(Sam) Christmas in the sun :o)

Boa Viagem beach in Recife, where we were
for Christmas day!

Immediately after the Christmas party we had to frantically tidy up, organise the project stuff and pack our bags... because we were heading to Recife for Christmas! We got the bus to the airport in the middle of the night, and then just before checking in at the airport we discovered that we didn’t have Claire’s passport - we each thought the other had it!! There wasn't time to travel all the way back to Medina to get it, and we were devastated at the prospect of losing our flights, accommodation and time away that we'd been so looking forward to after the stress and exhaustion of the last few weeks. However (!), fortunately in Brazil they love their forms, and so advised by the man in the airport we just had time to get to the police station, print out an 'official' form certifying Claire’s name and details and get on the plane! I love it – they had no idea if we were lying or not, but it ticked all their boxes and we managed to get to Recife!!!

Outside Sergio's workshop - with him as he got
ready for the Recife Art Exhibition  

The first week we just crashed by the beach and were able to (more or less) switch off and recuperate. It was quite surreal being a tourist in the thin beach strip just in front of where we had spent so long chatting to girls on the street two years ago. Then the second week was quite a hectic timetable of seeing many friends, and catching up with all those who we had imagined we’d be working with. It was great to see some of them now really making progress in their areas of social work and two already setting up projects this year specifically for girls caught in prostitution. Most of our time was spent with Sergio and Adriana – the most wonderfully normal, funny and inspirational couple and a great breath of fresh air. We’re gutted not to be living closer to them. He also makes the most amazing wooden furniture and we wanted to bring it all back with us!

Me in Recife on one of Sergio's
funky wooden chairs!

It was also the sad (not really that sad) farewell to Gus, our old and battered Beetle. He had now completely ceased to function, but by some miracle a friend of a friend decided to buy it for nearly £1000. Amazing!

Claire having a moment with Gus
back in 2010!

We arrived back on Friday night after travelling since two in the morning, and now on Sunday have just travelled again for seven hours (!) to meet Lauren, the dance teacher from England, which was great fun – I can tell we’re going to have a lot of laughs together over the next few months. This week is the last week before our opening on Monday 14th, so it’s going to be full steam ahead!!

(Sam) Pink House Christmas Party

I know it’s already January! but we just wanted to give a quick recap on the Christmas party :o)

After months of preparing the pink house and getting to know the girls individually, the Christmas party on the 21st December was the first time that all of them would be in the Pink House together. The team had been finalized just the week before, which was really exciting since this also meant that they and the girls would all get to meet.

The house was fully decorated with pink, purple and silver tinsel, and a huge pink cake in the living room. As the girls started arriving, there was a lot of excitement, especially as they were now able to go round the house themselves and talk about it with each other. Each time one of us walked into the dance room, we’d find them all giggling and dancing in the mirror.

Rita welcoming the girls at the beginning of the party!

Rita started things off with the real meaning of Christmas, presenting the team and letting the girls know that we were serious about things changing in their lives and about us as a new family seeing their dreams become reality. As the girls then ran loose around the house, there was a wonderful atmosphere of chaotic fun! We had apple bobbing, musical chairs and a chocolate-eating game all happening at once, and as different girls started gradually interacting with each other there was a lot of laughter and some of the tension began to break down.

Santa Sam!

Just a few days before, Leticia had also arrived back in town, which was such a wonderful sight for us, and amazingly she came along to the Christmas party too. Joining together 40 girls of varying backgrounds and emotional wounds however, was bound to cause some tension, but even though there were a lot of looks, comments and a rather ugly fight, Rita was able to set the boundaries that in this house we will work towards becoming one family that grows together.

The girls absolutely loved the food, and the cake, and then right at the end I made a very convincing debut as Santa Claus with a special present and message for each girl! We don’t know what the reality will be in each of their homes this Christmas Day, but we are excited to be starting a New Year in which each girl has the chance to begin a new and very different chapter in her life.

(Claire) A swift dismount!

It’s been a while since writing... lots has been going on here at the Pink House, with non-stop days and seemingly endless lists of things to do! So we’re looking forward to spending a few days in Recife over Christmas – where we were the last time we were in Brazil. Before we head off, the final push here is for the Christmas party on Friday that we’re doing in the Pink House. It’ll be the first time that all of the girls (without friends, parents or other town-members etc.) will be together under the same roof, and we’re sure it’s going to be a mix of beautiful, fun and unpredictable!

Over the last few days we’ve been going from house to house, inviting the girls to the party and using that as an opportunity to spend a bit more time with them, and take a step into their worlds for a little while. One such world was that of a fifteen year-old, who has the biggest (cheekiest) smile we’ve seen yet. Her world is filled with chaos, violence,  drugs and prostitution, and she shows all the tough signs of someone who’s survived more than any of us could really imagine. We arrived to find a man lying knocked out on the floor of her tiny, dark living room, and were told to ‘feel at home’ and just step/sit round him. It turned out that this man was her Dad. So we carried on the conversation that involved a lot of laughing, joking and teasing, with feet barely inches away from his head, realising that this is absolutely normal in her world. One of her two children was there, who she loves in the best way that she can… a cheeky chap who was yet another reminder that at age thirteen this girl had already given birth.

Amidst the many signs of poverty that existed all around us, a funny thing happened! As we were chatting in the house a massive horse galloped up to the door and stood about two feet away, blocking the tiny brick doorway. A sight I definitely wasn’t expecting! Our yelps of surprise and interest in the horse swiftly led to the whole family getting really excited about Sam saddling up!! So there in the tiny street of one of the poorest areas in Medina Sam was holding the reigns, with the whole (dynamic) family cheering him on and telling him to gallop down the cobbled street! “You’ll be fine – just hold on!!” To the disappointment of all he panicked and made a swift dismount (!), and as we left that family we giggled about how he could well have trotted very slowly out of the city and onto the BR116 with no idea how to stop or get off!

