The company I work for was moving into a new building during December and January of 2002. I requested these two months off, since I wanted to spend some time with friends in Brasil, and since at the time I requested that time off, it looked like about 12 of my friends were going to be graduating from the ISBL seminary in Londrina. Learning English is extremely popular in Londrina, and in many other parts of Brasil. It is perhaps something like French was in Europe decades ago: the language to learn if you want to prove that you are worthy of being in the higher societies. It is also a subject that is covered in the comprehensive, 4-day university entrance exams in Brasil called the Vestibular. The ISBL seminary originally started teaching English as part of its ministry for missionaries and other students in the seminary that would need English for travel and exchange of information in the international Christian community. Several years ago, however, the language school division of ISBL started offering classes to the public as well. This allows for better economy of scale in the material and classroom space, and the hope is that the English classes will eventually be able to help balance the costs of operating the seminary. The part of the seminary that teaches language ( they also have a Portuguese program, and are developing a Spanish program ) became the Webb Language Institute. It is named after Melva Webb, one of the missionaries that helped start the ISBL. While there are many, many different English schools in Londrina, this is the only one that has any sort of Christian content, and this has proven popular within the Churches in Londrina. People come from many different church backgrounds to learn English there, and there are even some who come from a non-Christian background as well.
In 1999, the Webb school decided to host an English Camp. Other English schools, as well as some students at nearby Universities, were invited to send their students to a church camp where they would spend time with Americans and speaking as much English as they possibly could. Because they would need to speak English to communicate with their new American friends, it provided a great opportunity to practice and learn. The English camp also introduced, to quite a few of the students, the concept of out-of-classroom learning. Most of the Americans taught a module of some sort where students learn English while doing an activity in English. At the camp, this has included a Bible Study, cooking, writing, nature walk, and sports. The first two English camps I taught the Bible Study. The program is not evangelistic in terms of preaching (Even if they wanted to preach in English, it would be too difficult to do so to people with such a wide variety of English background, many of whom don't understand anything about the Bible in English). It does, however, contain Christian content such as songs, reading, and discussion.
The first two English camps were offered in July ( 1999 and 2000 ). However, the second English camp experienced the coldest winter in some 25 years. Most buildings in Brasil lack any sort of heat source. Therefore, things were quite difficult at the camp during this time. Conditions were so difficult, in fact, that despite the popularity of the English camps, serious consideration was given to not offering any more such camps. Therefore, the English camp in 2001 was offered in January. It proved a success, and therefore it is likely to continue to be in January.
This English camp was the reason I wished to stay in Brasil until late January. It is a very difficult thing to plan for, and I knew that they would need all the help they could get to help set things up for the camp. In the end, this may have been a financial mistake, because I found out later that I probably could have gotten two round-trip tickets and gone to Brasil twice, for less than the cost of the single round trip ticket that included Christmas and New Year's, due to the number of people staying with relatives, etc. However, it was not a mistake when viewed from a spiritual or social standpoint: I got to meet a lot of nice people and spend time with them, plus there were a lot of things I wound up helping with that would not have happened had I only been present for the English Camp.
What follows are the updates that I sent back to the USA from Brasil, telling others what I was doing. The photos and captions ( which are in boldface type) have been added later.
My Dear Friends;
My arrival here will certainly remind most of you who visited Brasil of what things can be like here. Though conditions here are far better than in Bolivia, it is still definitely South America.
I arrived at the São Paulo airport right on time. Somehow, the Delta Flight arrives at a time when there isn't any other international traffic, as when I got to the immigration line there was only about 7 people waiting. So, it only took about 2 minutes to get through there. Then, when I came out I grabbed a baggage cart and went to the baggage claim area. In less than a minute the conveyor belt started and my stuff was within the first 5 bags out of the conveyor ( a product of only having an hour in Atlanta to make a transfer that was about 3 gates short of being as long as is physically possible in that airport - last bags in, first bags out ). So, I then went to customs. The customs people decided that I needed to have the bags inspected, and so into the customs inspection line I went. They have x-ray machines in there now, so that you don't have to open as much stuff. After I put everything through the x-ray machine, they decided that they only wanted to open one bag, and that was the great big duffel bag that contained mostly clothes and a few inexpensive gifts for the English Camp. After rummaging about in there for a while, they wanted to know what was in the poster box ( I showed him - just posters ), and what the deal was with the 10 boxes of Appletes and Cotlets. I explained that these were gifts typical of my region, and since what was there was obviously well under the maximum of $500 they have for the customs form, they apparently determined that I was not a threat to the Brazilian economy. Therefore, they sent me out the doors. Total time from plane to free entry into Brasil: about 15 minutes. So, the concerns about needing to leave a long time open for everything in São Paulo proved unnecessary, at least to that point.
Like all major airports, the have made the São Paulo airport into a Place of Eternal Construction. While all of the customs line stuff looked familiar, after going through it the exit was different, and it now empties the people into a place that is basically the front door of the airport, and the first thing you see when exiting the area is a huge chunk of unfinished wall.
After turning the corner, the first thing you come to is a TAM desk of some sort ( the airline that I was taking from São Paulo to Londrina ). They asked if I could be helped, and I showed them my ticket. They said that I would have to go upstairs for that type of thing ( if they don't process the tickets for international travelers, then just what is the purpose of having the desk right at the customs exit? ). Before I went there, I decided that I needed to sit down for a while.
In addition to my stuff, I brought down a suitcase for a missionary couple living in São Paulo. William, Julie Provasi de Lemos's husband, was going to pick up their things at the airport in São Paulo. He was planning to meet me at 11:30 by the Pizza Hut in the airport. This is fine, but since I didn't come back with the Valley View team last year, I had no idea where the Pizza Hut in the airport was. I wandered around a little bit, and after not finding it I decided I needed a rest. I found a nice quiet out of the way spot upstairs and sat down for a while. There was a woman and a little girl in the set of chairs next to me, and she asked me in Portuguese if I was Brazilian. I responded to the negative. She then started talking to me in English, all the while helping her daughter ( who I found out was 6 years old ) change clothes. She was on her way to South Africa, but there are only 3 flights a week to get there. The federal police of Brasil delayed her for questioning, and she missed her flight, and so she wound up sleeping in the airport, and was going to try again to see what she could do about it. I went from one end of the airport to the other, looking for the Pizza Hut, but didn't find it. There were a few signs that said "restaurante" and pointed in various directions, but none of them ended at a Pizza Hut. So, I stopped at the information desk at the far end of Terminal 1 to see if they could tell me. Though it was a bit far out of the way, I noticed that it was the information desk that had the fewest people in line, and so decided that it was my best bet for getting some help from someone who wasn't in a hurry. First I tried Portuguese, but the girl was quite clueless when I said "Pizza Hut". She asked if I spoke English, and I asked again in English. Then, after a pause, she figured out what I wanted, and directed me back to the other end of the airport. I arrived there a few minutes before William did, and he got all of his stuff.
