Hello! I´ve had some amazing experiences this week. On Wednesday I went with Ruth and Selma to meet Selma´s mother, her sister, Barbera, and brother in law, Diogo, and their baby Davi, who is 9 months old. We also met Selma´s niece, Leticia, who is 8 and lives with her Granny most of the time. We had to get 3 buses each way and it took over 2 hours to get there and then to get back home. Before we left Scotland some people gave us baby clothes to take, and we gave some of them to Davi. He was very pleased with everything we gave him and wanted me to say thank you to all the people who gave us clothes for babies here in Brazil. We had a really nice time together and I was sorry when it was time to leave. It rained really heavily all day and it was difficult to walk up the streets because they are just dirt roads and most of them were flooded in parts. In the end we walked up 3 streets before we found one we could get through! Ruth and Selma got wet feet, I was glad to be in my bag because I didn´t want my lovely yellow fur to get all wet and muddy. We even saw a rat swimming in one of the big puddles and Selma said we had to be careful when we were walking through the water. Me with Davi

On Thursday we went to visit some more of Selma´s relatives who live in a favela in Rio de Janiero. We met Selma´s Gran who is 91! We also met some of her Aunties, Uncles and cousins, and her cousin´s two little boys, Nicolas, who is 3 and Miguel, who is 7 months. Nicolas liked playing with my yellow fur, but I wasn´t too keen on the style he chose for me because he covered my eyes up so I couldn´t see. All of these relatives of Selma live next door to each other, and they are a very close family. Life is very difficult for them but I thought they were wonderful because they were so happy together and we had a lot of fun. Selma said it is always like that there and that they all help each other out. We met Selma´s aunt Marisa - Ruth met her when she came here two years ago and Aunt Marisa was very ill and they didn´t know if she would get better. But everyone prayed and now she is much better and still recovering. It was great to meet people who love God so much and trust Him for everything they need.

Today is our last day - we leave tomorrow evening. It´s going to be sad to say goodbye again, but I´m excited about coming back to tell you all I´ve been up to. We´re just going to spent two days with our friends from St James Church in Athens, Georgia on the way back, so I´ll let you know how that goes too!

Still having fun!

I´m really pleased Ruth let me stay on in Brazil with her because we´re having such a good time! On Saturday we went to a Mission´s Lunch in Selma and Henrique´s church. It was to raise money to help two missionaries from the church. We had pasta which was very nice. Sheep don´t normally like pasta, but being a missions sheep, I have to try all sorts of different foods and I´ve been surprised by how many I like! Some are not so nice, but trying new things is all part of missions life. On Sunday night I went to church with Ruth and Selma. It was very different to our church - for a start it was so hot we needed fans all the time! The bit I liked best was watching some children dancing at the back while the people were praising God. I felt like joining in but I was a bit shy since it was my first time at that church.

Today I went with Selma and Ruth to the YWAM base in Rio de Janeiro. I really liked it there, there were lots of very kind people who do amazing things for God. The people at this base just want to tell people about Jesus. Some of them work with people who live near the base, helping them in all sorts of ways since they are very poor people. All the time they are helping they are looking for opportunities to tell the people how much Jesus loves them. There are also lots of courses on the base to get people ready to go to other countries to tell people about Jesus. We met a really nice young man called Ricardo, who showed us how good he is at art. He is doing an English course because he wants to have a team to go to Indonesia to tell people about Jesus love for them. Doing the English course is just the first step - he will have to learn other languages and spend time in Indonesia to find out what needs to be done. Then he will come back to Brazil and find people to be on the team with him so they can go and do what God asks them to do there. It was very interesting listening to him, and he practised his English with Ruth. He was speaking very well for someone who has just started to learn! Selma´s husband Henrique sometimes comes to teach on the courses they have here.


Me at the YWAM base

I don´t like saying goodbye!

