JMJ Begins

So Tuesday is the day It all begins! It is about 16 degrees and it is drizzling. I brought the dorky poncho and wore shorts. Big mistake. We headed down to the beach at 9:30 am. Kathryn an Melissa and I ended up down there before everyone else and bagged a spot next to a screen and an entrance and under some palm trees. We pretty much had the beach to ourselves and a few Argentinians who had a dance circle going. Mel and Kathryn immediately ran over and joined them. I minded the bags and took this awesome photo.

We then waited... And waited... and waited... Then a bunch including Ron an Mavis arrived and a few of us were free to find some lunch. Three freaking hours later, running around the blocks looking or a supermarket and then getting myself a freaking pastry.

Then at 4 pm the party started. I had a flag hanging up from a palm tree and apparently an Australian flag makes you an automatic celebrity in Brazil. I lost count of all the photos we took with Brazilians and a few other nationalities too. Most of what was going on was in Portuguese so we had no idea but the music was awesome so who cares! 

At 6 pm the Padres and the rest arrived! It was then dancing and Fr Prasad showed everybody up! They will be a video! 

It was the Mass time and I was amazing. There were 400,000 people on Copacabana and in the silence of the consecration. You could have heard a pin drop. If we weren't on sand...

It was raining and wet and miserable so it kind of took the edge off it a bit. But 400,000 people is basically Sydney's whole WYD at the opening mass! I didn't think we would get communion in this chaos but I ended up standing next to a minister! She only gave communion on the tongue too. So that was funny seeing Jamie's face! 

When the mass finished it was chaos! Absolute chaos. So we split up into smaller groups to attempt to grab dinner on the way. The Rovis (Ron+Mavis), Jamie and I managed to get a crazy cab ride home. We went back to Hotel Sao Francisco and had some sandwiches for dinner and I used the wifi! 

It was then home to bed very sandy and very sore feet. Tomorrow is Wednesday and our first Catechesis. We have no idea which bishop we will have so this will be a surprise! 

Rio Rio Rio!

So we finally arrived! We got in to Pier Maua where Aussie Central is around 8 pm and had our induction and got settled in.

We then went to attempt to find some dinner and wound up at the only place that was still open in the area, a dodgy little bar called Flamingo. I wasn't hungry so it was delicious mango juice for me! Then sleep. 

The Monday, our first day in Rio we had the day to ourselves so it was a trip to Copacabana Beach for a swim. It was a hot day and the water was cool but had a massive undertow so I didn't stay long.

I can tell you now, I was rather at ease lounging on the beach for a change. AND WE HAD FRESH GREEN COCONUTS!

We then had cold green coconuts and fried garlic prawns on a beach cafe. It was grand.

On the way down to the beach we stopped at this magnificent church the Candelaria. It is a Baroque Church but is uniquely Portuguese. 

 

The frescoes are amazing. I plan on going back after the Final Mass to grab some more snaps. I couldn't work out exactly how they were made. They seemed to be tempera but they had a glossy oil sheen. They were beautifully detailed which was visible from the ground. 

We had a fun adventure getting back to the Metro station at Copacabana, Doug, Kathryn and I nearly got hit by a bus! Think I'm joking? Rio is the only city in the world where you don't joke about that. 

Turns out that as we got off the train and began walking to Pier Maua, huge crowds came pouring out of nowhere into the streets. Turns out the Pope was arriving up the road in his pope mobile. We saw that on the news later that night. We cleared out after hanging around for half an hour. It was back to Aussie Central and then to hunt for some dinner. Which ended up being Bob's 'heart-attack' burgers.

So that was our first day in Rio! Tomorrow, the fun starts! 

A Long Day...

So I mentioned that we had a 6 am flight today. Yeah that meant being on the road at 3 am. So instead of sleeping, we had a last hurrah at the hostel bar and polished off the last of their red wine. When I say we, I mean myself, and a handful of others who did the sensible thing and not sleep after arriving at 8 pm from the Missions.

It was a four hour trip each way to the missions through the Argentinian countryside. On the way back we had a mad jam session with Fernando, our guide. Best guide ever!