My stomach was telling me that the next priority was something to drink, but I didn't want to do that until I got rid of more baggage, and I didn't want to do that until I had given William his stuff, since I thought it would be a lot easier rather than try to explain why I wasn't checking one bag that was obviously too large to go as a carry-on. So, after William was gone, I went to the TAM desk, and checked the remaining baggage. But of course it isn't possible to get something to drink at the airport unless you have some Brazilian money. So, I went in search of an exchange booth. There are several, and since I had a lot of time anyway, I went to all of them to see who was paying the best rate. One office didn't have their rate posted, but the rest did, and of the ones that were posted I found that the American Express office was paying 2.5 reals to the dollar. I'm not exactly sure why, but exchanging $40 in cash money was a long process that involved them looking at my passport, writing out a form, entering a bunch of stuff into the computer, and then printing out three copies of the receipt, two of which I had to sign. After that I now sort of understood why the two Germans in front of me took 20 minutes to get 500 Euros, particularly since they asked for Deutche Marks, and not Euros ( though Euros is what they got ).
I got something to drink, at lunch, and otherwise spent the next few hours looking at stuff in the gift shops. Some neat things, to be sure, but nothing I wanted to spend that kind of money on, and certainly not on my way into Brasil, where I would have to spend the rest of the trip moving my purchases all over the place.
As the departure time came, I looked up at the big mechanical departure indication board, and noticed that the plane was to be leaving from gate 7. I went to gate 7, and there wasn't anyone there. The ticket said gate 5, but the plane there was going to Rio de Janeiro. So, I decided to wait at gate 7 for a little bit and see what happened. An airport employee came by and insisted that no one can wait here, because there wasn't anyone there, and absolutely insisted that I should go wait at gate 5, next door, since that is what my ticket said. Upon arriving at gate 5 I was told to go wait at gate 7, and when I got back there there was a bunch of people waiting.
I told everyone in Londrina that I would arrive around 5 o'clock. This might have been true, but apparently I misunderstood the people in Miami when they said "The plane will land at 5." I looked out the window of the plane at 4:50, as we were coming down into the airport, and....didn't see anything remotely familiar. It was then announced that we were arriving in Curitiba. We didn't get to Londrina until 6:15.
Because of the crime rate, the Londrina airport is very careful about making sure that whoever arrives has baggage claim tickets. So, you claim your baggage first, then go out into the arrival area. This done, I went into the arrival area, only to find that it has also been turned into another Zone of Eternal Construction, and perhaps 50 people crammed into this tiny temporary waiting area. I didn't know who I was looking for, and the people who were looking for me didn't know who they were looking for, but we did manage to locate eachother ( not that there was much room to get lost ) and have now settled into their home.
They have already started putting me to work at the Webb office. They want someone to take a look at their collection of library books and see what can be done about organization and deciding what should be kept and what should be sold. The school will be moving to a new location ( different building on the ISBL campus ) and they don't want to move everything there if they are going to be getting rid of a few things anyway.
Brian: they are making regular use of the Bibles that you sent for their Bible study module. Having them has really helped.
My first response was to suggest that they do a survey of the students to find out what they are interested in having in their library to begin with. So, Monday and Tuesday were spent creating a survey and getting it into Portuguese for the lower level classes, as well as a few other things. I've already got people who want to have me do their conversational English time.
I have also already been offered, from some of my Brazilian friends, to take part in a missionary team that is going to a small city in the state of São Paulo. Talk about a place where the sheer name suggests a city that is a bit of a backwater! As near as I can tell, from the loose translations that I have been given, it's name apparently means "The Outhouse Pit of St. Paul". It is for such summer vacation trips that I really thought it would be interesting to come here for the seminary's Christmas break, and so I will almost certainly go.
Its only Tuesday and I have already met a lot of my old friends from last year.
This past Sunday, I also got to experience what a Roman Catholic worship service is like in Brasil. There are still a lot of the standard ritualistic things, but they also have some things that would probably not be tolerated in the Roman Catholic church in the USA. For example, each item used in worship was brought in from the back of the church. First, a procession for a number of items started off the service. However, when it came time for the Scripture Reading, the Bible was brought in by itself from the rear of the church. The woman carrying it gave special attention to it, as she stopped at nearly every bench and showed it to the members of the congregation. Its arrival was also greeted by a standing ovation, done with a rythmic clapping that I think is somewhat unique to Latin America. The vast majority of the worship was led by women, including the leading of songs, the reading of scripture, and many other things. The role of the priest was only to serve the communion and to give a brief ( compared with what I have seen in the Protestant Brazilian church ) sermon.
I also learned that this particular priest has a very interesting reputation in the city. He is somewhat special already because he isn't Brazilian, but Portuguese. Some time back, the mayor of Londrina made a significant sum of money vanish into his own pockets. Some have told me that this was some $50 million, though there is some confusion because the Portuguese word for thousand is "mil" and the word for million is "milhão" so sometimes I think that what is said as "million" may actually be "thousand". In any event, the mayor made a bunch of money disappear. Normally, the politicians have enough power to be able to do this and not have many problems, but apparently this priest, who has been apparently a worker of reforms in some ways, was instrumental in making sure that the mayor was repaid with some serious prison time. So, its pretty obvious when push comes to shove who really controls things here in Brasil. I hope Brasil gets many more like him.
My thanks for the prayers, moral support, and everything else you have all provided. May God bless you all richly in return.
My dear Friends;
There isn't that much to report this week.
Continued helping in Webb.
One task that they wanted me to do was look through their library and see what suited their needs. It is hot and humid here in Brasil, and there is a fine culture of various molds growing on some of the older books. At least they aren't giant mushrooms like we see growing on everything in Oregon.
;-)
Its about 11:30 our time, meaning it is only about 5:30 for most of you. So, I can safely say that tonight I showed some slides of Oregon and New Mexico to the Travel Module class. (Those on the east coast will have to wait till tomorrow, probably.) It was hard determining what to show, but everything worked out OK. Was a little worried about the slide projector availability, since everyone seemed quite certain that ISBL had one, but not sure just who or where it would be. It turned out that the folks over in the pos-graduação ( post-graduate ) office right next door to the Webb office have one. It arrived at about 4, and was able to get the slides loaded and do a quick run through to make sure everything was positioned OK and that the cords would reach before a 5:00 pm conversation appointment, which lasted until 10 min before the start of the class.
The big news in the newspapers here has been that the Argentine government has frozen all the bank accounts in the country in order to provide economic stabilization, and is only allowing people to withdraw somewhere around US $300 per month. The Brazilian post office is talking about going on strike. One of the big universities here in Londrina is also on strike, which wouldn't be such a big problem if it didn't also operate a hospital. There are some estimates that some patients at the remaining hospitals may have to wait an extrodinary time in order to be seen by a doctor. One person has told me that it isn't unusual for people in Brasil to wait as long as a year anyway, without any major hospital problems. There is talk in the papers that the police are finally starting to crack down on the crime problem in Londrina. Recent call of some sort saw 4 civil police vehicles and about 7 military police vehicles all on their way past ISBL. The military runs a substantial portion of the police force here, and so I can't imagine that there was much left of the criminal if they caught him.
