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I can now say that I’ve been to a church service in Brazil! It was quite the experience. There were 14 of us trying to make it to a Baptist church for a 10 o’clock service today. We almost didn’t end up going because since Carnaval is going on, the all of the banks, post offices, stores, and churches are closed. Well apparently the churches are only closed to tourists. Interestingly, we found out that evangelical Christians do not even attend Carnaval because it basically goes against their beliefs. Once again, the language barrier slowed us down, but we were able to get a mini-bus to take us to a church. As we drove, we passed the favelas on the outskirts of the city. These are neighborhoods that make up the slums of Brazil. The slums in Brazil are at least 10 times worse than any slums you can picture in the U.S. There were just hills and hills of terrible dilapidated buildings packed so closely together that you couldn’t see any streets or grass at all. Apparently the children play up on the roofs of the buildings because they don’t have any yards to play in. Crime in the favelas is extremely high and the average life expectancy of a man living in the favelas is 25 years old. We were driving on a highway that basically separates the favelas from the richer part of the city. It sounded like the highway is a dividing line between the two and people from either side don’t cross over to the other at all. We also drove past richer parts of the city where there was one high-rise building after the next that looked like apartment buildings. There were so many of them!
Okay, enough about the drive to the church! We finally made it to the church and OH MY GOSH it was HUGE! Absolutely ridiculously HUGE! It was built in 1999, so it is relatively new and inside it is almost set up like an auditorium or theater. Instead having pews and an altar like traditional churches, this one had rows and rows of individual seats and a large stage in the front. I was surprised to see that Brazilians wore anything from jeans and a tank top to a full suit to the service. Our cab driver came in with us and we sat on one of the sides in the middle. We stuck out like a sore thumb because the whole congregation was either African-Brazilian or just extremely dark skinned! The entire service was in Portuguese. It started out similar to ours at home…hymns, prayer, and a sermon. While the minister was preaching, a Brazilian man who spoke English pulled us away and brought us to the back of the sanctuary. Apparently the cab driver had gone looking for someone who spoke English so we could talk to them and find out what was going on. This man that ended up talking to us was so nice! He told us that the church had about 6,000 members. Can you imagine?! He ended up talking our ears off about religion, the church, and just Brazil in general during the service. He was so friendly and had a genuine interest in answering questions for us and continued to keep the discussion going even though the service was still going on. At one point in the service, a woman started making a confession (I guess) to the minister through the microphone. It was almost scary. She was crying and screaming and the minister would talk again and she would continue to scream. The man told us that she was saying what was wrong in her life and she wanted to get the demons out of her body or something. It was intense and went on for quite some time. Then, everyone in the congregation got up and started chanting. They grabbed hands and were swaying back and forth and chanting. My explanation certainly isn’t doing this experience any justice, but I hope you’re getting the idea of it. A little while later, there was a long prayer and the minister was speaking but everyone else was talking to themselves as well. Some people knelt on their knees and many others put their heads on the walls. I believe they were confessing their sins? I noticed multiple people in the congregation were crying by the time this was finished. After that, there was a prayer for family and there were a bunch of people that held up photos while the prayer was going on. Eventually, we got to the communion part of the service. It was the longest communion I’ve ever been a part of! To distribute the bread and wine, there are ushers that walk around with trays. Women dressed in dark colored skirts and jackets distribute the bread and men dressed in a white shirt and tie distribute the wine. I’m not sure if these people are paid or if they are volunteers. There were at least 25 men and 25 women helping out with this though. Oh! I forgot to mention that at the beginning of the service, the women in the dark suits walked around with velvet sacs to collect communion. That basically sums up the service. It was very different from any service I have attended in the United States – and not just because it was in another language! I’m not sure how long the service lasted. We were there for nearly 2 hours until we got communion. Afterwards, we went outside to get back in the cab and one of the girls bought cookies that people were selling in the streets right outside of the church. Our cab driver got us back to the port safe and sound. He was great, especially since he went into the church with us (even though it didn’t seem like he was religious because he didn’t partake in any of the hymns and prayers) and because he was patient with us and our communication with him.
This afternoon, 2 of the girls I went to church with and I went to the market again. I bought another dress – and I even bargained for it so I didn’t pay as much as the other girls did! It’s a pretty solid blue and floral print sundress. We were going to try and head up to the upper city to find an internet café once we were done shopping but the line for the elevator was SO SO long! I’m assuming that the Carnaval festivities are going to be even more ridiculous tonight judging from the endless lines of people who were all dressed up in costumes and t-shirts supporting the bands that are going to be playing. Even though we didn’t make it to the internet café, I was able to call home and talk to dad for a few minutes!
Tonight, a group of us are planning to take taxis up to the non-historic part of Salvador to experience the real Carnaval! It should be absolutely awesome, but I hope nothing bad happens…
Turns out that I ran into someone looking to sell their ticket to the “Mellow Carnaval” tonight, so I was able to hop on board for that with some of my friends that were already going! It worked out well because I was beginning to get a little worried about going to the circuit in the main part of town. We ended up walking (with 2 guides and 2 security guards) to the elevator to get to the upper city. Once we were in the historic district, we were set free to roam the streets. It was really neat to go to this circuit of Carnaval because there were tons of families and little kids around. The streets were packed with people from all ages – we saw lots of babies and lots of grandparents! The music was FANTASTIC and the costumes are amazing! Although the bands are cool, I prefer the drum ensembles. Bands and group after group of musicians and dancers parade through the streets. Lots of people from the crowds choose to follow a certain group and dance behind them as they make their way down the streets. It is so awesome to be surrounded by all kinds of music that is being played so loud! EVERYONE dances! We actually ran into a stage that had a band and dancers on it. Some people from the crowd had the opportunity to go up on stage and samba dance with the dancers…Yep, you guessed it…5 of us girls got up on the stage to samba! It was kind of funny because there were also girls about 4 and 5 years old that could dance samba so well and we were just making it up as we went along. The group we went with headed back to the ship around 10 and as we were walking back through the historic district to the elevator, we saw the big trucks coming out. Salvador’s Carnaval is known for its “blocos,” which are huge trucks with famous singers performing on top of them. The trucks have huge sound systems so the music is loud and there is always a trail of people from the crowd following it and dancing. Tomorrow night we’re going to go up independently to the same area a little later than we did tonight so we can see more of the big stuff that comes out later in the night! I want to reassure you that I felt completely safe where we were. The only time we could have run into trouble was on the walk to and from the Carnaval festivities, but we had security guards so everything was fine. That’s another nice thing about the more mellow circuit…there’s not as much groping and people trying to pickpocket.
Tonight I realized that the magic of Carnaval is the fact that it brings the community together more than any other event in Brazil. Everyone wants to be a part of it (except the evangelical Christians, as we found out earlier!). It’s amazing how music and dance can bring all kinds of people together!
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