Such a lot has happened in the past few days I hardly know where to start! We had a happy time on our last evening with everyone from the two Rainbow Houses because we all went out for icecream. It was really delicious icecream, and everyone had two big scoops. There was no grass flavoured icecream, but there were some other strange colours and flavours! I spent the last night with Hannah and Yvonne in Rainbow House 2, but we went to say goodbye to everyone in the other house before we left. It was so sad to say goodbye, but everyone said I must come back, and I´d love to. Us having icecream on our last evening together in Nova Lima.

On Wednesday we travelled back to Rio de Janeiro by bus and came to stay at Ruth´s friend Selma´s house. On Thursday we went to see the statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro. It was amazing and we saw some wonderful views, but it was too high up for Hannah, she isn´t keen on heights!

Selma and her husband Henrique are the Directors of a creche in Niteroi, which is very near Rio de Janeiro. Selma took us to visit the creche on Friday morning and we had a lovely time. There were 10 children there on Friday (only 1 girl though!), but there are 15 children altogether who go to the creche. They are aged from about 1 1/2 - 4 years. It´s good they can go there during the day because it means their Mums can go out to work. One little boy called Eduardo, who is almost 3, used to spend the day at home alone while his Mum went to work, so it´s much better for him to come and be looked after at the creche. We played with them outside in the lovely playground which was built using money given by friends of the creche in Scotland. The money they send helps the creche staff look after the children well too. We had a nice lunch with the children and Ruth filmed them singing their grace - it was so good I hope you get to hear it sometime!
Me and Selma playing with some of the children in the playground.

It was sad last night as Hannah and Yvonne went away. They are now visiting some of our friends from St James church in Athens, Georgia for a couple of days. They´ll be back home on Tuesday so you´ll see them next Sunday! I decided to stay on with Ruth at Selma´s house for 10 more days. We´ll be doing some interesting things so I´ll try to let you know about them when I can.

Such nice friends!

We had such a lovely time with all the friends of the Rainbow House families last night. About 15 people came. These friends are very important to everyone in Rainbow House, so it was a special time getting to know them. We had snacks and two more cakes! I think I´ll have to go on a diet when I get home again. Hannah did a funny game, ´Meet Napoleon´, only we had to make it ´Meet Tiradentes´ because not all the Brazilians knew who Napoleon was. It was very funny, although Ronaldo and Carlos, who got to meet Tiradentes, were blindfolded and thought it was a bit yucky when they had to shake hands with some sausages! We all laughed and laughed though. One of the most exciting parts of the evening was meeting a lady who is called Mercy, like me! It was a very noisy time with all these people, but everyone was very happy to be together and I made lots of new friends.

Me with all the friends that came for the evening. You have to look

closely to see me - I´m in the middle of the front row. Me with Mercy. We have the same name but we don´t look much like each other!

Tomorrow will be sad day as we are leaving Rainbow Houses to go back to Rio de Janeiro. We can´t believe how quickly the time has gone, but we´ve done so many exciting and new things. Everyone has been so kind to us and we´ve made some special new friends. When we get to Rio de Janeiro, we will all stay for a couple of days with Ruth´s friend Selma, and her family. Selma will take us to do some sightseeing in Rio on Thursday. I´ll be back as soon as possible to tell you about everything we´re doing!

A great party!

Hi! We had a great party on Saturday night! It was lots of fun and we all had a good laugh together. I think I´ll have more birthdays if parties are this much fun! Everyone had pizza and cake, except me - I´m not keen on pizza and things so I just had some cake. But the others ate plenty! Some even had 6 pieces of pizza! And the cakes disappeared in no time. At the end the children and young people of both Rainbow Houses got together and sang one of Ruth´s favourite songs in Portuguese. They sang with all their hearts and it was lovely. Ruth videod the song so we can show it to you when we get back. The children playing with balloons at the party.

Me with the two cakes. The writing on the white one says ´Feliz Aniversario´which means ´Happy Birthday´.

