Lua Cheia

**Note** I was going to call this “Full Moon” even before the twins came home and I heard about more craziness. Then we looked it up, and I found out that it actually was a full moon!

Today has been crazy.

This morning at the convent, most of the kids were little monsters. Anyone prone to violence was exhibiting it today. Caio was hitting and biting like a madman anytime he was remotely upset. Carla was throwing toy trucks and fighting over toys. But most heartbreaking for me was Micael. This was his first week back since the break. He’s one of the younger boys, and he is (was?) my baby. I helped teach him how to walk. He always smiled for me, laughed all the time, and often fell asleep in my arms. But since he’s been back, he’s a different boy. I don’t know what happened. He’s become incredibly violent, and he’s getting stronger everyday. Today – completely unprovoked – he attacked our newest/youngest/smallest boy, Everto. He had a grip on his head. Nails dug into Everto’s eyes, Micael was biting the top of his head and pulling at his mouth. When I separated them, Everto had scratch marks on his face and his eye looked puffy. What has gotten into my sweet baby? He didn’t stop getting into fights today, and as a last result, Georgina and I had to tie him to a chair with a rag.

Which brings me to my next bit of sad news. I found out that today was Georgina’s LAST DAY. I don’t know what I’m going to do. She is the Brazilian woman who takes care of the children every day. She has the ultimate authority with them. She has a heart of gold under a steel will. Sister Isaacs told me they select their volunteers the same way they do the kids – they approach people in the favela with the worst situation and allow them to help for a number of years. They can’t really pay them, but they provide them with a safe place and all meals. Georgina has been working at the convent longer than any other volunteer. She is much better off than when she started, and all her children have now grown and moved out. So they decided it was time to give someone new a chance. This will be a wonderful opportunity for someone, no doubt, but it presents everyone else with a remarkable challenge. This new helper will be starting from scratch with these kids and it will take some time before she can establish any real authority. It’s going to be quite the trick to get the kids to behave. We’re probably going to need two of the nuns to be with us for a while.

I thought this was all the craziness today would bring me. Then my sisters came home from school.

They have had to deal with some stupid, immature crap from classmates in the past, but today almost takes the cake. I think it’s more idiotic than most high school sitcoms could come up with. So the girls have had troubles with the boys in their class for the past 2 years. This week, they were invited to a large party, and all the guys were up in arms over that fact. During school, in the girls’ hearing, people made comments like: “We should give them a wrong address that leads them into a favela,” and “At the party, we should lock them both in a closet.” Classy.

However, for the first time ever, some of the girls in the class came to Manda and Andrea’s defense. In an asinine attempt to appease those girls while still putting my sisters in their place, some boys delivered the following note to the twins:

Look, Kenners, we do not have a problem with your going to the party whatsoever. However from what has happened in the past of you guys making up shit to just try to get us in trouble…so here’s what we propose: If you guys really want to come, then you abide by the following rule: what happens there, stays there. That means you do not tell ANYBODY. No matter how good of a friend or family or whatever. If you are not willing to abide by these rules, then you are not welcome there. Really we do not have anything against you guys! So please, give this back with your answer and your signatures.

Manda’s “answer”: Are you like 2 years old?

The past instances of getting them in to trouble can factually be linked to only 2 things – once, 1.5 years ago Manda told some parents when the boys were playing the choking game and trying to rope younger boys into it. The girls also reported when they had been sexually harassed by these boys in the past. How dare they. The guys made up all sorts of other things today that the girls have supposedly done, none of which are remotely true.

This is only the latest of a long list of stupid, immature things these boys have done to my sisters. I vacillate between rage, pity, and amusement because of how unbelievably catty and juvenile it all is.

Vitoria and Brutus

There is a giant, terrifying stray dog that often hangs around the entrance of the convent where I'm volunteering. I have named him Brutus (I'll try to take a picture of him sometime). Today, as Ricardo and I drove up, I saw that Brutus had blood all over his front paws - it didn't look like his. Blood was dripping out of his mouth, and then he sneezed blood all over. Only the relatively small amount of blood allows me to rule out his eating a small child. Undoubtedly, some poor creature met its end this morning.

