Surprises in Sao Paulo
How do I describe Sao Paulo? I´ve been here less than 24 hours and have already had several adventures. My flight was about an hour late and two guys, both named Andrew, picked me up at the airport. They both work in the mission department at Igreja Batista Morumbi (which is the mother church of the congregation in Vila Andrade)and we´ll all be working together this summe. The flight from Porto Alegre to Sao Paulo is only an hour and a half so and after getting lost for a bit in the parkade we headed to the church for a tour. I met several of the pastors including Pastor Marcelo who pastors the congregation at Vila Andrade. Everyone was very welcoming. We only managed to see Morumbi and then drove past the church building in the favela since the people hosting me were anxious to show me around before it got dark.
Cleide and Fernando are my hosts. I met their son Caio in Edmonton and he´ll be back in Sao Paulo in July so I plan on moving somewhere else then. Their daughter Taty also lives at home. When I arrived we called Cleide and she told me her and her husband had a church retreat to go to on the weekend so I´ve had the place to myself today for the most part. They invited me to come along but I declined. The second surprise I received was discovering I don´t have my own room. It looks like communal living will be a theme this summer. Cleide met this young girl who´s dad is an alcoholic and whose mother passed away last year and since this girl didn´t have a job or any means of support she took her in and she is staying in Caio´s room. So for now I´m sleeping on a small pull out chair/couch thing that when you open it does not leave Beth (my roomie) any access to the closet. There is also zip floor space with it open and due to the communal living I have exactly one foot of closet space. Its really quite hilarious. We may take turns sleeping on the pull-out chair/bed that Taty bought to accomodate me. I slept on it last night and will definitely not be able to do more than a couple of nights but if we buy a foamy to put on top it´ll do. Beth, my roomate, is super sweet though and she is studying and working now and I don´t think I´ll see much of her except when we try to navigate around each other during the morning or late at night. Please pray that I can manage to sleep through all the activity. For Brasilians squeezing another person in is totally normal. Privacy and personal space are somewhat of a luxury. I had forgotten this. Usually I don´t handle these kind of last minute changes/surprises well but I felt an uncanny sense of peace yesterday and this morning. I know that is certainly due to your prayers.
Today I´ve only gone out twice. Once to walk around the condominium (a walled community with barbed wire on top of the walls and a gated entrance with a guard and doorman) and this evening Taty and her boyfriend took me to a mall. It is safe to walk around in the condominium and I discovered a work out room, a barbecue pit and a small pool. The condominium has roughly 30 homes in it and the whole neighborhood of Horto do Ype has about 6-8 of these walled condominium complexes. There is even a mini-van that drives you to your complex since the area is so big and its rather far and unsafe to walk from the bus stop to your complex at night. The mini-van runs during the day too and once I fill out the form, provide a photo for the ID card required and pay my monthly fee I can start using it.
Since I just got here I don´t know my way around at all. Eventually I´ll be taking the buses which apparently don´t run on any fixed schedule (another thing I had forgotten about). Sao Paulo traffic jams may be a large factor in that though. Looks like I´ll just have to start adapting to the Brasilian time frame real quick. Taty has offered me her car whenever I want it. It an automatic and only two months old so its unlikely I´ll take her up on that offer especially since her main reason for offering is her fear of driving here. She did drive us to the mall and her inexperience plus the craziness of Brasilian drivers made for quite the adventure. Let´s just say I may be praying a lot. And once I know my way around maybe I will drive (just don´t tell my mom). ;)
I guess that´s it. I´m going to church at Villa Andrade tomorrow. Vila Andrade is a slum with mostly brick houses and most people have electricity and pluming so its not super super poor. They call it an urbanized favela instead of a favelao (which would be wooden shacks and no plumbing). Driving around in there is insane! Pastor Marcelo is picking me up so at least I have a way there, not sure about lunch or how I´ll get home or get to the evening service. Apparently there are two American girls who are also here doing some mission work at Vila Andrade so I´m looking forward to meeting them tomorrow. Prayers for safety and a right attitude as I adjust are greatly appreciated and I´ll be sure and keep you posted. Ate mais!
Cleide and Fernando are my hosts. I met their son Caio in Edmonton and he´ll be back in Sao Paulo in July so I plan on moving somewhere else then. Their daughter Taty also lives at home. When I arrived we called Cleide and she told me her and her husband had a church retreat to go to on the weekend so I´ve had the place to myself today for the most part. They invited me to come along but I declined. The second surprise I received was discovering I don´t have my own room. It looks like communal living will be a theme this summer. Cleide met this young girl who´s dad is an alcoholic and whose mother passed away last year and since this girl didn´t have a job or any means of support she took her in and she is staying in Caio´s room. So for now I´m sleeping on a small pull out chair/couch thing that when you open it does not leave Beth (my roomie) any access to the closet. There is also zip floor space with it open and due to the communal living I have exactly one foot of closet space. Its really quite hilarious. We may take turns sleeping on the pull-out chair/bed that Taty bought to accomodate me. I slept on it last night and will definitely not be able to do more than a couple of nights but if we buy a foamy to put on top it´ll do. Beth, my roomate, is super sweet though and she is studying and working now and I don´t think I´ll see much of her except when we try to navigate around each other during the morning or late at night. Please pray that I can manage to sleep through all the activity. For Brasilians squeezing another person in is totally normal. Privacy and personal space are somewhat of a luxury. I had forgotten this. Usually I don´t handle these kind of last minute changes/surprises well but I felt an uncanny sense of peace yesterday and this morning. I know that is certainly due to your prayers.
Today I´ve only gone out twice. Once to walk around the condominium (a walled community with barbed wire on top of the walls and a gated entrance with a guard and doorman) and this evening Taty and her boyfriend took me to a mall. It is safe to walk around in the condominium and I discovered a work out room, a barbecue pit and a small pool. The condominium has roughly 30 homes in it and the whole neighborhood of Horto do Ype has about 6-8 of these walled condominium complexes. There is even a mini-van that drives you to your complex since the area is so big and its rather far and unsafe to walk from the bus stop to your complex at night. The mini-van runs during the day too and once I fill out the form, provide a photo for the ID card required and pay my monthly fee I can start using it.
Since I just got here I don´t know my way around at all. Eventually I´ll be taking the buses which apparently don´t run on any fixed schedule (another thing I had forgotten about). Sao Paulo traffic jams may be a large factor in that though. Looks like I´ll just have to start adapting to the Brasilian time frame real quick. Taty has offered me her car whenever I want it. It an automatic and only two months old so its unlikely I´ll take her up on that offer especially since her main reason for offering is her fear of driving here. She did drive us to the mall and her inexperience plus the craziness of Brasilian drivers made for quite the adventure. Let´s just say I may be praying a lot. And once I know my way around maybe I will drive (just don´t tell my mom). ;)
I guess that´s it. I´m going to church at Villa Andrade tomorrow. Vila Andrade is a slum with mostly brick houses and most people have electricity and pluming so its not super super poor. They call it an urbanized favela instead of a favelao (which would be wooden shacks and no plumbing). Driving around in there is insane! Pastor Marcelo is picking me up so at least I have a way there, not sure about lunch or how I´ll get home or get to the evening service. Apparently there are two American girls who are also here doing some mission work at Vila Andrade so I´m looking forward to meeting them tomorrow. Prayers for safety and a right attitude as I adjust are greatly appreciated and I´ll be sure and keep you posted. Ate mais!
Comments