Missao Aracaju

Open House...

Funny how things don’t always turn out the way that you imagined. In our January letter to you I shared about the group of people that met in Dona Nilza’s house. So full of hope and so full of people.

Well, in February they have this little holiday here called Carnival… you may have heard of it. Anyway I think it’s actually the biggest celebration that happens in the whole world. It’s a nationwide party that starts on a Friday afternoon and ends the following Wednesday at 6 in the morning. Ash Wednesday in fact, but that’s another story. Lots of drinking and dancing, street parties, loud music and of course as the name implies, it’s a party of the “freeing of the flesh”. Not that I’m judging them. But I do grieve. Sinners sin… it’s their job description.

In reality, not everyone likes the holiday. The party gets so big and so bad and so loud in places, that people actually leave the city to go to their family’s holiday house in the country just to get away from the “bagunça e barulho” or “the mess and the racket”. And since here in Brazil people get one month off for vacation (I’m not kidding – a whole month federally mandated paid vacation!), lots and lots of families leave for the whole month of February. What could be better, a month-long family reunion in the country?

Read more in the attached PDF.