Life in a different culture
Rain.
Lots of rain.
Rain without stop.
Water pouring off roofs,
running over pathways,
filling up every hole.
Wind howling through streets,
bending umbrellas inside out,
spraying water everywhere.
Traffic backed up everywhere,
splashing through puddles,
wetting passers-by.
Wet.
Very wet.
Shoes, pants, shirt, bag.
Splashed by cars, blown by wind, leaking umbrella.
Temperature warm.
Not so cold.
Just wet.
Rio.
Another face.
It is a Sunday today, and in a shopping centre in the middle of Belo Horizonte city, I am tapping away on the keyboard, waiting for my bus to Rio. It turns out that there are not a lot of services to Rio on a Sunday and my bus leaves at midnight for the six to seven hour journey. Those heading back to the base in Corrientes will be close to arriving there now, having left two days ago. I am on my own.
Travelling solo can be a lot of fun. The advantage of it is being able to make all the decisions quickly and change plans at the drop of a hat. Not having someone to share the good and bad times is always a drawback. When I travelled the world, my trip followed my friends in each country. It was a lot of fun and filled with great memories. When I travel here, the journey will follow the YWAM bases throughout Brazil. They are friends. Friends that I have just not yet met.
Belo is just like any other city. I checked it all out yesterday with a group of friends. Today, at 30 degrees C, it seemed a better option to remain indoors. So here I sit, scribbling away, and enjoying the airconditioning. In a few hours I will be hurtling down the road towards Rio.
A new destination, and new friends.
The first day is still going strong, and it has been very interesting to see people from so many different nations here. I have already met people from bases in Norway, Panama, and Brazil, spending time with them all over lunch. There is a person here from almost every country in the world.
Still tired from such little sleep last night, it is a struggle to stay awake during the meetings. Perhaps this is why I decided to break away from my original group of travellers and sort myself out with a place to stay with a real bed.
You see, they have found a great place to stay just across the road from the YWAM base here. In a way I think they have a better deal, although a concrete floor is all that is available to sleep on. These are the ones without money who still wanted to come regardless of their situation. They suffer whatever hardships they need to so that they can remain here. A free concrete floor is certainly a very enticing offer.
So I have left them there, and moved in with my other Corrientes YWAM staff. It is said to be a very nice place, but that is something I will not discover until later tonight. For now, there are many people left to get to know and lots of great Brazilian foods to discover. And for drinks… the Guarana is my favourite of all. It beats Coke by a long shot.
Just being here amongst so many interesting and amazing people has been great. I have met so many people that I know from meeting them from here or there. It is amazing to see the connections that happen in an event like this. For me though, I most enjoy the friendships and developing those that already exist plus adding a few more along the way.
So now it is back to the conference again. Until next time…
It stopped. The rain actually stopped. Not forever though. It is now raining again. But it really did stop.
During the few hours of non-rain, I managed to follow the general tourist route through this town and check out all of the items listed in the good book of travel (which I found in English in one of the bookstores here). They suggested that the walk around town would take about 2 hours and were pretty much on the mark.
Heading down the cobblestoned sidewalks, wet as they were from the recent rain, the going felt slippery. This town was very similar to most other South American towns that I had visited, although there was a definite feeling of being safer. Perhaps this is due to being in a much smaller city than those of Rio, São Paulo and Belo.
This town is acknowledged as being a very green-oriented place, with their recycling, inner-city greenery, and transport systems becoming world renowned and frequently copied in different cities around the world. There are many parks filled with trees and gardens scattered around the city heart and providing a recluse from the busyness of the environment surrounding them.
Visiting 24 street, where every shop is open 24hrs a day, revealed the thoughts of a progressive government who realised that eventually the whole city would probably end up like this, so they started this street as a pioneer point from which the rest of the place could follow. Old churches carved in intricate patterns, paved pedestrian streets lined with old cast-iron street lights, German, Japanese, and many other cultural restaurants, permanent market places for arts and crafts, and dozens of other sights loomed strong as I wandered along through this place.
The old university building with massive Roman-style columns and a huge entry door was fronted by a park even larger than itself, decorated in flowers, trees, sculptured shrubs and shaped grass lawns, providing an impressive final point on the trail. There is always another corner to turn, something else to see, some marked point to reach, but by this time the rain had started again and was growing increasingly heavier. It was time to retreat back to the security of the shopping center and wait.
