My Dear Friends of St. John’s & St. Peter’s and Bishop Michael,
It is very hard to believe that I have been here for four weeks now. It seems like I just got here yesterday. This week has been filled with several projects and events.
Monday began with my arriving in Pereira Barreto at 5am on the bus. I was wrong about the buses; there are about 40 upstairs seats. It is also a more interesting ride because you feel the swaying of the bus in a much more pronounced way. You don’t feel like you are going to tip over, but you certainly feel the 90 degree turns in the city. The good news is that the seats recline a lot more than a typical Greyhound bus. The seats weren’t nearly as comfortable as the downstairs seats, but they were a huge improvement over the buses in the United States. The trip passed in an uneventful manner, with the only thing of note being that the bus arrived about an hour earlier than I expected. Luckily the bus driver was keeping count of the passengers. When he came upstairs and announced that we were in Pereira Barreto, I was forced to come out of a semi-sleep and get off the bus.
I spent the rest of Monday morning taking a long nap. Monday afternoon, Sergio and I began working on Anglican chanting. Sergio is very interested in bringing this tradition to the parish of Santo Andre, so I have been teaching him some of the basics. This week we started in earnest and we began breaking down some of the patterns within the chants. It is our hope that by the end of my stay he will be able to teach the choir and then the congregation some of these chants. This is a very difficult thing for Sergio; he has not heard much chanting and the little he has heard has been Gregorian. He is very brave for attempting this and I want to be as supportive as possible.
Monday evening was spent with some students who are learning English at a local school. Last week, Sergio took me to his English class. He thought it might be fun for me to speak English with some students here. It was a great plan, but the only problem was that it was something of a make-up session. One of the students was absent that afternoon and Sergio and the other student used the time as a chance to get caught up in some assignments that they had missed. Another teacher found out that I was there and asked if I would be willing to come and talk with his class. His students were all in their early teens and we had a very nice discussion about American culture. It was very helpful for me to hear the students ask the teacher a question in Portuguese and then the teacher helped them break the question down and translate it into English. This time with the younger students led to Sergio’s teacher calling later in the week and asking if I would be willing to do the same with her advanced English class. I was happy to help and so I spent Monday from 7:30 to 9:30 talking about and comparing American and Brazilian cultures with 3 advanced English students here in Pereira Barreto.
An interesting observation that we all made was how much they knew about American culture and politics, while we Americans know extremely little about their world and way of life. Last week, I treated myself to an American movie, but the honest reality is that with the exception of an animated film or another rare exception, most of the movies here are American with Portuguese subtitles. They know about our culture because they are exposed to it on a regular basis. There are some television programs, especially the animated children’s shows, which have been dubbed into Portuguese. In the United States I can find a few Portuguese films in the video stores, but it takes some effort. They get news about American politics because the decisions that our country makes can have a direct impact on their lives. Their currency is weaker than ours and the laws and tariffs that our country passes and enacts limit what goods they can export to the United States. This severely limits the kinds of income that the people can have.
Tuesday was a typical day. Sergio and I spent time doing Morning Prayer and then working on chanting. On Tuesday I met a woman named Camila. She is a Brazilian woman who translated English into Portuguese for her job about 20 years ago. She was very interested in teaching me Portuguese. It took a few days to make the arrangements, but she and I have begun individual class sessions for Portuguese. I have been listening to people talk for about four weeks, and I have been picking up bits and pieces of the language, but I really need some more intensive instruction if I’m going to have any real hope of communicating with others while I’m here.
It is winter here in Pereira Barreto, but to me it feels like spring. I have been quite comfortable wearing shorts and my new sandals, but the looks and questions that I get are really interesting. I have explained to many people here that I am used to a much colder environment, but it is so hard to explain snow and sleet to someone who hasn’t ever seen these things. Snow is something that happens very rarely in the most southern parts of this country and even then, it is something like a flurry or at most a light dusting that doesn’t last long. In my mind, the people here have no idea what it is really like to be cold. Every day I’m asked “Aren’t you cold?” In order to make others more comfortable, and to avoid the constant questions, I have started wearing blue jeans. It really seems to make others more at ease. I have been told that the coldest days are now behind us here in Pereira Barreto, and at most it felt like an early spring day. I wore blue jeans and a sweatshirt while others were walking around in medium weight coats.
It is worth noting that the homes here really don’t have the sort of environmental controls that we have. I haven’t seen a single heater and I’ve only seen a few air-conditioners. The people here really do live in this weather. In the United States, it is a rare event to walk into a store or market that isn’t air-conditioned. This is not the case here. There is no separation from the world.