Also, today was Vitoria's first day back since the break. I was worried she wasn't coming back since it has been 2 weeks since the restart. I missed her so much. The first day I visited to see if it would be a good place to volunteer, Vitoria stared at me with these sad eyes that really seared my soul, and I've always felt a special connection with her. She often seems sad and older than she is - but she also has quite the wicked streak and can be amazingly sassy. I was so glad to see her, but it was also heartbreaking. She has always been one of the thinnest girls, and she's even thinner now. I can see her ribs. She has sores all over her hands and legs that look like they are probably roach bites. She sat with me for a long time - quietly, sadly. I almost cried. I was glad I knew how to say I love you and I missed you in Portuguese. However, by the end of the day, I saw a bit of her sass returning, and I even got her laughing at lunch.

Resuming

I promise I'll start writing here again. Basically, I'll think about whatever Lizzie liked hearing, and I'll write about that :)

But today, I would simply like to question why it is sometimes so hard to get starving kids to eat. They struggle with me so much! This week, a new boy, Silas, has been having a lot of trouble adjusting, and he's developed a very strong attachment to me. Georgina asked me to hold him down while she tried to basically force feed him some milk. He fought me tooth and nail - literally. And he now holds the dubious distinction of being the first to administer a bite that broke my skin.

He's not the only one, though. Sometimes these kids just won't eat. I can't understand it, because I know they don't eat well at home. When I'm helping them eat, and they're eating well, it's one of the most rewarding times for me. When they won't eat, I get so frustrated and sad for them.

Bringing You Up to Speed

So before I sally forth, I'll give a quick recap of the highlights of my time here so far:

- Right off the bat, Andrea and I went to a Chiclete/Timbalada concert. It was Carnaval style, which meant that the bands were on giant trucks that drove around the concert area in circles. I learned that "crowd management" means only preventing large fights here. Also, that Brazilians like to get cloooose.

- I went to my first professional tennis tournament! It was thrilling. Ricardo Mello was the champion, which qualified him for the US Open (which Nadal won, making him the youngest man to win a career grand slam!!!!!!! had to fit that in there).

- My dad turned 50 :) We had a lovely party for him - Jihad did all the cooking (for 60 people!) which was incredibly delicious. Gayle made a tennis ball pinata, which one small girl demolished. She even attacked the men who tried to stop her from going too crazy. I guess she needed an outlet for her aggression. Good thing this one ended with candy.

- I started painting. I go to a woman's house every Monday morning. I copy everything I do so far, but it's still a fun, creative outlet.

- A group of us went whale watching at Praia do Forte. It was breathtaking. We went out about 4 miles off the coast and found a group of 7 humpback whales. They were quite active for us - one breached, one swam under the boat (they were soooo close!). It was truly an awe-inspiring experience.

- Each month, The American Society of Internationals goes on a field trip somewhere interesting in Salvador called Serendipity. This month's trip was to a church and library in the city - buildings much grander and more historic than I'm used to when going into the city.

- I started volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity. It's love :)

I Caved

I wasn't sure I would blog about my time here, but I feel I have enough to say, and it will probably be more efficient information-sharing for my friends. 

That said, I will quickly bring this blog up to speed. I graduated with my undergrad degrees from IU in May. I moved to Lauro de Freitas Brazil on July 31. My family has been living here for two years as ex-patriots because of a job transfer for my dad (he works for Ford Motor Company, whose South American headquarters are in Salvador). They live fabulously wealthy lives in this country, because most things are so much cheaper. I don't speak Portuguese, but I'm learning and taking classes. My sisters are now fluent, so anytime I'm with them, they translate for me.


I wanted to find some sort of volunteer opportunity down here in order to make my time productive and worthwhile (but I didn't want to teach English). I recently found exactly what I was looking for. I volunteer three mornings a week with the Missionaries of Charity, a catholic order founded by Mother Theresa. They have a house in a favela in Salvador that functions as a permanent home for abandoned women and a daycare of sorts for children. The women have been abandoned primarily because of physical or mental handicaps and are able to live the rest of their lives in the home. The children are 1-3 year-olds from the favela whose families cannot afford to take care of them or feed them during the day. They come to the home during the day on weekdays for food, supervision, and hygienic care. They have to stay with their families during the weekend, so at the beginning of the week, they are usually rowdier and often sick. I mostly work with the children or doing random cleaning chores for the home. It's hard, exhausting work - most of the time it's just me, one Brazilian woman, and one sister taking care of around 20 children, all 3 and under. Sometimes it is just me watching all of those kids while the others are cooking or cleaning something or taking care of one child's problems. But I love it. I  already love these kids so much (even though I usually get bit at least once). 


My time here is a juxtaposition of extreme wealth and extreme poverty. It's an interesting place to live, and I'm excited to see what the rest of the year has in store.