Nevertheless, we did not let the beach day in the morning spoil us. At first it started with light dripping – at the end the roads were generally under water. We saw this as a sign of mourning that we had to leave the state of maranhao: the flight to rio was about to depart.
In rio, however, the sun was waiting for us, so weather-wise it was definitely an improvement. Nevertheless we have to get used to our new accommodation first. We are now housed in a school – partly in classrooms, partly in the roof with fresh, flowing air. It was not easy to say goodbye to the dear people in the state of maranhao, but we are all sure that we will have a great time in rio.
The bishop of coroata, with whom we celebrated a service last week, is also convinced of this. By chance he was on the same plane as us to the secret capital of brazil. With his cordial and very personal manner he spoiled the start of our rio-phase for us. If only all bishops were like their colleagues here in brazil …
So that we are properly equipped during the official world youth days, we received today our pilgrim backpacks with the most necessary things for the next days, among other things the food and metro map, a water bottle, a city map and many other things.
Here in the harbor school, the quarters have already been set up. 250 people from the bavarian dioceses will spread out the mattresses and camping mats together with us bambergers and eichstatters. The extent to which these will be used effectively in the evening hours is still uncertain, however, because we have intensive days ahead of us in beautiful rio de janeiro.