Brazil (debrief)

After our time in Cananeia we made our way up to Rio de Janeiro for debriefing time. I dreaded the trip and just wanted to stay in Sao Paulo because I wasn't feeling well, but somehow God's plan tends to be greater than ours. My best friend from high school, David, spent his two year mission down in Rio. I recognize that I only spent one day there, which is roughly 1/730 the amount of time that he spent there, but I could gain about that much of a glimpse into what his life must have been like down there, which is about 1/730 more than I could before. I just talked with him today and I'm so excited to hear more about his time and know a little of what he's talking about. So this is a good thing that we went to Rio for debrief instead of staying in Sao Paulo (p.s. the Pope was in Sao Paulo the first couple days that we were there, but no, we didn't see him among the 890 billion other people in the city).
In debriefing we went over a lot of different questions about our team, our time in Brazil, and our re-entry into the U.S. I thought a lot about how this trip has changed me, or has it? The end of Motorcycle Diaries (movie) has a quote in it, "I am no longer me. At least I am no longer the same me as before." I don't feel this way after Brazil. Brazil has been another layer in my life that I am thankful for, and it has helped to shape me and my world view, but it has not sent my life in a new direction. This is both good and bad I suppose. I now have a great love for all of Latin America, not just those who speak Spanish.:) I now recognize what it's like to spend a couple weeks somewhere where I don't speak the language, to worship God in Portuguese. The church is a great body of believers all across the world and I got to experience this in Brazil. However, I don't know if I will ever go back...What if I don't?
Some times I'm not sure what my purpose was on the trip. Then I realize, my purpose is God's purpose...my purpose is to show love to all around me...not just the cute children with adorable smiles.=) Thank you all who haave read up on my time in Brazil to gain a little understanding of what it was like. I don't want to brush off my time in Brazil and say that it has no impact on my life...but at the same time I want to recognize that this has not been the single most impactful moment of my life either. None of this would have been possible were it not for everybody who supported me in prayer and financially. I hold you all dear to my heart and no matter where God takes me in life, you will all be with me.=)

Brazil (week 3)

This was the hardest week and for that reason I've been delaying in writing about it...we spent Friday-Wednesday in the city of Cananeia. It's a fishing village on the coast near the border between Parana and Sao Paulo (for your geography buffs).
We arrived at 2pm on Friday, got settled into our upstairs loft area for the week when it started to rain...and rain...and rain...Dan was pretty sure it would last forty days and nights, but luckily this was the one time on the trip he was wrong. First, our accomodations, we were in a 2 bedroom, kitchen, dining/living room, and 2 small bathrooms. This is where we all slept, ate, played games, picked our noses, and whatever other activities went on. Rain in Brazil (at least Cananeia) is a different concept than the Northwest. We go out in the rain, because if you don't you will waste away in your house. However, in Cananeia you stay inside until the rain stops. It rained from 5pm on Friday til mid day on Sunday...can you say stir crazy? We couldn't work on the dock as planned, we couldn't have a Sunday morning program like we hoped, we couldn't even explore the yard of the house because of the rain.
Some things transpired that were mainly a result of cabin fever (I believe) and people just needed to find some alone time and private space. Finally Sunday night we went out for church and it was great. People were super friendly, we sang some songs, introduced ourselves in front of the church, and two people shared testimonies (Ryan and Andrea). Monday was clear and we started to work on the dock. By noon I was exhausted and felt a little sick so I layed down to nap a little. Except for a half hour break for lunch I napped until 6:30 that night! It was the start of the never-ending soar throat, cough, and crummy feel. As we all sat around in this cramped house bathing in each others sickness I became beyond ready to leave for our next sight. We left Wednesday and I slept through most of the bumpiest bus ride I've ever been on as we went back to Sao Paulo for the night.
Our time spent in Cananeia was one of the most challenging times as I struggled with a sense of helplessness, useslessness, sickness, and just being fed up with how much sickness was spreading throughout the group. My poor buddy lost her voice! Sorry Katie! There are good things to take away from the week, such as the hospitality of the family who lived below us and cooked for us despite us only working one day on the dock. Or seeing the love that they have for their four year old child who has some sort of developmental disability. Or how about the fact that God can use you despite the rain?:)

Brazil (Week 2)

This week was spent in Sao Paulo and started off interesting...I felt like junk...I didn't have a sore throat, fever, runny nose, or any of that, it's like I just had the aches and pains of the flu with nothing else going on. It's not too much fun.
While in Sao Paulo we worked with Ministerio Restauracao (Restoration Ministry). This is a ministry that goes into favelas (slums) and runs some ministry programs. They have what they call a day center in each favela. Pause, I should define this term for you so you have a slight idea of what I'm talking about...