To get to the airport, we had to cross the border to Brazil and then check in at the airport. Both of which left us with about 45 minutes to take off and with people at various states of sleep deprivation. I was a bit manic. Just a bit...

We were heading to Paraty (pronounced Para-chee in Portuguese) which is about another 7 hour drive after a 4 hour flight to São Paulo. I dozed on and off on the plane and then some more on the first half of the bus trip. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop which had tonnes of yummy pie type things.

We stopped at a place called Aparacedia. It is home to the 4 biggest Marian Shrine in the world and the second biggest Basilica seating 45 000 people.

Inside houses the apparition of Aparceida from the 1700s. The story goes some fishermen were having no luck with their fishing when their nets dragged up the body of a statue and then the head of our lady. She was a little terracotta statue and she was Afro-Brazillian. The fishermen then proceeded to have a massive catch and she is the patroness of Brazil and the first black Madonna ever. 

That is her there! Tiny! We stayed for mass at the cathedral and it was a lot of fun! The Portuguese are quite charismatic and they sing as much as possible!

It was then back on the bus to Paraty, 5 hours away. Nathan and I hung out at the back of the bus and had an awesome chat. It was a full on drive with the bus careening around a road similar

To the Bulli exit off the princess highway or the Old Pacific Highway. We were treated to this awesome sunset

We finally arrived in Paraty after and epic trek. I had been away for 40 hours and was delighted with the awesomeness of this budget hotel. 

We had fried fish for dinner which was ok. The epic wine drinkers from Iguazu then had a Jonny Walker Black nightcap. It was 20 reals (about $10) and slept! 

Jamie's cough had gotten to a full blown chest infection and we both had a horrible night's sleep. But breakfast was awesome with this kind of setting and fresh fruit. 

We then had half a day in Paraty where we did a walking tour and went to Sunday Mass. 

Paraty is a colonial town built in the 1700s on the gold route to Rio. When the gold ran out, Paraty was abandoned. Then later in the century the coffee industry restarted the town. Then in the 1850s the emperor of Brazil buil a highway bypassing Paraty and it was abandoned again for 100 years. To give you an idea of how abandoned it was, a dude in the 1920s wanted to build a house so he picked the only vacant block, a street corner!

The rest of the town is world heritage listed and is perfectly preserved. 

We then went to Mass at the largest of the 4 churches in the town, Our lady of Remedies. It was the last day of a 9 day festival in honour of St Rita of Cascia. 

Funny story about this Church, so it was supposed to have bell towers but they discovered that because the foundations were on reclaimed swamp, the church started sinking so they had to scrap the bell towers and stuck them in the second floor windows instead!

A church dedicated to her is currently closed for restoration and it looks beautiful already. 

The mass was an experience and a half! So much singing and joy! 

It was then checkout, on the bus to Rio! 

The Missions

Today we are heading out to the one thing I have been looking forward to all trip, visiting the Jesuit Missions in the jungle.

The start to the day was not great. I was woken up at 3:30 am to a rustling noise at the foot of Jamie's bed and I had no idea what it was. I was hoping it wasn't some weird South American animal that carried rabies or was poisonous or anything. So I woke Haley and Jamie up and we the figured out that the noise was Jamie's packet of Oreos. So to catch the culprit we put the packed in the middle of the room and waited. 

Twenty minutes later, we caught a lovely sleek rat dragging the Oreos under the cuboard. So then we spent the next half hour trying to coax it into the cupboard to trap him. When that didn't work Jamie decided that he was kind of cute and should give him a name. So we dubbed him Ralph Oreo and he probably has diabetes now after polishing off half a packet of Oreos to himself and keeping me awake with his munching. So we felt great and we had a 2 am for a 6 am flight for the next day. 

The first mission we visited was San Ignacio, the most well preserved of the thirty missions that have been discovered in the jungle.

The missions were an incredible social experiment in colonial times. The Guarani people who lived in the jungle numbered some 15 million across the junction between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. They had been living there for 300 years before the Spanish and Portuguese arrived.

