Hello, and welcom to my last full week here in Brazil, as in one weeks tomorrow i shall be heading off to the aiport and starting my 24 hour journey back to the UK, where upon arrival i shall be being whisked back to the cold little town of Horsham!
So what have i been doing recently? Well, it has been BUSY!
about 3 weeks ago now, all three of us felt a little ill, we had varying sypmtoms, and a variety of things wrong with us, mine however sounds pathetic, but hurt alot... i had an aching back and had absolutely no energy what so ever ... yes i know your thinking i am an old man now... but i am not even 19 yet! Sophie had a soar throat, and couldn't swallow, and her medicine was in tablet form, for those of you who know Sophie will know that she is not good with tablets, and did not enjoy this medicine. Tim however had a cough, and was very tired, but was still able to go to PEPE one day out of the week we were off... ish. After about a week of resting, popping pills, and going to the circus that is in town, we were getting ready to go off on Retreat with the church (basically just a church weekend away) on this morning i had gone off with one of our friends, Willy, to help deliver a bed, i eceived a phone call from Tim who told me that Sophie had had an alergic reation to her, medication and was going to the doctors with a full body rash. That was all sorted the rash went down a bit, and we went off to the weekend. There we enjoyed doing lots of things with the youth, like playing games int he mud, making water slides, having worship and devotional sessions, and gernerally relaxing, and sleeping in tents!
When we arrived home from the retreat, we had two joyous nights of sleep before we were whisked off by the family to Mata Roma which is in the interior, to the Granny's farm, which was an amazing weekend of swimming in rivers, and walking through the jungle, and seeing sand dunes, and all the great things that come witht he jungle, such as tarrantulas in bedrooms. This was an amazing time for us, we got to spend a few days solidly with the family before going back to the UK, and it was good to just relax with them.
Then as we were driving back from Mata Roma, I recieved a phone call from Julia (our in country supervisor) saying that the next morning we would be leaving sao luis for 2 days and going to visit some PEPEs, this was all well and good apart from we were leaving at 3am! i know early stuff! fbfut it was definitely worth it. We got the Barrarrinhas at about 7.30, and then had breakfast at a pastors house, and then proceeded on to Paulinho Neves at about 8.30 and arrived at 11, this was a 2 hour drive across the dunes and through some open land filled with wild and farm animals, an amazing sight even if it was still very early int he morning, we then, got to yet another pastors house where we were going to be sleeping, we put our stuff down all used the toilet, and got ready for lunch at about 12, after lunch we had a little 1 hour sleep to regain some energy, and then off to visit the PEPE, which was really nice to see how PEPEs in the interior are exactly the same as ones in the city, they put so much commitment in! Then as soon as the PEPE had finsihed it was a quick change of cothes and off to the dunes for about 2 hours to have a walk over them, and to swim in one of the natural water lakes! AMAZING, God really knew what he was doing when he created the earth! Then after dinner, we were taken off to pray for the PEPE leaderds Aunt and Uncle, who are both sick, we had rather a large group of us trooping round the town praying for these people.
Then on the Tuesday morning we set off again at about 5am abother 2 hours drive across the dunes, and back to the 1st pastors house, in which we had coffee and then set off on the road again for about 1.45 hours to see another PEPE again it was great to see how this one worked, and what the kids were learning about. After the PEPE we visited anoth PEPE leaders house and had some lunch, then off to visit that pepe, which was amazing, they had little chairs and desk for each student, after this we popped back to the car changed into swim wear and had a quick swim in the river, before getting back into the car and driving the 3 hours back to Sao Luis arriving home at about 5 o'clock.
Since then we have taken one day off, and then been at PEPE on thursday and friday. on Wednesday night we also had the oppurtunity of going tot he Theatre to see a performance run by a christian group, which was great to see the theatre, and the drama itself was fantastic! although getting home at 1am and going out at 6am isn't a good mis i discovered.
That bring us up to date. Over the next week we have saying our official goodbvye to the church planned for tomorrow night, a terrifyingly close thing! and then PEPE for 4 days, then PEPE training, and then our last Saturday in which we have no idea what is happening, and then on the sunday we leave the house at about 1pm and off we go!
I don't think any of us are actually ready to go home yet! we have become such a part of the youth group, and feel so at home here that it is going to be VERY hard for us to extract oursleves from life here in Brazil and go back in to life in England.
Hope this finds you all well,
God Bless,
Ben
