On a journey...

Can’t sleep. It’s almost 1 am, but I am wide-awake (written with my eyes wide open and no yawns in sight). I don’t know why. I had a cup of tea around 21h30, but that’s it. And honestly, I think my body is way beyond being affected by a cup of tea, taking into consideration the vast amounts of caffeine it’s been subjected to over the years. I managed to connect with a couple of my very good friends in Fortaleza today, and I think my conversations with them are mulling around in my mind. It’s funny how as soon as I hear their voices I am transported back, and feel like I am right there with them. And it is funny how as they share about what is going on with people and situations I catch myself saying “we should do…” and “I think we…” It’s good to hear good news. Hear of how the toughest youth prison I only made it into once is now asking us to come in and work regularly with them. Hear of how one of the coordinator in another prison became a Christian. Hear of how the boys on the farm a...

Seeing fields and trees changing colour daily (read: becoming brown and yellow rather than other colours) keeps amazing me. Autumn has arrived, no use denying it; the summer is definitely over. As the weather gets colder I am appreciating the small (or maybe not so small) things. Everyday when I go out in the morning I do the “breath-test”. Now, if you live in a climate that is warm, meaning that it rarely goes below or near zero, you probably won’t know what I am talking about (unless you’ve seen it in films, where I suppose it’s quite frequent when people are out in cold weather or trapped in a freezer-room). Am I puzzling you? Well, the “breath-test” (my name for it) is when you go outside, and it’s so cold that your breath looks like smoke when you breathe out. It’s really quite interesting, and I remember that as a child it was really cool to pretend that it was smoke coming out of my mouth rather than air being rapidly cooled down. Yesterday was a very exciting day because I lear...

It’s been a while since I last wrote. Life has continued without huge happenings. I am settling into the “every-day” life of the base, and in myself. An every-day life which is very different from any “every-day” I’ve had before in my life. Different from Brazil of course, but also different from living at home and those years at university in Leeds (oh, so very very long ago…counting the number of years makes me feel a wee bit old, so I won’t count them…). One thing I am learning to appreciate is going for long walks (actually I don’t go that far, but I walk for a good amount of time which I guess is what we mean when we say a “long walk”). Well, they might not be “long” for some of you, but for me going out walking for the sole purpose of walking isn’t something I really do much. For one, the years in Fortaleza kind of ruled out “going for walks” as “walking” in a crowded city centre sort of defeats the purpose when the aim of walking is to get some space and fresh air (trust me, the...

The past two weeks have been a huge concoction of new and old experiences, which all kind of melt into me feeling like I’ve actually been here lot longer than two weeks. You know how sometimes you feel like you’ve known someone for ages, when really you’ve only just met them? In many ways that is how it feels here at Grimerud. Seeing the girls I share a house with everyday seems so normal, and the other people around don’t feel like people I’ve just met. It’s good because I feel like part of here rather than a visitor, but at the same time I feel a bit rootless, not quite knowing where to direct my energy and passion; being in a place where I don’t really have a set purpose and goal to work towards. The days have been varied, but surprisingly non-hectic and non-busy. During the day I’ve been helping out with hospitality. It find it strange when people comment “oh, so you’re the hostess today”, because really I feel more like I’m helping out where needed. Last week there were many rooms...