Helping hands fighting for each other

Today was a great day. CCJ's headquarters is a house that they have converted into a workshop, office area and activity center. It's pretty beat up so we are helping them fix it up by plastering and painting. I came home today all polka dotted from using a roller but it worked out really well. We plastered, painted  and cleaned some of the walls that had tile. With the humidity it became pretty stuffy inside but between the difference that we could see happen and some sing-alongs, the work went along quickly. It was nice to be able to get in and see an immediate difference after all what we saw on Saturday.

 Today is also the Second Day of Gettysburg Days (July 1-3)! Here is a quote I wanted to share from the book The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara that is about Gettysburg, but first, an introduction. We all prepare small reports to be presented in class about famous Brasilians, especially Brasilians from the Northeast. My person is Gilberto Freye who is famous (or infamous) for his ideas about 'Racial Democracy' in Brazil. His ideas are complicated and I am not sure I even understand the general gist, but what I do understand is that he argues that Brazil does not suffer from any of the negative effects of racism that the United States and South Africa have and that Brazilians have mixed races (principally the Europeans, American Indians and Africans) that they have become a different race, one without racism. If this isn't right, I know Vanessa will correct me and this blog will be updated.
  I'll be honest, I hate being defined by my 'race'. I know it is part of the world we live in, but I wanted to share this thought with the idea that there is more to people, especially after what I have seen from living here as a missionary and now as a student.
I strongly recommend this book (it didn't win the Pulitzer Prize for nothing) and it's accompanying film Gettysburg. This quote is given to soldiers who have decided not to fight anymore several days before the battle begins.
Chamberlain:

This is a different kind of army. If you look at history you'll see men fight for pay, or women, or some other kind of loot. They fight for land, or because a king makes them, or just because they like killing. But we're here for something new. This has not happened much, in the history of the world: We are an army out to set other men free. America should be free ground, all of it, from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow, no man born to royalty. Here we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here you can be something. Here is the place to build a home. But it's not the land. There's always more land. It's the idea that we all have value, you and me. What we're fighting for, in the end... we're fighting for each other. Sorry. Didn't mean to preach. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kdOKJXfTU4