August 2014 Newsletter

Tea time with some of the women at work.

My community: myself, Sr. Efu, Armeline, and Sr. Ceny.

  Gratitude

The struggle ends when the gratitude begins. –Neale Donald Walsch

Our new neighbor Diego.

One trait many Brazilians have is the gift of gratitude. They thank God in a very sincere ways for daily blessings I often overlook.  For example when the power goes out and then returns someone almost always thanks God for the power returning, or when we don’t have water for a while when it returns so many offer a prayer of thanksgiving for water arriving. 

One of my duties at AFYA is to help with payroll.  This last month when we paid the women one came to me and asked me to read her envelope and tell her how much money she earned.  She does not know how to read and so I read it R$576 at this she started crying.  That is approx. $250 (dollars) for the month.  She was hugging me and kissing me and thanking God for the salary she received.  She is the only person earning money in her home right now and the cost of living in Brazil is about the same as in the U.S.  So I cannot imagine how she lives on $250 a month.  Yet when she received it she gave thanks for what she had.  

And so I would like to give thanks for the blessings in my life, for my friends and family and community in Brazil.  I am grateful for all those who give or have given money to support me in mission.  I thank God the Maryknoll Sisters and their opening their home, work and hearts to me,  and I too thank God for power and water and all that I receive on a daily bases.  

Fatima and her granddaughter.

Maria and her grandson playing Bingo
at our fundraiser.

Dona Rosa and I trying out the
motorcycle which was the prize at
our Bingo fundraiser.

                                                         

                                                       





                                                                  

                                                                   My Work at AFYA

As I think most of you are aware AFYA is a holistic health center for women. Our primary focus is serving the women of Brazil who are challenged by poor health care. AFYA provides natural healing for women, men and children. The women who work at AFYA are simple women from a poor neighborhood in Joao Pessoa. Sr. Efu has supported their training over the years and they have been certificated in their field.

My work is helping them develop a better accounting system and to be a leader in art therapy. We have been working hard on developing new accounting systems and August was our first month to implicate them. They are going well, but as anything we still need some time to train everyone and work out the bugs.

We have revamped the art therapy and the women have begun creating things to sell. Our focus is on health. So we are making products to help with that. I started taking a class last week on how to make soap using natural products. After I learn I will teach them. We have started making healing shawls which are similar to prayer shawls in the U.S. Since we are not a church we changed the wording a little on the blessing but in Brazil a strong Catholic culture we are able to say we are asking God to bless them and send them healing energy as they use the shawl.

The other thing I am working at is designing ideas to use items we already have in order to recycle and sell. We have a lot of things collected over the years that I believe we can change just a little and then sell. The women are working on that with me but need a lot of guidance. We will be working on creativity and trying to come up with new ideas. When we go to the art fairs almost everything is the same in every booth. This will take some work but I believe once we get started it will come naturally. I have to remember my work is not just to help them raise funds for their salary but to bring things like creativity and a broader understanding of accounting into their lives so they can learn what I was blessed to learn through my education and upbringing. In return I am learning how to live a healthier life from them.




Things that Still Surprise Me

Although I have lived in Brazil for 2.5 years there are still some things surprise me. i.e.

1. Horses pulling carts in the road.
2. Children riding in cars without seat belts.
3. Power/internet going out regularly.
4. How good the fruit here tastes.
5. Violence that seems to be a daily part of life.
6. Bugs..frogs..lizards.
7. Extreme Hospitality
8. The amount of people who cannot read and write.
9. How much Brazilians love soccer.
10. Myself
 Answered Prayers.......It has been about three years ago that I went to New York to interview to be a Maryknoll Lay Missioner.  It was a three day interview and I am reminded these days about one of the last questions I was asked.  The interview asked, "If you could have anything in mission what would it be?"  My response was "I would like to be a missioner who lives by the ocean and can go to beach often."  Well a lot has changed since then the Lay Missioners sent me to one of the largest cities in the world with very little nature.  They had no houses by the beach.  And yet here I am.  My time in Sao Paulo lead me to be in community with the Maryknoll Sisters.  Which lead me here to Joao Pessoa, a city on the ocean.  And I am indeed a missioner who can walk to the beach on my day off.  I was struck by this the other day.  God answers prayers just not in the ways we always plan, but they are answered.  

