Global Comunity

I am attending Centro Cultural Missionario Institute in Brasilia for three months to study language, culture, and history. Participants include men and women from Malawi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Sudan, Italy, Poland, Germany, Mexico, the United States, Colombia, El Salvador, Singapore, Korea, the Philippines, and Haiti. The number of countries represented is unusual and a gift to all of us who share community and expand our common language, Portuguese. There are fifteen priest/missionaries in the group of twenty-two with a different group of three celebrating and assisting in the eucharist each afternoon before dinner. Today begins the weekend preceding Carnival which is officially Sunday through Tuesday. It is an important cultural institution which traces its roots to a European festival which was banned in the 18th century there. Muita alegria fills the hearts of Brasileiros as they gather with family, friends and neighbors to enjoy the celebration after a year's planning. Once held in preparation of enter the period of Lent, it is now a secular holiday for many.