World Youth Day - Day 4 (The Opening Ceremonies)

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

I woke up on Tuesday with a lot of hope.  "Finally, today, our trip will begin.  Now it will be fun.  Now it will be spiritual.  Now it will be a pilgrimage."  That's what I thought.  Up until this point, it didn't feel like we had done anything yet.  We all had a lot of hope for the day.  

We woke up at 6:30 am.  My watch has a special "travel" setting, but somehow it got switched to normal time.  It was really weird to see that I was waking up at 3:30 am Colorado time.  It's too early!

I slept amazingly well.  I did wake up at 5:30 am when an alarm went off somewhere in the building.  Some of our "house mates" thought that everyone needed to wake up at the same time that they did.  It didn't bother me too badly.  I was so tired that I fell asleep immediately.  I may have woken up for less than a minute!  I did manage to hear dogs barking and roosters crowing during that minute.  Dogs run wild in Niteroi.  

Thanks, Christa, for the picture!!!

Thanks, Christa, for the picture!!!

We went to the place where we'd be having catechesis for the rest of the week to eat breakfast.  This was the first day we'd get to experience our (sarcasm alert) delicious and nutritious breakfast packs, that stayed pretty much the same every day.  They came in boxes and included packaged toast, a muffin thing, a chocolate milk thing, Nutella, etc.  I discovered that I actually like Nutella.  I've only tried it once before, and I was a little freaked out by it.  This Nutella was different because it was really really chocolatey.  Some people said that it was very different than American Nutella, which is mostly Nutmeg.  I don't love it as much as others, but I thought it was good.  After we ate, we kind of sat around for a little while, deciding what to do. 

Our breakfasts came in these boxes every day.

They were packed very neatly

Some kind of orange muffin thing.  Gross!!!

Packaged toast.  Probably the best part of the meal.

It was literally just toast

Cheese spread

Chocolate Milk

Cashew Apple Juice

 

 

 

Richard enjoyed his toast.  Christa looks like she didn't

Finally we got on a bus to head to the Copacabana Beach where the Opening Ceremonies and Mass would be held tonight.  We wanted really good seats, and everyone agreed that it was worth it to get to the beach early enough to save them.  We were racing 500,000 people for those spots, so we knew we'd be there for the long haul.  But luckily the place where we were waiting was the beach, which would be a fun place to hang out.  

It took a shockingly long time to get from Niteroi to Rio.  I could be wrong, but I think it was somewhere close to two hours that we spent on the buses.  I wasn't near my group on the longer, more crowded but, and when the bus is that crowded, being two seats away is a long distance, because there are actually about six people between you and that person. In crowds like that, you can't measure distance by feet or yards, you measure by how many people are between you and another.  We learned that lesson in a big way later in the day.

Richard faking happy on the crowded bus!!

This was the first, less crowded bus

One of my favorite moments so far happened on the bus that day.  People bring all sorts of things to trade at World Youth Day.  Flags.  Buttons.  Bracelets.  Ribbon.  Christa gave me one of her flags to trade, and a lady from Brazil saw it.  She asked if she could trade me for a Brazilian flag, and so I traded.  There was another girl from her group who really wanted to trade for an American flag, too, but I only had the one.  At first I told her no because I didn't have a flag to trade.  She made a frowny face and looked genuinely bummed out.  I kept wondering what I could trade her, but I really didn't have anything.  It was a little while later when I realized that I could ask Christa for another flag.  The problem was that she was at the back of the over crowded bus, and I was in the front.  But I managed to get the attention of a boy in our group, Zach, who passed the message back down the bus that I needed a flag.  It took a while.  Finally, I got the flag, and tapped the girl on the shoulder.  She was SO excited!  She took my picture, and I took hers!  It was a fun moment!  I loved making her so happy!  This was my first and only trade the entire week!

The picture is blurry :(  She was so happy!

The flag I traded for on the bus!

