It was mothers day, which is a huge event, so these kids practised for weeks in this homage to their mothers and Our Lady, mother of the church.
We had a big cake for mothers day baked by the woman on the right. Everyone at Mass that night got a slice.
While visiting the settlement areas we were invited to lunch in a local house, but not before I was given a guided tour of the farm by the father and his two sons.
This construction is not for water but for salt licks for the cattle. With the strong rain the salt needs to be protected, hence the roof.
Relaxing after lunch in the family home. This is their newly built extension to the kitchen. I have stayed overnight in this house while visiting communities.
The neighbour got to the sofa before I did for the all important afternoon siesta.
The church of Santa Rita on the night of the launch of their festa. The dance took place in the hall, which is the wooden building next door. It is about to fall and this community hopes to replace it with a more solid structure and to move it a little bit further away from the church.
The local youth group perform a liturgical dance to welcome the Gospel. This community is very animated and are great singers.
Myself with the Eucharistic ministers in the procession from the mass into the hall with an image of Santa Rita to bless the hall and the festa which is about to begin.
On a visit to another community, Nossa Senhora Aparecida. There was cake and juice for all. The kids chose to sit in front of the altar.
Fencing here is done by hand and the wooden stakes are of the best hardwood that we would see in the best of furniture at home. The use a clean wire as opposed to barbed-wire for the cattle fence, maybe five or six stands of wire and the holes in the post are bored by hand.
These kids were leaving after mass on some local transport, with a bag of rice for food.
A small cattle truck stuck in the mud which blocked our route home for about an hour. Our jeep was not strong enough to pull them out. The Mother Superior of the nuns looks on.
We called to say hello to a family whose house was burned to the ground, to see how they were getting on, and we met these kids having great fun on the horse saddle. One of them even had an empty beer can, but the mother made her throw it away. It is not unusual to see a cowboy on his horse on the road drinking a can of beer.
I met these two little ones coming home for their wooden school house with this flower for their Mammy as it was mothers day. The were so intent in minding their little gift that the never saw me taking their picture until the last moment. they were minding their flower as if it was the most precious object in the world, and for them it was at that moment of time.