Learned a little more about the upcoming mission trip to the small city in São Paulo state. There are now two cities on the list: Lençóis Paulista and Macatuba. I get the general idea that the "outhouse hole" term that I was told earlier is some sort of inside joke on how the words are used. Dictionary I have says Lençóis is used to mean "sheets", but when combined with the word "bad" can mean "deep trouble". Estar em maus Lençóis is "to be in bad sheets" or basically "were in trouble". I've been invited to give my testimony, if I write everything out in English they will translate into Portuguese. It looks like it will be a busy week.
The ISBL seminary will close this week until Jan 7 or so.
The OMS people and the seminary would like to get a system for projecting computer images and video tape onto a wall or screen. They make some nice projectors for this purpose, but most of them have very expensive replacement bulbs - for some of them the bulbs are over $400. Therefore, in this situation, I think it might be better for them to get the type of system that simply sits on an overhead projector. These are somewhat less in quality, but at least the replacement lamps are not a problem. I think I have located one for a good price in Portland, thanks to the ComputerBits. If any of you know of someone from Portland who is coming to Brasil soon, for the English Camp for example, please let me know.
Thank you all for your updates from the USA.
My Dear Friends and Family;
Today, if all goes according to plan, we will be leaving for a small city in São Paulo and will not be back until Dec 22 or 23. We will be taking the Rodoviaria, the excellent intercity bus system that exists here, all the way. Just out of curiousity, not to mention the fact that one person was thinking it would be better for them to be back faster due to some timing conflicts, a friend and I stopped by a travel agency and checked prices by air. It would cost about R$450 by air, one way, and it costs R$22 by bus, and the bus is usually far more comfortable than the cramped airline seats. Therefore, it should come as no surprise what mode of transportation rules Brasil.
The Webb school is now closed until Jan 7, which is good because they all need a break. The end of the semester went very well. Friday night they had the Christmas party and actually had a brief graduation ceremony for those who completed the basic core classes in English.
Last night was the ISBL graduation. This year they had a little over 50 people graduate in the various core studies.
Weather here has been, what in Oregon, our newspaper usually lists in the forcast as "unsettled". While it has been warm, it has not been as warm as last year when I was here at this time ( mercifully so ). It has rained a bit more also. Normal process seems to be to have light clouds and heat increasing for some time, then finally it it is cloudy enough and rains and cools everything off. We are on the 11th floor ( this would be the 12th floor in the USA because here they start numbering the floors at 0 - must have been some computer guru who set up the elevator systems here ) and there is an excellent view to the west. On most days it is possible to see a few of the larger buildings in Apucarana, Arapongas, and a few other cities - perhaps 20 miles. A few days ago a view out that window was excellent for perhaps half a mile, and what looked like a huge fog bank was coming at us fast, what looked like Willamette Valley Pea Soup Fog, with no visibility at all beyond it. About 30 seconds later the rain hit, and pretty much drove everyone indoors for about half an hour. After that, everything was fine. We have only had one day where it didn't stop raining, and the rain on that day was more along the lines of the light Willamette Valley rain than the heavy half-hour downpours that seem to happen more often here.
This rain is a good thing, since as reported in the Oregonian some months ago Brasil has a huge problem due to the drought and the heavy reliance on hyroelectric plants, not to mention problems with the crops.
-Glenn
My dear Friends and Family;
Please excuse any typing problems. I´ve changed locations again, and this place has a different keyboard set-up, and it is necessary to press some keys twice in order to get the letter combinations I want.
It is now the 26th of December here, and so it is now time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!
I´m still in Linções Paulista, but I am now living in a house that has telephone service and a computer, and can therefore access the internet ( they even have America On Line here for crying out loud! - though there isn´t a McDonalds in town yet. )
Lençõis is a quaint Brazilian city of about 60,000 where the top five biggest buildings in town are Roman Catholic churches that can be seen from several miles away - minus perhaps two or three high rise appartment buildings. Such massive structures make an astonishing contrast to the rest of the city.
I think I understand better now the comments about the outhouse basement. There is a vast papermill some distance away that produces a horrific smell that, when the wind is wrong, makes the whole city smell awful. Also, there are a number of sugar cane growers, and part of the process of growing sugar cane is lighting the entire field on fire - which also produces a horrific smell - it is nothing like sugar. These two things, combined with a number of other various things near town, produce a lot of smells, depending on what is going on and what direction the wind is blowing. It is somewhat of a joke of the natives here - when asked about the weather sometimes they answer "smelly".
The missionary trip went well. The first place we stopped was a nursing home run by nuns. Though we were tired after traveling, they welcomed our presence with open arms. After telling one person where I was from was told "Wow I don´t believe it a person from the USA speaking with me!" Also performed dramas in a number of schools and a hospital, and also in one prison. Both the hospital and the prison were quite depressing places. Due to the huge energy conservation efforts underway, I didn´t see a single working electric light in the hospital, and only one in the prison. Therefore, both places had somewhat of the atmosphere of a dungeon. Though, the prison far more so. When visiting there I expected to at least be searched for stuff in the pockets, or at least have someone check for ID. They didn´t. After visiting the place, it seems to me that in Brasil, they make the place as dungeon-like as possible, so that the atmosphere is so hopeless, no one will bother trying to escape - as those inside all know there is no hope of ever getting out alive. None of the guards I saw even bother to carry guns, so they must have few attempts at escape. Yet, despite the appearance of ignoring us for the most part, most thanked us for coming when we left.
The dramas that are performed by the group are a mixture of standard Christian dramas from a few books, as well as a few that they have written themselves. However, even those that are out of textbooks include a great deal of Brazilian spontanousness, and they are frequently adapted to suit the needs of the audience. For example, they have one drama taken from a book that is essentially called "Little Girl of Tears". The main character is always a crying girl looking for joy, and whose friends tell her that the posessions they have will bring joy. Satan always interferes with these physical things. However, for some younger audiences, Satan sometimes does summersaults, or backflips, or other stunts that make him somewhat less scary. Sometimes there is a motorcyclist that normally produces his own set of entertainment, particularly in whatever method is used when Satan steals his motorcycle out from underneath him. Satan, however, runs into more than he can handle when everyone discovers that the joy that God can bring can not be broken, stolen, or eaten. Sometimes everyone else chases him out of the room, sometimes he runs off on his own. It all depends on the room setting and the time available.
There was a plan to perform some of these things outdoors in public places but rain interfered with that. Everything went very well though, in the end.
