São Paulo, Brazil was our first destination. The whole community at Las Rozas in Madrid was present on June 24 to say goodbye to us, the five friars—Fr. Javier Jiménez, our prefect, together with Fras. Antonio Flores, Jesús Olvera, Luis Cadena and me—who were leaving for a two-month mission in Brazil. We took off from Barajas Airport around 1:30 PM, and by 2:45 PM we were already having lunch as we flew out over the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Brazil (an 11 hour flight). Leaving Spain, Gibraltar, and Morocco behind, we took the sea way of “Via Esperanza” and arrived in São Paulo at 12:35 AM (local time). We waited almost five hours there for our connecting flight, which took off at 4:50 AM. and arrived in Manaus around 9 AM. Brother Miguel Pérez was already there at Eduardo Gomes Airport waiting patiently so that he could take us to the Recollect community house.
 
            On our first day in Manaus we worked at cleaning the house library. All the books were very dusty so we were kept very busy. Then, after eating lunch we went with Fr. Javier to get to know the barrio, the neighborhood where the church of St. Rita is located (its name is Cachoeirinha, meaning, I believe, beautiful cascade or river). We saw the people that live in the favelas, houses of wood near or on the river. The houses are built several meters above the water, which is badly polluted with garbage from the city. Many poor people live there in really bad conditions. The Brazilian government is slowly constructing new housing and moving people to better locations. We also visited the five communities that we have there, St. Cecilia, St. Joseph, St. Anthony “of the Poor Devil” (named after the original owner of the place, a Portuguese who was cured miraculously by the saint), Our Lady of the Consolation, and Our Lady of the Assumption. All five chapels are near the river, in poor areas and are dedicated to helping the people in every way possible. For example, the community of St. Cecilia’s helps educate people, especially younger ones, with a computer class offered on four levels. There is a classroom with 20 new computers that were brought from Spain so the kids can learn computer skills that will help them in school and be useful for them in the future. There are also courses in word processing for the local women, with many women attending both morning and evening classes.
 
            The pastoral work in Manaus is similar to that in other places. The pastor of St. Rita, Fr. Juan Flores, gave us a talk about the pastoral activities that are carried out in the parish including work with youth, with married couples, and with the poor, as well as parish organizations such as the charismatics, the neo-catecumanate, the Legion of Mary, Caritas, and the Apostolate of Prayer. There are many musical groups who assist at the liturgy, others who carry out health care work, who teach catechesis, and who support the parish through a tithing program.

On June 27 we went to visit our Recollect Sister in Manaus, who live on the grounds of St. Rita Church. There were currently only three Sisters living in the convent, plus one from another congregation that was spending several days there. We talked and shared experiences and prayer with them. The Sisters sent us off with some delicious cookies to eat at home.

 

Part II

“Desobriga” along the Purus and Ituchi rivers of Lábrea

Having arrived in Lábrea, we participated in a one week desobriga. We accompanied Fr. Miguel Peralta, OAR, on this annual pastoral visit to people of outlying areas of the mission to bring them the Sacraments and other spiritual services. During that time we visited the communities of Maciari, Cassiana, Jucuri, Praia de Bacurao, Laranjeiras, and Buraco, finally arriving at our destination, St. Rosa, where we began our mission along the Purus River. Our ship’s name was Regnuum Tuum, which is Latin for “Your Kingdom”. The travelers included two priest, Fr. Peralta and Fr. Javier (Spanish), the four of us students, a Recollect sister from Brazil (Rosalina), a female doctor from Lábrea (Mariana), two student doctors from Spain (Sarai and Lara), and of course the captain of the ship, Deka from Lábrea.
 
As we were going up river, Fr. Peralta was telling the people along the shore that we would see them on our way back. He did that so the people would get themselves spiritually prepared for our visit. We helped Fr. Peralta with the Baptisms, First Communions, Confirmations and visits to the sick in the neighborhoods of the little river towns we visited. The people were all very happy to see us. Fr. Peralta told us to share our vocation stories with the people, and told Sister Rosalina and the student doctors to do the same. We all talked about our vocational calling and some parts of our life too. For example, I told the people about my work experiences in the US. The people were interested to hear about the religious life as well as to learn a bit about other nations like México and the US.

            One unfortunate thing that happened to us was that out of the eleven passengers, eight got quite sick from drinking water from the Purus River, which was, no doubt, contaminated at the time we drank it. As I write this reflection I am still sick and have severe pain in my stomach every day; still, I am happy for all the experiences we had. On our return trip we took another river called Ituchi to visit two communities of Indians called the Apurina and Paumari, who live in areas which are considered preserves by the Government. Admission is normally restricted to the people who live there. We were able to enter because Fr. Peralta knows them well, and was coming to perform spiritual services. One of the two days we spent there the Indians men invited us to play soccer, an invitation we happily accepted. We played 5 short games of two goals each; we quickly became friends. I must say that they play soccer very well! Afterward we took showers in the river water, and ended up getting bitten all over by insects. The river can be dangerous, being inhabited by crocodiles although—to my disappointment—I didn’t see any. The Apurina Indians live in a place called Isla Verde and the Paumari in a place called Arasa. Both groups of Indians were very friendly and eager to learn from us.

We returned after one week to Lábrea, happy, tired, nursing many insect bites, but with the satisfaction of having completed the work we set out to do. The desobriga lasted from July 7-14. In the end I felt we had truly done God’s work.

Fra. Juan José Alfaro, OAR