Monday Jan 4, 2010: Decadence in the Ordinary

Monday put us on the other side of the week we were spending in Maceio and it became apparent we would be leaving sooner than we thought. We were anxious to see more and do more so that we would not regret anything when we were on the plane home thinking back about what we had seen. We decided to start our day by going to the Centro. Maceio’s downtown was a pedestrian mall.

We walked to the Bompreco where the taxis stood in a line, ready and waiting. We took one downtown. He dropped us off near an outside market near the center of town and we walked along narrow, cobbled streets lined with shops whose doors where wide open. It was the first time I felt I was seeing the true Maceio where people went to shop for kitchen appliances, a garlic press, notebooks for class, pens and pencils and other household necessities tourists don’t generally buy on vacation.

I had been starting to imagine what it would be like to live here. This is game I like to play. When I go to a place outside of the states, I especially enjoy playing it. I assume I know the language, for if I did live there, I would have to, and I start to imagine what kind of apartment or house I would have, what kind of job, and what I might buy to live in that apartment.

What would my Saturday be like? Would I walk to a local padaria and pick up that thick, fresh bread Rebecca said she used to buy? I would imagine what kind of wonderful French toast (or blind fish as my Mom always called it) it would make. Would I then head to the beach, take my bike or sit under an umbrella with a good book, to enjoy the air and the ocean? Would this relax me enough so that I was ready to go back to work on Monday?

Shopping the centro sparked my imagination because of the crowds of ordinary Brazilians, the quantity of goods for sale, the open market feel to the place as we walked the rows and rows of shops that lined blocks and blocks and blocks of the centro.

One of the first shops we stopped at was a stationary store and I loved it. I love paper. I love office organizers. I deliberately avoid going to those aisles or to those stores dedicated only to that because I would spend, spend, spend. This little store was loaded with paper, pens, journals, notebooks and all in a 500 or less square foot space. It was heaven.

Rebecca was in the market for a certain kind of day planner she used to have when she lived here. So, I had an excuse to look and buy without buying. Prices were good and reasonable in the centro and we find her a nice little planner that met her needs.

We wandered around browsing the shops until we decided we should get lunch. We found a deli and bakery. I had a grilled cheese sandwich made from the thick, fresh bread I mentioned earlier that I thought would make good French toast. It would. When grilled, it melted in my mouth. Ernani had a meat pastry, something he been looking for even since the plane landed in Sao Paulo.

While we were in the long line to order (a good sign in any restaurant), we meet a woman behind us who started up a conversation with us. She was mainly talking to Ernani and asking us where we were from since the English gave us away that we were not from Maceio. She was very helpful and nice. I am glad we got to meet people like her and I wonder about her sometimes even today. What is she doing? I wish her well for the kindness she showed us when we did not understand the menu and she explained it to us. It was wonderful to meet such people and it made me think about my fantasies of living here and working here. She  might have fit the image of  the women living the life I was imagining might be possible in Maceio.

After lunch, we walked the shops. There were churches everywhere and I could not resist walking into one. It was smack dab in the center of the centro. I thought I could use it as a reference while we walked, but I was mistaken. The streets were not a grid. They branched out at angles and there were so many churches that they could not serve as a landmark. I assume everyone else just knew where they were going and knew the streets by heart.

It began to rain so we ducked under the awning of an appliance store along with everyone else who did not have an umbrella. I spent the time looking at the umbrellas that passed by and admiring how colorful they were. No one had just a solid colored umbrella. They were multi-colored or sported a design. We should have bought one. It was something we needed at home anyway. I also noticed across from us, a man selling one of the tennis rackets that was a bug zapper. I took his picture and right after he waved and smiled at me.

The appliance store behind us sold little gas stoves. I was very happy to be cooking on a gas stove again. They were the best thing about living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Every home had a gas stove in Tulsa and in Maceio too it seems. It was a given. I missed that being a given. And, here in Brazil, I encountered the smallest gas stoves I have ever seen. They are tiny and they need to be lit as you use them. At least ours did. It did not have that automatic light feature, but that was okay. I loved the size. They were not overpowering and easy to handle. They had a lid you could put over the whole stove top, another great feature for when it was off.

When the rain ended, we browsed more shops. We looked for aerosol sunscreen but were told they did not sell it in Brazil. We browsed a dollar general Ben Franklin like have it all store and I almost bought a set a coffee cups. They drink from espresso cups in Brazil and I love those cups. But, Rebecca said someday I could have hers, so I refrained from buying. She saved us some luggage space. Later in the day we stopped at a shop and bought some juice. We had goiaba of course and it was wonderful.