Favela- A slum in which poor(er) people congregate and build houses from anything between cardboard and concrete. They rip power and water off from the city so that they don't pay for it. Favelas are run by the drug lords and there is no chance of success in life without working for them. Most people in Brazil don't go into the favelas because "it's too dangerous." Those that live in favelas don't even count as citizens of the city, they are nothing...nobody...nobody cares about them, nobody loves them, nobody wants to be them...nobody even thinks about them. Can you gather why Ministerio Restauracao is so important?

In each day center kids gather to eat breakfast or lunch, sing songs, learn Bible stories, and participate in other activities that involve anything but drugs and illegal activities. Their goal is to get kids hooked on God before they are hooked on drug dealing...sound like a fun job to anybody? It's not at all fun sounding to me if I'm being honest. I was exhausted every day at 5 when we were done. Each morning we woke up I had to peel myself out of bed and search for a little energy before charging into the day for more skits, songs, crafts, and soccer.

I just want to highlight two things about this week, Fifi and the favelas. First off, these favelas. Anybody seen City of God? It's super depressing and sad, don't watch it without expecting lots of violence and lots of violence coming from kids and directed at kids in the favela. I saw this before I left and thought, surely this is a little blown out of proportion. No...I promise you this is not. I know that short terms like this don't get the full picture, and I don't pretend to know it all, but I believe this movie is an excellent portrayal of life in the favelas. The people at Ministerio Restauracao helped us gather the true feeling of the favelas. By this point in the trip I could manage basic conversation with the kids. These convos solidified to me that the Ministry was not just exagerating.
Kids in these favelas are not hopeless despite the situation. They are only poor because we call them that, they are hopeless because that's how we would feel in that situation. These kids don't know the extremes that we do, they only know their life. These kids were filled with love for God, with a hope for tomorrow no different than us, and with a joy that is undescribable. That's what I want to highlight about the favelas, the joy and contentment of these families in spite of their situation. It's amazing...and humbling.

This brings me to highlight number two of the week...Fifi. What's Fifi? No, who is Fifi? He's a 17 year old guy that lives in the slums. It's his nickname, kinda funny to me, how is that a cool nickname? Kinda sounds girly to my American ears. Let's face it though, he's got a cool nickname!:) He lives in a favela near the main center for the Ministry and has been attending there since he was 7. Now he helps out a couple hours per week and he tagged along with out group one day to help with the kids. Mostly he played soccer and smoked us up beyond all belief with his friend Rafael.:) He has gotten the chance to attend school and is trying to get into a university for next year (school starts in February or so and runs til November or so). He used to have 9 brothers and sisters, only 6 are still alive. The others fell victim to the drug trade in the favela. His dream is to play professional soccer one day in Brazil, he's had several try-outs for teams but never made it. If this doesn't work out, he wants to work with computer web programing some day. He's a talented, gifted, loving, and amazing individual.
I never felt more connected to anybody this whole trip than I did with Fifi from my limited interactions with him. He showed me why I am down here, for encouraging and loving people. I am in Brazil for the people. I am a relational person and I come alive when I meet people like Fifi. I thought I should share this story with you.:)

Brazil (Week 1)

So how was it? That's the question that everybody wants to ask. Some do, and you get a response such as fine, good, great, mixed, interesting, etc. Just depends on what one-word answer comes to mind first. Others are a little more timid and aren't sure if it's ok to ask. It's ok, I'm like the latter of those two people. I want to know, but I don't want to ask. I think that by asking, if we are truly interested, we give that person complete reign of saying it was great or it was crappy. It's kind of intimidating really, this person could unload on us...by reading this I feel that you give me complete reign...=)

I more or less filled you guys in on the week here with a brief e-mail, so I will break it down in the following favorites:

