favelas...

Late yesterday we experienced our first favela, Promorar, and today we spent the entire day visiting homes within Vila...another favela. Sao Paulo has hundreds of 'favelas' throughout the city. To better explain favelas...

...a favela is a community that people came to and placed their tents in hopes of any place to rest. The land is not purchased or sold, but claimed more or less. When the government chooses not run the families off, they begin to use wood and scraps to build a less temporary home and over time favelas transform into concrete houses. Poverty is a drastic shift from the wealthy backdrop of Sao Paulo.

Many of the people live with little hope...their stories are painful to hear. Today we listen as Paula cried, telling us that her family lost their home to fire and were sharing a home now with another family. She was fired from her job and her son is now falling deeper into drugs and refusing to go school...if he continues the government may threaten to come and take away all her children. She has no way of supporting her four children and cries her self to sleep...only one story of the many we heard today...

But there is hope. In their eyes and in their hearts many of them have hope in Jesus and hope that God is present. Though they have little, their hearts and their faith is tremendous. We had the opportunity to listen, to ask questions and to hug them, offering our prayers. But they offered us so much in return.

And did I mention we learned capoeira (cap-o-eta)? It's a Brazilian martial arts form that mixes fighting and dance into one fluid motion...