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.