During the past week, we have continued working in the various projects that I have described in the previous entries, but on Friday, we had a special time in one of the favelas when visiting several families. The particular area that we went to is home to many of the families who go to one of the locations we visit in the evenings. When we go there and on home visits, we wear special t-shirts; mine is bright orange! Because of the t-shirts, and because of the positive relationships that grow between the families and the group, including ourselves, the children quickly recognise them when they see them. They become really excited to see us and that is why I was taken by surprise by a young child who ran up behind me and gave me a great big hug before I even realised that she was there. It was lovely to see her again. In fact, it was the same little girl who had painted my wife's nails in a previous week.
We soon reached the family we were intending to visit first and by now there were several children around us. At this point, a friend of mine made an appearance out of our bag - Tutter (or Tutter de Mouse to give him his full name). If you are not aware of Tutter, perhaps ask a member of staff who has been at West Leigh for several years or one of my past pupils. Anyway, he had great fun with the children and they seemed to enjoy playing with him. It turns out that he can speak a little Portuguese; I never knew that!
Something interesting was evident during this time with Tutter though - some of the younger children had never seen a puppet and didn't seem to know how to use one. The older children did, but it made me realise that some of the toddlers don't get the wonderful array of experiences early in their life that those in the UK do!
Finally, for this week, I want to explain something that has hit me this week - the power of the projects! Although we have only been here for two months, we have got to know so many children through our involvement in football, teaching girls English, visiting the streets and working with those at Hope House. I am surprised how quickly this can happen and that is exciting. These projects really do have a positive impact on the lives of people. The people who work on them really care about the children and families they meet and it has been great to work alongside them. Of course our time is not yet at an end so we can still enjoy these opportunities for a few more weeks.
Unfortunately, not everything here is quite so great! On Monday, we were walking through the jungle taking the shortcut to Hope House when we noticed a huge spider in the middle of a massive web. That was interesting but what we saw next wasn't - at least 8 huge spiders all with webs of their own only a few steps further on!
Hopefully they stay in their webs and I'll stay our of their way.
Tchau again!
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