Claves means "Keys"

I mentioned in my earlier post that I used a program called "Claves" in one of the workshops in the children's program. Ester (responsible for all of the social service programs in Asas) asked me if I would be interested in taking a 3 day training course in November of 2007. I jumped at the chance and was really impressed with the quality of the Claves program. The first two days of the course was spent mostly in learning the facts about child abuse...the who, when, why, how questions and then how the Claves program can strengthen children so that they will not be abused. The moto for Claves is "Through play we are strengthened to confront difficult situations". Studies show that an abuser usually takes 2 years from the time he/she decides to abuse a child to the time he/she actually starts to abuse. These 2 years are spent gaining the confidence of the child and family by building relationships and trust. A person who abuses has hurdles to conquer before being able to abuse a child...he/she first has to deal with his/her conscience, then he/she needs to have access to the child, and finally, he/she has to wear down the resistance of the child. Claves focuses on that last hurdle...building up the child so that he/she will be even more resistant and will have the courage to tell someone who can help. Children are divided into small groups by age (4-7 years old, 8-11 years old, 12 years old and up) and work through 3 stages of the program. The first stage is entitled "My Body", the second stage is "My Intimate Parts", and the third stage is "Others and I". Each stage has 3-4 workshops which gradually build in such a way that the child is prepared for the next stage. Each workshop includes a time of music and dance, group games, drama games, table games, and stories/situations. Everything is very age appropriate and is done in such a normal, matter-of-fact way that the kids are not embarrassed. Here is their website for more information: claves@juventudparacristo.org.uy (Youth for Christ)
Here is an example of one of the stories. I've condensed it quite a bit, but you'll get the idea of it.





This is a story about a little girl, Joana. Her is still at work when she gets home after school so the mom reminds her every day that she is to come right inside and lock the door behind her.































Joan wants to be obedient but every day their friendly neighbor wants to visit with her. She quickly goes inside, but....


























soon the neighbor is knocking at her door wanting to come in to talk and play some games. She used to like talking to him, watching television, and playing games, but recently she hasn't liked the games that he has wanted to play. He also makes her promise not to tell anyone about his visits or their games.













That evening her whole family is together but she is in a bad mood and doesn't want to talk about anything. When her mom asks her if she got her homework done, Joana just gets even more mad and runs off to her room.




























Joana's mom talks with Joana and tells her that sometimes it is okay to have secrets, but if a secret makes you feel bad then it isn't a good secret to keep.





















This is a board game to play with the 12 year olds and older. This games involves working through a wide range of situations and prejudices.

Back to the Dump in Brasília

Michael (official photographer) and Carol (friend and children's program team member)


