Having lots of fun exploring the rain forest and beach around us…on a plane today to Fortaleza --Steve's home town!

Kids as they saw the road Steve have to drive up to get to our house…it was incredibly muddy, slick and narrow!!  But he did it!

The little bridge he drove over…with the river below it!

Our house!

The vegetation is amazing…orchids growing off tree trunks!

Our spring fed pool -- which is cloudy cause it is raining right now.

The farm house kitchen.

The hammock on the porch which we all fight over :)

The living area.

Bathroom…hope no one is out in the woods!!!

What Steve did after we got here last night.

What Sawyer did after we got here.

 What Georgia did after we got here…she found art supplies!

Our dinner spot at Don Pascual

Don Pascual

The view from dinner!

Its rainy but still we are having a blast!

Salvador and beyond

Well my friends are gone and I on my own until I can head to pick my family up tomorrow from the airport in Rio.  Brazil is beautiful.  It is filled with friendly warm people and lush vegetation. It seems to love equally its fruit and carbs...And caipirinhas!  Its coast is dotted with broken sea glass, mountains and cold waters…and of course speedos and thongs J  It has been a great trip so far.

My ICE group has traveled to both India and Brazil to study issues of poverty, faith and wealth.  India brought me face to face with the direst poverty that showed itself in the form of starvation and lack of sanitation.  It was the ugliest poverty I have seen.  Brazil is different.  The size of their favelas is no less enormous…maybe more so, but starvation is not the face of Brazil's poor (for the most part).  We have heard it over and over and over again…corruption is the face of Brazil's poverty.  African Brazilians are the poorest of the poor here.  Slavery and colonization is the backbone of poverty here.  When slaves were emancipated things got better on paper…but not in reality.  While in slavery a slave had somewhere to live, something to eat, possibility of some health care, some protection, maybe a few had some education.  When freedom came they were immediately released with only the clothes on their back…no land, no protection, no health care, no home, no education, nothing to eat and mostly no one to help them.  There was never a systematic structure in place to give those oppressed a level playing field with the rest of society…they were doomed to remain the forgotten, the down trodden, the oppressed even though they were free.

Today many with African blood in the veins live in the favelas.  The drug lords who rule the favelas and fight for territory from the police feed drug addiction, which is often the sin of the middle class.  Police in many ways operate not as the balm or Savior of the favela, but instead as another drug kingpin…taking profits for themselves and escalating violent escapades.  Politicians literally give “reals” or money to the poor in the favelas to go and vote for them…making promises they never intend to keep.  Secondary education while public and free is poor quality…leaving most middle class and wealthy putting their children in private schools.  Universities also public and free have their own methods for only allowing the elite to enter…high-test scores, grades, etc.  Most children who are poor have to leave school before they finish High School in order to get a job or take care of someone in their family. 

The church is in many ways is still splintered…Catholic against Protestant…both against Candomble.  Candomble is a religion that was derived from Africa and was largely practiced by slaves.  Today it is embedded in the Brazilian culture in many ways…synchronistic in many religious services.  Yet many Protestants and Catholics still push back against the presence of Candomble as evil or sinful.  (These are generalizations and don't represent every one or every group…but this is a thread that seems to run deep in the culture here.)

In Candomble there are loud drums, lots of dancing, singing, clapping – it seems to be a complete release for people to become completely absorbed in something altogether different than their present surroundings…like being overtaken by a trance (or in charismatic circles it would be seen as being “slain in the Spirit”).  Its services go long into the night…and there is no evil spirit in Candomble.  There is only good and blessing.  It is easy to see how it brought meaning particularly to the early slaves.  They practiced it as something they could carry with them from their home country, telling stories of their parent’s God’s and Spirits.  They practiced after their masters slept.  They had few moments alone to themselves where they could celebrate and pray…so it was a time to fully immerse yourself and give way to releasing your fear so that you might celebrate with hope for your future.  Prayer was essential but it was always to the beat of a drum…and as the colonial whites heard the singing, praising, clapping, etc. they thought, “Aren’t our slaves happy!” But of course they were not.

I can’t help but see our own country in many things we have learned particularly when dealing with our own colonization and how that continues to often play into who is poor, imprisoned, undereducated, under represented in today’s society.  It’s a piece of the puzzle we need to be honest about if we really want to see wrongs made right and everyone have an equal opportunity.  But power, wealth and position are very difficult things to give up…and I wonder if any of us really can free ourselves from their clutches.

Salvador

The Lighthouse in Salvador

 Its a little windy up here :)

Sao Fransisco Church in Pelourinho

The interior of Sao Fransisco Church!!!!

Church of the Black People -- so called because slaves were used to build it beginning in 1704 (like most all other churches in Salvador) but this is the ONLY one where they were allowed to also worship.  Their labor created sanctuaries for others to worship…but only one allowed them entrance.

