Hey everyone!
Eu estou no Brasil! (I’m in Brazil) … finally!

It took me like FOREVER to get here – seriously... I’ve been planning this trip for about two years and now - after many ups and downs - I finally arrived in Sao Paulo last Friday.
I was actually supposed to arrive on Jan. 11th already but luckily (yes luckily!) I had quite a few difficulties to get on the plane to Sao Paulo. Let me explain…

After an intense week of preparations I got up at 4a.m. Saturday morning (Jan. 10th), said good-bye to my family (at least to those who were up) and went to the Airport with my parents (Andy showed up as well – which was reeeeally sweet – thanks again!!), got on the plane to Frankfurt – feeling all dizzy and sleepy.

In Frankfurt I got picked up by three very special people: Prisca, Andreas and Mozael J I know them because of various youth-weekends they have at St. Petersberg – particularly the retreats they have at the dawn of every New Year ;)
Since my flight to Sao Paulo was scheduled to depart at 10.35 p.m. we had come up with the idea of spending the day together (because I didn’t want to take a later plane from Innsbruck to Frankfurt) – it seemed really complicated to find each other at the airport first – but then we finally sat together in ONE car and off we went to “Niederklein” (a little town about an hour away from Frankfurt).

We had lunch with some kids from the parish, a young woman who was about to become a consecrated virgin and the local bishop’s assistent, met some new ppl and ate a LOT ;)
In the evening we all went to Frankfurt where I said good-bye to everyone expecting to be in Sao Paulo Sunday morning but… apparently the flight was completely overbooked (all of a sudden) – so I got stuck with my standby ticket… The moment the ground staff told me that the flight was overbooked I was completely stunned because I always fly with a standby-ticket and I’ve never had a problem. But hey… I didn’t complain – after all I only paid 53€ for the flight ;)

Prisca and the others picked me up again at midnight (which was really nice of them – after all it was a one hour drive!) so I could at least sleep in a normal bed.

Sunday morning we went to mass in Marburg for the consecration of this young woman we had met the day before. The ceremony was absolutely beautiful – I actually almost cried (which I normally don’t do…) – I guess this ceremony was one of the reasons why I got stuck – maybe HE wanted me meet a different kind of life style – who knows?

Sunday evening we went back to Frankfurt again – and I got stuck again! I decided not to call my friends (let them sleep), and instead sleep at the airport. I could’ve gone to a hotel as well but then I was asked to help two women (standbyers who had got stuck for the third time!) because they couldn’t get out of the airport – and they didn’t even have a toothbrush or anything! Apparently you could get a overnight-kit at a counter near the baggage claim so off I went to get three kits. LOL! You should’ve been there… It was so weird! Me walking around in an almost empty airport in my highheels, my feet hurting like crazy, carrying these kits, going through security for the ??th time, trying to find these two women in sector B (which is quite huge if you want to find two ppl)…

After almost an hour I found them (almost asleep) and decided to find a place to sleep for myself. I ended up talking with a young Nigerian for almost 2 hours (he couldn’t sleep because he works nightshifts in Ireland), and then tried to sleep on a quite cozy leather couch. Unfortunately I didn’t have a blanket or warm clothes (after all I had expected to be in warm Brazil!) plus it wasn’t exactly a quiet and dark airport… *hehe*
At 5.30 a.m. I gave up pretending to be able to sleep, collected my luggage (had to wait for it for almost an hour), bought breakfast – which almost made me *youknowwhat*, called Mozael’s mom to ask her if it was okay to come back to their place, bought a ticket and got on the train... Since nobody could pick me up until 1pm I stayed in a cafeteria for more than 2 hours. – quite an odyssey!!
Spent the next few days (MO-THU) in Niederklein with crazy dude Mozael and Andreas. Do I need to say more??... ;) Here are some pictures from the night we went to watch a movie BedTimeStories :)

Thursday evening I finally managed to get on flight LH 506 ;)
Sao Paulo Airport was a bit chaotic – and the queues were absolutely horrible! But then (with a 2-hour delay) I finally met Sr. Sofie who took me to Guaratinguetá

Aparecida

First thing at Guaratinguetá? Mass (what a coincidence!) second Adoration and then Vesper – after that I was welcomed by the rest of the sisters
The priest who said mass was German (and was the brother of another priest I know) – so I didn’t feel too lost ;)

Saturday (sabado) I was invited to a baptism spontaneously, attended a BBQ-party in the afternoon and watched a movie with the sisters at night.
What impressed me the most was how friendly and open-hearted these ppl were! They weren’t only polite – they treated me like a family member..