Wednesday was spent working with William on an altar book project. I had noticed that all the prayer books here are the same size as our personal sized prayer books. Several of us had watched Sergio try to lead a service and read from such a small book while it was sitting on the altar. It wasn’t working very well, so we decided to do something about it. We have been working on scanning the pages of the Brazilian Livro de Oracao Comun (Book of Common Prayer) into a computer and then enlarging the text. We have also been rearranging the formatting of the text while keeping it the same. This has actually made reading the words easier for Sergio. Most of Wednesday was spent discussing how we wanted to organize this book and what we want to do with it once it is completed as we were scanning the pages into his computer.
While working with William, I have also been learning about the differences between the United States and Brazil. William, in addition to being a translator, owns a small bookstore here in Pereira Barreto and he faces the usual business problems…taxes, government regulations and employees.
One of the most enlightening discussions we had was about employees. The minimum salary here in Brazil is $R300/month. This roughly translates to about $100/month in American money. Needless to say, this isn’t very much. The interesting thing is that Brazilian workers have some employment guarantees that are not available in the United States. If a business needs an employee for longer than a few months, they must hire that worker as a permanent employee. This eliminates the possibility of temporary work assignments. The other good news for the worker is that once they are hired, it is very difficult and expensive for the employer to fire the worker, even with just cause. If an employee doesn’t show up to work for several days in a row, it is up to the employer to make contacts in order to find the employee. These contacts include calling the family and possibly posting a notice in the newspapers. It is really up to the employer to find the worker. Firing employees will cost the employer money, so it is something that they don’t do very often. This has led to a situation where the employees work hard to get a job, but become quite lax once they have one. There does not seem to be much incentive to better oneself. It becomes quite a good situation to get a job, you are then set with a permanent income (albeit very minimal) and a pension that is guaranteed by the state and paid for by the employer.
The standards here are not as high as they are in the United States. I am used to living with “The American Dream”; in other words, I should have a better life than my parents. This is not the case here. It is very difficult to move between the economic classes. The working poor don’t have much, but they are guaranteed what they do have. The goal is to get into a good situation, because once you are there, you are going to stay there.
Part of Thursday was spent setting up my individual class. A few little details had to be worked out, but once that was done, it was decided that I would begin my class on Friday morning.
The rest of Thursday was spent working on a hymnal project. The hymnal for Brazil is a small book that is the same size as their prayer book. There is no music printed, only the lyrics. The book is keyed to the 1940 Hymnal of the Episcopal Church. So as long as the pianist/organist has a copy of the 1940 Hymnal, the church can have music. The problem that I found at Santo Andre is that not everyone knows the tunes. Often times you can hear people singing different variations of the same tune at the same time. People also become less secure in their singing and so they sing softer or even stop singing altogether.
I brought two copies of the Hymnal 1982 with me, not knowing what was happening here. I assumed that the texts might be kind of a fun way to compare what music we were currently using. When I showed the books to the members of the choir, they were extremely excited about seeing printed music and text together. This excitement has led to another project. We are now trying to combine the tunes as printed in either the 1940 or 1982 Hymnals with the Portuguese text that is found in the Brazilian Hymnal. The members of the choir are very interested in this project and are hoping that it is completed before I leave. Needless to say, this is a huge undertaking. I don’t think that we will have it completed before I leave, but the project should be well underway and the members of the congregation should be able to complete it by the end of their winter or early in their spring at the latest.
Friday began with my first Portuguese class. The class will last for two hours a day and it is individual instruction. After just a few days, I’m beginning to notice a difference in my Portuguese. I’m still a very long way from being fluent, but I’m now beginning to assemble some complete sentences. I’m also understanding more of what is being said around and to me. It is very exciting and rewarding.
An interesting event happened recently. A gentleman who owned an eyeglass business died. The interesting part wasn’t his passing but rather how the community at large responded to the event. His funeral was held on Friday afternoon at 3pm. Starting at 3pm and for the rest of that afternoon, most of the businesses were closed. Part of this is because Pereira Barreto is such a small town that all of the merchants know each other, but a bigger part of this is cultural. The businesses and their owners did not want to be earning money during the funeral of a friend. To them this would be a disrespectful action. So, even if the owner or employee of a business didn’t know, or even attend the funeral, of the man who passed away, the business was closed and the employees were sent home. Needless to say, this didn’t affect the monthly pay of the employees; they got an afternoon’s vacation.