 Interior of the Church of the Black People

 Its worship is anachronistic in nature…catholic theology mostly and candomble practice and feel of worship style.  Look how PACKED it was for a mass!  Standing room only for a service that was over 1.5 hours.

 The view from my balcony while staying in Salvador!

We also spent time with Antonio in a former jail in Rio.  In the last couple of years, 14 of these have been closed…they were illegal holding facilities where police could pick people up (whether true criminals or not) and place them here without them being processed in the system.  Some were held here over 4 years.  In holding cells that were to sleep 30 men were 100 grown men.  There was one toilet.  NO natural light.  NO ventilation.  Temperatures were WELL over 100 degrees.  I met a man who now works with the Rio de Paz ministry with Antonio who was held her for over a year…for stealing a fish.  He remembers men screaming and crying out loud in desperation.  

Men with money were taken to the 'hotel' side of the prison…where they had air-conditioning and conjugal visits with women.  But if you were poor you went to hell as they called it.  

Antonio and his church are largely responsible for putting pressure on the local officials to close these prisons…which he calls concentration camps.  They were truly inhumane.  He sees a direct correlation of his faith to issues of human rights…and it is very compelling.  How can you love your neighbor if you turn a blind eye…or know about injustice and yet do nothing.  There mission inscribed on their door way for all in the favela they work to see says this...

"Giving voice to the voiceless and visibility to the invisible"

 Antonio showing us the prison

Where 100 men would be housed.  there were nine of these cells…so 900 men where 270 were meant to be housed.  

Eventually Antonio got the prison to open the cells to allow the prisoners to roam into this small area as well…for the first time in years sunlight touched their faces and they could breath some fresh air. 

Men who were political prisoners, small thieves, folks arrested because they were gay, and the most heinous drug lords were all housed together.  This is why they call Brazil's prisons…Criminal Universities…many men came out going to work for the drug lords in their freedom.

Antonio now has men transferred from local prisons to Rio de Paz where they teach them life skills and teach them a trade while they help them look for jobs to avoid being pulled into the drug world.

This trip reminded me of visiting the Red Fort in Johannesburg where we also saw horrific living conditions for men of true crime and political differences of opinion (aka not criminal offenses, but folks like Ghandi, etc).  It is inconceivable how easily humanity can begin to look at each other and not see another's soul…we begin to treat each other as less than human.  As you leave the Red Fort which is now converted into a museum on Constitution Hill in South Africa you read this…

“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”  Mandela

Below are two articles about facilities and treatment at Julia Tutwiler prison in Wetumpka…a place I have spent time visiting women in the HIV dorm.  It is always worth knowing and pondering where we can even improve our own treatment of our "lowest citizens".  

2003 article  -

https://www.schr.org/resources/tutwiler_warden_copes_with_ticking_time_bomb

2013 article - 

http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/09/tutwiler_prison_tour_commissio.html

(And I haven't even begun to share with you all we are learning about the slave trade…whew!)

Headed tonight to a Condomble service, which is an African religion here in Brazil that permeates much.  Looking forward to seeing and experiencing something new and different!

Antonio

Today we met a Presbyterian pastor named Antonio who does some pretty incredible ministry to raise awareness about struggles, corruption and abuse of power in Brazil.  He was raised as a middle class man who spent most of the first 15 years of his ministry in Brazil church planting…where he explains the Church has grown to see their mission as largely evangelical with a focus upon how on the other side of eternity your life will be better…neglecting the call to live into the Kingdom now and love justice.  He talked about how here the Church has lost the Social Gospel.  There came a point in his life when he had a Damascus Road experience because he could not longer ignore the violence and murder in his city…he felt his faith must call him to actively engage in bringing peace and wholeness to ALL. 

So what did he do? He organized his middle class church to stage their first protest on Copacabana Beach…They took crosses and placed one for every person killed in Rio in the last 2 months on the beach…it was 1000.  The press came…and the world began to pay attention.  He has staged many similar dramatized artistic protests since then…all to point to the problems that Brazil is ignoring. 

He works both sides of the spectrum…the right, the left, the drug dealers and the politicians…And his larger Presbyterian Church doesn’t really like to claim him anymore.  But the church he pastors does.   He lost families because of his radical stance I the beginning but over all more and more of his folks are following him into favelas with drug dealers and prisons with the worst possible conditions.  They are using their gifts of dentistry, medicine, law to help them.

He has a ministry called Rio De Paz – River of Peace. They rehabilitate criminals when they leave jail/prison.  They transform drug dealers into people of peace.  They teach life skills ad job skills through educational classes and their bakery.  Because the drug dealers know he seeks to hold the police accountable with their actions and because the police he hold accountable the drug dealers accountable for their crimes – he is able to walk the line with respect from both…though he calls both out in the media and in personal encounters. 

As we walked through a favela today we passed a young shirtless man who smiled at me and then hugged Antonio.  He just happened to be one of the most notorious criminals in the area…everyone had told Antonio he would never be able to get through to him…but he did.  He hasn’t changed his drug world yet but he has built a substantial relationship with him. 