On May 17, Asas coordinated a 3rd Project "Go Ye" at the city dump of Brasília. Steve, the kids, and I left on Friday evening for Brasília after a rough time of getting backed up because we were without energy in the house. But we finally got things together and made it to Brasília at 10pm. We spent the night with some friends of ours who live in an apartment not far from the dump (Herberth and Carla). Steve and the kids were coughing and congested due to head colds and Maira woke up at 2am complaining of an ear ache. I tried giving her more decongestant medicine, but it did no good. By 5am she was shaking either from too much decongestant medicine or from the pain in her ear and she was asking me to call the dentist, call Aunt Otnaracy (our doctor from Asas), or anyone else who might give her relief from the pain. I asked Steve to wake up our friends to see if they had any pain killers that might relieve the pain. All they had was pain relief medicine for adults, so we cut it in 3rds and gave her 1/3. This finally helped her enough to enable her to sleep, but that only left us about 1 1/2 hours of sleep before needing to get up and get ready to go to the dump. Ugh. Thankfully, Carla was not planning on going to the project, so we left Maira at the apartment with her for the morning. Herberth went with us, but returned to the apartment a little before lunch to get Maira and bring her out to us. She at lunch with us and wanted to stay, so she stayed the rest of the day and was just fine. Aunt Otnaracy was there attending the people who live at the dump and she made time to see Maira and determined that her ear was not infected. Apparently, the congestion in her head had settled down towards her ear as she slept and was putting pressure on her ear and that is what caused so much pain. Anyway, we had a great day! Michael was in charge of taking pictures all day and he took that seriously....he took 103 pictures! He also helped out with the kids' program, telling kids the meanings of the colors of the wordless book bracelets and the general "go fetch..." guy. I put Maira in the group of 4-5 year olds to accompany all that they did in their workshops and she loved participating and answering the questions that the different "aunties" or teachers asked in the workshops. Steve went door-to-door evangelizing and was the coordinator for that. He also put together a program in the evening for the youth of the church with testimonies and the projection of the short version of The End of the Spear. I coordinated the children's programs and I had a great team . Everything went so smoothly in spite of last-minute potential stresses. I found out as we were leaving for Brasília that one of the girls on my team couldn't go anymore because she was sick and had gone to the hospital. She was responsible for the story workshops. Thankfully another girl on the team knew the story that she was to tell in the morning and then I asked another team member to do games instead of the story in the afternoon. Then in the morning I found out that yet another girl on my team was sick and hadn't come! Anyway, I had a great, flexable team who kept the focus and didn't let the set-backs get them down. We had 80+ children in the morning program and 150+ children in the afternoon program! We told the 80+ in the morning to bring their friends for the program after lunch...and they were very obedient! I took the kids back to the apartment just before the program for the youth in the evening...they were both so tired and so DIRTY! How wonderful it is to have friends that live in Brasília! Now for the pictures:




At the end of the afternoon, we handed out these bags with popcorn, coloring book, 2 toys, and streams with the colors of the wordless book to all the children who came to the program.
















Herberth and Carla













Look at those attentive faces!














The children made a mural about the salvation story.








This was part of my workshop. I used "Claves" for the first time. It is a program that was developed by Youth for Christ in Uruguay with the goal of strengthing children against abuse. I'll tell you more about it in another post.














So sweet!












Daniel, our safari man!


























"Claves"












One of the homes with the clean laundry hanging over the wall to dry.













Yep, another cutie!










Children listening to a presentation about how to brush their teeth before getting floride treatments.















singing













"Claves"












The "artist" explaining salvation













Explanation of the colors of the wordless book














Salvation story













Part of the team












More of the team, but without Michael who is now taking the picture!














I just loved this picture of the girls taking a picture!

Mother's Day

I woke up on Mother's day to a wonderful fruit breakfast in bed! Then we went to a very nice restaurante for lunch. They were having an all-you-can-eat shrimp bar... too bad I don't eat shrimp! But I ordered off their normal menu and it sure was nice not to cook or wash the dishes! Then at church that night the kids put on a special program for Mother's Day with singing and a "parade of moms" of which Maira was the mom of many children...

The four of us at the restaurante

Maira shaking those music eggs as she sings

Don't they look thrilled??? They actually were not so serious most of the time, but we just clicked at the wrong moment!

Maira was taking care of 4 dolls...one in the stroller, one in the basket, one in the kangaroo, and one under her arm!

She just had to walk from one end of the stage to the other and back again. She did a great job and said later that she wasn't as embarrassed as she thought she would be!

I wonderful week ahead

I hope you remember little Larissa that spent 3 weeks in the ICU last year when she was just days old. Well, guess who is here with us this week??? Márcio, Keila, Mathias, and Larissa are here this week. Asas has their annual business meetings on Friday and Saturday and they were able to come down early and spend some time with us. Well, at least Keila, kids and I are spending time together! The guys seem to have work to do in Asas....imgaine that! :) As you will see in the pictures below, Larissa is a beautiful and perfectly healthy little girl! Out of the many newborns that were in the ICU with Larissa, there is only one other baby who has had no serious side effects. Another baby that was in the exact same condition as Larissa is now blind and can't sit up. God really worked a miracle in this little girl! She is not only perfectly healthy, she is extremely alert, smart, charming, etc. She is just a doll and she is already taking her first steps. She is 10 months old today! Mathias is equally adorable and is having a great time playing with Michael and Maira. He cried when Michael left in the car with Steve yesterday...he wanted Michael to stay with him because he loves his friend Michael. So cute! Mathias turned 3 in January...he and Michael share the same birthday. Now for some pictures!