Other interesting things: I met two people here with connections to Oregon. The son of one of the school teachers visited Pilot Rock as an exchange student some years back. Also, the pastor of the Presperterian Church we are working with here one had a girlfriend from St. Helens. I knew it was going to be an interesting trip when I was eating a package of Tillamook Cheese disguised in an airline meal package as we were coming into São Paulo several weeks ago.
As people were packing up, I was invited to stay on here in Linções until the end of the year. I accepted. As I am now in a location that has a telephone, I can give that out: city code is 14, and the number is 263-0523. Therefore, to call here from the USA, you would dial 011-55-14-263-0523. There is apparently a 021 prefix that you need to know if dialing within Brasil as well.
The 24th saw the church celebrate its Christmas Eve service and meal together. They served some 65 people out of their tiny 7 foot by 12 foot kitchen, with sometimes as many as 35 people in there. The food and company were wonderful, if somewhat crowded. It is a fact of life here that sometimes meals are a full contact sport. This wouldn´t be so bad if it weren´t that the standard eating implements are a fork and a HUGE steel steak knife. There were not any deaths or injuries though, and everyone had a good time of fellowship and fun.
Christmas Day was interesting. I think that this was the only Christmas that I didn´t see anyone actually open gifts on Christmas day including myself. Christmas is celebrated differently here. There is gift giving, but it just isñ´t celebrated the same as in the USA. Instead, it is first and formost a day to be with family ( here that includes friends). Therefore, we visited several different houses on Christmas day, each of which had a different meal for us, plus went out to a lunchonette for dinner - meaning that we ate two breakfasts and three or four lunches, and two dinners by the time the day was over. It was a great time of fellowship, but included no Christmas trees or gift opening all day, even though most of the families have children.
So, from Linções Paulista, São Paulo state, Brasil, Merry Christmas!
-Glenn
Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 15:00:30 -0200
My dear Friends and Family;
There isn~t much more to report this time.
I appear to have been making a mistake in the name of the city: it is Lençóis Paulista in the phone book and on some of the other signs, but I have also noticed several spelling variations on store signs, etc. While I still doñt know the official spelling, I have decided to go with what is on the phone book.
Several interesting developments look like they may develop by e-mail. Not sure yet, and cañt say much, but for those who are praying for me please just remember these items in the coming weeks. Things have the potential to get interesting.
Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed New Year!
-Glenn
My dear Friends and Family;
Because of the limitations of the phone system where I was before ( in Brasil they charge for local phone calls, and charge by the time unit if it isn't between midnight and 6 am. and the modem was running very slow at times ) I wasn't able to say as much as I would have liked about Lençóis Paulista.
For example, I didn't even mention Macatuba, which is about 18 km away from Lençóis, which is the nearest other city. We visited the hospital there, and mostly just talked to the patients. Its a small city (about 16,000), and therefore has a small hospital. We visited the church twice also. The church there seems to be a new start. There were only about 5 people not including our group there. The congregation meets in a tiny house that also serves as the office for a Motorcycle Taxi company. Its the only church I have worshiped in where the decoration behind the pulpit was a sign indicating how much money one has to pay to get to various locations in the region ( all locations within the city of Macatuba is only R$0.70, or a little less than US $0.30 ). They performed one short drama, and two sermons for them ( two different days - it is common for churches here to have services in the middle of the week ). Not sure how much help we were to them, as what they really seem to need is some extended community outreach, but they seemed to be encouraged by the visit.
Claudia and Junior, along with their 4 year old daughter Melina, are the students at the seminary in Londrina who are from Lençóis and they are the reason this group visited that church in that city. They were kept quite busy through the week due to the church having several mid-week services. Although they are not yet graduated from the seminary, the need for church leaders is great in Brasil, and they had to preach and develop plans during the week as if they were already full scale church workers. Claudia did the sermon one night, and Junior another.
The Bible I have with me is the Good News Bible that my mother gave me when I was in high school. It is well worn, but the leather cover and sewn binding have stood up well with time, and the English is easier to read than the New International Version. This is the same Bible that appeared as the Good News New Testament, and it has the same style of artwork that decorates the pages of that New Testament throughout both the Old and New Testaments. When someone in the church found that I had an English Bible with me, they called some of their friends over to look and see the Bible in English. While the 10 or so people that gathered ( mostly women in their 60's and over ) couldn't read most of it, they did enjoy the artwork that Bible has. I had never given much thought about the drawings that decorate the Bible, but it was interesting to see their reactions as they found the sections where the Israelites cross the Red Sea, David confronts Goliath, the prophet Elijah is taken up to heaven on a chariot of fire, and so forth, all using those simple line drawings. It gave me a new insight into the usefulness of having such artwork in Bibles, and I am very glad it is this Bible that I brought with me.
Part of one day was spent in Bauru, the nearest large city, perhaps some 300,000 people. Junior wants to get a new guitar, as the one he currently has isn't exceedingly well suited to the current needs of his church. The best makes on sale are all American models. However, because they are imported from the USA they are also all extremely expensive. Apparently the special trade agreement between Japan and Brasil makes Japanese made guitars much less expensive, but of course they don't have anywhere near the same respect, even when the manufacturer's name is the same. We wound up leaving Bauru empty handed, after visiting 4 music stores.
We stopped by the railroad museum in Bauru as well, at my request of course. Its closed; its hard to tell if this is permanent or just something for the holidays, or if they are on strike ( the museum in Londrina seems to be, or at least that is what the sign out front says ). There appears to have been at one time a huge railroad yard in Bauru, which is now almost completely overgrown. Several long strings of freight cars are the only evidence that there is any track underneath the bushes. There is a massive concrete bridge that comes out of the middle of what must have at one time been a huge yard, and curves and heads north, and then simply comes to an end in the middle of the air, with evidence that sections have been removed. There is the remains of what was once a huge electrification project. Only the vertical poles and insulators remain. The wires from which the trains once drew their power are gone. The station in Bauru must have been a sight to behold at one time. While somewhat small, it even has a train shed shaped like the largest stations in Europe. The mind boggles at such huge amounts of infrastructure in a city of only 300,000 and left to simply decay. Although the general atmosphere of the place makes it look like it has been abandoned for decades, most likely it all dates to sometime around 1996, when the railroad system of Brasil was turned over to private companies to operate. At least one government official has pointed out that railroads in the USA move some 65% of the freight, with cheap transportation resulting in a good economy, while in Brasil the railroads only move 22% of the freight and the resulting expensive transportation also results in a difficult economy, and that perhaps a little more should be done to encourage railroads here. Just what remains to be seen, except that in Paraná, a few hundred kilometers south of Londrina, the state government of Paraná has been able to get the Ferroeste extended all the way to Cascavel, with hope of one day operating to Foz do Iguaçu and some dream of a line into Paraguay. For those with an interest in all that there is more on the web at:
http://www.pr.gov.br/celepar/setr/ferroeste/ferin1.html
New Year's eve and day was celebrated at the church in Lenções. New Year´s eve was a classic example of why there are so many meals in the home here. Light breakfast in the morning, lunch around 12, a small meal they called "Coffee" ( I think the British would say tea ) about 3:30, a pre-dinner snack to get us through the rest of the night around 7 or 8, to church around 10:00 pm for the New Year's Service, which started around 10:30 and finished at 1:20 am on Jan 1 ( church services tend to last longer here ), and dinner started around 1:45 am ( dinner tends to be a late night meal here ).