So life is a funny mix of happenings. In the next post are a few photos of some memories thus far...

Sam and the lovely Vicki who stayed with us whilst volunteering at the Pink House (in our most favourite room at home...the hammock room!)

The Pastor of our church and his wife and daughter at our house. They are such a lovely family, full of fun and laughter, and have been such an encouragement to us, especially in giving me space to just be myself despite the language barrier 

Me and Vicki after a trip to the salon! (never been to a salon in my life before coming to Brazil!)

Me and Sam having good old English tea and biscuits (thank you Vicki!)... in the hammock room!

Snowing in Medina!! 

Not really - this is the remains of Sam's freezer de-icing party!

A typical roads in Medina, and one that leads out to the hills...

Sam about to carry our palm tree across the town to a friend's house as a present! It looks harmless enough, but he arrived with soil and scratches all over his face! What is the gringo going to do next...?!

One of the many bugs in our house that made Sam genuinely scream and hide!!! (This isn't microscopic photography... the bug was huge!!)

Sam fixing our roof after the worst storm that Medina has had in the history of it's current inhabitants! We thought it was a tornado at one point!

A gecko :)

A witchcraft monument on top of the mountain that we climbed

Me and Sam doing Rita's hair in the salon (This is just a set-up, there is absolutely no way Rita would let us go anywhere near her hair!!!)

Sam, me and Rita, hiding in amongst all the PINK

Outside the Pink House the day after the big party for the girls. From left: Warlei, Dani, Sam, Dean, Me, Matt and Rita! This hurt more than it looks!!

Rita, Sam and I visiting in the pouring rain and asking how to get to a certain girl's house... it involved sliding(literally) down the hill to her doorstep!

Guina, a local graffiti artist, doing awesome things to the Pink House walls! 

Sam doing a broomstick dance. He's actually stuffing the holes in the roof of the dance room with plastic bags to hold back the rain! This idea was developed after we realised that the roof wasn't doing it's job and every time after it rained the inside of the house was flooded... and surprisingly it works! (This picture is also very reminiscent of a midnight broom incident that you should ask Sam about...)

At the big party for the girls! Me and Sam with Dean and Rita. By this point everyone was shattered, but so excited about the wonderful evening that had just taken place

The salon in the Pink House, leading into the bean-bag room next door! 

A sneak preview of Sam as Santa before the Christmas party that's happening this Friday night! The sad face I think has something to do with the absolutely huge trousers that he has no choice but to wear! Will post photos of his final 'look' in a few days...!!

(Sam) 50 precious lives!

Last week we finally had the most immense privilege of visiting all the girls in their homes, to deliver their personal invite to the project. We finished the last few yesterday and are filled with such a sense of joy and anticipation.

On arriving back from the visits (we had been through so many houses in such a short space of time), my mind was a flood of images...

each girl is so unique and beautiful, and in every hardened or downcast expression we could see the creases of a reluctant but irrepressible smile breaking through when they heard that they had been 'chosen' to be part of the project. It was such a privilege to be there at that moment, to be sharing the news that there is an opportunity for something different, an alternative for the future.

There were quite a few girls who Rita had so wanted to invite before it was too late, but who we now realised were already pregnant. One beautiful but very tough young girl was playing football in the street when we called her. She came over with a really hard and mistrusting face but then produced the most amazing smile when she thought of the idea of being part of the project, having her hair done, learning guitar...Even though she already has a baby (who is fortunately being looked after by family), she's only 13 and she really needs this chance that Meninadança will offer her, to be a child again herself.

The invites were absolutely perfect even for the older, tougher girls. Their eyes widened and cheeks softened as the pink girly picture with their name on the front inspired the beginnings of a belief that they may in fact be worth something....wow...hope is the most beautiful concept and this week we saw tangible glimpses of it in the most unlikely, seemingly impossible situations.

At one point, as we walked out of yet another house with Rita, we realised that we were all grinning from ear to ear! and just couldn't stop smiling and laughing...Rita had been so frustrated because in the face of such need we had to limit the number of girls to 50; but today she said that it had suddenly hit her in a different way when chatting with a friend that we were going to be involved in the lives of Fifty young women and girls and their families, speaking of hope and transformation to those who most desperately need it. Seeing the difference that some conversations have already made in how the girls look ahead, we believe that God really is going to bring that transformation here in Medina.

(Sam) Budding photographers!

It's been great having Vicki, a teacher from the UK, volunteering with us during this set-up phase. One of her passions is photography and so this Sunday we met up with two of the girls to give them an introductory lesson! Vicki showed them the basics and then we wandered through the countryside outside the town with the two girls pointing and shooting as they went!

One of Vicki’s aims was for them to see their town through different eyes, since both of them have seriously considered leaving for various reasons. It was amazing by the end of our walk to hear them actually noticing the beauty around them, and realising that there is life here outside of what they have experienced so far. It's so good for them to know that there is another perspective on the same reality, one which is so much more filled with life and hope.

One funny moment was when one of the girls looked at the ground and screamed, and out of fear I ran and jumped into the air, landing straight onto the thing they’d been screaming about – a big hairy tarantula! It didn’t bite me, but it was huge! We filmed one later and then a woman came and beat it to death with a stick…it’s not just us who don’t like them!

Medina!

A couple of weeks ago we climbed one of the hills around the town with two friends, and sat at the top for so long with the hot wind in our faces, not quite believing that this is where we have landed! We're so so thankful for being in this beautiful place.

I may have convinced Claire that it was only a 15 minute walk to the top! haha...she was not too pleased an hour and 15 minutes later when we got to the top with no water around for miles! But the beautiful sunset was definitely worth it.