World Youth Day has been incredible so far, however it is keeping up to its trend of being exhausting. I set my alarm for 6:15 this morning, and thought i'd take two more minutes... Half an hour later, i was reminded that I was suppose to be awake and going. Good thing i'm really fast to get ready here. We had to meet at our usual school at 7am today, and if our bus was on time, we would make it. Ha, nope! These buses typically arrive every 5 minutes, but not a single one showed up for at least 20! And funny enough, the only buses we saw going by were going to a station we had never heard of before today ... and that station's name was the portuguese word for patience. So, as we waited for the bus, all we saw was patience, patience. lol. Luckily, we weren't the only late ones. After getting our breakfast boxes, we took our familiar route to Vivo Rio. I'm a pretty convenient navigator - not only do i have a pretty good success rate, but i'm always wearing my Canada flag as a cape, making me stand out well. They call me Canada Man! We bussed the BRT to Glaucio Gil station, waited for one of our members for a little bit, then continued on to Alvorada station. It was the same process as before to get to Vivo Rio. We asked the attendant to stop - this one was less compelled to help us, but we did end up stopping at the same place. I was following our route on my map the whole way, so we were good. My map has sure been through a lot on this trip - with the rain, pockets and wind, it's absolutely mangled. But it's been an amazing map, so we might just frame it. Today, the archbishop of Boston was talking here. Our priest really recommended hearing him - he was a great speaker and really captivated the audience. I think the main theme is that us Catholics are so strong and devoted out here - we have to take that devotion with us after world youth day ends. Next, we departed back to the metro for a cathedral downtown. One of our members suggested we attend something called Taize prayer. I was given the location and got us there pretty easily. The prayer service overall wasn't really for me, especially being sleep deprived. It was a quiet prayer with slow organ music. I was fighting not to fall asleep the entire time! I was relieved to hear that I wasn't the only one. Next we needed to head to Copacabana again. Today was the stations of the cross with the pope. Stations is a reenactment of the death of Christ, and was done here by the brazilians marvellously. Getting to our spot was hard though. We were trying to find our separated group members from today with only vague directions and instructions. I did a quick look on the main street on my own, but all i saw were flocks of locals wanting to take my photo and trade items. Remember, my canada flag cape really makes me popular. I got a few little brazilian trinkets too, trading with canada pins. Eventually we went to try and set up camp in front of a street on the beach. We were blocked at first, since the road was closed off for the pope to pass. We saw him pass again, but from farther away this time. When he passed, we made it to the beach. While we waited, a few of us took off our shoes and stepped in the ocean. For most of the rest of the stations, i sat on the beach without shoes, which was nice. Like I said, the presentation was spectacular. Great job, Brazil! Once it finished, i brought our group back to the bus station, Ipanema. I took a (safe) short cut and everything, getting us right to where we needed to be. Half our group went home here. The others, including me, stayed behind and had a good dinner at a restaurant. I'm on the bus home right now. It's not as crazy as yesterday but i sort of wish it was. We got home really fast yesterday, lol!
Taize Prayer
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