I'm going to Rio!

Yes, it's true! I am really going to Rio! A team of us from the church are going this summer to do some practical work on a school building in the City of God, a favela (slum) in Rio de Janeiro. We will be there for around 10 days at the end of May. I'm pretty excited about it already! I've never visited the southern hemisphere before and Ali, my wee sister, already beat me to it so I need to catch up.

More importantly, though, it's really great to be part of something that actually matters. I often think to myself, "How much of what I do with my life really matters?" In the end, when all is said and done, what will last? I love snowboarding and rock climbing but it's not going to be these moments that count for much. It's going to be the times I showed kindness, compassion or love to someone who really needed it.

I've been learning about Rio in preparation for the trip. I've watched a few DVDs that are fiction, although they're based on the kind of thing that happens there. I've seen Cidade de Deus (City of God) and Cidade dos Homens.(City of Men) Both deal a lot with the day-to-day trials of children living in poverty and tempted by the drug culture as the easy way to make a lot of money.

Something that I realised while watching was that a lot of these kids don't set out to be drug dealers. They simply want to make money to survive. I know there are those who crave the power, the status and the notoriety but there are others who just want to make some money. It's so hard for these kids to make money any other way.

I really feel for the street children in Rio and I hope that by me going there I can show them love, maybe communicate to them that someone cares and the world's not forgotten about them.

Now would be a good time to mention that I'm raising my own funds for the trip. If anyone is interested in helping me out, please comment and we can talk.