Porto Alegre - WCC general assembly

"Feb 20, 7:18 - I woke up today with a terrible headache. Veins are pulsating painfully on the sides of my forehead and my left eye vision is blurry. I hope it's not from the cheap Brazilian booze we bought last night at Zaffari. The two other guys I share the room with are still asleep. The African was drunk long before we reached half-bottle. But the Icelander drank like hell and we had to borrow half of the Orloff vodka from the neighbor’s fridge. Schaise, we'll buy another one for them and drink the upper half ourselves. That's a funny word, schaise, I learned from a German-speaking Brazilian from the local minority. I also learned many other words, but I don't remember them now. Oh, xarope is funny. It's Brazilian and it means syrup. It is pronounced charopee. Fun way to call booze; also the saintly ones do not get it. Damn, I gotta go to the bathroom.

7:22 - Harald, the Icelander, did not clean his vomit last night. At least I did not vomit. I squeezed last of my toothpaste and brushed my teeth. I have to buy some toothpaste. We have been advised not to drink the local water. I hope this does not mean we cannot rinse with it. Beer would be better. I heard they'll have a beer party tonight, after the stewards' ecumenical strike.

7:31 - I gotta rush to catch the bus, otherwise I'll have to go to the campus with the T9 local bus. It stops in a square nearby our hotel but it takes way longer to get to PUC than our charter coach. I'm on assignment this morning in the press-room, but I'll have the afternoon free. I hope to catch the other guys and prepare the ecumenical strike.

8:49 - I talked to the other stewards. We're about 150 but the real core is about 30-40. They have ecumenical experience and want to do something for the youth. Everyone here speaks it's a Youth Assembly, but the stewards do not feel it. Me and others do not feel it. There is this Portuguese Old Catholic guy, green-eyed, short, I cannot remember the name now, he seems to know a lot about the politics of the Assembly. He told us exactly how there is a "rhetorical conspiracy" of the older to keep us out of the mainstream and they just use our work as stewards. A Danish male and a Canadian female, stewards, intervened and said that we knew this from the very beginning and we are here to help our Churches, learn from direct experience and network as much as we can. This could be helpful if you wanna have an ecumenical career. Also we should be grateful for this opportunity to travel in Brazil. For many of us this is the travel of their life. The others almost booed them and they shut up. But the Portuguese, he knows everything. He said that there should have been ecumenical training for us. And we didn't get any. Than Big Sam came to us during the pre-Assembly Youth event and wanted us to follow his agenda. This is unacceptable and we should fight the old farts, he said. I think he's right, he worked a lot in the ecumenical youth movement and he knows are things are. I barely took part in one ecumenical event about Mass-Media and Church and now I'm here. One should trust those that know better.

9:55 - The today's issue of the Assembly newspaper is ready and I distributed it in the media office. The two press-rooms were almost empty, the journalists left for the morning press-conference. I talked to a Romanian guy that was covering for a certain Habitus Network, never heard of it. He asked me the usual a/s/l stuff and what my tasks were. Not much, I said, they trained us half a day at the beginning. I basically have to check the press-rooms all the time to see if computers work, if people that are not accredited come to use the internet, to fill in the pigeon-holes of the journalists with the latest documents, blah-blah. Not much to do, had enough time for fun, I said. He's not very much older than I am, couple of years, and then said I was lucky WCC is paying almost my entire ticket and than offers us room and board free for so little. Well, I guess he's older than he claims, he thinks like my father. Ecumenical work is fun: I wonder why they don't come together all these churches and just forget about the historical thing. Time is different now. It would be fun to have all traditions coming together all-in-one.