It was around noon when we arrived on the beach. It had been raining on and off during the walk from the bus to the beach, and that was a little discouraging.  But we were all really excited about the spot we got.  We were right up front, close to the stage.  We'd be able to see everything!  We started to make camp for the day, which was a lot of fun, actually. 

This is how close we were to the stage!  Amazing!

You can't look this tacky very often in your life

Posing in the worst outfit ever put together.  I look pretty awful here.  There's really nothing good!

 It was really refreshing to see all of the excitement in our own group.  This was the first day that I heard our group say, "I can't wait for..." and finish that sentence with something other than "bed," "a shower," "to brush my teeth," or something along those lines.  They were really excited for the opening mass!  To see all of the archbishops, to experience the real numbers for the first time!  That's one of the reasons we came here: to experience the global church.  Even though some people really dreaded the crowds, it was part of the purpose of our journey!  We were excited to see it begin!

Well, the waves were too rough to go swimming, but we still got to play in the edge of the water.  I can now say that I have stepped foot in the Atlantic Ocean!  Yay!  We had a lot of fun playing in the waves and the sand for a little while.  We really needed that I think!

Andrea, Christa, and me on Copacabana beach

We were surprised by the waves

"Papa" is the word for "Pope" in almost every other language

Our flags were huge.  We had one that was the American flag, which everybody recognized.  We had a Colorado flag, that only some Americans recognized, and we had a Spirit of Christ flag that only we recognized.  I was really impressed with the dedication that the group had with the flags.  They brought them everywhere and the flags were always in the air.  They were proud flag bearers!  Proud of their country.  Proud of their state.  Proud of their parish.  They made me proud of them.

We also had a couple of cool moments of bumping into people we know.  We ran into a teen from our program who went to World Youth Day with another parish.  And we ran into a group from Vermont who had befriended us once we got to Brazil.  Richard kind of knew the leader from the group from a long time ago, but they didn't know each other very well.  This is the first time that the Vermont group really helped us out.

We needed to eat, but we were afraid to lose our spot.  I think that our group would have happily skipped lunch in order to stay there, but the Vermont group graciously and generously offered to watch our belongings while we went to get lunch.  We took them up on that offer.  Father Chris and a couple of our teens who brought some food with them stayed behind, but the rest of us went to get lunch.

We couldn't find any place to eat that accepted our meal cards except for this one restaurant.  We were impatient and tired of looking, so we stopped there to eat. 

The food was really expensive, and not very exciting looking to me, so I just ordered french fries and a Fanta soda.  Little did I know they'd bring me a bucket of french fries!  They were good, though.  I wanted to conserve my money because I knew that we would want to spend a lot of money on the last day, and I didn't want to spend any more of my personal money than was necessary, so I just got a bucket of french fries!  I couldn't even finish them!

It took forever to get our check, and then it took forever to pay.  Paying for group meals is usually pretty difficult anyway, but it's much worse when you speak a different language.  Trying to explain what we ordered and how we were paying was a lot of work.

Earlier, Richard was standing in the waves, and a big wave came and got him really wet.  It was raining and pretty miserably cold at this point, and so he decided to go buy a warm sweater to wear during the opening ceremonies.  He had to go, but it left me alone with the teens again.  This was something that I was not excited about.  In fact, the whole reason I didn't want to come on this trip was because I knew that I am not good at this kind of thing.  I took the teens back to our camp, but some of them were also unprepared for the cold, so I let a group go to the Official World Youth Day shops, but I needed to get back to camp.  

The amount of people who arrived on the beach between the time when we left and the time when we came back was insane.  Luckily, we had Tyler with us, who is really smart about navigating through crowds like that.  He saw our flag, and took us on what seemed to be an unnecessarily long hike to the front of the crowd.  Then, those of us in the group held hands and started to make our way through the crowd.  Tyler taught me that people are far more likely to let you pass if you are moving backwards instead of forwards.  If you start in the front and work your way back.  Which makes a lot of sense.  People don't want you to cut in front of them.  If they've been waiting all day, they should not have to let you get better seats.  But if you're trying to move to the back, they will happily let you pass.  We made it back to our group in only minutes.

