Kilrush / Askamore Parish
Fr Frank Murphy's Recife Children's Project.

 July 2008

Dear Creche sponsors,

An old friend of mine used to say he could write or preach anything if he had just a cup of coffee, a cigarette and an idea but, if put to it, could mange with just the coffee and the cig! Which leads me to reflect that the monthly bulletin must often manage on the coffee only, the writer being a non-smoker.

This month, however, there are a few things to report from the Creche, not least, that two of the cot bound tots are down with pneumonia, brought on probably by the rainy weather of our winters, when such seasons condescend to visit us…Another of our tiny tots has left us : Richelle´s father is a drug addict with a gang out for his life (sworn to die, as they say here) due to unpaid debts…the mother thought it safer to move off, unencumbered by a spouse, to another part of the city to avoid being involved in the gang wars. Patricia is an ex Creche pupil with a nine month old baby in the Creche, who has now been afflicted with a panic syndrome which makes her afraid to walk along the street and leads her to spend hours hiding under the bed to feel safer. Her sister Polyanne, also reared at the Creche, has a daughter there in the cradle room, which frees her to make a living washing car screens at a busy near-by crossing or selling pop-corn to kind-hearted motorists…. the Creche cannot give every one a good start in life…the life of the poor is till nasty, short and brutish!

At the moment, we are trying to set up a web page so you can get the bulletins and also frequent pictures from the Creche. Very much depends on what will be charged to set up the page and periodic payments to keep the page up to date. I will let you know when the page comes to birth if it is not aborted by financial considerations. We tried to open a page a few years ago but had to pay an "expert" to come along to put on new material regularly, which discouraged us after a trial run of a few months.

A campaign has also begun to get all the staff to become sponsors of the Creche and induce or invite their friends and neighbours to make a small monthly contribution, thus becoming sponsors on a humble scale. If we don’t manage to offset the monthly shortfall of just over a thousand pounds sterling, the constant erosion of the reserve fund will wear it to exhaustion . The staff are well aware of the fact that the only other solution would be to dismiss at least eight staff members with the consequent exclusion of dozens of kids from the Creche. ..not an appealing prospect.

The Music and IT courses keep up the noiseless tenour of their way but the woodwork venture is now trying to train the next lot of Creche kids to do the necessary drawing and measurements to prepare to shape the wood into those Disneyland child-chairs, pictures of which have been sent you a few times. At the moment, there are no English classes, nor, to tell the truth, much pupil grief at their absence. Only the better-off realize the importance of English in the world of today where Internet and computers are essential tools to progress.

St John´s day is on a par with Christmas here in this part of Brazil with country or "okie" dress. To give you some idea of the feast day dress, I will try to send you a picture of a little Creche girl, Carla, dressed in typical St.Johns rig-out. There are bonfires on the streets and groups doing folk dances and Brazilian versions of quadrilles. People sit around the fires munching roast corn cobs and invite you to join them for a bite and then a step or two on the light fantastic toe when they get a dance going. St Johns festivities last from 13th to 29^th of June. There are many dishes of special, seasonal foods all made from maize but mouth-wateringly delicious…to say nothing of the added kilos on waist or hips

We have had to engage a lawyer to prize the rents out the tenants of the property bequeathed to the Creche in 2006.These rents are a source, albeit a small one, of income for the cash-strapped Creche so lets hope the lawyer will deliver the goods for us.

Your comments on the bulletin are most welcome but your monthly support even more so

Frank Murphy (Fr)

murphy@hotlink.com.br….let´s hear from you!

Your comments  and sugestions are  most  welcome…use my  email : murphy@hotlink.com.br