...what of the spiritual side of this vast country?

Has anything changed on the spiritual side of this huge country since we were last here?    

While it has always been and still is easier to talk about spiritual things and about God here, the huge change I notice is how the Protestant Evangelical church of various types has grown.  We couldn’t believe the enormous buildings - can you see this huge blue church in the small village we passed?

And this one in the centre of Sao Paulo

But also the tiny places of worship in unexpected places.

This is no ordinary garage door - Apostolic Mission is inside!

Elsa and I went to Mass with our hostess in the country town of Braganca.  It was humbling to see how many arrived early to say their own individual prayers on their knees in the side chapel.  Many are not ashamed to show their intimacy with their Maker.  It was the young people who did everything except the sermon and communion itself.  The songs and prayers were flashed onto the screen above for us to join in.  There was a beauty in the simplicity and the obvious friendship between the people there.

In Rio we were open-mouthed when we saw St Benito’s church, with convent and church school. 

The Catholic church has it’s own Universities too.

Spiritism, based on the ideas of Allan Kardec, is very popular. I’m told that there are officially 20M adherents in Brazil but in practice there could be up to 60M (that’s nearly 1/3 of the populations!)  One of our hosts was determined to introduce us to CAFH so we could find inner peace (you can google that for yourselves-it’s a bit abstract for me).

Must go Elsa has 4 visits planned for today - been good to chat"Ate logo" (see you soon!)

Fun fact:-Football was first taught to Brazilians in 1894 by a Scots who came to set up Cotton Factories and formed the first football club-a Brazilian historian told us yesterday or I wouldn’t believe this!

Mrs Motivator

By 9am this 75 yr old had already been working since 7am.  She had given jobs to some ex-drug addicts and was there herself at the beginning of their day to be sure they arrived and worked.  Elsa and Laurie and many other Brazilian friends of theirs have been friends for most of the 29yrs of this project.  What is impressive is that she has know how to motivate a dedicated team around her and known how to help the community help each other.

Old friends meeting up - Elsa with Dona Anna and her secretary

Between phonecalls Dona Anna explains how the project now has 7 areas.  While we're talking in comes a mother in tears because her rebellious15yr-old who won't come to school.    After reassuring her that this phase will pass Dona Anna said - send her to me at 10 tomorrow.  I have a new IT project starting.  I will motivate her to stay!  Typical of the heartpower of this "grandma of the whole community.
Let me show you some of the 400 children who benefit:-

Headteacher Dona Jacqueline with some of the "Happy Duckling" creche

A lesson in the Library

All these rooms are actually clinging onto the hillside of this area Morro dos Macacos which was a favela the last time we were here.  This picture, taken inside the Community Centre, shows where most of these families live

 Must go now.  Tomorrow we go up 1000m to Petropolis for the weekend.  Let me leave you with one of the motivating poster from the centre where so many young people find hope:- 






"Books don't change the world
Books change people
People change the world"

Let's talk money

Let’s talk money

£1 = nearly 3 reais

Minimum salary is 622 Reais/month – about £230 but many work by the hour and are only employed as and when.  It’s common to have several jobs on this hourly-paid basis. We’re finding the cost of living quite expensive if you’re thinking about clothes, though food is probably a bit cheaper.  Fruit is much cheaper.  On our long journeys, the equivalent of a service station was a wooden table by the side of the road selling oranges or coconuts with the straw already in them for you to drink the milk.  A bag of about 15oranges was 5 reais - £1.50.

Price of petrol is 2.5 Reais/litre - about £1/litre but many Brazilian cars run on Etanol - sugar cane and the price is 1.7 Reais/litre – 70p.  Not bad eh?   People can be very enterprising about how to earn a living:-

earning by selling for recycling- the Brazilian flag is EVERYWHERE!

Many sell among the moving traffic - cold water is sure to find custom!

Yes there are still so many who live in poverty - I wasn't up for taking photos of some we saw sleeping in the street but one change is that we saw that the Sao Paulo city council now do provide places where the homeless can spend the night – though we saw the queue starting to build up and it was only lunchtime.

Fun fact:- Brazilian bankers get NO Bonuses

Mission Accomplished

Excuse the long silence, We’ve been basically without except for 5 mins in the evening to check e-mails  Now we’ve found a tiny computer shop with 5 or 6 computers up a tiny ladder so here we are at last able to write this again.  It’s helping me a lot to write as I get perspective on things – it’s just such a different world.

Mission Accomplished

At last we have done what we came for. Here is Elsa being welcomed on board the boat to take her husband, Laurie's, ashes out into the Bay of Guanabara near the port.  They both worked here for 35yrs, befriending and helping others in their faith.  Elsa knew it was here she wanted to come and a dozen friends and a priest came with us.