Yesterday I had a day here in Rainbow House and Ruth Hannah and Yvonne went to a big market in the Belo Horizonte. Ruth said I´d be better to stay here as it´s not really a safe place for a little sheep. In fact it wasn´t even safe to take their cameras. They had a good time though. today we went to an indoor market which was OK for me to go to. I helped Ruth and Hannah choose some great pércussion instruments for KFC so we can make lots more noise when I get back!

Tonight some of our friends are coming to visit us all, so it´ll be another fun evening!

Hello everyone!

We´ve had such a good time the past couple of days, it´s been so busy too. Yesterday we went up a very big hill - I was glad Ruth took my bag because it was too steep for my little legs to carry me up there! We went up the hill to give invitations to children for the Fun Day we had today. We really wanted them to be able to come because their families are very poor and we knew it would be a very special treat for them. We handed out lots of invitations up there and talked to people. The boys and girls from Rainbow Houses 1 and 2 went with us and helped us.

Me with Rafaela when we went up the hill. The houses in the background are like the ones we visited.

Our Fun Day started at 9.30 this morning. 36 children came and everyone had loads of fun. I wish everyone in KFC could have come, you would all have had a great time! We played games, sang the new songs I´ve been learning with Hannah, had some puppets which told us a story about a Good Shepherd, did worksheets and had crafts and a snack. Before the children went home we gave them all a party bag with sweets, a pencil, a notebook and a toy - they really loved those too.

Me helping the children with their worksheets. Rodrigo let me sit on his back to see better.

Tonight we´re having a big birthday party for everyone; since we can´t be here for everyone´s birthday on the right day, we´re just having one big party today. I don´t know when my birthday is but Ruth, Hannah and Yvonne said I could still come. I´m so excited, I´ve never had a birthday party before. The children are quite excited too because they´ve never had a birthday party with anyone from Scotland before. You should see the cakes! There are two and they are huge! Today I REALLY like being a missions sheep!

Lots of fun!

Hello!

Before I tell you about what we did to get ready for the fun day on Saturday, I must tell you all about another exciting thing that happened yesterday. Before we came to Brazil, Raith Rovers football club in Kirkcaldy gave us a holdall full of football training kits for boys and their trainers. When we got here we asked Ronaldo what he thought we should do with it, and he suggested we gave it to the Cruzeiro football club, which trains boys aged 12 - 15. Efraim, who lives in Rainbow House 1 used to train there so they knew some of the boys come from families which don´t have much money. When we took the stuff, the trainer was really happy - he was even excited to get to keep the big holdall because they really needed one! The boys were there to play football, so he got some of them to put the kits on and we took photos. I got my photo taken with them, but I just kept my scarf on because the clothes were all too big for me. I´m not very good at football anyway.

Me with the boys in the football clothes

After we came back, we did the preparation for the Fun Day on Saturday. We made up lots of party bags with sweets, stickers, pencils and little toys for the children who will come. We also talked about all the fun things we´ll be doing with them and decided who could do the different things. Then we practised the songs and the aerobics. We are using the same songs as the team did who came two years ago, so Ruth and Yvonne already knew them, but Hannah and me have to learn them from scratch. They are quite easy, though, and lots of fun. After we did all that, Hannah got out the glow sticks and everyone had great fun with them.

Today Ronaldo and Reginalda took Ruth, Hannah and me to visit the YWAM base in Belo Horizonte. This is where Ruth first came to work in Brazil a long time ago. We visited the house where the girls live first. The house is called Casa Recanto. The girls who come to the house are either street girls who want to stop living on the streets, or girls who are not safe at home. We met some of the staff and some of the girls and got shown around the house. I made some new friends there and they really liked my yellow fur. They tried to tidy it up, but I have to say I looked like a bit of a scarecrow after and was glad when Ruth put me back in my bag! We then went to visit the House of Refuge, where children live who have HIV and AIDS. THis was where Ruth lived for over a year and worked with street babies. We saw lots of happy, healthy looking children, and Ruth was very excited to see a few teenagers who were very small children when she lived there. They didn´t remember her, but she recognised them even though they are much bigger now! We then paid a short visit to the house where street boys go if they want to stop living on the streets, and met Johan, the base director, Vilma, one of the social assistants on the base and Carla, who started up the House of Refuge and now goes all over the world teaching about AIDs and setting up houses for children with the disease. It was through Carla that Ruth came to Brazil, so we were excited to see her!

