Saturday's Outing

We arranged with Fia and Daniel to meet at 8:00 AM on Saturday to take their children, Ataniel (11), Estefane (10), Daniela (9) and Simone (4) for an outing. Salvador Shopping Mall had a ropes course and a climbing wall set up for children, we thought this would be fun for them. Ataniel and Daniela completed it. Estefane climbed up and then came back down because she was afraid of the height, at least she tried.

Then we headed over to the bookstore. The children's section is set up very nicely with small tables and chairs and the books can be looked at. Simone liked the little chair to sit on. I was very surprised at the high prices of books in Brazil. It seems that only a certain group of people can purchase books. Literacy needs to be promoted here. It seems like a big business instead. Unless I am not aware of something, this does not seem right.

Next, shoe store. Ataniel got sneakers and the girls sandals. Oh, they were so happy.

Lunch at the food court, then ice cream.

Going up on the elevator was very scary to Estefane, she hugged me and buried her head into me. Clearly she is afraid of heights. The others looked through the window and watched as we were going down.

Later we stopped at the candy shop. They each filled their bag with 10 pieces of candy.

The escalator was the best. At first they stepped on it unsure and held on tight to our hands and handrail. We cruised through the mall going up and down. It didn't take long for them to grasp it. At the end we let them go up and down several times by themselves, except for little Simone.

On the way back home we stopped at the airport watching the planes taking off and landing.

Sueli was incredibly helpful with the children. Whenever we go to Cascalheira she comes with us, so she knows everyone and knows what we are doing.

We brought home four very tired and awestruck children. Fia and Daniel were very thankful.

Bobby and I enjoyed being with these wonderful, gentle and well behaved little children. We hope to continue to do whatever we can. Enjoy the pictures!

Little Dolls for Little Dolls

Wish we could have found dolls that had darker hair and darker skin for the little girls in Cascalheira. These were the only ones available in the store. Nevertheless, the girls were happy to hold their own doll. A whole, complete new toy. Not in pieces. Not broken old toys. It was so sweet and special to watch each little girl hold her new doll. They are very gentle and loving and it shows in the handling of their dolls.

As always, thank you to all of you who donated. Please keep donations coming. Any amount is very welcomed.
Obrigado!

A note on picture #7. These are two sisters. The doll belongs to the little one, Simone, who is looking to her doll. She is not upset, although it looks that way. She is just making sure her doll is there. How cute is that?

School Supplies

In Brazil the school year begins in February. This year we did something different. Our neighbor's housekeeper, Chris lives in Cascalheira. We know her and like her very much and she wanted to help. She made a list of the children who live in the village. If there are 4 children in the family, 2 would receive school supplies. Unfortunatley we are unable to help everyone so this was a very good idea. Also, knowing if the child was male or female helped, so we could buy the appropriate design of the cover of the notebook. We made it special for them so they did have very nice notebooks. Pencil, colored pencils, pen, pencil sharpener and eraser was also included. About 25 children received school supplies. We also brought cookies and juice boxes for the ones who would not receive school supplies.
Chris and Sueli were great at organizing them into two lines, one line for school supplies and the other for cookies and juice. It worked very well. First we gave out the cookies and juices. Some of the kids tried to sneak over to the cookies line and I offered them a choice of which line to be on, very quickly they were back on the school supply line.
Thank you to those who made this possible. Obrigado!

Visiting Cascalheira

Donation Box Going to Brazil

A large box is being shipped to Bahia. It is filled with used toys, shoes and clothes. It should arrive in Brazil within 4 months. I hope this is true, since we are there until April. Being that the items are used, no custom charges will be applied once it arrives in Brazil. This is the first time sending a box by ship. It arrives at a port in Sao Paulo and it is trucked to the different locations, in this case to Salvador. Thank you Alison for allowing it to arrive to your address in Salvador. Thanks to everyone who donated items into the box, O, P, B, G, Dolphin Store. Also, thank you for the financial donations which helps ship the box, $200. It certainly will be a happy moment when we bring the goods to the village.

Birthday Celebration with Gift Donations

A birthday celebration it was. Family and friends came bearing gift donations for Bobby's birthday. These gifts came at a crucial moment, and will allow us to continue the help in Cascalheira. We are traveling to Bahia at the end of December. We will take inventory of what is needed, finishing the second house (Joao's), perhaps starting another one. As always so much is needed to be done. We sincerely thank you all for your generosity. Peace, hugs and love,

Jessica and Bobby.