In general, it was a time to celebrate another year of friendship and pray for the upcoming year, and praise the Lord that one wasn't born Argentine, as the newpaper continued to report the vast street riots throughout Buenos Aires.
Not sure how much of all that stuff in Argentina is being reported in the USA, but it has been the front page news here for some time. The problem started back when they had what is widely belived here in Brasil to be a lunatic in charge of the Argentine central bank - and that was about a month ago that the really strange stuff started happening. They ended the year with huge street riots, and have recently inagurated their 5th president in two weeks. On his first day on the job he has announced a plan to do away with Argentina's "outdated" free-market policies that "have left the country without a peso." Therefore, it doesn't sound to me like he will be much of an improvement in the long run, though his rhetoric has been good and he belongs to the populist Peronist Party ( yes, the same Peron that was given a reputation bigger than life by Broadway's "Evita" ), so he stands a good chance of lasting a while. Things seem to be like that in South America: either they hate the president and run him out of office after a while, or he becomes a beloved national hero beyond anything that has ever happened in the USA. Despite their status in the USA, you never hear the Democrats proposing a name change to the Kennedyist Party or the Rooseveltist Party. Here, populist leaders have everything from streets to plazas named after them, and a scattering of monuments, political parties, and sometimes cities to their honor besides.
In any event, back to New Year's on the side of the border where they weren't running through the streets burning things on New Year's: here, New Year's Day is somewhat like Holloween. The kids form groups and go from house to house begging for money or candy, starting at midnight and continuing throughout the day of Jan 1. The attitude of the thing seems to be quite a bit more confrontational than our trick-or-treating though, as on at least one occasion, around 2:30 am, someone went to the front gate to answer the call and spent somewhere around 20 minutes arguing with the kids about their worthiness of receiving something. Then again, in this part of the world every important decision requires some discussion beforehand.
On the first, we visited a small farm owned by the father of the family I stayed with in Lençóis. It is actually a chácara, where they have a number of fruit trees, about an acre of sugar cane, about 30 cows, several horses, some pigs, some chickens, corn, beans, a little bamboo for use around the farm, and mango trees. They asked me how to say chácara in English, and I told them "small farm", but they insisted that a farm had to be something huge. They also used the word chácara, however, to also refer to a small chunk of land in the country where all the family has is a small lawn, a swimming pool, a house, and perhaps one or two fruit trees. Its one of those cases where Portuguese has a huge descriptive vocabulary that describe concepts that are quite different than those described with English words.
The mango trees are quite impressive. There is one on this farm with a trunk that is perhaps 7 feet in diameter. In the USA, they would probably never let a fruit tree get that huge; it's too difficult to get the fruit from the top of the thing. Furthermore, there are quite a number of different types. In the USA, mangos are mangos. They have perhaps 8 to 10 different types of mangos on this farm. Some are a reddish color when ripe, some yellow, some a deep purple. One they call "formiga" ( ant ) because it supposedly tastes something like ant meat.
The first and second were difficult days weather wise. It was hot, and there were many hours that the air seemed to lack oxygen. Although I have experienced hot and humid before, this I think was the first time that I felt the air was truely suffocating. There were breif periods of light rain, which I found very comfortable and several other people found to be comforting as well. However, the wife of the family insists that it is dangerous to stand out in the rain, no matter how little rain is falling or how warm it is, because rain makes people sick. It is an interesting thing here: its perfectly fine to take a cold shower or get in a swimming pool, but get one drop of rain on you and you are at risk of coming down with all sorts of fatal diseases. True to form, after the rain passed several people developed a cough, which the wife of the family immediately blamed on the rain. Later, the middle brother of the family, Anré, pointed out to me that the wind that brings rain to the city always blows the fumes from the paper mill into town. By far their best weather indicator is the smell in the air: if they can smell the paper mill, then it is going to rain ( its an interesting variation of "It smells like rain", to be certain ). André blames the various respiratory problems in the city, and surrounding areas on the various stuff the papermill puts out, insisting that anything that can be smelled in cities 200 kilometers away can't possibly be good in cities only 5 kilometers away from, and well within sight of, the huge chimney of the place.
On the second, we loaded up the car and Junior, his youngest brother, and myself left for a return trip to Londrina. Claudia and Melina will return to Londrina much later in the month on the bus. Right now, Claudia is needed in Lençóis because she needs to put together an entire program, including lessons and music, for her church for the month of January. Junior is needed back in Londrina because, although the seminary has not started having classes yet, the office is open and he is needed there. His brother came along because, among other things, Junior and Claudia will need to move to another appartment soon, but Claudia will not be able to help since she is still in Lençóis.
People always seem to live one crisis to another in Brasil.
Claudia was having trouble coming up with a subject for the next month for the church. I pointed out that one of the verses used in the sermon this past Sunday was Eph 6:12 "For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age." I pointed out that as you read this passage, it moves directly into the commonly used section about the full armor of God in verses 13 through 18. Faith as a shield, truth as a belt, etc. She said "That's Perfect! My first task is coming up with something that we can do with the kids, and that is simple to do with those verses."
Before we left Lençóis they fooled me into thinking we were leaving, then left me sitting in the car because everyone had some last minute thing to do. They then asked me to come back into the house, where they presented me with a Portuguese New International Version of the Bible.
And thus we returned to Londrina.
-Glenn
Date: 17 Jan 2002
My dear Friends and Family;
The father of the family I am staying with - Adilson - was an electrical engineer for Telebras - the pre-privatization Brazilian telephone company. Currently he is using his experience in that department to help many people get their computer systems up and running.
Some time back, he decided to upgrade to Windows XP - Microsoft's newest operating system. This is why you have not heard from me in a while. Because there is a lot of valuable information on his system, he had to dig around for a week and root out all his important system settings files, and other stuff he wanted to keep, and then spend a few days putting the system back together. This is why you have not heard from me in a little while. Had it been a simple matter of a normal installation which involves deleting everything and starting over, it would have been much easier. However, among other things, he wanted to make sure that when his clients start asking for the upgrade, he is able to do so with a minimum of information, system preferences, and other stuff getting lost.
Have helped a little in the language school with getting ready for the English Camp next week. This includes simple stuff like painting backgrounds for the stage and so forth. Nothing particularly earthshaking or requiring extensive paragraphs to write about, so there really hasn't been much to say anyway.
