Tuesday - full day at Orphanage - Pelhourino

Madre Tereza is located in a fortress in a dangerous part of the city. Our van pulls up with the doors locked and when they unlock the tiny entrance in the wall, we jump out and rush inside to safety. It is like an oasis inside the walls.

We had six children at the orphanage today. Orphanages here are not necessarily for children with no family. The poverty is so extreme that often parents cannot feed or clothe their children or they have no home. They will take their children to the orphanage because they love them and they want them to be cared for. The children flourish under the care of the nuns and can return for visits with their families. So today, three children were out with their families.

All but one of the children are two or younger. We played with balloons and bubbles, Legos and trucks. Larry was the designated sweeper and mopper. They keep everything very clean. I was the washerwoman. All the laundry is done by hand. Basins lined up to wash, rinse and bleach mounds of laundry. I wanted to know more Portuguese so I could have conversed more with Chinquina, the civilian director in the orphanage, while we washed. We did exchange the information that we both have two children, a boy and a girl, and that hers are three and twelve years old.

Judy

In the afternoon, we had a walking tour of the Pelhourino section of Salvador. Here's a picture of it's old streets. After our dinner and a class on Brazilian history given by a local professor, we decided to go back to the old town (Pelhourino) for music and drumming in the streets. We all had a great time listening to the music, watching the Samba dancing, and bartering with the street vendors. After a while, we parked at the end of 2nd street to try and watch the drumming procession go by. After ordering, we got the disappointing news that the drummers had gone through earlier than normal this week and we thought we missed them. We were enjoying the guitar player and drummer at our open bar. Then, we heard the loud drumming and cheering as a large group of drummers came down our street and stopped right beside us for a 15 minute crazy music session. It was great. Equally as fun was when a couple of us were buying a CD from the group. The boy that we were bartering with was so dramatic and fun. We talked him down from 24 to 20 Real each, but the whole experience was the real fun.
Larry