Some (very) miscellaneous things

Yesterday we visited a day care/community center run by some nuns (specifically headed by one - Irma Bernadette.) You walk away from the health post and down a dirt road for a ways. It looks like you are about to leave the town and keep walking into the country but all of a sudden a multicolored fence appears on the right. Inside is a huge compound filled with kids. They have four hundred preschoolers in and out every day. They have music programs, dance, a playground, a garden with medicinal herbs and vegetables, a library, a kitchen and classrooms. And hundreds of happy kids in little blue t-shirts spilling out of one room into the next. The nuns have set this up with no government help - the government is really happy that they do it but offer no financial support - so they rely on donations and they also produce crafts (by teaching women from the neighborhood who then can also use them to make money for themselves) to benefit the school. And this is all run by a little nun who must be about seventy five and had a stroke a month and a half ago. She is pretty incredible and probably the most world conscious person I have met in Brazil.

Also yesterday we saw a sixth month old baby at the health post with his dad (a rarity in itself.) Later I found out that it was his first kid but the mom already had five and had abandoned him at birth. He is lucky because in many situations the same kid would be in an orphanage now. Instead he has a completely loving and devoted dad who has to work a lot but leaves his son with neighbors and comes back to play at night. So bittersweet.

On a COMPLETELY different note..
Today on the TV in the health post waiting room there were guinea pig races! Most of the people in the waiting room reacted as if they had never seen a guinea pig before which is not exactly surprising in one of the poorest parts of a small town in northeastern Brazil. But I thought it might be of particular interest to some people.

Also here in Ilheus I have discovered a phenomenon which is both awesome and horrible at once. Ice cream by the kilo. You serve yourself however much you want of whatever flavors, put lots of toppings on and then just stick it on the scale. And it is painfully cheap, especially on wednesday and saturday when it is half price and packed. On those days you can get four generous scoops plus toppings for about 1.50 which is less than 75 cents. And therefore very dangerous. Especially when they have all sorts of tropical fruit flavors, coconut and LOTS of chocolate.

And (finally) a bunch of pictures of Ilheus and associated activities.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036754&l=ddcad&id=17704089