It is now 6pm and although I had made it to most of the tourist places, I still had not made it to the YWAM base here. With the day over and the rain coming down hard, and being a stranger to the people at this base, I will reserve my visit here for another day.
I am sure that this will not be my last visit to Brazil.
Well we finally arrived in Belo Horizonte, 2 1/2hrs later than our scheduled time, and 5 1/2hrs later than the planned time.
During our journey we travelled through fog so thick we could hardly see the other side of the road, something that proved fatal for a truck and bus which collided in the obscurity. We passed them and some cars that had also hit them while it was still very hard to see. What we did see however, was the bus hanging over the edge of the road pointing down a super steep hill and looking extremely precarious. The authorities had arrived by now and all people were removed from the scene so I am not sure of the severity.
Moving onward, our journey became somewhat monotonous with the occasional stop at a roadhouse dedicated for buses every now and then. There was any supplied videos on the bus, but a man travelling from Ciudad del Este was carrying dozens of DVDs (mostly fakes from what I saw) and we had the privilege of some movie entertainment on the way which helped pass the time. The most interesting however was a Rodeo video with all of the cowboys bouncing around on the back of the bulls and dozens of shots of them falling off. Hmmm, perhaps I am a masochist. 🙂
After stopping in Sao Paulo, we continued north but only for a short time. Suddenly a police vehicle pulled alongside of our bus and indicated for us to stop. Having just overtaken some trucks, I suspected that our driver was in trouble for speeding, but this opinion soon changed when the officers climbed aboard and started inspecting our bags. Before long, we were all out on the roadside, standing by watching as each bag was meticulously inspected, even to the point of cutting through the bag when they could not seen down deep.
Forty minutes later and we are back on our way, finally arriving in Belo at 10.30pm, about an hour after the other YWAM team from Buenos Aires who took another bus which left at the same time as us. It was 1am before we finally climbed aboard the shuttle bus to head to the YWAM base in Contagem and to our beds.
Initially we were expecting our beds to be nice and comfortable, but on climbing into the bus we are told that at this time of night everything is now closed up and there is nowhere for us to stay. So instead, they lead us into the base and provide us with the only section of level space available… the main auditorium stage. Here we sleep the night, finally resting sometime around 2.30am, only to wake at 6am to make way for all of the preparation for the day.
Welcome to the Viva Latina-America conference in Belo Horizonte.
These days I am back in the YWAM base in Corrientes. I successfully caught my 10am ride to Corrientes and was back there by 7.30pm that night. My return from Brazil completed, it then took several days to finally sort through all of the emails and other bits and pieces involved in restoring life to normal after time away.
It was great to be welcomed back by so many friendly people. When I got here the welcome was generally in the form of a shout and an energetic hug followed by countless questions about what had happened and how things had gone. In some ways I felt more like an explorer or mountain climber that had returned from a successful expedition than someone who had only been away for almost two weeks. It certainly was very encouraging however, and I love the warmth and concern that this culture fosters in relationships.
Having a home, a base, where you know people and they know you, is really wonderful. I love travel, and I love challenges too, but sometimes the challenge of travel is nicely offset by such a familiarity. To move out, and finally return to a known place, provides a different level of security. I like it. It is good to come back to base.
Sometime in 2001, while living in New Zealand, I headed with my elder brother over to Japan where our youngest brother was living for a while. The idea was to catch up with him and check out where he was living as well as get to see some of this fascinating land called Japan.
It was a fantastic time, just us three guys, as we travelled from city to city, and temple to temple. Bush walks with bell-toting-bear-scaring hikers all around us, thousands of steps leading up to temples on mountain tops, and views over nearby highly populated areas. Train travel on super-fast and high-luxury trains from Tokyo to many other cities in the south. Temples and museums and temples and old towns, and temples and parks, and temples and foods. A highly amazing journey through belief systems, cultural diversity, technological marvels, and even the “nostril of Budda” (which was really only a hole in a temple support pole).
During this journey of “The Brothers Three” we stopped in at some of the amazing “fun” centres – a building filled with video games, activities, and photographic booths. Wanting to “capture the moment” of our time here, we all stepped into one of the photo booths. It seemed important to capture some of the fun and amazement we were experiencing in our travels, and with some creative facial expressions we came up with this. The Brothers Three. Amazement. Incredulity. Lost for words.
