What a great day! I learned so much in such a short time and had some new experiences too. This is how it went:
1. Morning Prayer with the sisters started off by drawing a name of a person for whom we are supposed to pray the rest of the week. I drew Sister Rosalma, a Sister of St. Joseph of Rochester who was one of the first sisters to come to Brazil. She came in 1964 and began the sisters' mission here, staying only until the end of the 1960s. The other interesting thing that happened during this time was that I read with the sisters from the Bible. Each reads a verse of the passage and I was expected to read as well, which is not a problem, except that I do not read Portuguese very well. No one laughed though so I could not have done too badly. After prayer I also received an assignment: Learn the Our Father in Portuguese. So, I guess now is the time to start memorizing!
"Pai
Nosso, que estais no Céu
Santificado seja o Vosso Nome
Venha a nós o Vosso Reino
Seja feita a Vossa Vontade,
Assim na Terra como no Céu
O Pão-Nosso de cada dia nos daí hoje
Perdoai-nos as nossas ofensas
Assim como nós perdoamos a
Quem nos tem ofendido
E não nos deixeis cair em tentação
Mas livrai-nos do Mal."
Amém
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| Public Offices of the city of Goiania |
2. The first stop of the morning was to the office of the Minister of Health of Goiania. The sisters have written a petition asking for the Today the sisters submitted the petition regarding bettering the health service in Goiania for the poorest members after collecting their required signatures. The Minister of Health is in a building with all the other city officers. It was nice to see the administrative side of the city after being here for a while. However, the building was a little challenging to navigate and find the correct office.
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| Support for the "name" cause at City Council Plenary Session (I am in the third row in the middle) |
3. Next we made a quick stop at PUC, the university, because Professora Vera was with us and needed to speak to some of the other professors. While there, she introduced me to one of the other social service professors who, in Portuguese, explained the reason for the divide in Brazil's health care. She attributed it to both the Private-Public divide and a corrective-preventative divide. Though I unfortunately did not understand a lot of what she said, I think she invited me to contact her if I wanted to talk more about the subject. I will definitely have to do that.
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| This politician is in favor of pleasing the people and naming the health center after the region. He liked to yell that very loudly into the microphone. I wonder about his sincerity, but according to his speech he grew up in the neighborhood where the health center is being built. |
4. City Council was the next stop of the morning where we watched the debate on the floor regarding the name of the name of a mental health facility that is being constructed in the
neighborhood. The sisters and many others in the community are advocating for the name of the facility to be a reflection of the people it will serve, rather than
the favorite aunt of one of the city's politicians.
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| This was the only picture I was able to take at the prison. It is of the front gate. |
5. In the afternoon, I found myself on the way to the outskirts of Goiania where the prison is with two of the three sisters and two other women who volunteer with them. We went to visit the prisoners and take a small supply of books, mass readings from last Sunday, a few blankets, and string which the prisoners use to craft rugs. I have never been to a prison in the United States so I really do not have anything to which I can compare this. But, the experience was very different from what I expected. Actually, I really was trying not to expect anything because I was worried that it would be so much worse. When we arrived, what the prison actually was like indeed was interesting. There was a section where there were many large looms for the men to weave rugs and scarves and table cloths to sell for money. For every three days they work there, their sentence is reduced by one day, so while we were visiting they asked us to help them do the math and find out their new release dates. Some in this area wanted to talk. One told me the whole story of why he was there, where he lived, and why he really needed to be at home with his wife. I only understood a very little, but I think it was for the better, because I think it was a very sad story... We also visited the health center at the prison, which was very small and had only a few cells, though each had three or four people inside. I learned later that there are not enough beds for all of the people. One man there asked Sister Maria Jose if he could go see his mother's body before she was buried as she passed away earlier that morning. (People are generally buried very quickly here.) Sister explained to me that prisoners in Brazil have the right to visit a parent's funeral and have 20 minutes to spend with the body. I do not really know how this happens but I think an armed guard of policemen take him there. In the group cell section of the prison, a man asked me if I had any shoes for him. It was really important to him and he insisted that I ask the nuns for him. I am not so sure how good of an idea it would be to take some for him next week because Sister Maria Jose told me that there is a large problem with drugs inside the prison. I think she was trying to say that giving them less is sometimes giving them more.