They say that this year some people who have asked to come to the English camp are people who are somewhat hostile to Christianity, but really want to practice English with Americans. This could get interesting.
Adilson had to go to the city of São Paulo to complete some paperwork at one of the big universities there. Since I wanted a chance to get out of Londrina for a little while I went along too. I had visited São Paulo before, but mostly the airport, and of course last year some friends and I went through it on our way to delivering me to the airport. However, I didn't get much of a chance to see what was around there. We arrived on the intercity bus at the same bus, subway and suburban train station as last year when I was leaving Brasil, and took the subway to the hotel.
Because of congestion, the Paulistano's life normally start's early, with work starting late. In Londrina, standard operating hours start at 8 am. This is so regular that almost no offices or stores post their hours on their doors - everyone knows that life starts at 8 am, unless you are a bakery or a grocery store. Since it takes about 2 hours for the average Paulistano to get to work, no matter if they are driving or on the bus or what, life there doesn't start until 9 or 9:30 or so. However, that does not mean that businesses post their hours on the door.
Therefore, we arrived at a reasonably good technical bookstore ( it wasn't Powell's technical store, though ) about 8:50, and found it closed. We waited until 9, at which point we found that they don't open at 9, and went off to take a brief look near downtown.
While São Paulo is a dangerous city, I honestly felt safer walking the streets there than in Rio de Janeiro. I'm sure there were gangs of children wandering the streets trying to sneak up on people and take or beg whatever they could get, just like Rio. However, I didn't see any of them, so they aren't as pesky as the gangs of children in Rio.
Adilson showed me enough of São Paulo to give me a far more favorable impression of it than previous trips there. They actually have a neat park in downtown over the top of one of the big freeways, and a neat municipal theatre building that looks like it was pulled from northern Europe in the 1600's. It may have been - the Portuguese came here to Brasil in 1500, and so some parts of Brasil have been exposed to European culture and architecture for some centuries.
We went back to the book store and found it open at 9:35, so apparently they open at 9:30.
We then headed to the University on the city bus. I'm not exactly clear on what is what, but some of the paperwork had to be delivered to one of the English schools in São Paulo, and some of it to the University itself. I think this particular English school must have some sort of an agreement with the university to teach specialized technical English. In any event, we stopped by the English school first, and found that even though someone had assured Adilson that the paperwork could be delivered to the University, the English school was still on holiday on the 11th of January.
So we got back on the bus and headed out to the University. The campus is reasonably well maintained, but huge. The bus only made two stops and it still took about 15 minutes to get to our building once it entered the campus. The campus probably takes up about the same amount of space as all of downtown Portland and a large chunk of the east side of town as well. To give you some idea of the size of the place, the web site ( http://www.usp.br ) says the campus has 4,705 professores and 14,659 employees - I can't tell if that includes the extension campuses in a few other cities. It might even be beautiful if it weren't for the fact that almost all of the buildings are of the Concrete Anthill type of architecture that was so popular in the 1960's. The people at the University department of electrical and electronic stuff ( the building is about the size of the entire University I attended ) did their end of the paperwork and assured Adilson that they could deal with the English school end of things.
Adilson also took me to one of the larger shopping centers in São Paulo. While large and somewhat interesting, I found a lot more interesting and unusual things in the streetside booths near the hotel. I honestly don't find that much that interests me in the shopping centers in Brasil. The street merchants have interesting stuff, but usually it is displayed in such a way that you can see everything they have in about 20 seconds, or at least I can, so I don't spend that much time rummaging about there either.
One day isn't really enough to get much of a taste of São Paulo, but maybe one day I will come back and be able to see more.
The next day - the 12th - we headed north to Campinas. This was a request of mine: there happens to be a small tourist attraction there I wanted to visit. Railroad related, so not many on this list will be interested. Web site is at http://www.abpf.org.br for those that are.
During the night we returned to Londrina on one of the sleeper buses. However, we took the direct Campinas to Londrina route, which made many stops in between. We are in a huge, double decker multi- passenger bus that is far more luxurious than anything I have seen in the USA, and paying some R$40 to get to Londrina ( that's about US$16 at the buying rate for dollars at the exchange ). However, they still make us stop at the entrance to the bus station in Londrina to check the papers and documentation and make absolutely certain that we are, in fact, a bus. We might be a volkswagon or a Boeing 747 trying to sneak in, or something.
On Monday afternoon I got a call from one of the relatives of the family, and was told that some of the young people - I think maybe neices of the wife of Márcia, the wife of the family, plus a boyfriend of one of them, had become interested in my description of the train trip from Curitiba to Paranaguá, and were leaving that afternoon for Curitiba. So, I threw some clothes and necessities in an overnight bag and we hit the road for Curitiba, some 380 km southeast of here. We spent the night in a hotel near the station, and in the morning boarded the train for Paranaguá.
There are three classes of travel on the train: common, executive (with air conditioning), and tourist. Tourist is the most expensive. With it you get a van tour of the cities at the end of the line, plus a return trip to Curitiba in the van, which stops pretty much anywhere at the passenger's leasure. You also get a small breakfast, plus lunch ( minus drinks and dessert ) at a fairly nice restaurant near the end of the line. Its an excellent package at R$100 ( about US$42 at the buying rate for the dollar ) but I had my concerns because I figured that air conditioning means the windows will not open and therefore difficulty in taking photos. I need not have worried. This is still Brasil, and for the most part in Brasil they still believe in windows that can open. Not only was it easy to take photos, but they slowed the train down to walking speed, and I think maybe once or twice stopped, so that people could take photos. The guide in our car did her best to make sure that everyone knew that a waterfall was coming up on the left side, and that the best view of it was going to be between those two trees right.....*now*, and so forth. This, plus the fact they slowed down so much when moving past such things, made photography on the line downright simple. ALL - America Latina Logistica, the company that controls traffic on the line, may be a big multi-national company with track in many countries, but they apparently still allow some Latin American spontaneousness from its passenger operator. Catering and service may not be the same standards as the Great Canadian Gold Leaf tourist package, but those guys seat passenger cars at US$2,000 per ticket. Quite honestly, I think these people tried just as hard if not harder to meet the needs of the passenger with what they had to work with. They have a web site, but its in Portuguese. The better choice for English speakers is the state of Paraná web site at
http://www.pr.gov.br/celepar/seet/prtur/roteiros/fe rrop.html
I first learned of the Serra Verde Express through the web site of the State of Paranà. The trip claimed to be over spectacular scenery and that is what I found. The area is, sadly, one of the few remaining forests in the state that has been preserved in nearly its native state. The good news is that it is fairly large: once the train leaves the outskirts of Curitiba, we didn't see anything other than equipment on railroad tracks until we arrived in Morretes.
