(Claire) Setting foot in Brazil

Normally when I arrive in a new country after a long-haul flight, I feel that surreal, slightly detached sensation that comes with suddenly ‘appearing’ half way around the world in a matter of hours! Everything seems different around you and it’s hard to take it all in and really feel through and through that you’ve arrived. This time however we walked out of the airport, met Matt (who had patiently waited a very long time for us to come through!), and wheeled our bags to the car, feeling entirely normal, unsurprised and deeply peaceful! The sun wasn’t particularly showing itself, and I wouldn’t say the scenery was the exotic tropical horizon that some might imagine when landing in Brazil, and so there wasn’t really any scope for romanticised feelings of ‘finally arriving in the Americas!’. I just felt extremely happy, peaceful and interested in learning about my new surroundings. It struck me that this may well be one of many ways that I would feel the difference of having had such a long time to prepare; yes we’d said goodbye to England, travelled thousands of miles in a matter of hours to our new home, and yet there was absolutely no way that my mind could be shocked! That was a wonderful feeling, and just in the first few days of being here there have been many more such moments...

(Claire) Saying goodbye

Saying goodbye to our families was the last big hurdle that we had to jump before we made it to Brazil. I’d been dreading that moment, as my parents live in South Africa for half of the year and so we didn’t know when we were going to see each other again. We all woke up at 3am, ouch! To get to Heathrow for our 6am flight. Everything went smoothly at the check-in, all our many bags were just the right weight (relief!) and so, all too quickly, the time to say goodbye arrived. Somehow having a ‘next date to meet’ seemed like it would have helped, but without knowing when that would be it was instead a painful “I’ll see you when I see you”. After making it through security we sat down for a quick coffee and I read through the beautiful leaving book that my Mum had made for us, with encouraging words and smiling pictures of friends… I read this entry and was reminded that I walk hand-in-hand with God, and with him nothing changes…


“In heavenly love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear,
And safe in such confiding,
For nothing changes here;
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid;
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?”

I decided not to push any of the emotion down, but let it all out (!) so that there would be room for the deep joy and excitement that I’d been feeling up until this point to re-surface. And so it did! As I sat on the plane ready to take-off, I thought, with excitement bubbling, ‘we’re about to fly into the next chapter…’ !

(Sam)

Oh man!! The time has arrived...it's Tuesday night and we're flying at 6am tomorrow morning so there's very few hours of sleep left.
I am so tired from a ridiculously hectic month, but my head is still spinning too much to head to bed yet.

It feels so surreal that we will be there tomorrow afternoon, in a completely different situation..and so it's hard to actually engage with the feelings that accompany it. We are definitely sad, especially thinking of the last goodbye to our families tomorrow, and also pretty daunted at the thought of what we're stepping into..mostly because of the many uncertainties and even though we've tried to build as much of a picture as possible, I still feel a bit like we're heading into the unknown.

All day today though, amidst the surreal numb feelings and the sadness and uncertainty/stress/fear, I have definitely been getting that jittery excited feeling too!! There's no turning back now. All our stuff is packed, stored or chucked, we have the flight tickets and so we just have to get on the plane and we'll literally be taken there..aagh! I feel slightly inadequate and rather nervous, but also massively excited at the potential of what could happen as we just simply show up and let God use us.

Please Father stir our hearts but calm our nerves, and take us safely there tomorrow. Please guide us in plans and preparations over the next few weeks and then by your grace grant us amazing favour in the community of Medina as we try to build relationships with those we're going to work with, with other services and schools, and above all with the young girls and their families that we desperately want to reach. Help us to understand them and to make decisions that will be transformative and life-giving for them and their whole community. Amen.

3 weeks before we fly!