After the arrival of Europeans, the Guarani were regularly preyed upon by both Portuguese and Spanish slavers. In an effort to protect them, the Jesuits came to the area to establish these missions. They learned the Guarani language to a level of high fluency. In Guarani culture, chiefs were chosen based on their eloquence and generosity. 

The Jesuits peacefully went to the Guarani chiefs and offered protection, a future in the new colony and Christianity. The chiefs brought their whole family groups and with the Jesuits (usually no more than two per mission) built the missions. 

The above picture is a layout of most missions. The centre was the square and the church. On the left side was the cloister and house for the two Jesuits plus guests. Attached to the cloister was the school and library. Next to that was the workshops where the Jesuits taught the Guarani carpentry, stone masonry, art and eventually metal working. On the right side was the cemetery and a special house for the widows and orphans. 

The long houses in the foreground were traditional Guarani houses with one per extended family but were subdivided by nuclear family. (The Guarani used to be polygamous until the Missions) there were rows and rows of them. The top two had a chapel making the entrance of the square. 

Wandering around the square was decidedly eerie. When the Jesuits were expelled from Spain, Portugal and its colonies, the colonists moved in and burnt the missions to the ground and enslaved or killed the Guarani. I felt like I was walking on a graveyard is the only way I could put words to the feel of that place. And it was freezing cold so I was quite restless and uncomfortable. 

But then we got to the Church. The Jesuits brought with them the Baroque style which the Guarani took and created a unique architectural style called 'Baroque Americano'. 

There are three door ways here. The middle door was for the married women and the children. The far left was for single people. The far right was for widows and the men. In its heyday the church would have looked something like this...

The detailing whilst fancy is all Guarani, depicting their local flora and any people or Angels all had Guarani faces. 

We explored these ruins with a guide and she explained a lot of the history and bits and pieces. 

San Ignacio is the best preserved misson and after some lunch we headed over to another called Santa Ana which was has not been restored. The feel of Santa Ana was totally different to this one.

This mission built the first printing press in South America. It traveled around the missions and allowed the Guarani people to develop a written language. Language for the Guarani was sacred it was the manifestation of the soul so a printing press was a catalyst of an explosion of guarani language literature. Only 2 percent of it has survived the destruction of the Missions after the suppression of the Jesuits. 

This is what would have been the altar of the church of Santa Ana. It was laid out much like San Ignacio. Behind the cloister were the communal vegetable gardens. The Guarani had no concept of private property and the Jesuits adapted this to suit mission life by building communal farms. Every man contributed to the maintenance and the excess produce were traded and sold. They had a brilliant irirgation system that is still there. 

We had mass in the remains of the cloister gardens. We celebrated the feast of St Ignatius early and I was suddenly hit with how awesome the Jesuits are and St Ignatius was. This were places of sorrow but also places of peace, family and joy. Exploring the more ruined Santa Ana with trees like this around...

... Was so much fun! And after a horrible, overcast and bitterly cold day, the sun came out to spectacular effect, particularly fitting given the Jesuit's symbol. 

This is so far my favourite day. Iguazu was amazing but these missions are all together special. They and the amazing social experiment are now gone, crushed by greed, fear and envy. The Jesuits who built and maintained these missions were amazing men. The did everything from saying masses and caring for spiritual needs to teaching architecture and carpentry and then Maths, science and philosophy and then being the doctors, and advisors to the chiefs. They never were so pretentious as to assume they knew everything, they relied on the Gaurani themselves to lead and manage the work and law and order in the missions.

They fought and died to protect these people from a life of slavery and had to watch the life they built for these people be turned to ashes. The surviving Gaurani went to the cities as trained master craftsmen and melted into the rest of the population. There are only forty thousand Gaurani left today. 

What a legacy to leave! Not everything the Jesuits did was perfect nor were they perfect men but amidst it all, they managed to provide an oasis of peace for a little while. Their legacy stands as an important lesson in human dignity and the importance of not doing nothing in the face of evil. 

Viva Iesus Homnibus Salvator! 

