An account of Mr. Baumgarten's journey to Brazil for the purpose of setting up an auxiliary organization for the collection and processing of books, written in the Portuguese language, for shipment to Mozambique, from May 20th to June 2nd, 1998, extracted from his personal diary:

May 22, 1998

I am writing this in Brazil. I am having some difficulty. For the last two days, I have been thinking constantly in Portuguese and I am having to translate my thoughts from Portuguese into English to write this. Why is this so? When I was in Africa last year, I spoke mostly in Portuguese. But I think the reason this is different is because I am with Pedentrina. She talks to me almost constantly, and I am forced to concentrate in order to understand her. She also has many friends and they all want to visit with me. I am afraid that I will look foolish if I don't understand the ideas that they are expressing. With all of this concentration, I am very tired tonight. Even now, as I write, I am interrupted by the family of Pedentrina telling me things. The television is blaring. The dining room is also the living room. We watched a T.V. novel as we ate - "Por Amor". I have had more complete immersion in this language during the past 36 hours since I arrived than I have ever had for a comparable period of time in my life.

But what have we done in the last 36 hours? With Pedentrina as my guide, (she is 73 and never gets tired), we have visited with government officials, two schools, a book publisher and a newspaper. We have won 3 commitments for gifts - we think more than 6,000 books. We also were interviewed by one of the four newspapers of this city. Petropolis is a city of 300,000 in population. We will see if we get any coverage. The potential for our project seems almost limitless. While I am here during the next 10 days, I want to do four things: Publicize our cause, collect promises of help and of books, arrange a storage place that is both dry and secure, and lastly find a freight forwarder. Three people have committed to help and serve as points of contact for this project: Pedentrina Fernandes, Barbara Xavier and Renato Cruz.

I know that for many, when they see my photographs [of the schools in Africa that I visited] that I took last year, they say, "we also have schools that are poor." This is very true. Nevertheless, the Brazilian schools and communities have books and other things that don't exist in Mozambique. The people here recognize this. And even though they themselves are poor compared to the average American, they are willing to share what they have with those who are even less fortunate than themselves.

Now I know that many promises are made without sincerity. We cannot rest until we obtain many more and we must collect on the promises that we have received. We want action and not just words. Surely some of the people that we spoke to today are sincere. And I believe something good is happening down here as a result of this journey.

May 23, 1998

I woke up before the rest of Pedentrina's family. Lying here, I kept having thoughts that must be recorded. Pedentrina's home is very humble. She lives in a small condominium with her son-in-law, Alencar, oldest daughter, Olinir, and granddaughter, LuAnna, age 14. Pedentrina, who turns 74 next Oct 18, has given me the use of her bedroom. It measures about 8' x 8' in floor space. Immediately behind her bedstead is her personal toilet. The apartment house is on a hillside. Petropolis is in the State of Rio and very mountainous. The view is beautiful. The building is very secure. We have to pass through locked steel doors to go in and out. Also the neighborhood is extremely quiet. What a contrast with my first night in Maputo, Mozambique. But as I said, the people here, including this family, are extremely poor. Pedentrina reports that while they always have food on their table, some of their neighbors miss meals occasionally, when they run out of money. Alencar owns several properties, but his tenants can't afford to pay rent. Alencar struggles every day to make a living for his family as a refrigerator repairman. He also struggles with alcohol. Although the family is poor, this family is also clean. I have not seen a single flea (in contrast to my previous experience in Petropolis 27 years ago) or cockroach. (I've so far seen only one roach, a big dead one, 2 inches long, outside) They also have some things my family doesn't have: Three tv/s, two VCR's, and cellular phones, which Alencar uses in his business. Also Alencar has managed to acquire a computer for his daughter. She is a smart and pretty girl, the apple of his eye. The computer, however, is nonfunctional and I was unable to determine what was needed to make it boot.