On the van trip back to Curitiba ( the vans simply wait until they are full, then do pretty much what the passengers, as a committee, ask them to do ) we happened to wind up with two northwesterners: myself and a guy named Steve from Seattle. He has a friend in Brasil who has his own business, and was abruptly told "show up at the station ( bus and train stations are the same in Curitiba ) and bring at least R$100", and found himself on the train. Though, he seemed to be taking Latin American spontaneousness rather well.
After a visit to the Roman Catholic church in Antonina, Steve and I got on the subject of religion. He happens to be Catholic, but certainly an American style Catholic.
He knew early on that I was an Evangelical. He asked me "Oh, you mean like Billy Graham and those guys?" I told him that the Evangelical Church of North America doesn't do TV broadcasts and so forth, and I gave him a bit of history on how our church came to be.
He told me all about how all religions are basically the same, and how the meaning of the word catholic means "universal" and how wonderful it is that the Catholic church has adopted the practices of the local people, and sometimes including voodoo practices to adopt to the culture. This would make the Roman Catholic church a universal church because it included all things in it, and so on.
It wasn't anything new to me. I heard it all from my professors at the University of Portland - a Roman Catholic school.
I didn't do much to argue with him. Most of the time that doesn't do any good.
Besides, I didn't have to.
We arrived at a small picnic area overlooking the area where the mountains reach into the sea. The picnic area had a series of picture signs on it, most of which the meaning was quite clear: don't throw trash, with a picture of someone throwing trash on the ground and a line through it, etc. Except, at the bottom, was an official sign, just like the rest, with a picture of three candles, a dead bird, and a bottle of booze, and a red line through it. This got a laugh out of the Brazilians, and left Steve with a puzzled look on his face.
"What does that mean?"
The Brazilian response? "It means No Macumba".
"What's that?"
Brazilian: "Its a voodoo ceremony where they kill chickens, light candles and drink pinga." ( Pinga is a sugar cane alcohol that, with only a slight change in the distilling process, produces a liquid that can be sold to the gas stations as a motor fuel. Its for those who want to get very drunk very cheap and very fast. )
As the Brazilians walked away Steve asked me, in a low wisper "So, what else do they do in these ceremonies?" So I told him about an incident that some have talked about near Rio de Janeiro where a 14 year old girl was essentially talked into being gang raped as part of some sort of fertility ceremony as a preparation for Carnaval.
I'm not sure just where, exactly, that leaves his Catholic Church and accepting all things from all religions as good and the benefits of accepting voodoo beliefs into the Catholic church. He didn't say too much after that, and didn't say anything more at all about that whole subject.
Not much else is new, I guess, from this end of the world.
Oh, yeah, and they have another new president in Argentina. Like I said, not much new from this end of the world.
-Glenn
Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 00:57:43 -0200
My dear Friends and Family;
Starting sometime Sunday or Monday, 19th or 20th, I will be moving out to Acampamento Shalom, and therefore will become unreachable. While they have e-mail, it will be a large group that is staying there, and while they have e-mail access at the camp they do not have internet access, and therefore will not be able to access this e-mail account from there.
Therefore, all things considered, it is best to assume that I am alive and well, but just not able to send e-mail.
If there is an emergency, the phone number at the camp is, from the USA, 011-55-43-399-5754.
-Glenn
My dear Friends and Family;
The Oregon Trail was a pathway cut through the middle of a lot of nothing, mostly due to people in search of a better life, adventure, and people that refused to settle in one place for long. There are still children of the Oregon Trail in the Pacific Northwest. They can usually be found, for example, in Curitibá, Paraná, Brasil, saying that they are really from Seattle, but with only passport and well used backpack, and a definite Pacific Northwest appearance, and while they may settle down in one place for a while, if given a cheap ticket to the next town, you may never see them again.
I was born in Oregon. I don’t know if that makes me a true child of the Oregon Trail or not, but that is where I was born. While not entirely interested in venturing into the unknown without a group with me, I did develop an interest in exploring areas that I have never seen before while at the University, and perhaps this part of Pacific Northwest culture is something that would have one day manifested itself in some form anyway.
Perhaps, or perhaps not, the above two reasons has something to do with why I am now in Foz do Iguaçu, and why I just returned from an interesting day in Argentina. With a free trip to Foz do Iguaçu offered, with the mother of my host family thinking that I should get some more travel in before I went home, and with her seeking out, during lunch on the last day of English Camp – an hour before all the campers went home - someone who would be willing to let me stay with them a few days, and with return bus fare at only R$37.92 ( about US$15 ) I did what any child of the Oregon Trail would have done: throw my stuff together in a matter of minutes and headed for Foz do Iguaçu.
Though, I do get ahead of myself. First, the English Camp.
English Camp was about the same as previously described in previous messages from previous years in terms of the basic organization of things. We each broke into teams, we each had cabins with a certain number of Brazilians, and so forth. One difference this year was that there were several people who had quite young children come without any other family attending. This was handled by having several workshops dedicated to children’s activities, and a few other special arrangements that were not needed in the previous English Camps that I had been a part of. As before, the vast majority were adults of all ages, from late teens to perhaps 50’s. Ages are somewhat hard to tell here, as people seem to age a bit differently in South America. The people who have very difficult lives age a lot faster than those who don’t, is one reason. Another is sun exposure, and another is the wide assortment of racial backgrounds that people have: different skin types age differently, and Brasil is a true melting pot in terms of mixed race marrages.
My cabin was mostly younger people: all about thirty or so I would guess, with the exception of a doctor who my best guess is somewhere between mid -forties and mid-fifties. All of them were either Christians or putting on a good act as well, again with the exception of the doctor, who only did a half-hearted acting job whenever we were talking about religious activities.
Aside of the workshops which were primarily dedicated to children ( cut color and paste an English alphabet book ) the workshops this year ranged from the complex ( personality study, stress ) to the hands-on ( cooking, American Flag craft project ) to the recreational ( nature walk, various American sports ). The Bible Study was taught by David Roof. I think he is an excellent choice for this, since he is bi-lingual. He also used the Bibles that a friend of mine sent down from the USA again, so those Bibles are definitely coming in useful. Every single spot on the camp grounds that could have been used for a workshop was, at one time or another, used as a space for workshops.
Which was a good thing, since somewhere near 85 campers showed up this year ( this number does not include the Brazilians who helped, the Americans, or the various other helpers ). While there are many who apparently did not come due to travel during the holidays, there were also a lot of people who could come due to the Vestibular schedule – or lack of it. The Vestibular is a 4 day long university entrance exam that is exceptionally competitive and difficult. Many of the people I have talked to had to take it two or three times, usually with one year of preparatory study, sometimes with special full-time year-long classes devoted to this test. Normally, the schedule for the Vestibular happens about the same time as when it is best to have the English camps. Since the Vestibular is essentially the center of life for those hoping to get accepted into a University, it is obvious which takes priority. However, this year there is a university strike, with no end in sight, and so a number of people who maybe would not have normally come did so.