Partners in Mission

Thank you for all those that have donated to partner with me in mission.  If you would like to support me in mission you can donate by:

Pay Pal:  this is the best way for me.  Go to paypal my info is Carolyn Trumble at trumble100@gmail.com. 

You can send a tax deductible check to Maryknoll Sisters and indicate it is designated to Women’s Holistic Center, in Brazil and under care of Sr. Efu Nyaki.  P.O. Box 311, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0311  

NOTE: YOU MUST ADDRESS EXACTLY THIS WAY IN ORDER FOR IT TO REACH ME.

Thank You!

What Lurks in the Shadows?

I have been thinking a lot lately about the relationship between love and violence.  Brazilians have such a great capacity to love and care for one another.  They have very tender and loving hearts.  For example: when we arrive at work each day the women all greet us with a kiss on each cheek and a warm and loving embrace.  I met an elderly women on the bus yesterday that talked to me nonstop for about 20 minutes.  When she got off the bus she gave me her card and told me to call if I needed anything, and she was completely sincere.  I even know exactly where she lives and I could stop by anytime all because I sat next to her on the bus.

Yet in light of this great capacity to love in the shadow of Brazil lurks a strong undercurrent of violence.  When I came to Brazil I was told by a long term missioner no matter where I worked I would be exposed to people who experience violence on a regular basis.   In my work in Sao Paulo I encountered many women in prison who had experienced violence,  in the youth center I heard stories of the violence on the streets but also in the homes of so many of the young people.  Today, Ceny and I visited a 23 year old son of one of our co-workers who was shot last week.  We saw the scares of the bullets and surgery and also the bullet which is still lodged in his back.  All of this has me trying to wrap my head around love, violence, revenge, and forgiveness. 

                 

As I consider the relationship of love and violence in Brazil I must ask the question what lurks in the shadows in my own country.  This week as I watched the terrible loss of Brazil in the World Cup to Germany I noticed a cultural trait of my own.  As the players seemed to fall apart on the field with the absence of their two leaders I kept yelling at the TV. “fight, do something”.   I think this comes from what we would consider the American Dream.  No matter how many obstacles or how hard things are one can overcome it all if we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and fight hard enough.   I don’t believe this is always possible because things like poverty, discrimination, lack of education etc. prevent many from achieving the American dream.  Yet when faced with the battle of the World Cup I had the desire to fight harder and believe that no matter what one can overcome difficult times.

So as I consider my culture I think we have a great capacity to believe in a better tomorrow, to overcome obstacles and look to the future with hope.  In the shadows of this hope lies extreme capitalism, extreme individualism and miss-use of power.  Don’t misunderstand me when I say extreme individualism, it is not just taking care of ones needs.  It is for example our government which seems to have lost the ability to work together.  I don’t care which party it is everyone seems to be looking out for themselves and their own interests.  I am not sure how our country moves forward under this model.  In Oregon at one point we had two senators that worked together one Republican and one Democrat.  I always voted for them because I thought they did a great job of working together for the good of all. 

When considering the abundance and the shadows of the two countries I move next to myself.  I think we all have shadows in our life.  The trick I think is to move them to the light so we remove those things lurking in the darkness of our lives.  When we do that we open ourselves up to more light, more life, and more love.  This is my work and perhaps yours too, to look into the shadow and open ourselves up to bring these things to the surface in order to live in the light and leave the shadows behind. 

Simple Living

As my three new community members and I sat around the table tonight sharing papaya for our dessert we began telling stories.   In our house we speak English one day and the next day Portuguese.  Today it was Portuguese so some of us had to be on our toes to tell a creative story. Ceny, a Maryknoll Sister and Missioner told the following story which sparked a great conversation about what is simple living.