The sky looked darker, so we caught a cab in the late afternoon. As we got into it, it poured rain. Our cab driver had a sweet console, a video screen that was playing a music video. We commented on how cool that was and talked to him a bit about how nice cabs were in Brazil.

We relaxed at home and had supper together at La Sucra another self serve restaurant. The best part of this restaurant experience was the fried bananas. I have been making them at home ever since.

We took a walk after we ate and Ernani watched a bunch of guys playing a soccer game on a muddy field with bare feet. They did not seem to mind the mud at all. Passersby stopped to watch. A young street kid, dirty and skinny, slept on the bench while we watched. He was deeply asleep and I found it sad to think about what a horror his life must be begging for food and jobs. And so, so young. He looked about 12 or 13. The mosquitoes were flying above the field, which was all light up by the lights. Bats were feasting on them.

Later that evening, Eduardo and Falvio came to take us to Bali, a favorite local ice cream shop. It is super busy and as we stood in line, we contemplated what to get. There were tons of flavors and about 10 kinds of chocolate. I knew I was getting chocolate and coconut and goaiba. It was delicious.

Eduardo ordered us another dessert too to share as a table. It was a French dessert. A chocolate flan like cake with chocolate sauce in the middle and topped with vanilla ice cream. We were full of course from our first ice cream servings, but it was hard to stop eating the special dessert. It melted in our mouths.

We were having a decadent day of consumption even as we were doing ordinary things: shopping, watching a game of soccer, and encountering the injustice of a life where a young boy goes hungry while we get to eat ice cream. Life is cruel and wonderful and strange. 

January 3, 2010: Part 2 of A Perfect Sunday in Brazil

Paulinha brought out her amazing camera and showed us pictures of New Year's Eve at the house and of her work at the University. They have a class outdoor trip where they learn how to core a tree without killing it, trap ants, and do all sorts of other tests and research in the woods. They spent about a month out in the woods, camping and working. She had pictures of the class's latest trip. She showed them to us. Her class trip took her out to the river which is called the San Francisco River. When I heard them talking about this river, I was confused, until I realized it was in Brazil and until I saw Paulinha’s pictures. See the language barrier.

Paulinha’s class also got to see a major, historical place deep in the woods that is an important part of Northeastern Brazilian folklore. She saw where the Robin Hood like hero Lampião meet his untimely end with his mistress at their hideout in the woods. The group hiked out to the grotto where there is a plaque and the marks of old bullets from the final shootout in the rocks. He is a big hero to the North, but also controversial. We heard a lot about him and the first time we heard of him was from our cousin Mario Jorge who said he loved to talk about this hero. Mario Jorge talked about him with passion. And Paulinha’s eyes lit up as she showed us the pictures and expressed her awe at being at this important place. She told us his name, Lampião, meant lantern because when he raided the rich he brought a lantern with him.

Upon return to the States, I did a little digging of my because I was intrigued and wanted to know more. I found this site among many others: 

http://recifeguide.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/lampiao/

Some like him and some do not. He was an outlaw, a rebel. Someone with very humble roots who was also very educated. He loved a woman deeply and she was a strong woman. The story from the above site, and which I had also heard from our local sources, was that this woman, Maria Bonita, was married, but they killed her husband and she ran off with her only love, Lampião. She died by his side of course when his enemies, the police and the state, finally found his hideout in the woods. He was a guerrilla fighter, so hard to find. He died in 1938 and raided in the 20s.

At one point Lampiao lost an eye. In the depictions we saw of him in the Mercado, he had a patch over one eye. He also wore glasses, so he had glasses too in those depictions. I will always remember this because of Pajucara’s story about Lampiao. First, understand this about Pajucara. She is warm and friendly and funny. She reminded me of a good friend I went to graduate school with in Missouri who has the best sense of humor I have found in anyone. She is funny. A natural comedian. Pajucara comes from the same mold. She told us that she remembered Rebecca was shopping for her kids and looking through all the dolls of Lampiao shaking her head. According to Pajucara, Rebecca thought they were all missing an eye and that made them defective. Now, my mother-in-law is a fantastic person who easily laughs at herself. As Pajucara told us this story, she was laughing and shaking her head, miming Pajucara’s story. We were a group of new and old friends having a wonderful time, telling stories and remembering the past.