Psalm 93

For the past two days we've been exploring one of the 7 natural wonders of the world: Iguazu Falls. In the language of the Guarani People it means 'big water'. 

We did the Brazillian side on the first day and then the Argentinian side the second day. One of the highlights was definitely the boat trip right into the Falls. So much water it was amazing anyway... Here are my initial thoughts...

The Lord is king, he is robed in majesty;

The Lord is robed, he is girded with strength.

He has established the world;

             It shall never be moved;

Your throne is established from of old;

           You are from everlasting. 

The floods have lifted up, O Lord,

       The floods have lifted up their voice

       The floods lift up their roaring.

More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters,

More majestic than the waves of the sea,

Majestic on high is the Lord! 

Your decrees are very sure;

        Holiness befits your house,

       O Lord, forever more

Psalm 93

More on the Jesuit Missions and a manic day traveling to Paratay. 

The other side of Lima

Lima is home to 10 million people, one third of Peru's population. Its unemployment rate is the lowest it's been in years at 20 percent, insulated from global financial troubles with its resource based economy. 

Lima is a beautiful city, but not one that has been without troubles. Even in the heart of the city centre, beautiful colonial buildings sit empty and dilapidated. Military governments, Marxist guerrillas and corruption crushed the economy and stability of Peru. 

For every person that lives in Lima, there are 3 or 4 people who live in the poorer areas and the slums. 

Today we went to Pamplona, a distinctly poorer area of Lima, but not the worst area. We traveled by bus south to Pamplona and watched the gradual change. Like I said, this wasn't the poorest areas of Lima and had a surprise vibe to it. The streets were dusty and pothole ridden, but clean and generally rubbish free. Construction was going on everywhere and people were bustling in and out of shops. There was a distinct vibe of a place that was halfway through being developed, got stopped and was starting to crank up again. 

We arrived at the school. For the life of me I cannot spell its name or even say it! But it is a public school that covers primary and secondary. The principal is an incredibly dedicated and intelligent woman who has fostered overseas relationships to help fund and build the school. 

All up there are about 600 kids which are divided into morning and evening sessions. These kids only get half a day's school to accommodate the kids who have to work and because they don't have enough room to accommodate all of them at once. 

We got a tour of the school by the principal and a couple of the kids from the Representative council. One of them was named Felix and he got one ofthe guitars  and started rocking Nirvana. 

We then had a de brief as to what we were doing which was giving a catechesis to the classes (the public school has no funding for religious instruction) and then take them through a dental hygiene program. We split into two groups and went to our first classroom. There were about 30 in the class and they were year 1. The catechesis started with songs as ice breakers and then we acted out the parable of the talents as Jimena (the regular volunteer) read out the story. We then taught them the Hail Mary in English and did some colouring in with them. I made a new friend! 

Her name was Bianca, she's a Hannah Montana fan, her favourite colour is pink and she has a twin sister. 

We then bought them up to the Art Room for the dental hygiene program. 

We showed them how to brush their teeth, gave them a tooth brush and then we put fluoride on the teeth that didn't have cavities and sent them to learn how to wash their hands properly and get a tube of toothpaste. 

We did three classes each. The second was a kindergarten class with several bouncing kids. One of the girls drew me a picture! 

We then had a late lunch and a break whilst the afternoon session kids came in. Little Bianca came and sat with me and Jamie for a while and learned to use the camera.

The evening class were 4th Graders and quite articulate! I made friends with Ana Maria and Rosmarie

We were then thanked by the teachers and the principal. Apparently groups don't stay for the evening session and we were the first. I didn't want to leave! They were such beautiful children despite how rough many of them had it. A large proportion of them were orphaned or abandoned and most would not get breakfast if the school didn't provide it.

This school was doing wonderful work, the teachers were passionate and loved the children as if they were their own and the kids took great pride in their school and education achievements. They were confident, respectful, quite articulate and very bright.

I felt at home and energised by these kids. I couldn't give them much, just some fluoride and some broken Spanish/Italian mish mash. If someone offered me a job there I would have taken it in a second. So now we have to leave for Iguazu Falls. Well be staying on the Argentinian side so more forms! I am so going back to Peru. After I go to Mexico. 

