Being Flexible....One of things the told us ahead of time

So today has been a strange day.   It has been raining here, actually pouring off and on all day. When I woke up I thought my roommate was already in the shower because I heard the water, but to roll over and find out it was pouring.  When it rains here, the children can not make it to Madre Teresa unless they are the few that live at the home during the week.  The four of us that volunteer at Madre Teresa were sad about that as we had planned a crown making craft for the kids and had a CD with spanish children songs for dancing.  We were also going prepared with a list of children songs to sing.  We decided to switch to a different craft for the ~8 kids that would be there, and piled in the van.  About 10-15 minutes into the ride to placement, Ivan, our driver, got a call to have us come back.  Some of the roads were flooded and we would have to sit in traffic so long we wouldn't have time to be at the placement.

We came back to house and discussed many topics about Brazil with the CCS employees.  We learned that the flag has the following meaning:

• Green - for the Amazon
• Blue - for the Atlantic Ocean and the rivers
• Yellow - for the Gold that was/is from the Minas Gerais region
• 27 white stars below the written words- representing the 27 states.  It was recently 24 states, but Para is being split into multiple states.
• 1 white star above the written words - representing Brasilia

We talked about the Labor laws here, including the minimum wage, vacation time, retirement money and healthcare.  Brazilians have free healthcare.  We compared the holidays that Brazil gets versus the US and Europe.  People in Salvador have 6 Catholic Holidays, Brazil Independence (Sept 7th), Bahia Independence (July 2nd - Salvador did not gain independence for almost another year after the rest of Brazil, so the entire state of Bahia celebrates the second independence date as well), Republic (Nov 15th), and then they get Christmas and New Years as well.   We discussed a little about the politics in Brazil as well.  They currently have their first Woman president.  She has served 2 years of a 4 year term.  She can be reelected once more before having to be out of office for 4 years.  She can then try again to be president.  They have over 100 political parties here in Brazil.

We watched a movie this morning as well.  It was called City of God.  It is set in a slum in Rio.  It was a very emotional video that was apparently based on a (semi) true story.  Vini told us there are still issues in the slums, but the government is working to set up military posts inside to cut down on the drug crimes and violence.

This afternoon the sun came out and we were able to go on our tour of Pelourinho.  Unfortunately part way into the walking tour, it started to pour again.  The group had been planning on staying out and enjoying dinner at a restaurant and seeing the live music.  I guess that will have to wait until another day.  We were able to get some great pictures before the rain.  Here are some of my favorites:

Tchou,

Bethany