Arrival in Sao Leopoldo

Today we arrived in Sao Leopoldo after saying our goodbyes to the wonderfull people of Canoas.

We ate another great lunch after meeting our hosts, and visited a orphan project being developed on some land donated by the city council. There is a big problem with street children being used by drug gangs for ferrying drugs around due to the fact that they are unlikely to face jail... we visited just part of a planned centre with school / health and other facilities part of a wider plan. The building was partially completed - with 20% of the funding still needing to be found. A popular way of raising funds apparently is the selling of chickens - it also seems to be harder here to raise capital costs than to fund revenue - which seems to be slightly different than home where capital is sometimes easier to come by rather than long term running costs. if the centre gets off the ground the city council will cover the costs of professionals with volunteers performing alot of the the basic tasks.

The full site vision - number 10 (the blue building is where we visited and what has been partially completed)

Artists impression of site at completion

More information on the project is avaliable here

http://casaberta.blog.terra.com.br/
With photos of progress here http://casaberta.nafoto.net/

People still seemed to be standing after a traditional sunday roast prepared by the team yesterday

lunch at Sao Leopoldo

Again outside the project