The Extraordinary City of Lima

So our first full day here in Peru. We spent the day sight seeing around the main part downtown Lima. I was blown away. Everyone assumes Peru = poverty but that is not all there is too it. It has an incredible history and vibe to it. And we saw it on a quiet Sunday!

This is a typical example of the architecture that effectively has made the whole city a world heritage site. 

Fun fact: did you know Lima gets about 10mm or rain annually? Instead of rain there is a constant cloud and light drizzle almost all day. It keeps everything green and comfortably moist.

Peru was founded to be the capital of Francisco Pizarro's new colony of Peru. It a neatly planned and sprawling city much like that of any spanish City. It grew to be incredibly wealthy and powerful quite quickly. It was the most elegant and cosmopolitan city in its colonial and republic heyday in South America. To this day, it's economy is in 50% minerals, particularly silver and copper with the rest being spread across agriculture, textiles and tourism. 

It has an incredible spiritual history as well with 5 major Peruvian saints coming from the colonial era. St Rose of Lima and St Martin de Porres, contemporaries, and good friends despite their different social status. St Francisco Saldano, a major figure in Missonary outreach, St Turibio de Morojeveo, the second bishop of Lima and a good, holy shepherd to every Peruvian. The last one I can't remember off the top of my head but I will correct this later.

We spent the day visiting the major churches and places that St Rose and St Martin lived in. First stop however, was to the Franciscan monastery and San Antonio church. 

It's colours were incredible and the side altars were astounding. That was just the beginning. 

This side altar is one of the more simple ones. It is typical colonial Spanish, hand carved from jungle hardwoods like mahogany in this case which is imported from Central America. 

We then spent some solid time in San Domingo monastery and Church where St Martin De Porres lived and worked.

This little cupboard under the stairs was where St Martin spent a lot of time in prayer and arguing with the devil. Casually. He was an incredibly humble and gifted healer. Her was the illegitimate child of an African slave and Spanish Father. He spent his life in prayer and serving the Dominican order as a cleaner, cook and infirmary attendant. They eventually accepted him as a brother. Lots of great stories that I don't have time to go into at the moment. 

These Dominicans founded the oldest university in the Americas, San Marco and I am moving in. 

Look at their library!!!!

This room was the meeting room of the order where they founded the university. From that pulpit, a PhD candidate would present their thesis to a panel of three jurors. You can't quite see it, but there was a little bench under the pulpit where the examiner would sit and ask questions. I'm defending my Thesis here. No arguments. 

St Roses' body is also in the crypt here. Her skull is over at the Church built next to her house which is now a convent. But before we got there, we went to this insanely  beautiful Baroque Jesuit church of San Pedro. 

Impressive no? Wait for it...

This is a side altar dedicated to St Ignatius, it is solid mahogany and festooned with Peruvian gold leaf. When the Jesuits were suppressed in the 18th Century, the church was closed for about  a century. By some miracle people forgot just how much gold was in here and did not loot the place. But my favourite was this side altar...

It's a Marian altar and it a bit younger than the rest of the church, making Rococo which is Baroque but on steroids.

So we then headed over to St Rose's Church. She came from a wealthy family and wanted to join the Dominicans but her family wouldn't hear of it. She practiced increasingly harsher penitence and self-mortification. She built herself a tiny anchorite cell...

And spent her days when she was not praying working in the infirmary. She fasted severely and physically pushed herself beyond any human tolerance dying at age 31 from turburculosis.

This is her skull in the Church:

We then had lunch which was awesome and then made our way to the cathedral for our last stop. The cathedral has been flattened by earthquakes and rebuilt about 3 times since Pizarro first built it at the insistence of the king. 

The cathedral has a museum displaying about 200 artefacts from people's homes donated to the Church, things like...

This nativity set.

Then we headed back to the retreat house absolutely dead, had mass and fought hard to stay awake and then dinner and bed. 

Tomorrow we see Lima's other side.