Day 91 – On the accessibility of God

They say that you can connect with God any time at any place. Well, this is certainly not true for me in Brazil. Due to this terrible rain storm 4 weeks ago, Christ the Redeemer on the Corcovado mountain has been completely inaccessible for the past month, and apparently will be until summer. We tried every possible road today, but all in vain. So the most gorgeous view of Rio was substituted for us today with probably the most terrible - yet no less impressive - view of the city - the rainstorm disaster aftermath: fallen rocks on the roads, mudslides, destroyed houses… It didn’t even feel right to take pictures...

When I returned home, I found out that I had a personal disaster to deal with as well. My ATM/credit card was charged in Miami (Bloomingdale's!) for $807!!! Upon calling my bank, I learned that they would freeze my card, but nothing else could be done while I am overseas, because apparently I have to fill out some forms that can only be mailed to me at my permanent address, and they cannot guarantee that the charge will be successfully disputed if I cannot fill out the forms soon enough… This is ridiculous. However, there’s still hope: they do have some mysterious Fraud Support (what a name - sounds like they actually support fraud!) department that is open only during business hours Monday through Friday (extremely supportive, indeed), so maybe they can be of better assistance to me.

All I have left to do now is pray that I will have internet in Bonito, where I’m going tomorrow for the next 5 days. Let’s hope that the virtual connection to God is still effective despite His physical inaccessibility at the moment:).