Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

July 21, 2007

A few words from our Brazilian correspondant...

As you may or may not know, Rosie (eldest daughter) has gone to Brazil to do some volunteer work at a children's hospital and an orphanage. About a three and a half week trip. She has been able to send some emails and some photos, and I am taking the liberty to post the pics and some narrative from her. So, the rest of this post's text will be pasted from her emails. I tried to put the appropriate text near a photo that looks like it matched, good luck......

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Here are a couple of pictures, these are the two boys I have spent the most time with. I have to say, trying to communicate in Portuguese is already impossible and then to add Luis having Down Syndrome........it's been interesting!! He finally gave up getting me to answer properly and settled into drawing which we did diligently for the next 3 hours!! His mom seemed very happy that he was content while she ate and visited with some other mothers etc. He even laughed a few times! :-) The other one (the little one) I call my pequeno bonito (little pretty/beautiful) and I am going to miss him! It's going to be weird switching from the hospital to the orphanage, it's probably a good combo though because I've seen the good parents before I see the abandoned children.


Things were a lot better today with not feeling so lost!! Luciana (daughter of host family) made me a list last night of some Portuguese words (like you said, mom) which I used today at the hospital. It helped quite a bit except for the problem of not understanding what they said back!! And trust me, a 3 year old does not take well to you not responding properly to what he's saying!! :-) My little friend, Tiago, jabbered at me in Portuguese non-stop for over an hour instructing me where to put stickers and what color crayon to use to draw BIG planes and trucks which I learned how to say çuz he was yelling them at me until I would try to repeat and then he'd look very puzzled by my pronunciation!! LOL He is a sweetheart!
All the children there are very poor (the hospital is run on donations) and don't have insurance and they all have cancer of some type. :-( Tiago is 3 and has bone cancer. I don't know how to ask how bad it is, but he is very lively. Everyone was friendly today because I came armed with a dictionary and my few phrases and if nothing else they got a kick out of me. Hopefully I can take pictures tomorrow.......



Luciana's father is a Dr that volunteers at the hospital that I work at so I can get a ride with him most days which is really nice since otherwise it's about a 5 mile walk each way. Which I would still rather than try and take the bus, I would probably end up in another state or something!!!!!!


The other pictures are me and Luciana and then me with Luciana, Ricardo, (boyfriend) Caro and Boi. They are all so nice even if we can't really visit that well!
:-)

Dad, Luciana's boyfriend is a pilot of small planes and he wants to go to Oshkosh for the aviation thing!



Here are a couple of pictures from a traditional Brazilian party we went to Sat. night. I'll have to explain it more when I get home! Love you all....










Here's a Brazilian addition for your blog.... :-) It was at a restaurant where we ate lunch today. Love you!


((I used to post a photo of watermelon art at the end of each post.... Carlo))

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good work Dad! Love, Rosie

Anonymous said...

Loved the pictures and narrative from Rosie. Offering her services is a wonderful thing. Will be glad to see her and hear all about her adventures.

Lucy

yram said...

Looks like quite an adventure. The days at the hospital must be a bit depressing although I am sure you have a feeling of good knowing you may make a difference. can't wait to hear all...Mary