On Sunday (domingo) we didn’t have mass at the chapel but went to the parish’s church – which was crazy! The church was fuuuull – ppl had to stand outside to attend mass – and there were quite a few young ppl. After mass they had adoration and in the afternoon I watched a movie with some of the sisters – in the evening we went to visit an employee and her family.

Monday (seguna-feira) I went to downtown Guaratinguetà with two sisters where I also visited the house where Frei Galvao (Brazil’s first saint) was born, and the church he was baptized in.
Lol! One funny thing happened: we went by a house that was under construction and I could hear the workmen greet me (even though I didn’t understand everything). They tried to catch my attention and all of a sudden I heard something that sounded like a cat meowing. It turned out to be one of the men! I was completely irritated – because I’m not exactly used to these kind of behaviour patterns… ;)
Apparently Brazilian ppl love European ppl because wherever I go I get compliments and stared at. Luckily I stay at the community centre most of the time ;)
In the evening we went to one of the sister’s graduation – which was interesting – even though I hardly understood anything that was said…
Too bad I had a headache – due to the fact that I was absolutely worn out (and had lack of sleep)…

Tuesday (terca-feira) I spent the whole pre-noon ironing and in the afternoon I went to the “Fazenda da Esperanca” – a community “farm” for former drug addicts. The pope has been there too when he was in Brazil in 2007 (I think – correct me if I’m wrong). There I also met an old Franciscan sister from Germany – she seemed veeery glad to be able to speak german – so was I… The group of ppl I was with were quite astonished to see me talk that much *haha*

I drove the car on the way home which was quite adventurous because the street was in a quite bad condition – it had only been paved for the pope’s visit! – but we made it home safe and sound.
In the evening I went to a birthdayparty of one of the youngsters from the local youthgroup which was a loooot of fun – the kids were great – and even though I hardly speak Portuguese and they don’t even speak English (except for a few words) we had a wonderful time.

Yesterday (quarta-feira) I washed toys for hours and hours – and because I was all by myself and bored I got my mp3-player to listen to some music… As usual I started dancing and singing (thinking there was no one around) – hm… well guess what? Every time I was singing the loudest or dancing in the most weirdest way one of the employees showed up. Lol! I’m pretty sure this guy thinks I’m loco (crazy) – I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing my Portuguese isn’t good enough to explain my behaviour… ;)

Today I sewed a pillow and studied some new words (at least tried to do so..) and now I’m going to put this first report online – hope you had fun reading it!
Praying for each and every one of you!

LOVE LOVE LOVE

inabee


P.S.: Ten facts about “my” Brazil

1. It’s very warm here
2. It rains almost every afternoon (warm summer rain so not bad at all!)
3. Brazilians love rice and beans – no meal (except breakfast) without those goodies!
4. They have the craziest food-mixtures here: chips and meat and peas and corn and salad and beans and rice and sauces and apples…. (all at the same meal!!!)
5. Ppl here drive like craaaazy!
6. You can’t drink water from the tap (but at least it doesn’t smell like foul eggs)
7. I get up at 6 a.m. every morning because we have Laudes (morning prayer) at 6.30a.m.
8. The time difference to Austria is 3 hours (in winter 5 hours)
9. Portuguese is quite difficult to pronounce – even though sometimes their “r” sounds quite American ;)
10. My room’s quite nice – and I have my own bathroom with a big shower

P.P.S.: Okay two more facts:

11. Apparently they have a scorpion-problem here – ewww! – seriously…
12. My feet are a bit swollen – and I have no idea why (maybe because of all the beans and rice?... or maybe a strange brazilian spider has crept under my skin and left some nice eggy-souvenirs?? Okay.. don’t even think about THAT!)

P.P.P.S.: If you want a postcard or letter – send me your addresses (in case I don’t have them already) - carina.broucek@hotmail.com