Festa Junina e Mateus

Celebrating S. João is HUGE in Recife! "Festas Juninas", as these celebrations are called, are parties that bring people together to eat, dance and have fun together. The typical foods include as many things made out of corn as possible, like "canjica", "bolo de milho", and other things like "queijo de coalho" "bolo de noiva", "pé de muleque" and many other wonderful dishes.
Michele and I went with our Brazilian family to visit their relatives and it was a lot of fun. It gave me a pretty good idea of how families in the Northeast are close and care so much about each other. The grandma sat there for a few hours telling us all kinds of stories of the past and how they live. She also told me that her greatest dream has always been to go to Portugal!!! I wish she could go, maybe someday:)
I felt so welcomed in that home, it was a perfect blend of the Brazilian hospitality with family life with a typical "familia nordestina".
There was a boy named Mateus at this party. He is black and adorable and is the same age as my son, 12 yrs old. Mateus is from the favela. Our Brazilian family (well actually our mom's sister) befriended this boy and ever since that happened he has been coming to family activities and everyone treats him like family. I was so impressed with ho well educated, behaved and sweet this boy is. Not that I think a black kid from the favela can never be well-mannered but I found out that Mateus' family like is not the ideal, but he still goes to school and works to help his family and always has a smile on his face. Once our mom's sister gave him a laptop and when Mateus got home his brother stole it and sold it to get money for drugs. Mateus was devasted and felt embarrassed around our mom's family because he wants his family to change and be a normal and happy family. Without trying to be cheesy or self-righteous, my heart was so touch by this little boy, and as I compared him to my own son, who has everything plus more that he needs, I wished I could have all the money in the world to help boys like Mateus and give them a hope for a better future.