3rd Letter to Sponsors

Coroa da Lagoa


One day at the fazenda Fr. Philipe asked me if I would like to spend a week with the Heart's Home community in Coroa da Lagoa. Coroa is a neighborhood in the nearby town of Simões Filho. Heart's Home has been prsent in Coroa for fourteen years now. I agreed without having understood every word that he said since he was speaking Portuguese. It turned out that I would be leaving that was very same weekend. Much sooner than I expected.
There are four missionaries in the Heart's Home of Coroa. Pedro from France, Fernanda from Argentina, Daiane from Brazil, and Auda from France. The real names of Pedro and Auda are Pierre and Aude, but foreign names that are difficult are changed in order to be easier for the people here. Hence I go by the name Miguel, which is pronounced mee-geh-u. Technically Michael isn't hard for the people here as they all know Michael Jackson. Additionally to a name change, all the missionaries are given the title "Tio" or "Tia," which mean uncle and aunt. It's a common term of endearment and has nothing to do with family. Therefore, I'm known as Tio Miguel by the people here in Coroa.
The lifestyle in Coroa follows the model of Heart's Home's original mission. We pass our days with the missionary community life, prayer, the children, and our friends in the neighborhood. From early morning until around 10 at night we are busy, busy, busy. It's a demanding lifestlye, but it's well worthwhile.
My favorite aspect of the mission is spending time with the children. Right from the very beginning the children literally ran up to me with outstretched arms shouting "Tio! Tio!" So much for never talking to strangers. They run up to me and I pick them up, twirl them around, give them piggy back rides, make funny faces at them, hug them, whatever. I'm a slave to their eyes and a prisoner to their smiles. Loving the children is automatic.
However, sometimes the children get a little wild. The other day I did my first permanença alone. The permanença is when one missionary stays at the house to welcome all the children who come to play while the other missionaries go out to visit people in the neighborhood. Everything started out well when there was just Davi alone. We played a game of checkers. He broke the rules and I let him win, but whatever. Five other boys arrived together. They drew pictures while Davi and I played board games. Then we went outside to play. That went well for a good while, but then more and more kids began showing up. First was Luciemare and then Emillie, Natalia, and Evellin who goes by the nickname Ro (Ho). Well these children are all fairly close to me, but they didn't mix with the group of boys. That's when the children stopped playing nice. Insults, shoving, and fighting. It just got worse and worse until ultimately Davi punched one of the other boys in the eye. I had to send away three out of five of the boys. Davi refused to go and only caused more problems. So as punishment he isn't allowed to enter the house for another two days. By the end of all this, I was dead tired. But I still like the children.
The visitations here are far more difficult than in the U.S. Like in the U.S. we visit the elderly, the lonely, and the ill, but the circumstances are far different. In the U.S. I can understand what the people are saying. This is important because it gives me a point of reference. If I can understand, what is being said, then I can understand the feelings of those I visit and react accordingly. It's in a sense a suffereing for me that I can't always share in the sufferings of the people I meet. Sometimes I simply don't understand what they're saying. I can understand many people, but often the elderly and ill are just plain and simple hard to understand. For example when I first visited Senhor Antonio, I understood maybe 5 words in an hour and half of conversation. From what I understood he was talking about various things that were ailing him. I noticed he had a big mark on his leg from being burned. Afterwards Pedro explained to me that he spoke of many things including his physical pains, but most of what he talked about was a mask to his true pain of his family having moved away. Well, Senhor Antonio is exceptionally hard to understand. A more positive visit was my first visit with Dona Marta. The first time I visited her she was visibly physically ill. I spent about three quarters of an hour talking with her, and then Daiane and I prayed a decade of the rosary with her. Now Dona Marta and I are fairly good friends.
Also the visits are harder because the poverty is greater. There's one visit that I went on that has really stuck in my mind. We visited a house where a man and a woman lived. This house was very small and very unclean. I think there were two small beds, but at least one of them was covered by a pile of clothes. Outside in the backyard there was a large amount of garbage and even small piles of raw meat on the ground. There were three or four dogs and a number of cats roaming around the territory as well. We spent somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half at this house talking with the woman. I didn't fully understand what she was saying, but I believe she was talking about how lonely she is. It's hard enough to pay attention to people that I don't understand as it is, but I was further distracted by the bugs, bad smell, and the fact that the woman only has one normal eye. I was amazed that people could live in such condititions. It is easily the worst poverty that I've encountered thus far in my life.
Of course many of the visits are very pleasant. A woman named Juciara was quite enthusiastic when I visited. She is an interesting and funny person. She also gave me and Pedro various treats lke ice cream, chocolate yogurt, and some other thing. They were all home made and all delicious. Not every visit is a trying experience, yet every visit is worthwhile. All in all I like going on the visits.
Well as always I have very little time to write here. I apologize for again being very late in writing. As I said the life here is busy, but generally good. There's just a little bit of time until Christmas. I don't know whether I can finish another letter before Christmas or not. Therefore, I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas. I'd like to thank you all again for your sponsorship. Without your help I couldn't be here. There's just a little more than a month remaining of my time here. So I'll be home sooner than you know it. God bless you and take care.