Cultural experience:
We went to a pizzeria one night and it was amazing. I can't describe the pizza well, but it's just crust with toppings. No sauce, and these aren't the typical toppings. There are regular dinner pizzas such as sweet corn, beef stroganoff, etc. The best part though are the sweet pizzas for dessert! There's grape ice-cream, chocolate (regular and white), chocolate with strawberries, bananas with cinnamon. It's amazing! The waiters continually come around asking if you want a piece of whichever pizza they are holding. Wow...it was pretty freaking sweet! We got a chance to go later in Sao Paulo also, but by then most of the group was sick and our intake was down significantly...

Language to speak while in Londrina:
Well, there's the Irish missionary, he's pretty great. His names Nigel and we get to learn phrases such as "give it a wallie!" Which he says when he's trying to say, "put your back into it." He also asks you questions like "how's she cuttin'?" Apparently the correct answer, if all is going well, is "full of the blade." Oh Nigel, he's great, I love him. Then there's British Dan...he's a 20 year old guy down there for 6 months to help around the camp. He mainly gives us the joy of talking in an American accent while we talk in British ones. He's better at it than we are, (both American and British accents). I'm not sure why that is. His humor took a while to catch on because as he put it, "a lot of times I could tell a joke and none of you will even notice." Then there's the Portuguese, oh yes, the Portuguese...we'll cover that later.

Service project/job:
We sort of partnered up with Webb Idiomas (an English school) for an all day camp on Saturday and a week-night class on Wednesday. I thought it was going to be one of the most boring and least eventful weeks for this reason, but I love the English classes! This is a good thing since I'm teaching them next year.:) We got to meet all sorts of people from all over Londrina who ranged from broken English to near fluency. It was great to meet all of these people who were so interested in getting to know us because we spoke English. They could practice with a native! After all these years of studying Spanish, is this what all you native speakers have felt like around me?=)

Lesson/challenge/random:
We seemed to be sitting around a whole lot and the group was doing a lot of bonding. I can't put my finger on it, but I was not feeling so into the bonding this first week. I was a little sick perhaps, a little adjusting to the new culture, a little bitter finding out that Portuguese actually does sound more romantic than Spanish, I don't know what exactly it was.:) However, that's how I felt. Towards the end of the week Nigel asked me as I was working by myself on painting a window...he said, "Zach, I noticed that you tend to be working a lot by yourself. All of the group is working together, but whenever I see you you're by yourself a lot. So I'm curious, why did you come here?" Wow...I thought...I'm about to get grilled and embarrassed by the Irishman...However, we had a great little convo about it. I told him that basically I am here for the Brazilians, I'm not here for my team. My team is great, and I love all of them, but ultimately what I came to do was make an impact on the lives of the Brazilians and encourage the missionaries down there. I didn't go to Brazil to get close with Americans, I believe that's a by-product of the task at hand and will come along later. He asked if I was interested in missions and I told him not really...I think that we both have a similar view about missionaries who serve no purpose, which in our opinion a lot don't serve one other than God. Now, I realize I may have just stuck my foot in my mouth, so let me explain this in the next paragraph. (you can skip it if you don't want to hear it)
A lot of missionaries seem to go to Londrina, Brazil or Madrid, Spain or wherever else in the world to preach the name of God. I have a news flash, God is already in all those places and chances are most people have even heard about him. We are living in the information era where kids in Favelas have MSN messenger! Trust me, these kids and these people have heard the message, but few have experienced it. We are called to show Christ's love, not just preach it. It's great to be a missionary and I value each one of them. How awesome would it be though to one day not need international missionaries? What if we woke up tomorrow and other nations had enough of their own leaders trained in the church that instead of us sending missionaries to lead them we sent missionaries to learn with them and serve them. I highly value the missionary who is a dentist, nurse, engineer, teacher, etc. who simply serves the people to show them God's love. Does that make a little more sense now? I hope so.

Alright, back to the Londrina week, this is about all I have to say about it for now. If you have questions about those things fire away. I believe that I am slowly learning the value of God's church, not the human church which has drawn boundaries and lines we resist crossing. We are all one body and one people, one church called to love and serve...what a privelage.:)