What we saw when we got back just broke my heart.  The group that stayed behind (both from Vermont and from our group) had to move all of our stuff into a big pile because people kept pushing their way around our stuff.  I guess that some people tried to steal from us, and they stopped that from happening.  They were very loyal to us, but very worn out.  They were stressed, and we had ruined what should have been a cool afternoon.  We were greatly in debt to that group, who sacrificed in huge ways for us.

Soon after I got back, I realized that we were very lucky for arriving back so smoothly.  All thanks to Tyler.  But I also realized that there were members of our group who were still not with us, and that worried me.  They didn't know the secret to moving through a crowd, and the crowd was pressing in on us.  There wasn't going to be enough room for everyone once we were all back.  I tried to think about how I could communicate with everyone, but there was no way except to leave the flag up so that they could find us.

A small group of teens showed up and informed me that one of the teens who was with them got separated and lost.  At this point, I was extremely worried.  And Richard wasn't with me yet.  I had no idea what to do.  I was upset.  I wasn't worried so much that this teen was in trouble.  There were so many people around watching that I doubted anybody would try to hurt anybody.  I was mostly worried that he wouldn't be able to find us.  There were so many people there.  And like I said before, you can't measure distances in crowds like that by feet or yards, you have to measure them by numbers of people.  The group who was with him when he got separated said that the reason the adults who were with them let them come back alone was because they were "so close," and yet it took them 45 minutes to get there.  Because "close" has different meaning when there are 2,000 people between you.  People who don't want to let you through because they think you are taking their spot.

I was very upset, but there was really nothing I could do.  We just had to sit and wait.  Eventually Richard came back, and then the group of adults who let the teens go alone.  We were also missing two other adults, but I wasn't super worried about them, because I kind of figured they gave up and would just meet us at the end of the night.  When the lost teen finally found us, I was so relieved.  He looked pretty relieved, too.  Two hours of searching in a crowd like that will do that to you.

Our group, reunited at last!

The crowd was amazing.  I think that all of us had the same thought:  this cannot be safe.  We could barely move.  There were so many people, so close together.  

This is what the jumbo-tron showed the crowd looked like!

There was some entertainment on stage to help us to get ready for the events.  Unfortunately we don't speak Portuguese, so we really didn't know what was going on.  We didn't even have transistor radios with us, so we couldn't hear the translation.  So we just stood in our spots and waited.  Occasionally someone would break into English and we'd hear what they were saying, but that was pretty rare. 

There was some music.  The most entertaining band was from India.  They sang about "Bringing out the boom" or something like that.  They were good, but I kept thinking, "The '80's called and they want their band back."  I was being really sarcastic and judgmental.  They also sang a song that repeated the word "Alleluia."  It was fascinating, because people from all different countries were able to participate in that song.  Every culture knows that word.

The procession of the Bishops!

Then the bishops came out.   I have this weird love of groups of priests.  I don't want this to be taken out of context, because I mean this in a very theological and orthodox kind of way.  Before I say it, let it be clear:  I do not want to be a priest, and I do not believe in women priesthood.  Please don't read this and accuse me of either of those things, because it is wrong.  But when priests are in groups during Mass (like at the Chrism Mass, Father Chris' ordination, Father Stephen's mom's funeral, etc), I just want to be with them.  In the middle of them.  Part of them.  I want to be surrounded by priests.  I don't want to be a priest, I just want to be among them.  I love listening to all of them pray the Eucharistic prayers together.  The sound of them praying is as soft as water in a creek, but as powerful as thunder.  It's beautiful.  I love it.  We got to see not just priests, but bishops and archbishops all grouped together, praying together!  Oh!  It was incredible!  It was so powerful!  Modern day apostles, and a lot of them, coming together for what?  For us!  It was something I may never see again in my life.  

