A night on the streets

Yesterday was Wednesday which means we were heading off to down town Recife to spend a few hours with the guys who sleep rough out on the streets. For a while now everyone has been gathering in one particular square, but we knew this wouldn't last as when too many people gather the police disperse then.

We arrived, and that time had come, we usually find 25-30 people of all different ages gathered in the square, with their dogs, cardboard and bottles of glue, but everyone had been moved on. Fortunately they had only moved about 200 meters down one of the side roads, so it didn't take us long to find them. 

This new place stinks!! rotten food, human excrement, not nice! But we quickly connected with the group starting to paint nails, doing first aid and playing dominoes. Anderson was there, he is 3 and he had clothes on!! which is brilliant as I haven't seen him in clothes for months. Sadly it’s not a safe place for a small child to be naked.

We struck up a conversation with a boy we have known for about a year, he seems to have softened a bit and says he would be willing to leave the streets, he is the right age for our home so we proceed with the conversation. The next step is a big one, "can you take us to your mother?" We have to do some paperwork to legally take a boy into Hope House, which involves a signature from a parent. This can be a difficult thing for the boys to do as they all have left home for a reason, and returning there can be traumatic. But he seems willing so we ask him to meet us on Friday to go to his parents. Let’s see what happens!

Out of nowhere a police truck appears and 4 armed officers jump out and gather around a man across the road from us. They all have their guns pointed at him. Its a group of military police who are well known for being a bit heavy handed. After about 45 minutes of interrogation, pushing, shoving and the occasional punch to the stomach and ribs they leave the man and drive off. The man then walks 10 meters down the road and collapses. Many of the people living on the streets took videos of the incident and now they start to call ambulances and other police to report what had happened. So we stay a bit longer to help, put him in the recovery position and see that he gets taken safely to the hospital. 

That was my night; I got to bed sometime after 1 am, so Laura kindly offered to work the early shift.