our trip, and i am just off to the airport to collect mark, after the inevitable delay in flight! he has just sent a text to say he has been called to board the plane, and he should therefore arrive within the next hour!
we have managed to get the glass put into the windows of the vils classroom today, and also obtained a second-hand television set to allow us to show dvd´s on days when it is too cold or wet to go outside to play or do other activities. this will be a great help to Darla and Priscila, and the kids will love to see a colour tv!!
we have also done some admin today, played cards with the casa branca children, who all played together really well, and ´inspected´their rooms, which jackson and tuim, the parents, would like to see kept more clean and tidy by the children, and we have talked a bit about some strategies for achieving this, not easy in a house with 8 children whilst trying not to create a military regime, but a ´normal´family lifestyle!!
more clothes are going on each day as the temperature stays cool!
we received an official letter today about two people we need to watch out for, as they are a potential danger to our children ... just one of the things which you don´t hear too much about, but which goes on all the time at the ´sharp end´of caring for these children ..
off now to pick up mark and bring him here to get some sleep!!
we have managed to get the glass put into the windows of the vils classroom today, and also obtained a second-hand television set to allow us to show dvd´s on days when it is too cold or wet to go outside to play or do other activities. this will be a great help to Darla and Priscila, and the kids will love to see a colour tv!!
we have also done some admin today, played cards with the casa branca children, who all played together really well, and ´inspected´their rooms, which jackson and tuim, the parents, would like to see kept more clean and tidy by the children, and we have talked a bit about some strategies for achieving this, not easy in a house with 8 children whilst trying not to create a military regime, but a ´normal´family lifestyle!!
more clothes are going on each day as the temperature stays cool!
we received an official letter today about two people we need to watch out for, as they are a potential danger to our children ... just one of the things which you don´t hear too much about, but which goes on all the time at the ´sharp end´of caring for these children ..
off now to pick up mark and bring him here to get some sleep!!
part of the mask-making class, with some of their masks. note that it is very cold here, and some kids have coats and hoodies on, while others have no coat, and just a thin top to wear in the cold. we are having glass put into the windows today to help makje the classroom warmer (less cold)
they are always ready to ´pose´and look as ´cool´as possible!!
setting up the room ready for the show next week.
some children practising a sketch with Darla in the first classroom, but always ready to be diverted away from the work by the camera´s presence!
can i have my picture taken too?
curitiba is a modern-looking city, but beware the potholes!!!
denise catching up with her messages in the cold office!
some children eating their ´meal´in the vila before going home.