Although Alencar has given me the customary welcome: "Minha casa e' sua casa," I am not certain of the extent of my welcome here. Pedentrina would be hurt if I stayed anywhere else. I would probably be more comfortable if I were in a pensao, more privacy and sheets for my bed that didn't feel damp. I am more concerned however, about the strain this is putting on them. Pedentrina sleeps on the couch in the living room. I don't know if their feeding me is more of a strain. I am also concerned that Alencar is self-conscious about his circumstances. But Pedentrina insists, and I am weakened by my desire to make the money for Wings of the Dawn stretch as much as possible. So I help where I can. I have bought the family treats and have given some gifts to the family. But if I note any degree of stress in the family, I will insist in finding other accommodations. At least there will be some respite for them when I go to Sao Jose' dos Campos next week. But Pedentrina doesn't think I should go, that my time would be better used in Petropolis. We'll see.

I want to say a few things about the people who have committed to help in this project. First concerning Pedentrina. She is a remarkable woman. She is also an activist for social causes, is very strongly opinionated in politics. It seems that everyone in the community knows this old lady. The director of reporters at the newspaper where we went yesterday, is a personal friend and knows her well. Pedentrina has gone twice to Brasilia the last two months as part of a delegation to protest government policy respecting cut-backs in government social programs.

Barbara Xavier is a professional woman who works directly under the mayor of the city. She is one of the directors of the Secretariat or Department of Social Programs. She is about 50, a very active, vibrant woman who is a champion of all social causes. She is especially concerned with the plight of her own people. But she also feels sincerely that we in the world are all one people; that if she can help people in Africa as well as Brasil, then so much the better. She has given our group permission to use her home and office telephone numbers in connection with our cause in the newspaper. Also, she has agreed to serve, with Pedentrina, as a point of contact with our organization, and to generally assist with collections and storage.

The third person, Renato Cruz, is a Psychologist, who works as a colleague of Barbara in the Department of Social Programs. He has also volunteered his services. He along with Barbara are searching for an arrangement for a place to store the books and materials that we are gathering.

Now I have something to say about the political views of the people I am meeting with. There is a strong sentiment that they, as part of the "third world," are oppressed by the countries of the industrialized first world. They mention France, England, Germany and Japan particularly. They don't say United States, I think out of consideration of my feelings. But I have no doubt that they consider the USA to be the principal member of this group of oppressing nations. How do we oppress them? They claim that we exploit their timber and mineral wealth and other resources and the people of Brasil don't receive anything in return. They recognize of course that part of the problem, if not most of it, is with their national leadership. Their government permits the foreigners to come in, underpay the local employees, and pay depressed prices for the riches that they take. What they pay for the harvest is held back by the leaders. The people are not benefitted. Their view is that a general sell-out by their leaders has occurred. (I am still having difficulty translating these ideas and putting them down on paper.) In my opinion, there is a lot of truth in what Pedentrina's friends are telling me. We know, for example, that the USA, which has less than 5% of the world's population, consumes more than half of the world's production in minerals, raw materials and manufactured goods.

So what is the point? It is that, while we may not be able to change how this world operates, we can still do what we can to bring more light, more justice into the lives of the people living in poverty in the third world. But more directly, the global economic situation that I just described is a powerful argument. We have a moral obligation to do more for these people in Mozambique, Brazil, the 3^rd World than what we are doing now. It's not just that they are also children of God and that they are also our brothers. We owe them because we take so much from them and give so little back in return.

Is this nonsense? I have no doubt that many of my friends and associates at home may think so. But the next time someone chastens me by saying that I should be helping the needy in my local community or in the USA instead of venturing abroad, I will have a more powerful explanation for why I am doing what I do. This is a vibrant justification for the existence of Wings of the Dawn.

May 26, 1998

It is fairly early Tuesday morning. Yesterday, it was fairly productive. I succeeded finally in connecting with Arino after 3 days of trying. I go to Sao Jose dos Campos Thursday, to spend Friday with him at least. Today, we visited the following institutions:

1) Alceu Amoroso Lima's Center for Freedom, which, among other things, collects books for the poor. I received a promise that they would make a substantial donation of books for our cause as well.

2) Valmir Fachini of the Sentro Educacional de Organizazoes Populares (SEOP) is assisting us in finding a place of storage.

3) Returned to SEPROS (Secretaria de Programas Socials)and Barbara Xavier, who agreed to hold a meeting at her center this Monday, June 1^st to help organize our efforts here after my departure. Meeting was set for 2 p.m. Both she and I are to invite others to this meeting.

