Caixa Postai 80 Campina Grande, Paraiba, S8IOU-970, Brasil

Christmas 2004

Greetings from the Southern Hemisphere!

It's hard to believe that Christmas is almost upon us once again - where does the time go? At this time of year being far from home isn't easy but thankfully I'm lucky to have such great support always from family, friends and communities in Ireland.

We're having an extremely hot summer! Global warming has raised the temperatures higher and we're sizzling in blistering heat these days - a far cry from the cold, dark days of winter in Ireland! Like you, our year is coming to an end and we have endless evaluations and planning for 2005. We'll be having a graduation ceremony on Dec l9th for the l25 adults (six classes) who began to learn basic literacy and numeric skills in March. All of these will be enrolling in the public schools in Feb.

The Co-Operative on the city dump where over 400 families eek out a daily living scavenging through the rubbish of the city is going well. This year we bought the following, which has made life a lot easier for the people:

1. An industrial scales for weighing the products 2. A second-hand tractor and trailer for transporting material from the dump to the co-operative.(This material (rubbish) was previously transported by hand or carried on their heads - not an easy task in the boiling sun)

The Co-Operative has the use of two large sheds where we store the material before it is sold to the recycling companies. Our plan for 2004/5 was to start re-cycling paper with a view to producing cards i.e. birthday, anniversary etc. for sale. One of our biggest obstacles was a premises as we have no space for this activity in the two sheds. The local primary school was situated in between these two sheds and was recently left un-occupied as a new school was built nearer to where the children live and away from the city dump. After several long meetings with the local government, we were given the use of this school for the Co-Operative. Unfortunately, the school was in very bad repair and had to be adapted to suit our needs.

Early in October we set about refurbishing the premises. The following repairs were carried out:

* The roof was re-tiled 

* The building was re-wired 

* All gutters were replaced 

* Two steel doors were erected for security purposes 

* The building was plastered and painted

There is no access to water from the mains in this area - water was `bought' by the school and stored in a large tank! We will have to continue doing this for the foreseeable future. It is hoped that all renovations will be completed by the end of December. We then hope to buy the equipment necessary to set up the paper re-cycling process and start the training in Feb.2005. The building will have enough space to incorporate the brush factory, the paper re-cycling and meeting room. None of this work could be done without the financial support we get from home.

We are beginning to see some changes on the political front. Lula, our President, is making great strides to combat poverty with his "Fome Zero" plan (Zero Hunger). However, he still has to battle against endless corruption in his efforts to bring about a more just society. The minimum wage was increased to R$260 (90 euro) per month but it's still a long way short of a fair wage. Here in Campina Grande, we had elections in October for Mayor. For the past 22 years one political family has `ruled' the city with nothing much to show after endless promises. Thankfully they were toppled this year and the new Mayor takes over on Jan. 1st. It was a great victory and hopefully we'll see some changes over the coming years.

How is life is St. Paul's? I was delighted to get the newsletter - at least it keeps me in touch somewhat. No doubt you're all counting the days to the holidays while busily getting tests and reports ready!

Well folks, I'll end here.... hoping you'll all have a very happy Christmas and a well deserved break. Wishing you all good health, success and blessings for 2005.

Fondest regards,

CELINE