Brasil 2007

At some point, I hope to be able to add photos to this page. I am having a little trouble deciding what to add!

Efforts to rebuild Acampamento Shalom continue!

In some ways, I definitely prefered the old Acampamento Shalom. It was rustic, simple, and to those of us from North America it had some charm to it.

However, the reality is that the camp is for the use of the Brazilian churches, and in Brasil there have been a lot of changes in the past 20 years. What was acceptable then is no longer good to have.

Thus, efforts have continued to rebuild the camp to more current standards:

Install an exhaust fan in the room. During the hot summer weather, this will help keep things cool without the expense of air conditioning.
Install rebacu (stucco) on the walls to cover the concrete bricks.
Improve the electric service. This includes putting electrical wires in conduit in the wall rather than running the wires on the surface of the wall. New light switches and lights are being installed, and electrical outlets compatible with both types of electrical plugs common in this part of Brasil are being installed.
New ceilings are being installed.
Walls are being painted.

This has involved hiring professional Brasilian help (particularly when it comes to putting in rebaco!) and quite a bit of volunteer labor on our part as well.

One cabin was completely finished, while significant progress was made on many others.

During this time, we also visited some of our friends from past projects, in particular the Imagawa church we helped in 2005.

Then, it was off to Maringà, where we spent some time visiting an orphanage operated by the church there. As part of that visit, we took the entire group of children to a pizza parlor for dinner, which is an extremely unusual treat for both them and the orphanage staff.

Then, it was off to the Foz do Iguaçu.

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