4) Sindicatos dos Bancarios (Bank Employees Union in Petropolis) (Friends of Pedentrina) agreed to spread the word about our cause among its members and to collect books.

5) Sindicato dos Trabalhadores nos Industrios de Funcao e Tecelagem (Textile workers Union) agreed to do the same thing.

6) Camara Municipal de Petropolis (City Hall) is where Pedentrina and I watched the City Council in session. She knows 2 of the councilmen on a first name basis and even succeeded in getting our presence and our cause announced publicly during that session. Afterwards, I met with Jorge Mesqueti, one of the councilmen, and Eduardo LaCombe, assistant publisher for the Camara Municipal. Both men offered to assist our efforts.

7) Finally, we encountered the "Associacao Petropolitana de Estudantes" (Student Association of Petropolis) and its president, Mr. Carlos Alexandre Rodriques Ribeiro. He heard the public announcement in the city hall and wanted to see what this was about. He also was interested and thought he could get a project to collect books organized among the college age students.

Everything seemed to be going in very slow motion and nothing was being accomplished. We still don't really know how much promise all these commitments hold for accomplishing our goals. But in retrospect, after recording this, I am amazed at all the people we managed to see.

May 27, 1998

Today was a day with mostly "ups" but some "downs". Some of the time was spent firming up arrangements for the organizational meeting on Monday, June 1^st. We spent much of our time dealing with various organs of the Roman Catholic Church in this community. We had an interview with the Catholic Bishop who presides over the diocese of Petropolis. (He was very unhelpful). However, Friar Cesar of the Colegio Canarinhos (school of Canaries, a music school), promised to run a campaign for books among his 1,000+ students. Also Friar Vitalino of A Igreja de Sagrado Coracao (Church of the Sacred Heart of Christ) met with us after we had waited, with an appointment for over 2 hours and promised to look into finding us a dry and safe storage room for our books. Also Miriam Machado of "Vozes," a publisher of Catholic and secular books, promised to come to our meeting Monday.

The "downs" referred to was the wait for Friar Vitalino. I hated sitting around and waiting. Also, the day was overcast, rainy and gloomy as my mood became the longer I waited and waited. We still don't know if our waiting paid off. But Pedentrina thinks he (Vitalino) will find us a place.

Another "up" was obtaining another commitment from the director of the Instituto Educacional Biblos to run a book campaign with his students. Furthermore, Chris Dupont, a teacher of "Fast English School," promised to run a campaign among the students of her school and to translate the basic documents of our organization into Portuguese. I delivered copies of the documents in English for her to translate.

Perhaps the most interesting event was meeting on the street, Pastor Nelson Daniel of the Four-square Gospel Church. He stopped us as we were going to another appointment. He is very interested in helping us. How did he know us? He was present at the city council meeting the day before and heard the public announcement of our organization. This could be of some significance. Pastor Daniel has 20 small churches organized in this community and a weekly radio program. Imagine that. I thought we were wasting our time at that council meeting.

May 28, 1998

While this has been a day full of frustrations, progress was evident and again, the day was been quite memorable.

The frustration was in the fact that a large part of the day was spent in vain searching for someone in Petropolis who was in the business of shipping goods (by land or sea). Obviously, for a city of this size, there must be some firm that does this. I am sure we will find some firms, soon or late. But I hate to waste time. Also, more than an hour was wasted, waiting for an appointment with the Center for the Defense of Human Rights. Now, I have a 4 hour wait in the bus station in Rio for a midnight trip out to Sao Jose dos Campos in Sao Paulo State. Another all-nighter.

Well, enough whining. This has been a good day. We interviewed with the President for the Defense of Human Rights, Ms. Eliete de Sousa, who is a lawyer. Pedentrina would not go in to see them with me because she says they are thieves. However, Ms. de Sousa promised to run a campaign of their own in our behalf as soon as we advise them that we have arranged for storage.