Since the house had wireless, we had a chance to check our email and yes, our Facebook too. This was lucky. We got to chat with some of our nieces, Rebecca’s grandchildren, and when my parents came on, we told them to get on Skype. We got to talk to them from Brazil. They were in Arkansas. It was snowing in Arkansas and we were all in our swimsuits. 

We showed them the house since we had a laptop and everyone followed along. Pajucara introduced her family and Rebecca translated. Sergio and Evandro were playing Backgammon on the front porch, so we went to them to say hi. Barb, Olivia and Flavia were on the porch, so we went to the porch to include them. It was fun. It was great to see my parents and to know for sure that they knew we were happy and we were having a great time. It was awesome that they got to meet Pajucara and her family too after all the hospitality she and her family were showing us on our trip. All in spite of being 5,000 miles away. And the connection was perfect, the wireless and the human.

That night we went back out to the beach. As we passed beautiful houses with for sale signs, we dreamed of living here. The night had descended upon the beach and the waves were wild and crashed magnificently with great force upon the beach. Ernani and I were warned not to get too close. It was a completely different ocean: wild and ferocious. The opposite of what we swam in that afternoon. The wind had not let up, but intensified and I realized it was a little cloudy, but with wind like that patches of stars would shine through.

The moon of course was still bright, and Maceio’s lights were to the South, but I had a chance in this moment to look up at the stars. I saw Orion first, but from a different angle than I was used to seeing him. My hosts told me those three stars in his belt where the three Marias: Mary of Nazarath, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany. We had no luck finding the small Southern Cross, but knew it was up there somewhere.

We returned to the house and spent some time talking and killing mosquitoes with what looked like a tennis racquet but the mesh part was electric and as we waved it, it found the mosquitoes and zapped them. I do love animals and some insects, barring spiders which I fear, and mosquitoes, which I hate, so this did not bother me as much as those bug zappers that people put in trees. Those are weird. I mean they are not killing the bugs that bother you, just bugs. 

The racquet at least killed those who deserve it a bit more. And, those which, if they were the right kind and the season was also right, might make you sick. We Americans were impressed. We talked about buying one, but we worried about getting that through security. Last month, my husband and I found one at Wal-mart. We bought one and nostalgically thought back to Brazil.

It was hard to go back to the apartment that evening, but it was an end to another perfect day in Brazil. And we would wake up to a string of other perfect days and the promise from our hosts that we would hang out together again while we were visiting.  

Sunday January 3, 2010: Part one: A Perfect Day at Pajucara and Evandro's House

Sunday was a perfect day for us in Maceio. We awoke to an invitation by Pajucara to come spend the day at her house swimming, having lunch, and visiting with her and her lovely family—her husband Evandro, and their daughters Flavia, Olivia and Paulinha.  Barb and her husband Sergio were also coming to visit.

Pajucara’s daughter Paulinha picked us up. She was practicing her English.  I realized today how hard it is to retain any of a language I know when I am never asked on a daily basis to speak another. It is hard to recall even the few words I know in Portuguese when I am surrounded by English. On an everyday basis Paulinha is surrounded by Portuguese. The opportunity to be around an English speaker was a gift. It gave Paulinha practice in English that she would normally have to seek out and which would be much harder to find, however, here it was in the form of me on her doorstop. I also benefited since Paulinha’s bilingualism allowed me to know what was going on despite my inability to speak Portuguese.

I should have known by her name we would get along famously. My best friend Pauline lives in Dallas and I meet her in graduate school. We had an instant connection of friendship as well. Anne of Green Gables would have said we were kindred spirits. And we are. Pauline and I even share the gift of both being redheads. I should have known that anyone else with that name who showed up in my life might also be a kindred spirit.

Paulinha and I grew very fond of each other and continue to email each other. I think it is safe to say we too had a kindred spirit experience upon meeting. I remember admiring how she would not pay the man on the street who always wanted money for ‘watching’ the car while it was parked and ‘helping’ the driver back out. When Ernani asked her if she was worried they would retaliate, I liked her down to earth answer about not having a car worth their time to violate; it was too popular of a car and indicated she was not the richy rich, so no bother to bother. This was my kind of friend: straight shooting and down to earth.

