This was our morning to have
devotions with everyone here in the
chapel here at Sede Nacional. We were welcomed warmly by Joana and all the
other staff and all of us sang a song together with Teca’s simultaneous
translation. The words to the song and our welcome were projected on a screen
for us in Portuguese and English. All introduced themselves and we shared hugs
all around; twenty five to thirty of us all together. The next song we sang
together with gestures of butterflies and hearts was one we learned yesterday
at Projecto Meninos e Meninas de Rua:
O paz do mundo comeca, no meu
coracao, no seu coracao, a paz!
Da um abraco no amigo; Da um
abraco pela paz!
We shared in prayer (oracao).
Our hearts filled with humility and thankfulness as we prayed for children
around the world and they lifted up prayers for the Methodist Church around the
world and in our own country, the US. Andrea read the scripture from the Song
of Solomon and Ashley read the English translation. Then Andea spoke about the
first day of spring, which begins here in Brazil tomorrow. We are called to
create and recreate life in our lives.
God calls us to bring that last little thing that brings life in the midst of
death. As Che Guevarra said, “We can kill some flowers but we can never kill
spring.” She asked us to take one of the paper flowers on the table and write
on it a wish we have for the coming season. We fold in all the petals to cover
the wish and exchanged our flower with someone. As we placed the new ones in
the bowl of water she set before us they bloomed before our eyes!
After lunch we met with Neusa,
President of the Methodist Women’s Federation in this region and with Jairma
and Dina, also directors of the organization. Amelia with the national women’s
magazine and Marcello with the national Methodist newspaper also joined us.
Jairma shared the work being done to
combat racism in the Methodist church in Brazil. Here your state is defined by
the color of your skin; if your skin is lighter you have more opportunities.
“Good appearance” is part of job qualifications, but what does this mean? Often
it means people of color do not get as good a job. The church is working to
change this image, first within the church and also in society. Little by
little people of African descent in Brazil are making their way into better
positions in society. The church is trying to be more inclusive: to utilize more African symbols and music and
culture in the life of the church, to value the cultural contribution s of Afro
Brazilians , to involve the children.
Then Neusa spoke about how the women are
trying to inform women and work toward changing attitudes and opening hearts and
minds to new and different ideas and actions; to empower women to think about
who am I as a woman? What can I do to change myself and the world for the
better? Jairma works in social action and explained about the work they are
doing to combat violence against women and children. They have 8 day care
centers and a school within the conference for special need children and a
center to support teenagers and children and more. Also in Sao Paulo is a
street people project where the church has created a shelter on an old highway
bridge that was not being used. Here men can come to wash clothes, contact
their families, take a shower. They can stay up to six months and replan their
lives. (We actually drove under this bridge several times over the next two days!)
The women’s federation is trying to get more equitable women’s representation
on church board and delegations. Their main objective is to support the women
and help them feel valued and that they can make a difference.
Following these presentations
the media representatives asked us more about our Ubuntu purpose and we shared
more about what we are learning and our thoughts on the bridges all of us are
building between US and Brazil Methodist women.
For our afternoon field trip we
travelled to the Migrant Support Center for Bolivian immigrants, a social
pastoral project of the Catholic church. The coordinator of the project met us
outside the offices. He wanted to speak to us in English to give us background
and not to make the immigrants uncomfortable speaking a language they didn’t
understand. Rocky served as a priest in the US as well as in Brazil over the
years and his English is excellent, even though he claimed otherwise. The house
behind us which holds their offices used to be a small factory where Bolivians
were slaves from 6 am to midnight making clothing to be sold in Sao Paulo, one
of Latin America’s primary shopping destinations. Bolivians pay large sums of
money (equivalent of six months’ wages) to coyotes who promise to get them to
Brazil where they can work and make a better life for their families. But once
they get here the reality is far different. In this particular factory, as in
many of them, the doors were chained, the owner kept the workers’ documents and
money and if they didn’t finish all they were supposed to he didn’t pay them.
Rocky told us there are 80,000 small factories like this in Sao Paulo city
alone just preparing clothing (yes, it’s not a typo, 80,000). There are some of
them right around us where we are standing. After the six months is up the boss promises to give them their “letter
of freedom” at which time they can earn better – maybe about $180 (US dollars)
per month. They receive 2 Real (Brazilian money) per cloth at a big company-run
shop, 1 Real per cloth at a medium-company shop and perhaps only 10-15 cents
per piece for a poor store. The workers sleep and eat right in the shops.
Brazil has a very dedicated task force working to investigate these instances
and fine the big chains who support them by buying the clothing they make.
There are about 300,000 Bolivians living in Sao Paulo city. The Support Center
helps them understand what documents they need to present in order to work
here. They serve about 80 people a day with their staff of seven. They do al l
their work for free. They often work until eleven pm to help the people. Rocky
says he doesn’t mind because he sees Jesus in each of their faces. We saw two
of the small rooms where people worked:
a room 10 or 12 feet square with ten people and their sewing machines,
workers slept and ate in the room as well. There were 40 people working in the
house, with one bathroom.
After our tour we joined a
group of clients and staff and went around the room introducing ourselves. The
most moving of all was hearing witness directly from ten Bolivians about their
lives; including a mother, father, and their two teenage daughters. Here are a
few snippets of a few stories:
Isabel volunteers here. She is
a Bolivian immigrant herself and when her family came twelve years ago they had
to make many trips to the authorities to get and complete their documents
because there was no place like this.
Margo came to Brazil with her
boyfriend. When she was six months pregnant he became violent and she left him
to live with her aunt. She worked in one of the shops throughout her pregnancy.
It was very hard because she had no time to rest. She had to earn to support
herself, sometimes working 6 am through until 3 am the following morning. Once
her baby was born she went back to work. Her baby is happy and full of life and
kept all of us watching him and smiling. She is 19 and wants to go to school
and make a better life for her and her son. We all wish the best for her.
Marina, who is the
organization’s lawyer, says sometimes she even helps people realize that they
were trafficked and to make legal cases against the people who put them in the
situation. This is difficult because they may fear for their own future work
potential and for their families here and in Bolivia.
We all felt the love and grace
of God in the room as people shared their stories and laughed together. Quietly
the other priest offered us snacks, the baby gave us his joy and hope and Rocky
shared his grace, and love for the people here. God’s work is being done in abundance
in this small place that used to house sadder things.
The evening ended with our
group sharing a fun dinner at Pizzaria Charles. Waiters came around to the
tables with an almost unending variety of pizzas and we chose which we wanted:
traditional pepperoni, cheese or margarita, and not-so-traditional dried tomato
and fresh greens, hame and pinapple, egg, shiitake, garlic and cream cheese,
shrimp, eggplant, chicken, cheese and bacon. These were followed by sweet ones:
chocolate with strawberries, banana and cinnamon, guava and cream cheese, sweet
pineapple, white chocolate and strawberries.
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