As you may have heard there has been A LOT of rain here in Belo Horizonte and the surrounding region! We haven't been affected as much as others, just some leaking and wet walls! There has been a lot of disaster and destruction across the city.
January is a calmer month as we don't have a schedule full of activities and it was only Nico, Lorenzo and I in the house, so it gives us the opportunity to do some other things. Most of these things are paper work, maintenance and boring things like that.
But in the midst of all the rain and paperwork we took advantage of a day of sunshine to do something out of the ordinary! We planned a nice day with a family from the slum. We had wanted to do more family day trips but with the rain it was impossible. The family we went with was Nivaldo and Cristiane and their daughter Raissa. We went to a very beautiful place called Inhotim, about one and a half hours from Belo Horizonte.
Inhotim is a huge nature park with some art houses. The nature is spectacular and well maintained with many flowers specific from Brazil.
The art is a little eccentric and we didn't understand a lot of it, but enjoyed the experience to do something different! Raissa and Lorenzo especially enjoyed the swimming pool, and we also took a dip which was very welcome as it was such a hot day!
We brought a picnic with us and the family expressed how they had never done something like that before. Lorenzo also enjoyed his sandwiches!
Many families from the slum don't go far from the slum, to do a day trip like we did with a picnic is unheard off, it's just not their culture to do so and also they don't have the experience. We wanted to show them that it doesn't cost much to be able to do something really nice. They were really impressed and loved the day away. We loved having some time to spend with the family, especially as Cristiane has been suffering with a crisis of depression. It was so rewarding to see her enjoying her day, chatting a little like before and even some smiles and laughter!
We also, as a family, enjoyed the day away. Lorenzo loved the freedom of running around in just his nappy!! Although he wasn't so keen to walk barefoot on the grass, he is such a city boy!!
As we look forward to start our regular activities again it is nice to look back and know we had this really special day with some really special people.