There is an area in the favela where the drug dealers would come and lay out the bodies of people they killed as a witness to not cross them…currently this area has been given to Antonio by them to use to build a music educational school for the children of the favela.  This is a huge thing for them to have done…to have given literally a place of death to be turned into a place of life.  Antonio isn’t soft on what the dealers do…they know he is angry about their actions…but they also know he believes that God’s image is stamped on them as much as it is the police and his middle class congregation.  It’s his desire to help them be whole and in touch with that image.

All the places and people I have traveled to meet I am struck that one thing they have in common is there desire and ability to stretch to love ALL people…especially those they disagree with or fear.  It is when this kind of love rules in your heart you seem to be able to be the most used and shaped by God’s grace to be near others and affect change!  I have much work to do in this area!

Antonio standing in the place given to him by the Red Command…see the bullet holes in the wall behind him?

A home in the favela

A place of public execution…see the black stains not he poles…they tie folks and burn them publicly here in a public space for all to see.

The first protest Antonio and his church did…this is all done in front of Copacabana Palace the premier hotel on the beach…it made an impression!  

There are over 950 favela's in Rio.  And today I visited Rocihna which is the largest favela in Rio and the 2nd largest in all of Brazil.  Favela's are essentially illegal settlements of folks all crammed together on the hills surrounding the flatter lands in Rio.  Rocinha is spread over the mountains facing the see where down in front of them is one of the wealthiest communities in all of Rio sitting on the beach.  There are 70,000 people living in 4 kilometers in Rocinha.  

Favelas are operated under the control of drug cartels.  The three major cartels in Rio are 1. Red Command 2. Friends of Friends 3. 3rd Command.  For years the government had chosen to turn a relatively blind eye to the favelas letting the cartels do what they wanted with the drugs and policing of the favelas until the violence became so great.  These cartels have incredible violence between each other as they strive to increase their territory.  Drugs are largely sold to the middle class and wealthy elite in Brazil.  The drug dealers in some ways provide the poor in the favelas with cheaper access to basic needs by allowing pirating of electricity in the Favelas, pirating of cable, and some access to healthcare in exchange for the people staying quite about the drug activity.  

In 2010 when the violence became so great the Brazilian military chose to finally step in and try to subdue the favelas…also there was heightened concern from the world's perspective with considering letting Brazil host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016.  The government's plan was to put military police in each favela to pacify and subdue the drug cartels…in reality many come and in operate the drug cartel, rape the women or steal from the dealers.  Police presence is permanent in the favelas where the UPP's have come in. (Unidade de Policia Pacidicara)  Once the government comes in folks must get meters for electricity, bills for cable, etc.  This can make life impossible for the poorest of the poor in Rio because they can not afford these things…where they could with the cartels now they can't with the government.  After 3 years there are no more than 39 favelas that have a police presence…but no one is calling them truly pacified yet!

On Monday in Rocinha there were two police killed in a drug shoot out.  Many have said there is a war going on in the favelas.  Watch "City of God" if you want to know more about the drug world in the Favelas.

This is Rocihna --- it is actually much larger looking than this panoramic!  Way down on the coast is all the wealth…the mountain to the right that is hidden in the clouds is the tallest coastal mountain in the world!

Here is a close up of the coast in front of Rocinha.

Closer shots of what the dwellings in favelas actually look like situated on the mountain side.

 I learned today that what you see is not at all, all that there is.  These steps lead down into the heart of the favela where the doors to homes are, where laundry is hung out to dry, where pets sleep outside doorways, etc.  It is the inner workings…inner passage ways of the favela.  

See how close everything is built to each other…but is all connected if you know the way.

Inside the favela's you will find all that you need…open air meat markets, 

Spices, herbs and plants…they have small stores or vendors for everything.  If you have money to buy of course.

You are not allowed to take pictures of police here…so I took a selfie instead and just happened to capture a shot of the armed police with bullet proof vests.  One carries an automatic rifle and the others carry pistols…and they aren't holstered.

I also spent time yesterday learning about Methodists in Brazil…interesting they aren't Untied Methodists they are autonomous.  Which means that we share much in common but in Brazil the Methodist as a institution have become very conservative and not willing to work with ecumenical groups…they have actually pulled out of the National Council of Churches because they didn't want to be at the table with Catholics.  Pretty disappointing…even to some of the Methodists we talked with here.  There is great division in Brazil at times over religion…problems between Catholics and Protestants, problems between Pentecostals and other denominations, problems with Condomble (African spiritualism) and Christians, etc.

And then we also began to learn about the influence of the slave trade in Brazil.  Brazil is the second country with the most Africans…it only follows after Nigeria.  Brazil had about 10xs the number of slaves as North America…they were the number 1 trader of slaves.  I will share more about how this absolutely shapes and affects their economic class structure and racism in another post as I learn more.

Whew -- yesterday was a long day with lots of learning!