Brodie (youngest), John (oldest), Me
And so we were as we travelled around this amazing country. Faces of wonder, taking in all of the new sights and exploring so many differences. A fun photo. A fun time. The only time we have ever travelled together.
The Brothers Three.
Many thanks to my good friend Jorge who recently found this photo burried in some books I gave him ages ago and went to the effort of scanning and sending me a copy of it.
Well this place is certainly a mix of people. I am becoming confused in my languages now. Not that I know Portuguese, but when talking with people to buy food and the shops I am trying to speak something that resembles it. This means that when I go to speak to somebody I have to decide which language to try and use. It does not take too long to find out which language however, but then the difficulty is to remain in that language.
Many times I have found myself starting in Spanish and finishing in English, or thinking I was speaking Portuguese (my version of it) but realised that it was only a slightly different accent on my Spanish. There are many multi-lingual people here and that is not such a problem, but if they only know the one language then they just look at me with a quizzical expression on their face. This has happened to me more than one, especially when turning from one person in one language to another person with a different language. The quizzical face tells me quickly that I am speaking gibberish to them.
The conference itself has been in many ways just like any other conference, but with many testimonies of what people have been doing through YWAM throughout the world. One story involved a man asking the NATO team to stop a bombing raid in Haiti so he could go in an speak to them about Jesus and the Gospel. The stopped the raid long enough for him to go in there and speak to the drug dealers and malitia groups that were there. Some of them accepted Christ. He became the first white man to actually go into that place and then come back out again alive. After he returned, NATO continued with their raid and wiped them all out. Only those who had recently accepted Christ survived.
Another story involved a lady from Brazil who has started working in a very Catholic country. Here the church dominates the place (I am not sure if it is wise to share where it is so I will refrain from doing so in the interests of her safety), and yet she has been able to do some amazing things with her ever growing team of people. They have built many houses for the poor and are in the process of building a school right now. She has been involved in many discussions with the government and the president of the nation, talking about how Biblical principles in leadership. A mutual friend that is a reporter has remarked to her that now, in every single meeting that he is in, the President is talking about YWAM and what they are doing. There is a great deal of influence here.
Well, there are many more stories too… and some are just amazing. But time prevents me from continuing to tell more. Needless to say that the even has been very inspiring and meeting so many people has been great. Tomorrow is a rest day, so I will be taking a break too.
Unless of course there is something that I just have to tell you about.
A semi-clear liquid, looking more like beer than anything else, sold as a soft-drink. Guarana is an extract of some plant. It is sold profusely here in Brazil. And it is GOOOOD stuff.
Guarana has many of the properties of caffeine but more of a kick and less side-effects. Combine that with a handful of sugar and some fizzy water and you have yourself a very good drink. Oh, it tastes great too which helps.
Why mention this drink? Well, it has been my sustinance for the past six days of conference. When the days grow long and the sleep keeps getting less and less, there is nothing like a large bottle of Guarana to put the “zing” back into life. Two bottles and you not only have the “zing” but there is a “buzz” starting to happen as well. After three, there is no stopping you and it is possible to do things without tiring. I label this one the “zoom” factor.
So every day I have been “zinging” and “buzzing” around the place with the help of my friendly Guarana. Not too much “zooming”, but the term does come from real life experience. Cold and fresh, it is a classical Brazilian drink. If you find it in your country then grab a bottle and check it out.
Great stuff.
Well it has been hard to find time for Internet during this conference. There is a huge line of people waiting to use the only internet nearby that is available. The first day I missed it was when I discovered that it closes at 7.30pm at night. Doh. Second day I arrived before then, but a huge hail and thunder storm came through and took out the Internet connection so I had no access. Today was more successful though.
The whole thing has been reviving for me. Hearing amazing stories of people doing impossible things is very encouraging. Learning of the size and impact of this organisation called YWAM in the world is also very incredible. Seeing their vision and future direction is something that perhaps I could be coaxed into joining them in. But then the important thing is to keep going the way God directs me.
More people, more contacts, more information, more late nights. That about sums it all up.
Oh, and great food, great fun, great teaching, great friends. The whole picture.