What a cute profile!!! She is a little peanut...small for her age, but full of smiles, energy, and she sings all the time!

Maira and Mathias playing with Raisin

Remember when I said that Mathias is 3? Yeah, and Maira is 5....see the huge difference in their sizes??? :) Larissa is little and Mathias is BIG

I love this one!!!

Auntie Keila playing tic-tac-toe with my kiddos...

Maira is 5 years old!

Yep, my baby turned 5 years old on March 27! She wanted an Ariel Birthday party (Little Mermaid), so I did some idea searching on the Internet for some fun things to do. The invitations were in a plastic bag with sand and glitter and shape confetti. At the party we had sand play dough, a sandbox, bubbles, a "throw the ball through the mouth of the fish" game, and a treasure hunt. I gave the girls big pink flowers to wear in their hair and flower necklaces. The boys got pirate patches and a red sash to wear. We had 16 kids here plus some parents. We were so thankful for a nice, sunny day and Maira was thrilled with her party. I had to remind her to stop inviting people because for a week she kept inviting just about anyone who stopped in front of her long enough to start a conversation! I was getting worried about how I would feed them all! :) Now for some pixs...

The cups have jello in them with gummy fish in it and whipped cream on top

The pirate boys....so scary!

Can you see the ball going through the mouth of the fish??? Good picture taking Steve!

Growing Kids God's Way....for the fourth time!

Yep, we are going through the course again. You might think we have the course memorized by now, but we don't! We decided to try it as a home Bible study group this time and it is working out really well. We just had our 3rd meeting this week and we have a great group. It is a real mix...two moms who come by themselves because their husbands are not Christians, another couple who are grandparents raising their grandson, a couple who do not have children but are wanting to start preparing for it, and 4 more couples with children ranging from 8 years old to 1 year old. We are meeting in our home and that has been really wonderful for us since we don't have to get a babysitter! I just excuse myself to put Maira to bed and Michael can hold out until 9:30pm when the group heads for their homes. We will need to meet every Thursday evening until July to get the whole course in, but it is definately worth it. I learn so much every time....it is like a breath of fresh air comes through the house every time we go through the course. As parents, we get focused again and aware of the things that we are neglecting.

Learning about Adoption

Here is a glimpse of the class that we are attending for parents who want to adopt. We started out with 10 couples and one single lady, but by last week we were down to 5 couples and one single lady. Of the whole group, we are the only ones who have biological children. Some of these couples have been waiting for over two years for a newborn. The classes have been very good as we discuss the ins and outs of adoption with the psycologist/social worker. The course is for 5 weeks and we only have 2 more to go. Completing the course does not mean we will receive a child right away, but the judge does look "favorably" on those who have completed the course. Although we are anxious to have our 3rd child, we are not by any means disperate. We know that God's timing will be perfect!

Clube da Luluzinha

The bi-weekly meeting of the ladies of Asas is called the "Clube da Luluzinha". We had our first meeting of the year this Thursday at my house. 20 of us managed to squeeze into the dinning room and living room. In the past, Keila and I planned all of the meetings, but this year I am trying something new. I have asked that each of them take a turn to be responsible for a meeting and that they have the freedom to do whatever they want during their meeting. I still have 4 dates to fill in, but I think I just need to put a little pressure on some of them! This week we played some "get to know each other" games since we had 7 new ladies. Then we had a devotional about being purposeful in our days, making goals and planning out the steps to meeting those goals. The devotional was given by Ester, who is responsible for the department that organizes the clinics. And to finish up the afternoon, we made dish clothes. I wasn't able to finish mine, so I'll have to post a picture of it later! I had to assist some on the sewing machine and that is sorta like the blind leading the blind! Good thing we only had to sew straight lines! Here are some pictures of the group: