come with me to jacare :)

this is a view from my roof. children play on the roof and fly kites from them often.. one of my favorite things about this place.

another one of my favorite things about favela life: clotheslines. colorful. reminder of hard work and signs of life //

my belly is full of subway and my senses overloaded from a big movie screen with large speakers saying loud things in portuguese that i couldn´t understand.

saturdays are our "off" days, and for today we decided to do something somewhat familiar and comfortable. being immersed in a different culture gets a little hard at times and i just need to waltz into something i feel like i´m getting a hug from every once in a while. today it was subway and a movie. (they also had kfc in the mall. interesting.)

we saw "cidade dos homens", which means "city of men". if any of you saw city of God, this film was made by the same people and was more realistic to favela life. i felt strange as the camera panned the city whose streets i have walked many times now and whose people i have begun to fall for. it felt like my hometown; i felt proud and sentimental! the houses look like mine, the language the same as i hear flowing around me at all times now, and some of the characters even reminded me of some people we have developed relationships here. i recommend you seeing it if they are showing it in the states now.

it was difficult to watch because i know that the story is true and i now have faces to put to the pretend characters. the children here in rio have to grow up so quickly. they are born into poor families and so they must work, in whatever way they can find. they experience more violence than i have ever seen in my 23 years. the cycle is painful, and we don´t have a quick fix, but i have to remember that every snippet of love we give them is vital. the time we get to spend communicating to them their worth and that they are children of God is imperitive. and the time we can be adults for them and allow them to be children.. to blindly trust, to play and to say what´s on their minds.. well, they teach me a lot more than i could ever teach them no matter how many english, art, or bible lessons we have. they are teaching me simplicity, humility, and resilience.

i hope to continue to sit at their feet during my time here,

and i hope one can teach me to fly a kite.

"Love has a hem in her garment

that reaches the very dust.

It sweeps the stains from the streets and lanes,

and because it can,

it must."

mother teresa

Currently Reading Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity By Ronald J. Sider see related