Since it was summer in Brasil, the college students had off. Paulinha is a graduate student in Environmental Science and Ecology. She and her sisters were home for the holidays. As we drove north to her mother’s house, we followed the ocean. We noted that they had closed off a portion of the road again in town and families were strolling the road normally packed with racing cars. Paulinha told us they did this on Sundays. There were a lot of families riding bikes. We commented on what a wonderful idea this was and I could not help but think how brilliant it would be to take the kids here on Sunday and enjoy the air, the water, and the time off. It was super fun and relaxing, the kind of day I did not know we were about to have at Pajucara’s house.

Traffic was heavy even as the road took us off the shore line. Everyone was heading north to the beautiful beaches to spend the day swimming. We all had the same idea. As we drove and gaped at the scenery, we noticed hotels with strange names: Hotel Amour, The Hideaway. They all had high walls and private entrances. We learned that they were hotels to take your mistress to and were common. They had hotels like these, built specifically for these purposes, for all the classes.

Not everyone likes them. Not everyone uses them.

When we arrived at Pajucara’s house, the first thing I noticed was the beautiful yellow walls and wonderful plants everywhere. The house was open. Doors were wide open, windows too. It was lovely. We were greeted warmly immediately upon stepping from the car. Pajucara and Rebecca have a lovely and deep friendship, so it was wonderful to see how much they enjoyed being together again. Evandro taught me how to say very beautiful: muito bonito. That was the description of the house, the family, the beach, and our Sunday with them.

We ordered lunch after getting ready for the beach and a quick tour of the house.  We had to know where to change. I lathered on the sunscreen, but I would have my first lesson in how my skin reacts to the tropical ocean. I now believe that no matter how much I put on or how often I apply sunscreen, I will get a slight burn because of the reflecting water. Plus, I checked the UV levels before we left and they were all off the charts. I knew what I was getting into. The hats and everyday wear worked fine, but swimming was an entirely different matter. And I did have a slight tan and way more freckles when I got back home, so I got my vitamin D without getting a major burn. 

The house is too beautiful to describe with justice.  It is one story with tiled floors and open, inviting rooms. It is also surrounded by porches and outside seating. The main porch had a roof and a hammock and just outside of it was another sitting area where we ate our lunch. Starfruit and mango trees are everywhere in the yard, so the yard and porches are in shade. Plants we have inside our houses line the walkways and lurk artistically in trees. A small sitting place stands in the middle of the yard and in the back corner is an outside shower. We used it after we swam. It was refreshing.

Pajucara and Evandro live about 2 blocks from the beach. So, we walked to the beach and noted the beautiful houses we passed. I noted some for sale signs too. The roads were sand, pointless really to pave, and a good sign we were very near the ocean. We arrived onto the beach and after trying without success to plant an umbrella in the sand (it was a windy day), we ran into the warm, perfect waters of the sea. And it was perfect. Calm, but wavy enough to be exciting. I had perfect ocean experiences in Brazil. Only Daytona’s beaches come close to the experiences I had swimming in Brazil. The undertow was not scary, the waves were fun, the water was perfect.

Paulinha explained that the tide was perfect now and later that night when we went back I found an entirely different, much more wild ocean, but at noonish it was calm, docile and only wild enough to enjoy. We wildly happy swimming.

On our walk back to the house for a late lunch, I learned from Paulinha what Flavio was to repeat later in the trip to me. Brazil is blessed. There are no storms or hurricanes that threaten Maceio and its beaches.

Lunch was ordered and delivered to the house while we were at the beach. Barb and Sergio also arrived while we were swimming. Lunch, again, was one of the best I had in Brazil. We had mashed potatoes of course, manioc, and tuna pasta that I have been trying to replicate at home since we got back, it was wonderful. It melted in your mouth. And fish, fish, fish in heavenly tomato sauces. And fries. And Graviola ice cream for dessert.

Ernani and I have, since we returned, often talked about how wonderful it would be to have a restaurant who would deliver, even that far out of town, and deliver such good food. Our options here are so limited in that respect.

While we were eating lunch and enjoying the good company, we noticed some monkeys in the tree next to us. Evandro began to entice them down further so we could really see them and the tourists (us of course) could take pictures. They would come right down and take the food from his hands. One of them even had a baby on her back. They also were not eating it all right away. We saw that they were taking it and going back up into the tree where they had a nest to store it there. Clever. 

Ernani got a chance to feed them, but they were done by the time I tried, so we returned to our ice cream and the rest of our perfect day.