Dear family, friends, and future me (who’s sure to come back and read this to remember…),

The first day….of actual sense of saneness from appropriate needed amount of sleep, and working, and making  lasting bonds started. I (Ariail) signed up for Medical Clinic; and was the only “under thirty”, from our group, signed up for the role. We arrived at the compound  (abandoned school) that FAD borrowed  to host the Clinic and “games/crafts/soccer (futball)” that was/is our partial purpose for this trip. Jena-Marie and Dr. Laura taught me how to weigh, measure,  check temp,  blood pressure, and pulse, and record all the stats with name and age. Once stats were taken the children, mothers, and random people, would wait in line for Dr. Laura to complete a thorough check over; including lice, teeth, sickness, infection, and any other possible maladies  waiting to occur to children living in worse “conditions”. At our availability were, at one point, three translators, the English equivalent of Joan, Israel, and Egal…with the proper accents…

The morning was easy, with groups of 2 or 3 trickling in every 10 minutes or so. Apparently this was due to the mothers preparing lunches for husbands. It showed, as after lunch (the main midday meal) floods and floods of people came in, most of the mothers with more than 4 children. It was quite the ordeal. My afternoon involved chasing down rogue patients, telling people again and again to tirra zapatos (haha….this is terribly wrong..but remove shoes) so they could stand on the scale that if they stepped to soon on would shut down, and, with the help of Egal, trying to convince the patients to put and keep the thermometer under their tongue. The day finished quickly for me, bringing a tired brain and back.  Went back to the hotel and swam. Exciting.

All lightness aside, the faces of the children and some of their conditions was not entertaining. There was one mother with 7 children, the two youngest had a sore of some kind on the back of their heads. According the Donna (our connection) the Brazilian equivalent of social services was concerned with the health of the children in that family. One little boy came of his own accord with an oozing sore on his leg. Donna told us his step-father made him sleep on the porch or in the doghouse, and for the last 3 days he had been missing. Donna told us that she is so amazed at his good spirit which has no meanness,  bitterness, or grudging. All of this leads me to think of a  quote (in Portugese) that was written on the wall in one of the churches I attended,  ”Aqui esta quem e maior que o tempto - Matt 12:6 “, my “sisters” and I roughly translated this to mean “Here is something bigger than the temple”. In my English The Message Bible and in an NIV Bible it doesn’t have the same words or connotation. Regardless I still like it, and it draws a parallel, in my mind, to this trip. But this is where I draw a blank, what’s “here” is us/our group, but beyond that…draw your own conclusion. Sorry…

Debriefing is, well, now, so Ciao and amore from Brasil,

Ariail