Coming full circle
It was exactly one year ago this week when I arrived in Belo Horizonte to start volunteering and immediately went to stay with a Volunteers in Mission work team that was here from Georgia, and this week I was staying with a work team from Virginia. This time, however, I had much more responsibility as the primary translator on the work site.
This recent team of 13 came from different churches in the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church and was the most diverse team I'd seen yet. They were painting (including a Shade and Fresh Water mural) and building a retaining wall at Betânia Methodist Church. It was a really neat experience to once again watch how the Brazilian hosts show so much love through their hospitality and how the American teams show their love through their labor and in relating to the people (and especially the children) they encounter.
It was a good but very busy time, and I enjoyed staying home today to re-charge. I had never before spent the night in the São Gabriel neighborhood, so staying with the team at the Community Center there involved listening to a different set of background noises, including a variety of roosters that crow throughout the day and night, dogs barking all night long and a local church that seemed to be having a midnight revival blasting throughout the neigbhorhood several nights in a row. Hopefully, I won't ever forget my earplugs again. The staff that had to get to the Community Center super early to make breakfast for the team was cheerful and efficient, in spite of their extra-long work days. The work team was also good natured about the accommodations, and, thankfully, this time the city did not cut the water off.
Some "serious" pastors from a previous work team will find it amusing that one of the members of this week's team initially thought I was very efficient and stern/serious. She thankfully revised her opinion as the week progressed, as I was informed when the group shared personal affirmations of me and two other staff members from the center who helped host them. The team members were very generous in sharing their histories, their time, their financial support and their love, in addition to some very neat and helpful things that they left with me. They are currently touring Rio and should be leaving tomorrow or the next day to return to the U.S.
Here are a few photos from the past several days.
The October Volunteers in Mission team from Virginia
Playing with the kids
Some team members practicing tai-chi in the garden
Faces of some of the girls from Betânia Methodist Church
I also went one afternoon to Planalto Methodist Church to take pictures of the Women's handicraft group
Now it's time to catch up and get ready for another busy stretch as I'll journey Friday night by bus to Brasilia, the nation's capital, for an 80th birthday celebration in my roommate's family, coming back Sunday night, and get back on another bus on Wednesday to accompany the youth group from Liberdade to the Methodist camp at Nova Almeida in the neighboring state of Espirito Santo.
This recent team of 13 came from different churches in the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church and was the most diverse team I'd seen yet. They were painting (including a Shade and Fresh Water mural) and building a retaining wall at Betânia Methodist Church. It was a really neat experience to once again watch how the Brazilian hosts show so much love through their hospitality and how the American teams show their love through their labor and in relating to the people (and especially the children) they encounter.
It was a good but very busy time, and I enjoyed staying home today to re-charge. I had never before spent the night in the São Gabriel neighborhood, so staying with the team at the Community Center there involved listening to a different set of background noises, including a variety of roosters that crow throughout the day and night, dogs barking all night long and a local church that seemed to be having a midnight revival blasting throughout the neigbhorhood several nights in a row. Hopefully, I won't ever forget my earplugs again. The staff that had to get to the Community Center super early to make breakfast for the team was cheerful and efficient, in spite of their extra-long work days. The work team was also good natured about the accommodations, and, thankfully, this time the city did not cut the water off.
Some "serious" pastors from a previous work team will find it amusing that one of the members of this week's team initially thought I was very efficient and stern/serious. She thankfully revised her opinion as the week progressed, as I was informed when the group shared personal affirmations of me and two other staff members from the center who helped host them. The team members were very generous in sharing their histories, their time, their financial support and their love, in addition to some very neat and helpful things that they left with me. They are currently touring Rio and should be leaving tomorrow or the next day to return to the U.S.
Here are a few photos from the past several days.
The October Volunteers in Mission team from Virginia
Playing with the kids
Some team members practicing tai-chi in the garden
Faces of some of the girls from Betânia Methodist Church
I also went one afternoon to Planalto Methodist Church to take pictures of the Women's handicraft group
Now it's time to catch up and get ready for another busy stretch as I'll journey Friday night by bus to Brasilia, the nation's capital, for an 80th birthday celebration in my roommate's family, coming back Sunday night, and get back on another bus on Wednesday to accompany the youth group from Liberdade to the Methodist camp at Nova Almeida in the neighboring state of Espirito Santo.
posted by Christine Piggee at
5:44 PM
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