I now attend a school downtown, so as I walked to class yesterday, many of the streets were blocked off, parts of the metro system were closed and the city workers were frantically cleaning the sidewalks and flower beds after an overnight rainstorm. The streets had never looked so clean!
The pope visited a local famous monestary and then addressed a crowd of 1,000s near the river. We were curious to see what the response of the Portuguese would be. They turned out in large number to hear him speak, as well as lined the roads to see him pass by in his popemobile. It was almost a rock-star atmosphere.
The most interesting thing was the conversation that occured in my class today. I am now in class with 2 franciscan monks from Guinea–Bissau. (Portuguese is the offical language there, but not necessarily the spoken language, so they are here learning proper grammer.) It was interesting to hear their impressions of the pope's visit and then we discussed some of the differences in our beliefs - very interesting.
I pray for more opportunities to discuss faith and church with these men.
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