There was an entire bus of people that came from Foz do Iguaçu, but there were a few emply places there. As the camp wound down, I was offered a free one-way trip to one of Brasil’s most famous landmarks. I didn’t turn that opportunity down, and when they left camp at 1:30 pm, I left with them.
The group from Foz seemed to include a small group from the OMS affiliated church here in Foz, but apparently the vast majority heard about the camp through the New Wave English School, where the pastor of that church studied English. A great deal of word of mouth activity apparently also happened, as the family I am staying with here didn’t study at that school, but apparently heard about it through a relative or friend, who apparently studied there. It is a fact of life here in Brasil: relationships with friends and family play a big role in establishing what happens.
The group from the New Wave school included a wide cross section of Brazilian culture, but a large portion were in the 15 to 22 year old set, at least that is what it appeared to me: it was rather difficult to tell just who was directly with the language school and who heard about it secondhand through friends and family of students that study there.
A group of those in the 15 to 22 year old set, almost entirely girls, and obviously students at the language school, were by far the most vocal as we were leaving the camp. By the time we reached the edge of Londrina, only about 12 kilometers away, they had sung pretty much all of the Christian songs that they had learned at the camp. While the camp also included a few American songs, such as Dixieland and God Bless America, they chose the Christian songs from camp as that seems to be what they enjoyed. By the time we reached the first toll booth on the road to Maringá, they sinmply had run out of camp songs to sing, and had moved on to something a bit more Brazilian. The two boys who were participating in the camp singing chose not to participate in the secular Brazilian songs. One of the boys told me that the song is too bad to be sung in any public place, and therefore he was not singing, but it seems to take a lot to embarrass the typical Brazilian female.
At that time, the water bottle on the water cooler at the back of the bus chose to break free from its mooring line, and caused quite a stir. After that, people were a bit less musically inclined, until we got fairly close to our destination.
I was taken to the appartment of the family I am staying with. Evening passed and morning came, and then it was Monday.
It so happens that Mary, one of the women that was on my team at the camp, does not work now, and therefore has some free time on her hands. Francieli, a friend of hers, works at the airport in Foz do Iguaçu, but has Mondays off. Therefore, they offered to show me a few things around here that I didn’t see while I was here a year and a half ago. Therefore, equipped with the required two women ( you don’t do much in Brazilian culture alone with a woman unless you want to get married to her ) we plotted our trip. I mentioned that I had never seen the Argentine side of the park. Since the Brazilian side of the park doesn’t open until very late on Mondays anyway, that was probably our best option. I didn’t argue and told them that since they were from around here, I would do what they recommended. It was a wonderful day trip. People from the Argentine side say that their side has the best views of the falls, and people on the Brazilian side say their side has the best views of the falls. After seeing both I’m not sure what to say. The volume of material on the Argentine side is spectacular. We spent nearly the whole day over there, and still didn’t see absolutely everything there is too see. We didn’t do the boat trip up to the pit of the falls ( it costs US$33, and takes more time than we had available ), and we didn’t take the floating raft trip that starts at the top of the Devil’s Throat, and we didn’t do the “circuito superior” trail at the top of the Argentine side. Yet, the Brazilian side allows one to get closer to what is known as the Devil’s Throat of the falls. It offers the most famous views of the falls, and it is possible to get a fairly good view of what is there. I honestly can’t say that one is better than the other. Both are spectacular. On the Argentine side, however, I didn’t notice any anteaters. The anteaters on the Brazilian side are the equivalent of the USA’s racoons in terms of rummaging through the trash to find food. They are, however, even more bold than racoons. I saw one steal a bag containing a t-shirt right out of a lady’s hand because it thought that if a human was carrying something, the thing must contain food. They wonder the Brazilian side of the park in packs, so that anyone entering the park with food is quickly surrounded by perhaps 30 of them, all of which do whatever they can to get whatever food is available. Their sheer numbers makes it difficult to walk, and you don’t dare sit down with food on a bench.
In Argentina, I think the difference is the trash cans. All of the trail-side trash cans scattered through the Argentine side of the park have only a small slot in the top, and are made of slippery plastic. As near as I can tell, that is the only difference between the two sides of the park.
Throughout the day, the two women I was with occasionally broke out into spontaneous singing of a few of the songs from the English camp, particularly God's Not Dead, I've Got the Joy, and Sweet Love of God.
I'm not sure what tomorrow holds, except that I hold a departure ticket for 10:20 pm for Londrina. I will then be able to spend the Wednesday saying goodbye to my friends there, and leave in the evening for the USA.
May God bless you in a special way this coming week,
Glenn Laubaugh
Hello Everyone!
This is to let all of you know that I arrived home in good condition.
Left Londrina at 7 pm local time, arrived in São Paulo at 9 pm local time, left for Atlanta at midnight, arrived in Atlanta at 5:50 am local time, cleared customs and immigration at about 6:30 local time, left for Portland about 8:20, and arrived in Portland at 10:30 am. After that baggage claim and so forth and trip home. Arrived home about 11:30 am Portland time, or 5:30 pm Londrina time. 22 hours seems to be about the average trip length.
There were only a few small problems. They decided that I was worthy of inspection procedures in São Paulo, and so spent a half hour while they opened everything I had and looked through it. Send my appologies to Gezer for this, but I think I will be able to get his package put back together somewhat and to the post office to his girl a little later today. Please tell him NOT to seal the envilope next time when sending things with other people's luggage.
Atlanta was interesting. We arrived early due to a slight tail wind, but they don't allow international arrivals to arrive before 6 am in Atlanta, and therefore we sat on the taxiway about 10 feet from the terminal while we waited for it to become 6 am. However, this resulted in us being the first passengers to be processed by immigration, and therefore there wasn't much of a wait.
Customs didn't even look at the declaration part of my form, but they were real concerned about the fact that I had visited a farm some 4 weeks ago in Lençóis Paulista. They decided to simply blast my shoes with some sort of water and detergent solution. Not sure what that accomplished that a trip to Iguaçu Falls in the rain at the start of the week didn't do. Oh well, at least they didn't decide I needed to have another open-everything inspection in customs as well.
Landing in Portland proved to be an interesting adventure, and one that I am glad I didn't have to do. There was a layer of thick clouds all the way across the country. When we started to land, all of the Mtns. were completely invisible. Normally, they stick up above the clouds so that it is easy to know where you are, but not yesterday. We spent perhaps half an hour going through the clouds on our way to they airport. It shows just how disorienting it can be landing in the fog: I didn't sense the plane turning due to not being able to see anything, but when we finally broke through the clouds we were above the northern edge of Vancouver, Washington, and headed southeast - the direction that we had come from to begin with.
My appologies for those I was not able to see on my last day in Londrina. I really wanted to take more time to see you all before I left, but that was not possible.
So far all is going well here, but I have my work cut out for me in terms of the amount of mail that I need to do something with.
God bless you all and thank you for your friendship,
Glenn