Trying to have a good attitude with Tyler.

After they processed in, we got to pray the rosary with 500,000 people.  This was cool, but again, disappointing.  The rosary is one of my favorite prayers.  I absolutely love it.  And I was genuinely excited to have this moment to pray together with all of those people.  But it was hard.  Where I should have found beauty and power, I found stress and distraction.  We didn't have a transistor radio, and the languages kept changing.  They did each decade in a different language, each representing a different continent.  They had someone lead from South Africa, Australia, Switzerland, China and Argentina.  I kept trying to pray along in English, but I kept getting confused and lost.  Luckily, I know the prayers, so I don't need to be led, but I wanted to go at the same pace.  It was very challenging.  I found myself focusing more on the pace than on the prayer.

Trying to have a good attitude with Christa

Also, the people around us weren't taking it very seriously.  This was a serious moment, but it appeared to be a time to laugh and play.  I ended up giving up on praying, personally, because it was too difficult.  I am disappointed with myself for that, because I am better than that and I know it.  I was disappointed with myself even when it was happening, but I did it anyway.  It's a terrible way to be. 

The opening ceremonies began.  I would normally love this moment.  I love big, elaborate ceremonial things.  It's part of what I love about being Catholic.  Processions, flag ceremonies, music, dance, art:  these things make my heart swell.  But, again, it was very hard to get into.  We were so crowded.  We were wet from the rain.  We were cold.  The wind kept blowing.  It was quite stressful for me.  

They carried in the pilgrimage cross and the icon of Mary and placed them on stage where we would be celebrating mass.  Again, this is something that I would normally have loved, but it was lost on me here. 

I think that we were all relieved when mass started, because that meant that mass would soon be over.  It was amazing how, even though we didn't have the transistor radios to listen to the English translations, we always knew when to say our responses.  "Amen," "And with your spirit," "Thanks be to God," etc.  Other denominations can't really do that.  If you don't speak the language, you can't participate.  But in the Catholic (universal) church, you don't have to speak the same language to be able to pray together.  I felt like it was a reversal of the Tower of Babel.  We all understood.  It was beautiful

All of the bishops on stage together.  This is only part of the stage!

The Archbishop of Rio de Janiero gave the homily, which we dreaded and joked about while it was going on.  I felt guilty about that at the time, and I still do now.  There was no way that we could understand what was going on, but we could at least be praying silently to ourselves, receiving a personal homily from Jesus Himself.  But again, we gave up on trying.  Well, I gave up on trying.  I was really disappointed by that.

The Eucharistic prayers

When it came time for communion, there was chaos.  There was no good system for giving communion.  I don't have any suggestions as to what they could do.  They ran out of communion by the time we got anywhere near it.  I was ok with that, though.  I didn't feel like I participated in the mass enough to receive it in good conscience.  I flat-out gave up.  It wasn't good.

After mass ended, we had the amazingly difficult task of getting home.  Again, I don't know what suggestions I have for the next World Youth Day, but they need to find a better way to get us home.  There was no organization at all.  We had to stop every few feet to ask for directions, and nobody gave us the same advice.  At one point Richard was talking about splitting up the group to make it easier to move us.  I started to cry.  I did not feel safe with that option.  I needed either him or Father Chris with me, because I had no idea what to do.  

We ended up walking to the Subway, which took us to the ferry, which took us into Niteroi where we were able to catch a bus that took us home.  Four hours after the event ended, we were finally home.  Four.  Long.  Hours.

The thing is that we weren't the only group who had trouble getting back.  The England group got back only ten minutes or so before we did.  But we kind of acted like our struggle was far worse than other groups.  Yes, we had a much more difficult time than those staying in Rio.  But lot's of other people weren't staying in Rio, either, and they had to deal with the same stuff that we did.  It really frustrated me that we seemed to behave that way.

