Quando você volta?

Well, our time here is pretty much over. Last night we had a surprise party thrown for us (which we turned up late for - whoops). And this morning we left the base to spend a couple of nights in central rio before flyin out thursday morning. Already feelin the difference in lifestyle with Outkast playin as I write this.
"I'm sorry Miss Jackson - ooohh - I am for real", people speakin english to us, feel like a real tourist today for the first time in brasil.
Sayin good byes are always bizarre to me. Especially to people that there is literally no chance of seein again. Its kind of, "have a good life" stuff.
Hopefully we will return one day.

Eat Sleep Drink Coca-Cola

As its our last week on the base we have set a couple of going away gifts for some of the guys that we have met. Yesterday it was Celso's turn. He loves to drink Coca-Cola. Whenever he drinks coke he always shouts out 'a te gloria' as appreciation for his love of it. Because of this we decided to fill his room with 18 bottles of coke and wait until he returned. Of course when he did he was a very happy man! Its a shame that its our last week here. Time has gone so quickly and none of us want to leave....there is even talk of us never returning home!!!

Same Place, Different Crowd

Flamengo 2 - 1 Ipiranga (Copa do Brasil - Semi Final)

Se ela danca, eu danco

There is this canny song that keeps following us wherever we go in brasil. This link should lead you straight to a stream if you fancy a listen. Funk!!

Mastercard

Bus ticket to Copacabana = 18 Reis
Bus ticket to Miguel Couto Hospital = 6 Reis
Taxi to another Hospital to pick up Crutches = 12 Reis
Rental of Crutches = 50 Reis
Pain Killers = 55 Reis
Travel back home = 98 Reis
Other Expenses = 57 Reis
Bribing Policeman = 10 Reis
Ticket to go watch Flamengo play in the cup semi-final at the Maracana = Priceless

There are some things that money cant buy, for everything else there's Gringos!!

Food for thought!

A couple of days ago we took out the guy (Lazaro) who sorted it out for us boys to come to brasil. We went to this restaurant that he recommended and it was absolutely class. All you can eat meat! The waitors just come round with huge slabs of various meats on skewers and just keep filling up your plate. My favourite waas probably chicken heart although there was quite possibly the nicest steak in the world. All you can eat with drinks and cake came in at just over a tenner. Comer Bem!!

Ginger Coup

al decided to dye his hair blonde - well, it turned out a bit ginger!! canny pic

Just Another Day In Complexo

Let me tell you a story.....

About 16 years ago a young man aged 14 had been living on the streets of Rio de Janeiro with no home or family to speak of for pretty much his whole life. When he was 14 and a half he was involved heavily in the drug world of Rio. He carried four guns and would threaten people who did not follow orders of the drug barons. One day whilst carrying his four guns, he came across something that he should not have seen (story not fully told!). Acting on instinct he shot an older lad (17ish) three times in the chest and killed him. The police caught him in the act and he was eventually convicted of the crime and sentenced to juvenile jail. After three years he was released. Two days after returning to his home (or shack), the police came knocking on his door. After opening the door, the police shot two bullets into the back of his head. He fell down, remembering that he got kicked in the face while on the floor and shot a further 6 times.

After being shot he went into an unconscious state and lay on the floor for 9 hours before somebody found him. Eventually, when someone did find him he was taking to hospital, where it was said that he had sustained too many injuries for it to be worthy to save his life. He was placed on a trolley and wheeled into the autopsy room. Upon arrival into the autopsy room, he woke from his unconscious state, causing the hospital staff to react quickly, making a decision to try and save him. After major surgery, including some body parts being removed (!) he waited in hospital. After the op he was told that the gun shot wound to the back of his spine, would paralyse him so that he would never walk again. 15 days later he was discharged from hospital, walking ok, but still with three bullets inside his body. To this day he still has those bullets inside him.

Nowadays this man runs a ywam base in one of the favela slums in Rio. He is a reformed Christian who still has major scars all over his body from when he was shot 8 times. He is quite possibly one of the happiest men that i have ever met, yet he has led a very tough life. Today we met Junoir Biano whilst sanding walls, washing floors, building houses and shoveling shit. Just another day and another crazy story living in brasil!

Esta doente!

Foz and his hareem of very young ladies!

Us boys in the burger bar getting our photo taken for their wall of fame. They think we play pro football for Americano. Lost in translation!

On friday, the whole base went to a church in a town just outside of Rio somewhere, about 45 mins away. The brasileiros, and i think ywamers in general love over-officiating everything, so the weekend was sold as a 'conference'. We got there late friday night to discover that our beds were non-existent, and that we had a choice - tiles or chairs. We went for chairs.
Some random brazilian guy decided to keep us awake by playing mission impossible on his mobile phone. thanks for that mate. Got up at like 6.30 and had a cold shower on the saturday, and waited around a little before goin to a 'meeting' and then went to some school round the corner to entertain some kids (well, that was our purpose anyways). The school system is very much less formal than in england. There must have been about 20 of us and we were able to waltz in to a school and invade their assembly and P.E. lesson which was cool. Played some overly competitve football before headin back for lunch. We weren't able to leave the football before we had given our e-mail addresses to everyone there, so theres gonna be a lot of denials going on next time I log on to msn!!! Went back to the church for a quick bite before repeating the exercise again in the afternoon at the same school with different kids.
The rest of the 'conference' was spent eating more of those x tudo burgers that kevo posted about, absolutely canny. And meeting loads of Brazilians. On Sunday night we were swamped by kids with all three of us receiving more attention than we´ve had all year. It seems easier to communicate with the kids as there on similar wave lengths as ourselves! Good weekend overall.
The bus ride back home was quality. The brasilians love their music and dancing so we were riding the bus with half the people standin up in the aisle dancing while a couple of people in the back banged (not sure what the past tense is for bang, bung would be too much of a pun in this corrupt country!!) on drums. Pretty quality, although not if you wanted to get some sleep at midnight!

Brasilian Footy

This week a game of football fell for the under 17 Rio Jocum football team that was perhaps the biggest in their history. On Wednesday the team took the field against professional youth outfit Fluminese. Unfortunately from the off you could see that the Fluminese team were physically fitter and far stronger than the Jocum team. The boys from the Jocum team got out passed and out skilled, ending the game in a 10-0 defeat. However to their credit they did not give up til the final whistle. Not the best start to our managerial careers in Brazil.

Since arriving in Brasil we have been working with these boys on a regular basis, trying to teach them something about football that they didnt already know. The technical ability from most of the kids is amazing, yet the lack of strength and communication lets the team performances down. Over the next few weeks we will continue to work with these kids and hopefully inspire them to do something decent with their lives, not just on the footy pitch. The photo below is of the whole team, including some of the guys from the base who look after the football teams.