Curitiba Pilgrimage 4 (11/19 A School; the Bakery Project; e Projeto Emanuel)

Revda. Carmen tells kids at day care center about visitors from U.S.

A "Summer Wonderland" at the mall.

I was unable to send any dispatches the last day due to the storm that knocked out our internet service.  Of course, I also didn’t do any writing.  Instead, we joined our hosts in their tv/family room to talk about our lives and share family photographs.

Thursday morning started back at Missão São Pedro for a short prayer service and then a walk to a local school or day care center (not sure which).  The children, ages about 5 to 9, didn’t seem fazed at all by the old people from the U.S.  They swarmed around us, smiling broadly.  Like the night before, I found that I had learned how to say and pronounce a few phrases of Brazilian Portuguese a little too well.  This is because my carefully spoken sentence or two produced a torrent of words in response that were mostly meaningless to me.  I then had to admit “Eu não intendo Portugues.” (Yes, you know what that means. It’s funny, all the foreign language for travelers disks will teach you early on to count to 20 and to ask how much something costs; but when you ask how much something costs, it will rarely be a round number that is 20 or less.)  Anyway, back to the kids. Melissa was just in heaven; perhaps it is her affinity with five year olds that also gives her an aptitude for serving on church committees.  Kate sang a little song for the children, and that later prompted her and Melissa to come up with a Portuguese translation.  The rest of us introduced ourselves, and we left after only a brief visit.  As we returned to the church, Revda. Carmen explained that these children typically had a parent in jail or on drugs or a mother working as a prostitute; and they likely were being raised by extended family members.

Back at Missão São Pedro we watched a video on Padaria Comunitária, with Marcel translating.  Here in Curitiba, and now elsewhere in other cities and countries, they have established bakeries for people, well let’s call them people without anything, to learn a trade, become self-supporting, and in some cases run a business.  The government supplies equipment, but the bakeries otherwise are self-supporting.  The concepts are very fundamental.  Bread is a staple of life that we eat daily.  It takes many hands to grow and transport the grains that will be made into the bread.  With yeast the dough rises; and with the goods produced by the bakery the workers can feed themselves and their families and also help the community by selling these products directly for substantially less than they cost in stores.  After the video we were served lunch, and we talked informally about the church’s strong connection to social action in Brazil, including a side discussion with Marcel on what Ché Guevara means to people in South America today (having seen his picture a couple of places).

After lunch we went back to the Cathedral in downtown Curitiba to participate in Projeto Emanuel.  This is a worship service for the street people of Curitiba, held inside the Cathedral and followed by a meal in the dining area.  We were there to greet people as they came in the door.  Michael Tedrick recorded names, since they later would be seated in order of arrival, about 15 at a time, in the dining room.  My experience, as with the small children in the morning, is that people looked me in the eye and greeted me warmly.  After the service, Deão Flavio introduced our group, and Nancy said a few words about Open Cathedral, which started in Boston (as Open Commons) and since has spread throughout the world, including to Rio de Janeiro.  We have been having it translated as “church or church service in the streets,” since that better conveys what Open Cathedral is.  Nancy then had us bestow on everyone at the service the metal cross of Ecclesia Ministries which has become the symbol of common and open cathedrals.  The recipients were asked to keep and wear the cross as a reminder that Christ is with you no matter who you are or what your circumstances — and that when asked about the cross, they should use it as a chance to tell others about Projeto Emanuel.

From the sacred to the ordinary:  A few of our group crashed out a few minutes in the pews of the Cathedral, still a bit jet-lagged.  We then went upstairs to Michael Tedrick’s office for a meeting of just the six of us.  We meditated in silence for a few minutes, then shared feelings (yes, it’s a female-dominated group, so I had to go along), and then covered some logistics.  This has not been the best organized trip, which is not to say that it has been disorganized, but there has been confusion along the way about what happens next, or when, or how it gets accomplished – I think that’s happening on both sides. To be sure, we are undertaking something new for both dioceses, and there’s no precise recipe or road map (choose your favorite metaphor) for this companion visit.  Money has been an issue because we took a bath (the diocese and individual travelers) due to the cancelation of our previously scheduled trip in August, and the diocese of Curitiba, which is a mission diocese, is not exactly swimming in resources, nor are the individuals who have shared so much of their time and hospitality with us.  We are trying to improve our own communications, and we will work it out and maybe prepare a template for future visits.  Oddly enough, we were interrupted during our meeting by a call from Rev. Sam, calling from the Bay Area, about the tshirts that had been ordered to commemorate the visit — how did he know we were meeting at the cathedral right then?

After this meeting, most of us crossed the street (not as easy as it sounds) and went into the enclosed mall (“Curitiba Shopping” is the only name I saw) directly across from the cathedral.  There, with Michael’s help, we negotiated the 24 hour banks, i.e. ATMs, which at first wouldn’t process a transaction for somebody’s Chase card (which made us wonder if there was some new development in the U.S. economy that we hadn’t heard about).  After that . . . well, who really wants to read about it.

We had dinner again at the Cathedral, a wonderful meal prepared by the Dean’s wife Rosi and her assistant, and just a social gathering with some of the parishioners.  Bishop Naudal taped a map of the state of Paraná on the wall and showed us where we would be travelling starting on Saturday.  We will be using a van similar to the one used for our city tour, and we have heard about many high-level negotiations to assure that the van will be air-conditioned, because, also we have been assured, the north will be HOT.

Before we could get out the door and into our cars, a heavy rainstorm hit.  It was a great relief in the wake of the heat and humidity that had been building all week.  But it continued non-stop for what seemed like well over an hour.  There was lightning and thunder, and, as I mentioned back at the beginning, it knocked out the internet modem where we are staying.  So I went upstairs to join our hosts and get to know these gracious people a little better.