But I get it now.  We had been seriously lost for a while.  Once we figured out how to get on the Subway, and how to get on the ferry (which took about three hours), we learned that the buses we needed weren't running anymore.  We were lost.  We were in a scary part of town.  We were cold.  We were tired.  And the event had been a bit of a let-down.  Of course we are going to be deflated.  And I think that what was the most disappointing thing was that we really felt like the World Youth Day Council were the ones who let us down by putting us in this town that was so clearly unsafe, with little-to-no help for getting home.  There was a really scary moment when I actually believed we were going to spend the night at the bus station.  That shouldn't have happened, and it wasn't our fault, it was the fault of the World Youth Day Council.  We did not have the support that we needed.  

I realize that we were in the same position as many others, but that doesn't make their position correct either.  There are a lot of poor people in Brazil, but that doesn't mean that poverty is correct.  Just because this is a pilgrimage and not a vacation does not mean that our safety should be at stake.  

It was a miserable evening.  Just awful.  But we did come here on pilgrimage and not vacation.  We came to push ourselves to be uncomfortable as a purification.  The goal is sanctification.  The world we live in is all about comfort and ease.  But holiness is not.  We got a taste of that on this night.  I think that is the night when many people in our group started to want to give up on the rest of the pilgrimage.  I think that this is the night when most of us wanted to just throw in the towel, rent a hotel room and have some fun.  But, as the saying goes, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."  We are tough.  We proved it during this trial.  We can prove it again.  This pilgrimage was only ten days long, but it was supposed to represent our entire lives.  Our lives are simply a pilgrimage, with the goal being heaven.  The consequences of giving up on the bigger pilgrimage is much worse.  If we can't even make it ten days, there is no hope for the rest of our lives.  It's not easy.  It's not supposed to be easy.  But it is worth it.  

I was asleep probably one minute after I walked in the doors of the school that night.  There was sand everywhere from being on the beach that day.  I wiped my feet with some wet wipes (thank God for wet wipes) and got a small fraction of the sand off of them, and fell asleep.  And I slept well. Today was like a pilgrimage within the pilgrimage, and sleep was Heaven.  

I pray that my memories of this day aren't just the bad parts.  I was really amazed at the bishops, the rosary (even though I struggled to pray it, I still heard it and took in the importance of that moment), the global Church being able to participate in mass together without speaking the same language.  I even really enjoyed playing on the beach and trading my flag.  It's amazing how the bad things reign over my memories.  They dominate and crush the good.  I don't want it to be all about the bad.  I pray that happens soon!

World Youth Day - Day 3 (Waiting in Niteroi)

Monday, July 22, 2013

Disappointment was something we figured we'd experience.  We told the group over and over again not to get attached to any plans because nothing was certain.  That proved to be true today.  Even though we were warned to be disappointed, we weren't really prepared for it.

Originally the plan for the day was to wake up, go to Rio and spend the day on the beach, and then get over to the Cathedral by noon so that we could have front row seats for the arrival of the Pope at 4:00 pm.  Richard and Father Chris were the only ones allowed to go pick up our credentials and packets (which were to be used for every single event, they had our meal and transportation passes, and everything).  We thought that'd take about three hours.

The day-time view from our accommodations

Another angle looking out from our accommodations

Another view from our accommodations

Well, the plan started out correctly.  Richard and Father Chris went to Rio early in the morning to get the credentials.  But by the time we got up and were ready to go (which was only one hour after they left), the city was closed down.  We weren't allowed in because they were concerned with the safety of the Pope.  It turns out that they SHOULD have been concerned about his safety, because apparently his driver took a wrong turn and people started chasing his car around the city!  

At first, we didn't have any information.  Some people from other groups were upset with me that Richard and Father Chris went on without them.  I guess they should have all stayed together.  I don't know.  But because nobody realized that I was temporarily the group leader, nobody came to inform me what was going on for a little while.  And I didn't know who to ask.

