‘Good things come to those who wait’ was famously a slogan for a well-known brand of Irish stout beer.
That black beer with a white head is normally served in pint glasses, and recently the ReVive girls enjoyed something of a similar size and colour that was as sweet to them as Guinness is to many Irish people.
No, the ReVive girls were of course not allowed alcohol! Ice cream was the treat in question, albeit some of them had to wait patiently for it. And not just any ice cream, but delicious sundaes from a fancy ice cream parlour here in Olinda.
Being the last week of the school holidays, most of the girls were able to enjoy the treat: eight of them altogether, including two sisters who arrived at the house earlier in the week. (The two girls who were not around were happily staying with family members for a few days, something to be joyful about).
The trip, supervised by four members of staff and volunteers, started with a bus ride through Olinda, perhaps something some of the girls had done many times before but not a frequent occurrence while at ReVive.
We arrived at the mystery destination to find enough space to sit together in this modern boutique shop, decorated with mainly lemon yellow wallpaper and in parts with some graffiti-style images just about related to ice cream.
Being a small shop that prides itself on selling carefully-prepared ice cream and sundaes, some of the girls had to wait patiently for theirs to arrive. Most of the girls, in fact, as the sundaes, served in containers of a similar size to a pint glass, were most in demand.
The girls’ patience was impressive, particularly as the first was served her ice cream around half an hour before the last. The ReVive staff and volunteers showed admirable patience too, waiting for their ice creams!
When everyone had enjoyed their ice cream we walked along the nearby seafront back towards the ReVive house in the pleasant late-afternoon sun, stopping at the beach for some games with the ‘parachute’ provided by Sheffield-based charity Kings Volunteer.
If you haven’t seen one of these parachutes before, it’s not something you would jump out of a plane with. It’s made of similar material but with no strings attached, so children can play a variety of games around, under and on top of it.
The ReVive girls love it, particularly playing ‘Washing Machine’ where one gets wrapped up in the middle of the parachute while sitting down, and then rapidly spun out.
After these games, it was time to walk back to the ReVive house as the sun set on another beautiful day in Brazil.
A big ‘thank you’ must go to those people in the UK who generously gave Roz, my wife, and I money to treat the girls like this.
Thank you also to Becky, ReVive’s Volunteer Coordinator, who took the girls’ ice cream orders, not a straightforward task when there were so many delicious items on the menu to choose from!