It was a beautiful experience and the most fitting tribute possible this side of heaven.

Our priest was very dynamic and recorded an interview about Laurie which will go out on his radio channel.

If any of you want to read more about it visit the website "Initiatives of Change" - the movement with which she and I both came here. 

Till soon

Lyria

Education improving all the time

Brazilian education is one part of life that has improved enormously since Bob and I were here last.  In the 1990s President Cardoso introduced reforms to school funding which mandated minimum per-pupil spending and teacher salaries, made a huge difference in the poorest areas. His government also started to pay poor families to keep their children in school. The current president, Dilma Rousseff is continuing and extending both policies.

Can you see from this picture what I notice that this is a country of young people. 26% are under 14 and only 6% over 65!  (that was 2yrs ago).  Children start school at 6 and it is compulsory until 14.  In secondary school, if you don't reach the proper level at the end of the year you have to repeat the year.

Here's a typical Primary School class

as you see - in every school Sport esp football is extremely important

Fun Fact :-  In her first year as President Sra Dilma Rousseff was elected "WOMAN OF THE YEAR" by a leading Brazilian magazine.  Vast majority of those we speak are pleased with how she's doing - though of course nobody will ever be totally satisfied. Here she is:-


Tomorrow Elsa and I go to Rio de Janeiro. Will be in touch from there.  It's great to be able to contact you like this.
Tchau!
Lyria

Brazil's natural beauty

Let me show you some of nature's beauty here:-

Quaresmeiras in flower brighten up many busy roads

and today we saw these amazing stones - all Brazilian - in the most beautiful shop

Crystal from Minas Gerais

Happy Shoppers

 Thanks to all who have commented so far. More soon....(it's only 33 degrees today!)

"The interior"

Just back from 2 days in the Interior which feels like a different world.  How would you like to have a banana tree in your front garden - just beside the coffee bush.  We were welcomed into the home of Ameria's father and stepmother.  Dona Lazinha grew up on what's called a Sitio - small farm - where they were basically self-sufficient - goats, chickens, etc.

.

Neither she nor her brothers or sisters had any schooling so later she taught herself to read and write.  Nowadays the school bus collects everyone as the distances are enormous!

Dona Lazinha explains that there has been an "explosao urbana" with so many families moving into the cities.  She and many others with the Government would give incentives to families to stay.
The fact is that a huge 83% of Brazil's 192M people live in the cities!

Feeling energetic (and brave with 3 octogenarians) we decided to go up the 370 steps to see this tiny church. Here, left to right Dona Lazinha, Sr Tsuda(Ameria's father) and Elsa, my godmother. 
And a very hot ascent later we arrived:-

I've rarely been so keen on the cool, juicy fruit we had back at the foot of the mountain:-

FUN FACT ABOUT BRAZIL
Brazil has not been at war with any other country since 1870 !

Day 3 already!

Can't pretend to have slept well.  It's like living in an anthill.  The city never sleeps.  I shouldn't really be surprised that the refuse lorries pass about 1am.
Here's the view from our 20th floor flat

Also people are quite relaxed about the possibility of being robbed.  I lowered the back window of the car as we drove along and our friend gently advised me to close it.  She said the motorcyclists could rob us.  This photo gives you an idea of how many there are buzzing among the cars

My reason for coming is to accompany our close family friend, Elsa Vogel. Bob and I lived with her and her husband for 3 yrs here - that was 22yrs ago.  She's LOVING being here.  Below is Elsa enjoying her first taste of really gorgeous papiya and naturally ripened banana

We've already visited 3 groups of her friends - over 35 yrs here she has so many to see.  Today  
our hostess Ameria is taking us to her family in Braganca Paulista which is several north in what everyone calls "the interior".  Can't wait to see some countryside but we might not have internet connection so I'll write again when I can.  


Hope it's getting warmer there!
Your melting friend
Lyria

First day

After 14 hours in the air here we are in Sao Paulo - city of 11M and 20M in Greater Sao Paulo. I wish you see what we saw from the air:-

and then we saw land, first the mountains:-

then the towns:-

the landing was so smooth the whole plane aplauded.
Then the first sight of an old friend waiting for us at the airport and 2 hours of driving through the traffic.

You can believe there are 20M people here when you drive.  Apparently there are 7M cars registered in Sao Paulo. The best deal is probably had by the motorbikes who are like wasps weaving in and around you- glad our friend Ameria's doing the driving!


It is 32 degrees here and even the Paulistas are moaning.  We sit on Ameria's balcony on the 20th floor and eat the most delicious fruit.


I'm going to stop and recover and speak to you all again soon.
Lyria