Where Hope Grows on Trees

Sometimes it feels like lying when I write different statistics about Brazil, or post pictures. Yes, they can be impressive and/or depressing, and may make you reach for your wallet--but life here is so much more than statistics. The stories you hear or the faces you see are only one pose captured to represent something bigger.


Brazilians are incredibly resilient people. Truth is, if Living Stones doesn't provide for the children, they will learn to find some other way to get what they need (although, probably not a healthy way). They can survive on nothing, and then throw a party on less than nothing--and everyone has more fun than many extravagant parties have. Daily life is often the "Stone Soup," where everyone puts in a little to make it work. Community and family hold a deeper meaning, for here they are keys to survival.


In the United States, hope seems to be buried in the next job/career that can be found. Things have gotten harder since the recession, but America is still the land of opportunities--the place where hard work will pull you up by your bootstraps.


Poverty in Brazil is a different flavor. Eric Jensen's "Teaching With Poverty in Mind" lists six different kinds of poverty: Situational poverty (from a crisis or situation, like in Japan), Urban and Rural poverty (each have their different aspects, as seen in Cajueiro Claro versus Recife), Generational poverty (it is in the family for a while, and they are not equipped to move out of their poverty), Absolute poverty (day-to-day survival), and Relative poverty (can't meet the society's average standard of living).


America most often has relative poverty (but generational poverty is sadly growing as well), while Brazil is dealing much more with absolute and generational poverty. When you walk around a rural Northeast Brazilian town, you can almost feel the lack of opportunities around you. The few jobs that are available are almost always minimum wage (a little over a dollar an hour) or less.


Brazil's hope is rooted in something different. You hope because it is better than not hoping. Even without seeing the opportunities. It is like the fruit trees that are planted everywhere, for anyone to pick. You eat its sweet fruit and remember that the best things in life are free. In Brazil, hope grows on trees.


The Brazilian people are not the statistics listed for you. They are not the smiling brown children in the pictures posted. They are people, with the potential of saint and sinner just like you. They are not more "worthy" because they do not have, but they are also not forgettable just because they were born on a different spot on the globe than you. Their value comes from the same place as yours--created in the image of God--and so each one is worth saving and loving.