I believe we may be on the verge of solving the storage problem. Tomorrow, while I am in Sao Paulo, Pedentrina will visit the good Friar Vitalino again to firm up a commitment for space. Also help may be on the way from another source. One of the two labor unions we saw last Tuesday (Textile Workers) called Barbara at the Secretaria to report that they already had two large boxes of books and wanted to know where to deliver them. Pedentrina and I went to the Union Office and verified that this was true. When we told them that we were still looking for space, they were not discouraged. Rather, they said they would hold the boxes for now and also use their influence in our behalf. Once again, great interest and helpfulness were manifested.

One other thing we (Pedentrina and I) did for more than an hour was wait till the end of a mid-weekday service of the Universalist Church of Downtown Petropolis to speak to the Pastor. About 2 months ago, this church, which is based in Rio, sent more than 100 trucks to the Brazilian north east to relieve the famine there. Clearly these people know how to gather and move goods in Brasil. However, the local pastor disclaimed having any involvement in that project personally and referred us to his churches headquarters. This is something for follow-up by our organization here after my departure.

May 29, 1998

Another rainy day today, this time in Sao Paulo State. I ate too well and did very little walking-the exact opposite of what I did in Petropolis. Even so, this day has been remarkably encouraging. These are the details:

I arrived by bus in Sao Jose dos Campos at about 5:00 A.M. I still had some things I wanted to finish working on, the agenda for Monday's meeting in Petropolis, so I delayed a little more than an hour before calling Arino and did some work right there in the bus station. I was very tired. So finishing the job, I called Arino from a pay phone to tell of my arrival. He was expecting the call. I warned him I was on my way by taxi.

A few minutes later I arrived. He met me in front of his house/school, showed me a neat clean bedroom. I collapsed and was in a very deep sleep until 9:30 a.m. Arose, showered, dressed and was out of my room by 10 a.m.

Arino had delayed his breakfast. I had a wonderful surprise. We had just started eating when Lilian Maria de Brito appeared and joined us. She is employed by Arino to teach English at Arino's school. (Did I explain that Arino has an English school?) Lilian is one of the instructors. She had heard about our project from Arino and had come in off-hours to meet me and learn about Wings of the Dawn, its purpose, and how she could be involved. She said she had been searching for some time for something like this, in which to invest her energies, in addition to work, family and church. (Hard to believe isn't it?) She volunteered to be a member of the charter organization of the city, after Arino, Lilian and I discussed this for more than an hour.

Arino also says that he too wants to be involved. He has volunteered a room in his rather large house to serve as a collecting and storage center for the books collected in this city and community. He has contacted several additional friends as well, and at least two newspapers. At his front door is a box that is nearly full with the first books to be donated for this project.

By telephone, as arranged by Arino, I spoke with Leo Luciano Caverni, also a friend and a ranking employee of Polaroid-Brazil. He committed to arrange for the donation of 1,000 books. Arino thinks he might be persuaded to come on board as a regular member of Wings in this city, like Lilian.

In the evening, I met Laertes Augusto Miller, a psychologist and a spiritualist. He wants to help and will attend the first monthly meeting when advised of the time. He came to the school tonight with his son who is enrolled in one of the classes.

So, in just one day, it looks like we have a nucleus of people ready to go to work, a rather large storage room in which we can store books for an indefinite period of time and even a few donations already, and commitments for more. Since Sao Jose dos Campos is a community that is larger than Petropolis, I have suggested that our goal for Fiscal 99 should not be less than that of Petropolis-20,000 books. Everyone in this group agrees the goal should be set for at least that number.

These are promising developments. Arino has had experience himself in initiating other charity campaigns, including sending food to the famine plagued northeast in Brazil. He also knows many people of influence and experience who can be persuaded to help, including lawyers, accountants and other professionals. And best of all, Arino had delivered on all of his promises so far. It looks as though we are already off and running.

May 30, 1998

On this bumpy bus ride back to Rio, I'm trying to record the happenings of yet another very satisfying day. It was slower of course because it is a weekend. I was supposed to see some other people but the connections just did not work out. However, I did sit down with Arino and Lillian today at noon, and for more that an hour, we planned in detail what they would need to do to establish a branch of Wings of the Dawn in their state of Sao Paulo. I am convinced that they have what it takes to succeed. The chapter in Sao Jose dos Campos will have its first meeting this next Saturday, June 6. The chapter in Petropolis will have its first meeting on June 1. Unfortunately, I will only be present at the one in Petropolis. But I have full confidence in Arino and Lillian. They will probably pull it off better without my being there. Much of the day was spent planning for Monday's meeting and helping Arino and Lillian get ready for theirs.

