World Youth Day - Day 6 (Welcoming of the Pope)

Thursday, July 25, 2013

At 7:15, we were up and ready to go.  We stopped at a stand on the way to breakfast...so that we could eat breakfast.  I think that this really lifted the spirits of some people in our group.  They really needed a tasty snack. 

We got to the place where we had catechesis and ate our boxed breakfasts. 

It's amazing how exhaustion can affect a person.  I said that the day before, after I hit my head, I started crying and couldn't really stop for a long time.  Well, that continued this morning.  It was on this day that I started to seriously ask the question, "how can I get out of the rest of this?"  If I had found a way, I wonder if I actually would have taken it.  I was really struggling.  It was only the 6th day, and the most difficult stuff was still to come.  I wanted to give up.  It all just seemed impossible.

I think that the most difficult thing was that I was frustrated with the lack of prayer.  I seemed to be praying less than I would at home.  Less!!  There was just so much distraction.  The language was different.  And we didn't have time.

I cried for a little while, which I think was good for me.  Once I got it out of my system, I never cried again on this pilgrimage.  And I stopped about an hour after breakfast.

We got another surprise on this day!  Archbishop Aquila, who was so happy to see us the day before, was the one doing catechesis for us today!  And Mass!  When they introduced him, we got out our Colorado flag and cheered and waved the flag.  Again, he looked like a proud papa.  I swear, he gave his entire teaching looking at us!

We had mass.  It was freezing.  I was trying to get all bundled up in blankets.  That news, that we'd experience the coldest cold front in Brazil's history seemed to be true on this day.

After mass, we left to head into Rio.  And, shockingly, it was warm outside.  How did that happen?  It's weird because the buildings in Brazil don't really have windows.  Some do, but they are kind of rare.  Most of the buildings we stayed in had bars across the "windows," but no glass.  I suppose they don't really need protection from the elements like we do in Colorado.  We were there on a day that felt cold because we didn't have long pants and because our clothes had gotten wet in the rain the day(s) before.  It was cold enough to see your breath though.  Actually, I think that somehow, in a weird way, it was almost humid enough to see your breath.  It looked different than it does in Colorado.  I think that it was just cold inside the building that morning because of the lack of windows, and that's why I was so cold!

We ate lunch at the mall again.  By the time we got there, my hoodie finally dried completely!  It had been damp for days, and now it was finally dry!  Oh the relief!

I met Batman at the mall!

One of my favorite moments of the entire trip happened during lunch.  Ordering food was kind of a disaster everywhere we went.  I never really expected to get what I asked for, because I knew that it was near impossible.  I got up to the front of the line, and I pointed at the menu to show her that I wanted the Number Two Combo, and I put up two fingers.  She asked me what I wanted on top, and I pointed to the word Pepperoni.  Then she kept talking to me.  I couldn't figure out what she was saying.  I shook my head, and she kept talking.  I asked for some of the boys who were with me to come and help me, and they couldn't figure it out either.  She asked for her manager to come over and help her, but he couldn't figure it out either.  Finally, I just gave her my card, and I decided that whatever she gave me, I'd eat.

We stood there, waiting to see what I got, and we looked at the receipt, which was WAY more expensive than it should have been.  We thought that maybe I ordered an entire pizza on accident.  It turns out, I ordered two Number Two Combos!  That's ok, though.  I ate them both!  And I ate them fast!  And I felt so good to be full!

I really enjoyed this time, because, frustrating as it was, we laughed a lot.  We were actually having a really fun time trying to figure out what I ordered.  I was just happy that I got to eat!

We went from lunch to the American Center to watch the welcoming ceremony, since we didn't have the subway passes we needed to go see it in person.  I was sad because I really wanted to be there.  I could watch a TV back at home.  I didn't have to come here to do that.  But, actually, after the Pope arrived, they did a weird welcoming ceremony, that even I thought was weird.  Too weird.  Really really weird.  We were all a little worried about the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics after we saw that show.  They like weird stuff here. 


The satellites lost their signal, so we had to leave without getting to finish watching.  I don't think that anyone was disappointed in the idea of getting home early.  Early sounded so nice.  Plus, we were supposed to be getting a translation of what was being said, and the translator did a terrible job.  We still had no idea what was happening.  Not even I was disappointed!  Because the ceremonies were still going on when we left, we missed the big crowds!  And it stopped raining!

The American Center, where we watched the Pope arrive

There he is!

Saying hello!

We were all in high spirits, until we got on the ferry and learned that the place where they were going to hold the vigil later in the week had flooded.  We were a little skeptical about this news, since their definition of "flooded" in the boys' room was very different than ours was.  Now that I've seen pictures of Campus Fidei, there is no way they could have had the vigil there.  I'm curious as to why they picked that place at all.  Apparently it used to be a swamp, that human beings tried to drain and turn into something different.  It turns out, once a swamp, always a swamp, until God says it's no longer a swamp!

The people who told us about the changes were a little dramatic about it.  They said that having the vigil at Copacabana Beach would be a "death sentence," and of course, that freaked people out.  We still didn't know that this was true, and we still didn't know what kind of security they would have at the vigil and mass.  But those words, "death sentence," kinda stick with you!

We got back to the school before we were allowed to go in, so we had to find something to do.  What's a good thing to do when you're bored?  Food!  So we went to this really sketchy pizza place where they set up tables for us basically in the street.  We were just counting down the minutes until the school would open, because we did not want to stay there.  We had fun outside the pizza place, though, coming up with stories about our group.  I won't go into details here about those stories, because that's a book in itself!  But it was a lot of fun!

At 10:00 exactly, we headed back to the school, where it was still locked.  We didn't wait for too long (although it felt like we did) before we discovered that there were people inside who accidentally shut the gate which locks automatically.  We probably could have entered the building before pizza, but then we wouldn't have gotten pizza, which is a good thing to have!

After we started eating, we made the announcement to the group about Campus Fidei, and our safety concerns.  It really sounded like we weren't even going to go to the vigil or mass at all.  The teens were really disappointed, as you can imagine, but they took it in stride.  None of them threw fits or cried or anything.  I think that some of them were even relieved to not have to go!  But most were disappointed.  I kept telling them to pray for a miracle.  We didn't know all of the facts yet.  If we learned that they had a plan for security that we were comfortable with, we'd do it.  A lot could change in only a few days.

We stayed up for a while calling parents to tell them what we knew, and to ask for their permission to attend the event, and not attend the event, based on what we learned as we went.  The parents spent a lot of money so that their kids could go to this vigil.  If it turned out that we weren't going to it, they needed to know that before.  We also wanted to let them know that the location had changed, just because it's good to communicate stuff like that with the parents.  All of the parents were understanding, kind, and happy that we were looking out for their kid's safety.  What good parents!

I didn't want us to just give up on this, but I didn't know what choice we had.  Safety is important, but the World Youth Day Council had to know that, too.  All of the concerns we had, I was sure they had, too.  People who were smarter than us were working on this, and I knew that they could come up with a plan.  There had to be a way to keep everyone safe.

A pilgrimage is never boring!