10:48 - I think I am going to have a very nice argument with the Croatian chairperson of the European wing of FCSW - Female Christian Students Worldwide. She is absolutely gorgeous, believe me, I heard that all Croatian girls are good looking, but this one I loved from the first day. It's a pity she is not a steward, they live in a different hotel. I asked a guy or two about FCSW and heard they live very far from the center and I managed to see her only twice on campus. First time was 2 days ago during a Mutirao workshop about the discrimination against the Indian Untouchables. I talked to her a bit and then she had to live. Never saw her again that day in the huge campus, filled up with the more than 3000 people attending the Assembly. I planned to go to her hotel in the evening and invite her out but I didn't find anyone to split a taxi. I guess that was cheap from my side and I thought I would just forget her. Yesterday I saw her going for the gay movie screening in the Auditorium of building 50. Something about Christian programs in the US to help gay become straight; sounded very funny, very Tennessee. Only that the movie was not praising the programs, but rather interviewing the failures and they talked at length about their experiences. The hilarious part was that the programs never managed to have a guy switch the teams. So much about ex-gay ministries and their pompous titles: “Exodus”, “Ministry of Life”. They also cost a lot of dough, some 2000 plus living expenses. I had to leave before the movie was over and I could not disturb her. I hope she's not gay. You can expect anything in Porto Alegre. Well, to be politically correct, to be gay is no problem, and people just should be open-minded. There are many conservative people here at the Assembly, along with leftist, gays, revolutionaries and the likes. Anyways, but I guess her being gay would be a problem for me. I'm straight, God bless your right hand that so created the woman.
Now, the argument was that I caught her using the internet in the press-office with her personal laptop. She's not accredited media, but she was sneaking around to a quite space to do some work. Isn't she a darling! Lord strike me, but I'm damned lucky. I was planning to get a taxi to their quarters tonight and then here she is sitting very innocent in my sector. Lord, do I really deserve this? Am I not a sinner? I can now see again quite well with my left eye.

10:55 - Stampede of the journalists. They came back from the press conference. I like working here at the media office because it's not much to do, but I would never want to be a journalist. They basically go around all day talking to people and then trying to write something. And these are ecumenical journalists! Who in the world reads them? I for one don't. But the smart Portuguese steward said I might arrange a few interviews with some of the most representatives here to make our voice heard. It works for me. I like to be youth and youth should not be ignored.

11:01 - I got a deal with Anna, the Croatian girl. I'm going to have lunch with her later. She can use the internet as long as she wants, I'll keep an eye for the supervisor. We are to meet in front of building 16, the library and then go to a nice buffet in a more isolated corner of a campus where not many people go. We can basically eat at any buffet or cafeteria in campus, the WCC covers for us. The buffets are better because you just pay the flat-tax (we just give a ticket) and then you eat all you can. They have all kinds of dishes, also the Brazilian feijoada with the black beans and smoked meat, and many deserts and exotic fruits. You also receive a free soft drink and one small Hershey chocolate bar at the end. I don't really like American Hershey chocolate, I was surprised to discover it here in South America with all the European culture they have. But maybe this is why they hate Americans, the Hershey bar is a bit soury and powdery. For beers and for wine you have to pay. But it's way better to buy the alcohol at the supermarket 'cause it's very cheap. But maybe tonight we're not going for the cheapest again.

11:42 - Joao Miguel, the head of the press-office, was very angry today because one of the stewards forgot to follow the procedures for the press interview requests and one journalist from the Associated Press could not interview one Nobel prize winner that visited the Assembly. Now the guy from the Associated press was heading towards the airport in the same car with the Nobel winner, trying to get the story done. I guess he was quite happy that this compromise was working for his interviewee and was readier to overlook the steward’s blunder, but Joao Miguel was really, really unhappy. Imagine that would have happened with another Nobel winner, like archbishop Desmond Tutu who is now addressing the Assembly. We'll see what happens, but this steward shall probably be distributing prayer books at the entrance in the great prayer tent tonight.

12:19 – The television set in the first press-room stopped working and I had to get a technician to fix it. There is internal television broadcasting to the press rooms from the great plenary hall. Those that don’t have the time to cover the plenary can just get their live updates while working in the press office, 6th floor, building 40. The documents are available on the Assembly website, and those for the use of the press are usually available in advance, only embargoed until the moment of their reading in the plenary. Having the TV set is useful because the journalists can actually here the speeches recited. I sometimes watch the plenary when I have the time from my workplace in the press-room and it’s much better than in the plenary, where the air-conditioning is overworking and all the stewards assigned there are now having a cold, some of them worse. The Canadian steward was treating some of them with oregano oil. Never heard of that one. The funniest thing: there is an Egyptian Coptic bishop that is now permanently wearing an extra shawl at all times, besides his otherwise heavy dress, even when he walks outside in the sunny and hot alleys. I gotta take a picture of the guy. Gotta remember that. So now the TV works and I’m outta here for lunch."

[DISCLAIMER: The characters of this story are fictional, but any resemblance with real persons and situations might be true. The places are entirely real. The author helds no responsibility whether a person thinks that he/she recognizes himself/herself in this story. More probably it's about someone else. The pictures are real, but they are small enough for anyone to claim they are in the picture. Smile and let go.]

Coming to this blog soon:
"A day in the life of a steward: afternoon"