June 1, 1998

How does one summarize the events of this trip or even of today? Far from being perfect, it was still wonderful. Not a true vacation-I worked virtually every day to advance and promote our project in Africa. The trip has been a success. In fact, if I had thought or had any idea of the things that have occurred, I would have thought I was fantasizing-both as to the reception I received personally, as well as how well our project has been received. This has also been very difficult at times. Of the $500 I took with me as a $50/per diem for 10 days I spent $400 in 12 days- nearly $100 today alone in getting to the airport and paying the departure tax. I will only return $100 to the organization till. I tried to be careful with the money, and I think I achieved a certain degree of economy. This has been the result.

Today at 2 p.m. at the offices of the Secretaria de Programas Social (SEPROS) across the street from Dom Pedro II's Crystal Palace, we held the first official meeting of Wings of the Dawn - Brazil. There were nine in attendance including 3 employees of SEPROS-Barbara Xavier, Joao Paulo, Ivan Delon Taveres Silva; also myself and Pedentrina, Regina Lopes Bostos, Anna Maria Pereira do Cersalho, Valeria Felis Martins and Maria Jose Pandelo Martins. At least three religions are represented in this group: Mormons, Catholics and Assembly of God. There were several others whom we have reason to expect will be involved, but who were not present today. Pedentrina was chosen as president of the chapter of Petropolis, and Barbara as Secretary. A goal to collect 20,000 books was set by the group. (One container or 5 tons). So far 13 schools or institutions have committed to assist us in reaching this goal. The most recent one to do this was a poor parochial school that LuAnna, Pedentrina's granddaughter, attends. We obtained the commitment this morning.

Assignments were made to make more contacts during the coming four weeks and to follow up with and assist the fulfilment of the promises already received. The next meeting was set for the same place and time on Wednesday, July 1.

So thus it is that we are now an international organization, as simple as that. During the week following my return, I will be reporting to the board in Reston-and with their approval, will be sending letters to both groups in Petropolis and Sao Jose dos Campos recognizing then as our official chapters and representatives in those cities.

June 2, 1998

Home at last or almost. I am now on board a plane taxiing for takeoff from Miami to Washington National Airport.

Again the question: Why do I do this? It could be called a compulsion. Indeed a day has not passed in over 2½ years since this began to me that I have not invested a great deal of mental and physical energy in this project. Call it an obsession. But what a magnificent obsession to have: That of helping others less fortunate than oneself. And I believe that to be effective, one must be "obsessed." Therefore, I make no apology for my attitude or conduct in this regard. From this trip, I am convinced that this is the right thing that I am doing, more than ever before. I has exceeded all expectations that I had before making it. We have a cadre of five people in two cities in or near two of the most populated and richest regions of Brazil who are eager to take part in this project. We already have a commitment from donors for 1,000 books from Sao Jose dos Campos and for thousands more from Petropolis. Both cities can realistically yield a harvest of 20,000 volumes each in the year to come. Nothing like this has happened to ordinary school children in the history of Mozambique. I have no doubt that we will make an impact for good in the lives of many of those children, as well as in the lives of all those who participate with us.

So the dye is cast and our course is set. There is no turning back. Nor is there any desire to. To those who still say that we should be content with passive involvement in human affairs, here are two statements by Neal A. Maxwell:

By organizing our concern, we become more effectively involved, enlarging our circles of concern. Otherwise, we might become mere "checkbook-Christians," contributing money but not involving ourselves with others, and "checkbook-Christianity" is simply monetary monasticism.

It makes sense to me that the Lord would choose out of the world those who are (or who would become) different from the world and therefore, could lead the world to a different outcome. We must be different to make a difference.

Christianity is not a religion of repose-intellectually or behaviorally.

I am glad to be home, yes, but quite eager to proceed to the next step in this endeavor as well. That next step is: return to Africa to see to the distribution of our first shipment, by the end of this month, if all goes according to plan.