Finally a lady told me the news, and she said that we were going to have mass and breakfast.  That sounded like a good plan.  So we sat around and waited for mass and breakfast.  They gave us breakfast first.  This is where my pickiness started to show to the group.  Now, my experience has been that some people get very angry with my pickiness.  The people who are the most angry are the people who have no business being upset by it.  They didn't cook the food.  But if I am at a restaurant and unwilling to try something new, but chose an old favorite, they get mad at me, almost offended actually.  But food is not an adventure for me.  There is so much food out there that I don't like, that I am unwilling to try new things frequently because it's very stressful for me.  Very.  Stressful.  Some people enjoy it.  I hate it.  We are just different.  I am not bad because I don't find new foods exciting.  I know that, but not everyone does.

Well, our breakfast was one that should have been very easy to eat.  We had juice that looked like lemonade, buttered bread, and chocolate cake. But that was a little misleading.  One, because we were all quite hungry, and the amount of food was not going to be very filling.  Two, because I HATE butter.  I absolutely completely and totally hate butter.  And, although the bread was fresh and wonderful, it literally had about half an inch thick of butter, all across it.  I tried to scrap some of the butter off, but gagged when I tried to eat it (too much info?).  I just couldn't swallow it.  Even the rest of the group, most of whom like butter, said that there was too much butter on that bread.  It would have been nice to butter our own bread.  And third, because the "lemonade" was not lemonade.  We discovered later that it was Cashew Apple Juice.  It sounds like it would be sweet because it was apple, but it wasn't.  It was just disgusting.  I knew that I should drink it, but I couldn't finish it, even though it was in a tiny cup.  But, at least the cake was delicious.  It was just chocolate cake.  Bill Cosby would have enjoyed this moment.  Is cake a normal breakfast food there, or was it just something to give us to fill us up?  I'm not really sure, but it was delicious and so I didn't care!  I don't think that anybody else did, either.

After breakfast, we waited some more, and then had mass.  I think that a lot of us were surprised that the mass was in English.  The Psalm immediately struck me (I just tried to look up what the exact Psalm was for that day, and I think we did the wrong Psalm!  Oops).  It was about thirsting for God.  I was physically very thirsty when this Psalm started.  I hadn't had much to drink yet because I was still worried about the safety of the water.  Rio hadn't really impressed me much, so I thought that their water wasn't necessarily as clean as people suggested it was.  I was struck at the comparison I found with this Psalm to my situation - that just finding water that is drinkable is a challenge.  I knew then that I would probably be thirsty for the rest of the time there, which was true!  The thirst in my body was very similar to the thirst in my soul, but today the thirst in my soul would be quenched.  

But it was also the feast day of Mary Magdalene.  The priest, in his homily, spoke about her transformation between being depressed and fearful after Jesus died, and then later finding joy in her encounter with Him.  She was transformed.  Afterwards, I prayed for Jesus to help me love Him.  I realize that I don't love Him like I should.  I don't love Him like Mary Magdalene loved Him.  I have asked Him over and over again to help me love Him more, but I became aware that it's not His job to make me love Him.  He can't love Him for me.  That doesn't make any sense.  My prayer changed a lot for the rest of the mass, and I felt like I had started something new and good in my life.  

We also prayed the Prayer of Saint Francis (Fact:  Saint Francis did not write that prayer!) in song at mass.  The part about asking to console instead of being consoled really struck me.  How can I console during this pilgrimage?  Everybody seemed a little disappointed this morning.  Things were not as fun, exciting, spiritual, or fulfilling as it seemed they SHOULD be.  Our suffering (the exhaustion specifically) seemed like it was for no good reason.  I think that the group felt the same way.  Even though we'd been gone for several days already at this point, it felt like we hadn't really begun yet.  I was impatient, and I could feel that in the others as well.  I needed to console them, and not be consoled.  The big events would bring wonderful fruit with them, so it was my job to make sure that they didn't lose hope.  I'm not sure, looking back, if I did that.  I tried to make this day fun, but I can't decide if I succeeded.

