Unfortunately, people here don’t live in the nicest conditions. As to be expected, some people in the favelas don’t have running water (most). It is interesting to see families with rock floors and no water, who live in a hut-like shack, have a 75-inch flat screen with all the applications: YouTube, Netflix, etc.
Destruction Of Property
While eating lunch at the house of a sweet grandma from our church, I realized, to my dismay, the bathroom was calling my name. Just to address some questions that might be coming up and to paint a picture, the bathrooms of people’s houses are a glorified hole in the floor, porta-potty. They stink, some of them have standing water (dirty) overflowing the toilet, and even if they’re clean, the pipes aren’t big enough to allow toilet paper down them, so they just have a trash can filled with the used toilet paper (makes the bathroom smell like poop). All of this, along with the run-down gas station bathroom level of cleanlines, makes it a very hard pass if I can help it. Unfortunately, this time I couldn’t.
Anyways, as I’m staring down the murky brown water in the toilet, watching someone else’s bodily solids float around, I try to get out as quick as possible. Fortunately for me only, a #1 was calling, because there was no way to wash my hands. As I go to open the door, a sliding accordion-style door… Pause ⏸️. All the doors here are not built for a bigger man of 205lbs and of my staggering height of 5’10”, so I had to turn sideways and duck to enter in the first place.
Anyways, as I’m trying to shimmy out the door, to my horror, I watch in slow motion as the door detaches from its track, as I’m squeezing myself out, falling cartoon-style into the bathroom, slamming on the ground. As I look up at the face of the poor grandma whose house it was (that I already felt bad that we were probably eating the last food she had), she’s starts to say a bunch of phrases I’ve never heard before. Luckily, I did hear “don’t worry about it” mixed in there, but I felt pretty stupid picking up the door and leaning it against the wall.
The rain here is on drugs
Out of the blue it will start pouring, absolutely coming down, and there will not be a rain-producing cloud in sight, but for the next 10 minutes, it will pour relentlessly with the sun shining down and rain coming straight out of nowhere. Then, just as randomly as it starts, it stops. But the craziest thing is, just as the rain comes from nowhere, it disappears when it hits the ground. I’m talking no mud, nothing; it’s just gone. The ground soaks it up and, just as quickly, it gets evaporated by the sun’s death rays.
Street dogs
Around every corner, there’s a stray dog. There are so many, they are the unofficial “mascot” of Brazil. They are called “Cachorro Castanhos”. Most of these dogs once were owned as pets, but, as soon as something happened with the families, poverty, hardship, or the family just didn’t want a dog anymore. they get abandoned and sent on the street. These dogs are very timid, shy, and won’t let people get close to them, they’ve been hurt too many times by people throwing rocks, sticks at them, or kicking them. But if you sit down and stand real still, the dogs will slowly come towards you and let you pet them.
This reminds me of our life on earth, how many times will life treat us badly, how many times have people hurt us with “sticks and rocks”. How many times have we felt abandoned, lost, or alone in a world full of people? As we walk around the streets of life, looking for our purpose and trying to find meaning, there the Savior is, crouching down, waiting for us, waiting to show us love, and waiting for us to trust Him enough to come into His loving arms and let Him take us home.
In Matthew 11:28-29, Jesus invites us all to, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”. I can promise you that through struggle, grief, adversity, etc., Christ is there waiting for you to trust Him.
As always, if y’all have questions, cool experiences, and/or things you want to send me, I love to get stuff from y’all.
The address to send stuff is:
R. João Fernandes Viêira, 80 – Boa Vista, Recife – PE, 50050-200
(I think it’s safe to send stuff, I haven’t heard of anyone else’s stuff not arriving.)
Notable Events:
– Turned 20yo Sunday
– Met a super awesome family that we are teaching in a town I’d never been to.
– Went two days not being able to understand people. (gift of tounges turned off)
– One of my housemates got dear Johned
– The food here is gas
Google Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cnvNHFLuWEPTfcKj