July 8, 2009

Kristin here. I am sorry for not updating the blog much..we have been extremely busy. Okay, I will start where I left off. Right after the last post we got to watch the school's childrens program. It was all in Portuguese, so we couldn't understand it. It was about the culture of different parts of Brazil. The children did many popular dances and had costumes to match. It was a neat experience.
Sunday. We attended 2 church services. One in the morning here at the Alcance. Andy Flink, the BRCC children's pastor, spoke and Tele translated. It was amazing to see the Brazilian people worship and be so passionate about it. We then went to an all you can eat pizza place. The pizza here is unique. From cheese, pepporoni, tuna, and chocolate...they had lots of it! When they brought out the tuna pizza no one told us that is was tuna, and when we tried it...well lets just say no one liked. Also much of our appetite was gone. I believe everyone's favorite was chocolate pizza! Yummy! Then we hurried to our next church service. It was different than the first. We got to see a baptism and they even celebrated a birthday. Dr. Charles Taylor from BRCC spoke here, with Tele translating again. Sunday was a great day to see how God is working in the people.
Monday. Day 1 of medical camp. We were at a church located about an hour and a half away from the Alcance. We got to the church about 9am and got set up. For most of the day, we were assigned to entertain the kids. We played many games and had a blast. Also, we got to hold a lot of sweet little ones. We had lunch at the pastor's home, where his wife cooked for us. Then in the evening, Lindsey and I sat in with the doctor. We got to see different illnesses and watch them as they recieved the help they needed. One particular lady hadn't been to a doctor in 20 years and has had an open wound with an infection for 2 years! That explains some of what we saw. We didn't didn't return back to Alcance until 9:30pm. The long hours were well worth it though.
Tuesday. Day 2 of medical camp. We went to another church. Pastor Ricardo's church. We had a lot less space to work with but we made it work. I worked in the pharmacy the whole day. Searching for medicine, having someone translate directions for me, and watching people who are so grateful to have medicine. I loved being in the pharmacy! Lindsey played with kids in the morning, then took blood pressure in the rest of the day. She said that she enjoyed that job and interacting with the people. Collin was on kid entertainment the whole day again. He has been doing such a great job with the all the kids! We started about 9am and ended around 6pm. Then we came back for a wonderful pasta and beef dinner. After dinner, Seth took us to get churros. It is like an tube elephant ear with sugar and carmel or chocolate filling. Delicious!!!
Now we are up to today! We got to sleep in this morning!!! We didn't leave the Alcance til 9am. But today our medical camp was help in the dump. It was an eye-opening experience. It took us a long time to get to it due to mud...LOTS of mud. A few of us walked up the hill and all the way to the city. It was a long walk but we weren't sure if we could get the vehicle up the hill. Eventually after many interesting techniques (I heard from Kari) they got up the hill. When we got there it was a shock...trash everywhere, piles. There were men digging through the piles to find anything they could use. The houses were cardboard and wood, and a couple brick houses. The kids don't get much affection usually because their parents don't want them to be weak. We went in and played with the kids and held them. They had huge smiles on their faces. Collin gave his favorite hat to a little boy and I think it made his day. We left puppets for them and they all loved those. It was very sad to see some of the kids though. Lots of them had worms and other illnesses. Most only had one article of clothing and some nothing. We saw a little boy with no clothes just sitting on the ground. Heartbreaking! Why do we need all this stuff when some literally have nothing?! Crazy! We didn't see many adults maybe 15 total, and some kids, but most didn't want help. It was eye-opening!
I know this is long, but I hope all of you enjoy reading. We have had a wonderful trip and are loving every minute. Thanks for all your prayers! Tonight we are hanging out around the Alcance...I learned to play double decker big euchre! Ahh...so much fun! Tomorrow is our last day of medical camp. And some of the group leaves Friday. Try to update this weekend again!