Ceny was a missioner in Tanzania, Africa for I think 30 years.  As she wove the words of her story she laughed as she spoke of days when they did not have a refrigerator, a stove, or lights.  The tale painted a picture of long days at work only to return home and need to start a fire from charcoal and/or karacein and wait for an hour until the fire was going strong enough to cook on.

The story continued when one day Ceny and her roommates moved into a house that had a stove, refrigerator, and electric lights.  Someone commented that they were no longer living a simple life. Ceny said no, we are-look.  She then walked over and turned the lights on with a touch of a button.  She said, see life is really simple here, we can turn on the lights with the flick of the switch. Simple!

I love this story because it begs the question really what is simple living, and how do we answer that for ourselves?  Really what makes us rich in this world and what makes us poor?  I do think that some people consume more than needed in this world. And we need to evaluate our individual lives and decide for ourselves what really is simple living?  I think each one of us can ask "is what I have hurting others or perhaps even myself and am I willing to share what I have with others"?

When I got rid of my apartment, my car and most of my possessions 3 years ago I had to really decide what was really important in my life.  Now that I have moved again I had to do the same thing.  It is always a lesson in simplicity for me and yet even with a few suitcases and the items I brought with me this time I feel like I have more than enough and maybe too much.  And so I really liked this topic tonight because it reminds me to slow down for a moment and reflect on how can simplicity benefit me?  And how do I view simplicity as a larger understanding than just the items I own or use?

Really we all have different realities, for example for us who live in Brazil having a papaya for dessert may appear as a simple dessert, but in other places in the world it would be a luxury.

Clarity

Do you ever have one of those moments when it just suddenly dawns on you that a prayer has been answered?  Well I do and today I had one of those moments that suddenly I realized I had a prayer answered without me really noticing it.

I was in church and Fr. Dave was talking about God's presence in making difficult decisions and how often we pray for wisdom and clarity.  I was reflecting on the difficult decision that I had to make to leave the Maryknoll Lay Missioners in order to move to Joao Pessoa Brazil to live and work with the Maryknoll Sisters.  When suddenly I realized I had reached the moment of clarity that I had prayed for so many months ago.

It was New Years Eve and the sisters and I were taking a moment to pray for the up coming year.  In our prayer we went through each month and prayed for all we expected in the coming year.  I remember being really surprised that for the first time in my adult life I really had no idea of what my future would be.  Would I remain in Sao Paulo with the Lay Missioners, would I be able to move to Joao Pessoa or would I go home to stay?  This was the decision I needed to make.  And so for almost every month after March I prayed for clarity.

Today I realized I had that clarity.  My choice to leave the Lay Missioners was really hard and yet I know it was right.  I feel certain that I am called to move to Joao Pessoa.  I am assured that they are awaiting my return in June.  There are so many layers that make this a difficult time of transition. However, weaved into all the challenges lies hope.

Today I am grateful that the uncertainty I had on New Years Eve is transformed into clarity. I by no means have all the answers and yet every day one more thing falls into place which only confirms my decision.  I trust as I move through the months to come even more light will be cast upon my life that will only confirm my decision.  Funny thing is by surrendering and putting a lot of trust in God's call I have found a certainty that cannot be described.  I may not know how things will all work out and yet I know with certainty that they will and that I am on the right track.

AFYA A New Chapter

This month I am home with family and friends in Oregon as I transition from my time in Sao Paulo with Maryknoll Lay Missioners to a new beginning working with the Maryknoll Sisters in Joao Pessoa, Brazil.  I feel very blessed to have had the experience I had working as a Maryknoll Lay Missioner for 2.5 years.  Now I look forward to a new beginning with the Maryknoll Sisters.  The video below is a glimpse of AFYA the holistic health center where I will work with the Sisters and Brazilian women.  You can check out the website to find out more about my new adventure.

Check out the website describing my new adventure.  http://brazilmission.weebly.com/