Visit to Taquaril - 2
Went to visit the girl with the 3 ‘fostered’ kids in Taquaril the other day. The poor kid is completely overwhelmed. The good news is that the children’s mother came out of prison recently and they are now living altogether with Claudia (not her real name) while she gets some money together so that she and the kids can get a place of their own. We do hope that this will happen but have to look at the situation and the mother’s history (of abandoning the kids and saying she didn’t want anything more to do with them) into consideration. In the meantime it is a priority to help the kids get their documents (like ID cards and so on) so that they can register with the authorities and attend school. In the meantime it appears that another couple have given their child to C. to care for it while they are experiencing trouble in their relationship. We are coming to realise that what we regard as, perhaps, bizarre behaviour is the norm in the favelas, born, perhaps out of the dire predicaments some people find themselves in there.
The kids seemed really under-stimulated and despondent. It seems like they are waiting for something that will never happen if that makes sense. We need to do all we can and pray and trust that God will do all that He can in this situation.
We are the only rats down here...
Went out with the team from the Rescue House to Pampulha (an area to the North of Belo) where we know a gang which lives under a motorway underpass. Climbing down the cutting by the drainage gulley the din of the traffic dies from the thundering roar and backwash of the heavy trucks speeding past to a dim and distant rumble punctuated by the clicks as the traffic speeds over the joins in the concrete surface of the bridge. It is here that the gang lives.
Chatting to the leader of the gang that lives down here was telling. We were asking how things were with the recent rain we have been experiencing and whether there was a problem with rats where they live. João (not his real name) replied that the rats had gone long ago and that ‘we are the only rats that live down here now’. While he said it as a joke it seemed that behind the laughter that this was what he actually believed… such a tragedy. He is always so hospitable and faultlessly courteous. Whenever we go up there to visit he will make sure that we always have somewhere to sit and he often grabs a threadbare (bristle-bare?) broom to sweep the rocky floor down. Speaking to him further it seems (at least, on the surface) that he has no desire to lave his life on the streets. At 23, he does not wish to see any alternative to the life he leads. However, he is very keen for the younger lads in the group to leave their life on the streets and encourages them to attend the ‘Triage’ that we hold in the Rescue House (a 2 week residential phase for streetkids before placement in wither the boys’ or girls’ house). Maybe he feels that he has lost any opportunity that he may once have had…
There also happened to be a young guy there – not a ‘regular’ – who used to live there some time back and was visiting his mates. He had started to get involved with a bit of petty-crime but got a wake-up call when he was hauled in by the Police and went to jail for a while. It was interesting to hear what the conditions are like in one of the local minors’ prisons. Suffice to say, pretty similar to those described by Fred and the others on their visit to the Rescue House. Very little space and virtually no time out of the cell for exercise, etc. While prison needs to act as a deterrent, it is hard to see how these experiences will serve to reintegrate the ex-offender into the society… The more we hear it seems that the system sees these facilities as little more than bins to chuck its ‘refuse’… surely there is a better way. Guess the government here doesn’t have loads of spare cash washing around to do anything about the problem.
Prison Contact
3 guys from ‘Caverna’ came round to the Rescue House the other day to share a little information about their involvement working in the local prisons.
It turns out that there are 2 different types of prison in Brazil: the Delegacia (Remand Prison, used while prisoners await sentencing) and the Penitenciario (where prisoners serve their sentence).
They have worked in one of the local Delegacias and described the conditions that they found there. Imagine this:
Take a room 12 feet by 18 (4 by 6 metres) – perhaps the size of your sitting room or bedroom, if you’re lucky. Take out the corridor space along one side. Now divide the remaining space into 3 cells. Now, get this... you share one of those cells with 19 other people. The good news is that you are not cooped up in that space all week – you get half-an-hour’s exercise a week and, if you have a visit then you get an hour for that but if you don’t use it you lose it. Bathroom facilities are a whole in the floor for ablutions and a soda bottle of water for your shower.
Now, this is the Delegacia and so the law says that you can not stay in this prison for more than one month. However, it is not uncommon for people to stay in these cells for longer: 3, 4, 5 or even 10… YEARS.
They were not sure what the conditions are like in the minors’ prisons but we can not imagine that they will be much different. We are keen to start visiting a prison some time soon and it would appear that Edevaldo (the leader of the Rescue House) is also keen.
Visit to Taquaril
After the festivities were all over a few of us including me went back to Taquaril, where we had spent Christmas Day, to see how they were getting on. Piers was on the road with another task in hand.
It was quite a different scene from Christmas Day. We arrived at around 11 in the morning. As we entered the small dwelling the stench of human waste was overpowering, the place was in a mess and the children were dirty. Claudia (not her real name) was still in bed, the children roaming around the place aimlessly. She was looking really depressed, she is pregnant and the previous night had gone to the streets looking for the father of her child. She refers to him as her ‘boyfriend.’ She found him high on drugs and after a row he had beaten her and threatened to kill her. She is only 17 and really is living in fear. She feels unsafe in this large and dangerous slum, unable to cope with 3 children whose parents are in prison. It was a sad scene. She told us (well mainly Shell our leader since my Portuguese is still a little rusty to say the least) that she had received a letter from the children’s mother and she had written how when she is released does not want to take the children back into her care. I am sure the children had been told this already as I really noticed how sad their eyes were on this visit. Particularly the boy, he is dark skinned with beautiful big, vivid green eyes – they stared blankly at us.
The only good thing that came out of this visit was the realisation that something has to change in this situation. We managed to get the address of the prison the parents are in and are waiting to begin the process of visiting them. Perhaps we can in some way help them, or at least the mother, to re-establish an attachment to her children. The last thing we want is to split these children up and put them into various Government institutions when what they need is solid relationship with one or both of their parents. We will be working and praying hard for this.
Our new church – ‘The Cave’
We have found a church to go to! This is good news as we had been looking for a while. We felt it was time to move on from the English-speaking service we had been attending to join a Brazilian-speaking community.
The guys at ‘Caverna’ (The Cave – See 1 Samuel 22:1-5) are a varied bunch. They are predominantly young and the church was formed as a result of people who didn’t really fit into the typical Brazilian ‘mould’ of a church community – hence the name. We kind of feel left out not having tattoos or facial piercings (OK – slight exaggeration) but the guys there are really welcoming and have a real heart for the poor and marginalised. A number of them live in shared houses or apartments in various favelas and work amongst the people there to try and meet their spiritual and material need.
They also have a group who go into a prison and these guys are hoping to come to the Rescue House some time to give us the low-down on the prison ‘scene’ in Belo Horizonte.
Happy 2006!
A new year in Brazil and we felt it was high-time to get this blog started (after setting it up 6 months ago). This is the start of our second year with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Belo Horizonte (the 3rd largest city in Brazil). YWAM is an international missionary organisation staffed by volunteers (both long- and short-term).
We are working with the mercy ministries in Belo, basically working with the poor and dispossessed and offering practical and spiritual help to those who need it. We are working with Casa Resgate (the Rescue House) the first point of contact for street-kids and adults. Although we do have a timetable we have found out, after a month with the team, that ‘no two days are ever the same’! Such is the nature of our job. Although it can be slightly disconcerting, it is also very free and we are being exposed to all sorts of situations that require our attention.
Till next time.