Me in Casa Recanto with Cassia (a staff member) and one of the girls.

Schoolbags!

Hello! It´s me again!

There´s been such a lot happening here I hope I can remember it all to tell you! Some kind people in Scotland gave us money to buy schoolbags for the children in Rainbow Houses 1 and 2, so we went and did that yesterday. It was a great outing! We went to a big shopping centre with Reginalda and Magna and looked at all the schoolbags we could find. We found some really nice ones in a sale so we got those - lots and lots of schoolbags! The children were really excited to get them because their old schoolbags were really old, some of them even had holes big enough for the children to put their hands right through them. Yvonne and Ruth have taken photos of the children with their new schoolbags so you´ll all be able to see them when we get back.

After that outing I asked Ruth if it would be OK for me to go and stay with Hannah and Yvonne for a night or two and she said that was fine. We had lots of fun in the afternoon with the children there, and I showed some of the bigger girls how to make cross stitch sheep pictures. They were very good at it. They even made one for my new bag which I now have to travel around in.

Today will be busy too, as we´re going to get everyone together and tell them all about the Fun Day on Saturday and show them what we´ll be doing. I´ll come back later to tell you how that went.

Me with Magna & Reginalda buying the new schoolbags

We´re here!

Hello everyone!

This is the first chance I´ve had to update my blog, but I´ve been dying to tell you all about the fantastic time we´re having so far! We arrived in Rio de Janeiro after a really long journey - 19 hours on 2 planes. Yawn... We had lots and lots of luggage, and some of it was a bit heavier than it should have been; we also had an extra bag. But we prayed about it and God was so good to us, we got all the bags and cases checked through without having to leave any stuff behind or pay extra money! The girl who checked us in didn´t even bother looking to see how much our cases weighed! We were so excited because that meant we could bring all the presents and things for our friends here. Ruth´s friend Selma met us in Rio de Janeiro airport with a kind man called Marcelo who´s helping us out a lot while we´re here; we were all very excited to see Selma, and she was really happy we had come.

That evening we went out for dinner with Selma, her husband, Henrique and their two little girls, Isabela (9) and Gabriela (4). We had such a lot of fun and laughs! We slept well that night after our long journey, I can tell you!

On Saturday Selma and Marcelo took us to the bus station and we caught our bus to Belo Horizonte. It took about 6 hours and we saw lots of interesting things on the way. We were met in Belo Horizonte by Carlos, Magna, Sara and Mateus from Rainbow House 2, and Reginalda. I already knew Reginalda and Ronaldo becuase they visited us in Scotland last year, but the the others are all new friends to me and Hannah. (Ruth and Yvonne have been here lots of times before.) Everyone was so excited to see us! And they had made lovely posters and welcome signs to make us feel really special. Hannah and Yvonne are staying at Rainbow House 2, and Ruth and me are at Rainbow House 1, although Ruth says I can go and stay with Hannah and Yvonne sometimes which will be really good.

Last night we had a big get together with the Rainbow House families, and gave them all their presents. It was such fun and really hilarious at times, especially when Carlos and Ronaldo put on their `kilts´ - they´re really towels but they look like kilts! - and Carlos even tried to do the Highland Fling! The children all loved their presents and were so happy with everything. We feel very privileged to see how pleased they are with the things that other people have given us to bring them - I wish you could all have seen their happy faces when they got their gifts.

Well, I think I better stop now, but I´ll be back soon with more news.

Me and Ruth beside the bus.

We´d just arrived at Rainbow House...