It's amazing.  We were in this tiny church, with almost no decoration.  It was hot.  And yet, God spoke to me there in a stronger way than at home.  And it wasn't because the homily was particularly profound, entertaining, or different compared to than anything I get back at home.  But being on pilgrimage made me more aware of the need to hear, and apply to my life, the things that were said.  It wasn't the homily so much as the setting.  

I tried really hard not to start making resolutions.  I often do this on retreat.  I go on retreat, and then say, "I'm going to pray a rosary twice a day, and go to daily mass, and pray all the time when I get back."  But I often fail at those resolutions.  I wanted to spend this time just falling in love with Christ.  If I do, then those other things will come naturally, right?  Some people say "fake it 'till you make it."  Am I supposed to do those things to fall in love with Him, or am I supposed to fall in love with Him in order to want to do those things?  I just don't know!  

Waiting for some news

Waiting

We waited around for about an hour after mass before anyone told us anything.  We weren't allowed back in the school where we were being housed until 10:00 pm each night (and we had to be out by 8:00 am every morning).  Our only choice at this point was to hang out at the church, Christ of Miracles.  A lot of groups were with us.  Some of the volunteers finally had pitty on us and decided to take us to the beach and the museum.  Everyone missed hearing me announce the museum part, and only heard the part about the beach.  It was close to noon by the time we left.  

I was really nervous about being alone with the teens in Niteroi.  Richard and I had no way of communicating because his phone didn't work.  I knew that I couldn't make the teens just stay in the church all day with nothing to do, but I also wanted to have a way to let Richard know where we went.  I was also afraid of getting lost, losing someone, or getting into a situation that I didn't know how to get out of.  I kind of hated this part.  Luckily, our volunteers stayed with us, but I didn't know that they were going to. I predicted that it would be 8:00 before Richard and Father Chris got back, based on the talk about Rio and the "chaos" that the Pope caused there during the day.  But I didn't know for sure.

We took the bus and walked right past the beach, which upset some people, and we ended up at the museum, which upset some people.  They weren't excited about going in, but this was a famous museum, and since we had nothing else to do until 10:00 pm, I made them go inside.  At first, I had no idea what I was looking at, and it was really uninteresting to me.  I honestly had no idea how some of the stuff could be considered art.  But then one of the teens told me that a tour was about to begin, so I joined the tour.  They had an exhibit on Antoni Gaudi, a Catholic architect who is up for Sainthood.  One of our teens had actually seen some of his buildings in Barcelona, and was really excited about the tour.  I encourage you to look up Antoni Gaudi.  He's a very interesting man.  I was grateful to see this exhibit, even though a lot of the group could care less. 

"Museu Contempora" or "Contemporary Art Museum"

Gaudi quote on wall.  Thanks, Andrea, for the pic.

The beaches in Niteroi don't allow swimming because the water is not clean.  That would have been good information to know before we went there.  We were all hungry, though, so we went to the mall to go to the food court to get lunch.  I was so happy to go to the food court!  They had American food!  Ahhh!!!  Relief.  They had Domino's Pizza, Burger King, "Giraffas" (which was hamburgers), etc.  I thought that it was really funny to see a restaraunt named "China in Box Express."  It was a chinese restaurant, in a Portuguese speaking country, with an English title.  And the English wasn't even good English!  It made me laugh!

I ordered a pizza from "Mister Pizza."  They cut it into really small bite sized pieces and gave me a fork.  I thought that was a little strange.  I ate it with a fork because that's what it looked like I was supposed to do.  It was so good.  I was really relieved to eat something familiar.  I was so hungry.  I also ordered a water in a bottle. 