During Friday afternoon, William and I finished first part of altar book. This project is a little harder than we originally thought because we want to make sure that the pages are turned at convenient times (not in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer, for example). We also wanted to make sure that certain parts of the liturgy, which change from week to week, can be inserted without disrupting the rest of the book. It took some work, but we finished the liturgy that is used most often at Santo Andre. We asked Sergio to use our preliminary copy that night at the Holy Eucharist service. With the exception of a few minor details, we have a successful project under way. It will take several more afternoons in order to complete the entire binder, but it has already made Sergio’s life a little easier.
Saturday morning was the second Portuguese class. That lesson was followed by a meeting with the Saturday School teachers. The teachers here are facing a bit of a dilemma; they are looking for an Anglican curriculum. The problem is that the Anglican Church in Brazil does not have money. They are also short on human resources. The outcome is that there is no ‘official’ curriculum. They have been following the weekly lectionary and making up their lessons each week.
After a wonderful meeting, we have decided to download some of the free curriculum material that the Episcopal Church provides on its website. This is somewhat problematic in that very few people here speak English. There are a few, but they will need to translate the materials for the teachers and students. I think that this is basically going to involve just as much work as creating things themselves. The teachers and those who speak English are quite happy with this arrangement, and everyone is excited about the idea, so we will begin downloading very shortly.
The other thing that we decided to do, was to ask Loretta to come and teach the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program. This will give the teachers a basic understanding of how to approach Christian Education from a developmental perspective. The teachers were also excited about this idea and are looking forward to her arrival and first class. (I’m probably going to skip or reschedule my Saturday Portuguese class in order to be there for this event.)
Saturday was also a state holiday. Almost every business in town was closed. I don’t want to give the impression that Pereira Barreto is a bustling center of economic activity – it isn’t – but there is a certain amount of commerce that happens every day as people go about their lives. This was the second day in a row that there wasn’t any significant business happening. It felt really strange.
The fun thing on Saturday was the big Festival of Nations. It was a large party that will hopefully become an annual event here. Some local churches and non-profit groups got together and did this as a fund-raiser. Attending the event costs nothing and there was free musical and dance entertainment provided. The groups earned their money by selling foods from different cultures. The big joke all week has been that I should go to the American booth and eat American food. (I think that they also wanted me to critique the food as well.) I was more interested in trying something new and different. I avoided the American stand, and we all sat down at the Brazilian stand and had fezuada. This is a Brazilian dish that is served over rice. It is a mixture of black beans and different kinds of pork parts. I can’t be certain, but I think that I ate part of a pig’s snout, but Sergio assures me that it was the base of the tail. I don’t know exactly what it was, but it was good. This dish was originally made by slaves. They would get the leftover parts of the pig after their owners had taken what they wanted. The slaves needed to eat, and they were given beans and rice, because these ingredients are so cheap. They would have then created this stew with what they had on hand.
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During the festival I saw a Japanese dance group.
These were all older individuals who were dancing in a circle.
I didn’t understand the significance of the dances, but they looked
something like Tai-Chi exercises. It
was beautiful to watch and everyone was clearly having a good time.
The festival was really a wonderful excuse for the community to come and gather and enjoy each other’s company. It was a wonderful event and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I think the fact that it was a holiday really helped to boost the attendance at the event. |
After the festival, Sergio and I watched the movie “Elizabeth.” I hadn’t seen the movie yet and he is developing an interest in English history. After the movie I decided to call it an early day. I went back to my room at the pousada and rested for the rest of the evening.
Sunday morning was a treat for me. I got to sleep in. The Sunday service here at Santo Andre is held in the evening, so Sunday morning is a time to truly take a Sabbath. Enjoying the sunshine and warm weather (at least for me it is warm) is a great way to remember the wonders that God has created and given to us.
Sunday afternoon was spent in relaxing conversation and enjoyment of each other’s company. There is something that Brazil and Pereira Barreto is teaching me; it is a difficult lesson to learn, but I think that it is the most important. “Being is more important than doing.” As a teacher or as a seminarian, I’m always doing something. There are lessons to write or complete. There are always papers to think about, write or grade. There is always something to do. Even in the relaxing moments, there is always something or some task on the horizon. Here in Brazil, there is truly a sense of “it will wait until tomorrow.” This is very difficult for me. Enjoying and relaxing in the moment is not something that comes easily. If there is free time, there is always another project to work on. Here, free time is free time. Free time is enjoyed and cherished. This will be a good lesson for me to learn and I hope that it is a life-long learning.
I look forward to seeing all of you again soon.
Peace,
Patrick
(“Pah-tree-keh”)