Next Adventure: Futebol Project Begins

Where to begin with this pass week... We began our project, which has been phenomenal! Each day we wake-up at 7am to catch two buses to our favela. A favela is the term for a shanty town in Brazil, most often within urban areas. It takes about a little over an hour to arrive at our project. Once we arrive, we meet the head of the futebol program, Carlao. He is very kind and although he does not speak English, we have had no issues in understanding one another. As we walk to the futebol court, we pass through the favela and people yell out, Bom Dia Carlao!! It is safe to say Carlao knows everyone in the neighborhood. Not only do they know him, they love him. We are quite thankful for that because since he is loved, it seems we automatically loved in the community as well.

In Brazil the children go to either morning or afternoon school. Because of this, there is a large gap in their day where there is not much to do. When there are not many things to do, it is more likely that the children will get involved in the incredibly large drug, violence and gang scene. In order to avoid this, Carlao developed this soccer program where the children can come before or after school to play. They love it! In the mornings we have 35 children and in the afternoons, it is the same. The children range in age from 5-16. They were incredibly welcoming to us and by the end of the day, we were exchanging handshakes, hugs and high-fives. I think the fact that I scored a goal helped a bit! By the following day, when the children would see us, they run up to us and ask if we are going to play today! The smiles on their faces are priceless. So exciting! Mike and I, honestly feel so thankful and grateful to have this experience. Seeing how excited these kids are when we are around, is something I never imagined would happen. I thought, ok, one or two might take interest in us. But, literally every single one is grabbing our hands, high-fiving us, giving thumbs up and just smiling when we are around. And, can I add in, they do not speak a word of English. Amazing the connections you can make, when you do not even speak the same language. It does not take much. The little things. Simple things. A smile goes a long way. It is better than I could have ever imagined and I can say, I have never felt this happy before. What they give us is so much more than we can give them. Pictures below are not the greatest but you get the idea of where we are working the futebol program.

I am also working on putting together some information on the houses we build in the favelas. As you can imagine in the, “slums,” there are families of 8 living in what can be compared to a medium to large bathroom in the states, with no plumbing or electricity.

This week, we also had a family dinner with all the volunteers. Our house manager, Marie (amazing woman), made us a traditional brazilian dinner. Again, I could not stop smiling. It was so much fun to sit around a table of 20 people, each from a different background, country, purpose, passion, and talk, drink, enjoy food all together. I think the other volunteers could see and hear my excitement when I started hugging everyone and singing Bob Marley's, One Love.

Today is Brazil's Independence Day! Which means we had the day off. Brazil loves their holidays. We thought no better way to celebrate, than to head to Copacabana beach to work on our tan and drink some caipirinhas But, before that we headed to the Rio de Janeiro Cathedral and a kilo lunch. Kilo style restaurants are everywhere around here. Basically, buffet style food but, good and fresh. Queria que você estivesse aqui!! (Wish you were here!!)