We gave the teens some time to shop after lunch, but not much.  The mall was five floors tall.  Christa, Andrea and I went to the top floor, just to see what was there.  It was not very interesting.  We did meet a guy named Rafael at the top floor.  He was very nice.  He just wanted to talk with us and welcome us to the country.  He didn't know the word "Pope" though, even though his English was remarkably good.  

We left the mall around 5:30 pm.  We were told by all the locals to wear our backpacks on the front because the pickpocketing was so bad.  They made a really big deal about it.  We told them that we had locks on our bags, and they said it didn't matter, that pickpocketers could break through them.  So we wore our backpacks on the front.  We looked around and saw that the locals did it, too. 

The bus ride home was hectic and crazy.  The traffic was horrible, as you can imagine it is in most countries at 5:30 pm.  We had to split into two groups because the buses were so packed, but luckily some volunteers stayed with both groups.  The other group got back before ours.  When we returned around 7:00, Richard and Father Chris had already arrived.  They got there sometime between when the first group arrived and we did.  I was very close in my prediction.

They were worn out, and I was worn out.  It had been really stressful for me to be without them.  They had apparently stood in line for six hours to get our group's credentials!  

Father Chris was put to work immediately.  He was asked to say mass for the people who didn't get mass in the morning with us.  Then they had Adoration and rosary.  We participated in the adoration and rosary.  We prayed the joyful mysteries because it was Monday.  I wasn't feeling very joyful, though.  I was overwhelmed and exhausted.  The question on my mind was how was I going to do this for nine more days?  

On a typical retreat, we leave around 10:00 am in the morning on Friday and get home around 7:00 pm on Sunday.  And we are completely worn out at that point.  Well, we had officially been away from home for as long as a retreat.  We had left around 10:00 am on Saturday and it was not 8:00 pm on Monday.  I just didn't know how I could do this for so much longer.  We hadn't stopped once.  I hadn't had time to be alone or to do anything for myself in all that time.  I had already been stretched out of my comfort zone.  How could we keep up for so many more days?  

They made us dinner, but it took a while to get to us.  They gave us (more) buttered bread, some cookies and the BEST hot chocolate I've ever had in my life!!!!!!  I wanted to drink a gallon of it!  It was so good!  We waited and the locals sang "If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands," "The Hokey Pokey," and a song about squishing cockroaches.  They also showed me how they race each other doing this goose walk.  They were hilarious when we could figure out what they were doing.  Actually, they were hilarious when we couldn't figure out what they were doing.  But my heart was heavy, and so it was really difficult.

Finally we ate lentil soup.  It was green, thick, and weird.  I ate it, though. 

Lentil Soup

We purposefully chose to stay in the "Simple Accommodations," and I was happy for that choice on this night.  We got to see something that the people who stayed in hotels didn't get to see.  Driving by, I might make assumptions about the kind of people who lived there.  But on this night, after spending time watching them play games, sing songs, and run around like geese, I learned that my ideas of who they are was wrong.  They are no different than me.  I mean, we may sing different songs, and play different games, but we all sing, and we all play.  We kept hearing locals talk about the dangers of their home.  There are dangerous places, dangerous people, and those places and people are very well disguised sometimes.  I couldn't help but wonder what it's like to live with that kind of fear day-in and day-out.  American's who claim to have trust issues have no idea.  These people can't even ask a stranger for directions if they are lost, because those directions could lead them to a life threatening situation.  THAT's what it means to have trust issues! Although the United States is an imperfect place, I am thankful for it.  Our police look for missing people.  They search, and the people do, too.  I know that after Jessica Ridgeway was abducted, the whole community joined together to find her.  Jessica Ridgeway is just another story in Rio.  The police have no say.

The power kept going out in our school once we got back.  It was really annoying.  Luckily I brought two different flash lights, one that had a lantern, and one to wear on my head.  Those helped.  Bed (or shall I say, my little mat and sleeping bag on the floor) was a wonderful thing.  I was happy to sleep!