A New Year and A Look Back: Fri Jan 1, 2010

We took our time getting up. Rebecca called her friend Barb, who came over the apartment just after noon. Barb and Rebecca knew each other from back when Rebecca lived in Maceio. They were both Americans who had married Brazilian men. Barb and Sergio are still together and living in Brasil. Their children live in the U.S. Barb is a professor of nursing at the University in Maceio. She told us she is close to retiring and is considering her options. She had also just had a knee replacement surgery and had recently healed enough to be able to drive her stick shift again. She offered to drive us all around Ernani and Rebecca’s old haunts. Without this offer, we would never have had the chance to see the old places familar to Ernani and Rebecca. One of Ernani's goals was to re-connect with Brasil and Barb helped him to do that.

Since it was a holiday, traffic was non-existent away from the beach. Everyone had stayed or returned to the beach. So, as we headed into the city, we had a chance to see the colonial architecture of the city instead of the modern hotels and high rises and construction to make more high rises that lined the beach. We could see the former and older beauty of Brazil and for the first time in Maceio I felt that I was seeing the real city, the real Brasil. The road was brick, not flat pavement, and not repaved brick like they have in some of the older parts of our country which have been restored and smoothed out for tourists. Though some of the buildings were in bad shape, I could imagine what they looked like years ago. They must have been luxurious and beautiful. I found myself imagining having lots of money and buying one and restoring it.

We were heading to a high point in town called the Mirante. We climbed hills until we got to a flat courtyard, a half circle, near a church, a high rise apartment, and another high rise apartment under construction. Maceio is under construction. Barb and Rebecca explained how much the city had changed and had grown just recently. When they had arrived at Maceio, the sandy beach stretched out past the road and hotels that now border the beach. The hotels did not exist.

From this high point, we could see the town spreading out to the ocean. The high rise hotels all followed the beaches. From the beach to the centro were houses and buildings both rich and poor. Flowers and trees dotted in between them. Tin and rusted roofs and slate roofs, mainly the later, abounded. To the right of the high point area was a high rise apartment were the governor had an apartment. Mirroring it was one under construction. The sky was blue and the view clear.

Behind us was the half-circle we had driven into that was a small park. Ernani and I walked a bit in the park. The small park was dotted with palms. Maceio is a desert on the beach. I had been admiring the large aloe plants, cactus, and other desert plants that grew everywhere alongside the coconut trees.  I loved the U.S. Southwest Desert and I loved the ocean. The marriage of the two is just heaven.

There was a church across the street, green and white, and the community had put up a nativity across from the park and near the church. They had decorated it with potted palms. Barb told us that this was the church were Pajucara and Evandro got married. It was small and cute, but unfortunately closed.

We drove to another overlook point near one of Ernani’s schools, called Colegio de Santa Teresinha. His other old school was no longer in existence. That was shame since I had heard so many stories about it from Ernani and his brothers and sister. But, this one was still a working school when it wasn’t a holiday. We stopped at the overlook before driving to the school. A large beautiful tree was above us and across the street houses lined the road. They had ceramic front tiles and wrought iron gates and window coverings. They were beautiful and long and narrow. Barb said they were also hot inside, so at night people sat out on the front sidewalks and the windos, doors and garages were open for cross ventilation. I imagined how close you would get to your neighbors and how special it must be to live like that. Most of Maceio’s buildings were open because being outside was such a pleasant experience. It was breezy and cool in the shade.

As we turned back to the view of town--to the beaches, hotels, apartments, houses and slate roofs, flowers of Maceio--we noticed to the right a tarp house and a homeless woman who lived there. Barb said she had looked up out of her house while we were talking to see who we were. Who were those people talking so much in English? The idea of the homeless living right next to these houses is unimaginable for most U.S. citizens, but the realities of poverty are not hidden in most of the other countries of the world. I felt as though we were violating her private space, that we were talking in her front yard.

We left and headed for Ernani’s old school. Ernani and I got out and took pictures. Just down the street on the corner a group of young people were sitting talking, laughing, and listening to music. They waved at us as we drove by. Brazilians are friendly.


We headed to Trapiche and the house on 127 Lavenere Machado where Ernani had lived growing up in Brasil. As we got closer to the house, Ernani and Rebecca were recognizing landmarks, like the grocery store and gas station, which indicated we were getting closer to the house. They were getting excited as we started to get closer and as we turned down the street. We stopped in front of the white house.

Rebecca and Ernani rang the front bell because there were cars in the garage. We hoped we could see inside, but no one answered. We peered through the garage door slates. Rebecca told me that where they now had a car, her family had had a couch and the TV. Barb said it was the only house she knew of in Brazil where the kitchen was separated from the other rooms by a courtyard. It would have been nice to see inside, but even standing outside peering in, memories flooded Rebecca and Ernani. They talked about one: Mariano and Shaner on the roof with Eduardo helping him with the water cisterns. And, Rebecca told me later that this was the house were Eduardo had his caged birds all along the front yard. She remembered how they sang so beautifully.

Ernani took a stroll down the street and Rebecca told me about the neighbors. We were parked next to a green house and when I looked through the slates, I saw an empty yard, not kept up. The walls of the houses often had either an electric fence or broken glass on top to deter thieves. This wall had the glass. Rebecca told me a crotchety man used to live there. He would get mad at the kids because they would gather on the sidewalk in front of his house and play games.

Ernani remembered the old man He told me they would play soccer in the street. As we drove down the street, we came to the beach. It was about 2 blocks from the house. I can only imagine growing up that close to the beach. Ernani said he remembers it being farther away or that it felt like it was farther away when he was a kid. We reminded him he was little, with little legs that made distances seem farther than they were. Memory is tricky at all times, especially when awakened from a long sleep.