Claire:

Three weeks left and I have an overwhelming desire to pack!! The other day we had a few Giant suitcases delivered…with TAP Portugal you get a hefty 64kg each! I’m so excited about filling them! A few friends have given us beautiful things to take to put in the Pink House (safe house in Medina) One friend gave beautiful colouring books, plasticine, pencils and paints – all in exchange for a hair-cut! I did warn her before I got chopping that my basic skills were acquired in the course that cost me £8 and a bag of beans ;) I’m looking forward to packing well… taking things from our lovely home here to help set up home there. I know that culture shock is unavoidable and in various ways I’ll struggle to settle in, but at the same time I’m excited about making that transition, and getting to know another little space and making it our home. A few key items that we want to take:

Sam: 2 x hand-painted bird egg cups (!) & mini black-board!
Claire: Pink pizza-cutter & African safari table mats :)

In amongst the excitement about packing, there are lots of other feelings taking place… a sense of quiet peacefulness about going; a growing anticipation and excitement about the opportunities for lasting change in Medina; a deep desire to begin the challenging yet beautiful journey of getting to know the girls on the BR116; anxiousness about saying goodbye to family and friends, and sadness about stopping working with the children and young people in Eltham who we’ve had the privilege of getting to know. I also feel a great sense of awe before God for leading me on this journey from the start; there are many unknowns, and yet I feel peaceful that we are part of something bigger than ourselves and that we do not go alone.

Meninadança

Please check out the website of Meninadança (Girl Dance) to read up on their vision and objectives, and get a better idea of who we're working with. This video should also give a good visual introduction, with an incredibly moving song that a Canadian singer called Dean Brody wrote after meeting one of the girls - Leilah.

In summary, Meninadança hopes to set up various projects along the vast BR116 motorway in Brazil, using dance especially to reach out to underage girls caught in prostitution and sexual exploitation. The huge motorways that cross the interior of Brazil are actually where most prostitution is to be found, and in a recent survey by the government, they found the worst highway of all to be the BR-116. Along its 2,700 miles there are 262 places where child prostitution was known to be taking place - the equivalent of one every ten miles.

Meninadança is focusing on the motorway communities where these girls live, aiming to set up safe-houses where girls can engage in dance and other activities to increase their self-esteem, and find new meaning, hope and purpose. Through community work with the girls and their families, Meninadança hopes to rescue many girls from a life of sexual exploitation and restore them to living out their full potential.
Read more about Meninadanca here.

Thoughts on leaving...

(Sam:) I can’t quite believe we’re finally going! and I’m actually really sad about leaving. We’ve had a long time back in Eltham now, and are even more aware of what we will be leaving behind. Family, friends and community in general are so important to us, and it is painful to be partially breaking some of those connections. Having spent more focused time over the last six months investing in the children and young people in the area also makes it pretty tough to leave.


I’ve worked with marginalised young people around the community since I was sixteen, and getting stuck in full-time for six months has convinced me again of the massive importance and urgency of people sacrificing time to invest in their lives, whatever our initials views and opinions may be. The work that Superkidz does is absolutely invaluable – through them there are children who are now growing up with purpose; there are young people rejected by every other institution who now experience unconditional love and acceptance for the first time in life; and for those workers who do patiently pursue them year in year out, there are amazing moments of progress and also huge personal transformation through challenging situations. I’ll be very sad to leave here and I hope and pray that many more people will give up time each week to be a small but powerfully different voice in their lives.

Wohoooooo!!

Wohoooooooo!!! We’re finally off!

While we committed to working for Superkidz and also our church (EGCC) for six months, ending this July, we have been waiting for paperwork from Meninadança. Since this has still not materialised, the director Matt Roper has advised us to come out on a tourist visa for six months to get stuck into the project while the documents are produced. A lawyer there has advised us the same, so we’re trusting things will be sorted during these six months and we’ve booked our flights for August 15th!
This actually works really well, since their plan is for us to spend up to six months in their hub project in Belo Horizonte before then moving to a smaller town Medina, where the organisation hopes to replicate the project. So we will finish our time in Belo, then pick up our visas in London next February, and move back out to Medina longer term.

Click here to see the map with larger font on the original website (Number 1 is Belo Horizonte and number 2 is Medina).