Memories of a Proud Job This morning we had D. Rosa working with us in the office. She is now coming every now and then, helping with photocopies and other little and undemanding chores. She does not know how to read and write, so sometimes it is hard to arrange something for her to do. Well...to tell you a secret, most of the time we have to make up things, or give her a task not at all urgent. But it feels so great, to see her smiling and looking all busy, leaving us, at the end of the day, with a feeling of worthiness and accomplishment. She is a lovely and lonely women, a child that has never grown. Her bedroom is full of dollies and teddy-bears, spread al over the place: on top of the bed, sitting smilingly on an armchair, looking at you from above a cabinet. She has been living alone ever since her mother died. We, in Associa��o Humanit�ria Habitat (AHH), are becoming her family. That is what she told me in the BOF ceremony, last month, when AHH offered her � and all future homeowners � a traditional hand-painted tile to be placed outside the new houses. �I don�t have as many nightmares as I used to have� she said. �Now, I sometimes dream of you, or of Ana Cl�udia, or of Fernanda, and that makes me feel so good!� I am glad to be a part of D. Rosa�s adopted family. I am proud to be a part of Habitat as long as I feel that I am helping in this way. I will be leaving the job soon, but this is what I intend to take with me. The memories of the families, the sweetness of D. Rosa, the cheerfulness of Sr. Mouta, the strength of D. Ana Maria. These are not �poor people� that we are helping. They are VSP: Very Special People. And it is because of them, and in their name, that I do my job. They make me proud. I hope one day you can came to meet them. I hope you can still come to help us finish their houses before winter comes. They need you. AHH needs you too, because it is nothing without you.
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