We still haven’t had much luck with the car. I’m starting to think it’s jinxed or something. When one thing is fixed, another seems to break… Which is probably the mechanic’s fault – they’re so inefficient! We finally found out that the awful noise that the motor was making was caused by the pistons, so we had to get them changed. But even after getting the pistons changed, the car still didn’t function properly, and it was leaking oil from somewhere beneath the motor, so we had to hand it in to the mechanic’s again… *Sigh* Will it ever be over, I wonder…
Last Wednesday the 21st April was a national holiday here. ‘Tiradentes’ day, which roughly translates as ‘pull-out-teeth’. Tiradentes was a dentist back in the 18th century who fought for Brazilian independence from Portugal, which at the time wasn’t approved of so he was hung for doing so on the 21st April 1792. This day is now celebrated in honour of him. We had an early start that day. David had been invited to go on a 5-day fishing trip with his 3 cousins and some friends of theirs, and they wanted to leave early in order to get to the river and their campsite by noon. They wanted to make the most of the national holiday and had all managed to take an extra few days off to have a short holiday. When we initially found out about the trip, I was going to go along too, but we later found out that girls weren’t allowed. Apparently, the cousins’ friends organise a fishing trip each year, and in previous years girlfriends/wives/mothers-in-law had been allowed to go too, but things hadn’t worked out so well – the boys would drink beer in the evenings whilst playing cards, and start swearing occasionally and talking loudly, and someone’s mother-in-law complained about the swearing and the noise – so it’s now become a boys-only event! I was quite upset at first, since it would have been fun to get to know a new place and go camping and fishing for 5 days. But since girls weren’t allowed, there wasn’t much I could do. David was very keen to go – he’s very close to his 3 cousins, since they’re all a similar age and all grew up together, and he loves fishing – so there was no reason why he couldn’t go without me. The boys were all very very excited about the fishing trip – they’d been talking about it for weeks… Maybe it is a boy thing after all!
So I got to spend 5 days with the granny (Vo Cida, Onezio’s mum). We made the most of getting up early that day, and caught the bus at 6am in order to meet up with Suely (David’s aunt, Vo Cida’s eldest daughter), who had invited us to visit a friend in a nearby town (Bela Vista, about 1/2 hours drive away) close to where Suely works during the week. She picked us up, with her boyfriend (she’s been separated from her sons’ father for years), and we drove southwards out of Goiânia (roughly in the direction of Caldas Novas), then turned off down a dirt track towards where her friend lives. We first stopped off at a gorgeous farm that’s being renovated – and what an amazing renovation! – where another friend of Suely’s works, to say hi. The friend and her husband are in charge of the farmhouse renovations, and the farm is owned by a very rich couple that live in Goiânia and will use the farmhouse as a weekend resort. You can tell they’re filthy rich, since the farmhouse has been turned into a mansion, with a huge kitchen with constantly-running water (fed from the stream) and a mini waterfall (yes, inside the kitchen!), with a huge outside BBQ and terraced area, with a large fishing pond with another waterfall (also fed from the stream), another smaller pond used for breeding their own fish, and a swimming pool. And it’s set in a beautiful area with surrounding green meadows (with horses and cows) and palmtrees – idyllic! Whilst it’s slightly over-the-top, I secretly hoped that our land will look like that one day! We had a quick look around, I took several photos (just to get some ideas, you know), we picked some fresh fruit from their fruit trees, and then we said goodbye to Suely’s friend and set off again. We stopped off in a small shop in a nearby village (or rather, group of houses), where we bumped into Suely’s friend (and student of hers – Suely teaches sewing in Bela Vista), who we were planning on visiting. She was buying some groceries for lunch and then took us back to her farm, just down the road, for lunch. Whilst a much smaller, less classy farm, it was also set in a lovely area, and they have cows for milking, a whole orchard of fruit trees, and also fresh water (which they use for washing dishes) and a mini waterfall fed from a stream! Maybe running water in kitchens few from local streams has become a trend in Bela Vista… It’s definitely a lovely idea, and the constant sound of running water is so peaceful. It was a gorgeous day, and we had a lovely lunch with Suely’s friend and her family. We left around 3 o’clock, and were given three bags of fresh oranges and tangerines before leaving.
Before returning to Goiânia, we stopped off at another friend of Suely’s, a tiny elderly lady who is well-known in the area for being able to heal people by blessing them in the name of God. Apparently Suely used to have awful stomach aches which were healed after the woman blessed her; and Suely’s boyfriend (Geronimo) used to have itchy rashes on his face (which he’d use to scratch raw) which were also apparently cured after the woman blessed him. So Vo Cida wanted to pay the woman a visit to heal her knee, which (I believe due to her obesity) has been hurting for a while now. The woman (I didn’t manage to catch her name) was ever so sweet, and lives in a tiny, humble house at the end of a very long, bumpy track. She shows us around and allowed us to pick caja-mangas (tiny, sour mangoes) from her tree, then went on to bless Vo Cida, Suely and Geronimo. I didn’t want to miss out on all the fun, so I asked her to bless me too! You don’t necessarily have to have a physical problem or pains to be blessed by her, so I just told her about the problems we’d been having with the car and all the documents we’re having to sort out, which at times is quite stressful, and she smiled and said she’d bless me and ask God for help. She instructed me to face the stream in her backyard, she picked some leaves from a nearby bush, started waving them at my back, and started chanting – I only caught some words, but she mentioned God, Jesus and Mary, and several saints, so I believe it was probably a catholic prayer. I’m not sure whether she really is able to heal people through her blessings, but it definitely felt very peaceful whilst she was blessing me. Afterwards, we all thanked her and hugged her, and Vo Cida gave her a small donation to help her buy a new pair of glasses, before making our way back to Goiânia.
We got back home at 7ish, after a long, fun day out. Vo Cida and I watched a couple of ‘novelas’ (soaps) on TV before heading to bed. The following day, I went along to a ‘reunião dos idosos’ (elderly people’s meeting) with Vo Cida. It’s about a 20 minute walk up the road, but took us about 40 minutes to get there since we had to stop every 2 minutes for Vo Cida to catch her breath (we’ve told her she needs to be more careful with what she eats, since she’s REALLY fat, and has diebetes and high blood pressure, but she doesn’t take us seriously…). We finally made it there, and I got to attend a very sweet meeting where about 50 odd elderly people in the area get together to chat, catch up, dance, sing, and have fun together. At the end of the meeting, they each get 2 free litres of milk, sponsored by the local council. It was enjoyable, and Vo Cida was pleased she had managed to make it there, although she keeps on saying that unless she manages to buy a motorbike she won’t be able to go anymore, since it exhausts and hurts her too much – she ends up with knee aches and chest pains… I suggested she should invest in a motorised wheelchair, which she found very amusing!
We’ve spent the past 3 days at home, washing laundry, cleaning the house, and watching lots of TV – Vo Cida spends most of her day lounging on the sofa in front of the TV… And then she wonders why she’s not losing weight! Poor thing… We were going to go to a local food and clothes fair today, but I’m feeling a bit under the weather, with a sore throat, and the granny realised she didn’t have much spending money, so we’ve left it for another day. The boys are due back today, although we’re not sure what time. Knowing them, they’ll have made the most of the day and won’t be back till night time!
