October 27, 2009

Tuesday October 27, 2009

Alto Paraiso

Dear Friends and Family

We have landed. After 4 months on the road we are at last no longer traveling but living in a house in the most unusual of places. I’ve been hesitant to write much about this place because all I have now are first impressions and there is so much more than meets the eye here. This is a very special place. So all I can do is describe what I am seeing and feeling as it is presenting itself, but I can see that there is so much more yet to be revealed.

Driving into this place, both last February which was our first visit and last Thursday, we saw what looks to be a nearly deserted sleepy “bedroom community’ and wondered WHAT……. What is the appeal? Was this a once thriving spiritual community not realized? Was this an eco tourism town which didn’t really make it? So quiet. So few people. So few shops or restaurants. Last February we arrived by taxi transport, three hours drive from the bus station in Brasilia where we had landed after a 10 hour bus ride in from Lencois, Bahia. We saw what I just described as we drove down the principal avenue on our way to a pousada on a quiet street outside of the center. We didn’t like it and left the next day headed for Seu Jorge, the village at the entrance to the national park 36 kilometers away. We fell in love there! Charming pousadas, a little village we could walk through….. But that day we met our friend Enrico who was our guide to drive us and lead us on a trek through the park to see several waterfalls. As we spent the day with him, we discovered the secrets of this place that are not apparent to the naked eye on arrival.

I have so many thoughts I want to share with you, I may have difficulty in staying with a coherent flow. Bear with me….

In the last few days we have been having some insights that shed light on this peculiar phenomenon. Paul has been expressing his thoughts with me lately that he feels we are in another dimension here, as if we have traveled through the looking glass (remember Alice in Wonderland?) This has been a theme which has been presenting itself to us over some period of time, this feeling that we have gone through the mirror to the other side. Everything that seemed real is opposite.

Forgive me; this may take some time to noodle through. I was feeling strangely uneasy. I couldn’t define it at first. It was like I had been running and had finally stopped but I couldn’t tell I was still – it felt as if I was still in motion. Or as if I had been searching for a long time and found something but was so used to searching I couldn’t accept that I had found what I’d been looking for and I didn’t recognize myself without this purpose. It occurred to me that part of my uneasiness was due to the fact that I was vibrating at a different frequency than the people around me who were completely relaxed and absolutely in the moment, present and in a state of joy and peace. I was feeling “nudgey” and “whiney” and just disgusted with my own attitude, complaining (mostly to myself but a little to Paul) about my discomforts. The ants were biting me and making me itch, it was damp and everything smells a little like mildew, all the rain and humidity makes everything seem dirty and moldy.( Really when I stopped to consider it’s not much different than mud season in Vermont.) There’s not a comfortable piece of furniture in all of Brazil, blah, blah, blah! But these little inner complaints were just a symptom of something much bigger. Everything about this life changing situation I have brought myself to is challenging my comfort zone! I think that’s important for me. It limits me being so concerned about my comfort. And I know that I will adjust with time and relax into all of this.

It’s not an easy thing, moving to a third world country having lived most of your life in a first world country. There’s less here in a material sense. Spiritually it’s far richer. But it’s the little things like trying to cook dinner in someone else’s kitchen when there isn’t a sharp knife to chop fruit and vegetables and you must make do with a butter knife. Peeling a cucumber presents a challenge, but it’s not so punishing and it can be overcome. These are examples of the little things there are to get used to. I found a sharp knife at the grocery store but it took 3 stores to find a spatula and a carrot peeler hasn’t yet turned up, I’m still looking. I had a feeling about stuff like this and I packed up a few things of this nature, but they remain in boxes in storage waiting to be shipped someday. But I am off track. I simply wanted to illustrate some of the little things that make the adjustment a little disconcerting, but not insurmountable.

But I think it’s important to look beyond the stupid little things that grab your attention to the message the universe is trying to tell you. After all we are here for growth and the expansion of consciousness. Nothing happens by accident and everything is designed to teach us lessons so we can evolve and be more. So here we are in a beautiful house with slate floors and windows that open with wooden shutters to tropical trees dripping with fruit, home to exotic species of birds and the sound of nature fills the air. Yes, the furniture is not comfortable – we sit on a mattress on the elevated floor, but half a block away is a yoga class three times a week. We suffer because we are old and stiff and inflexible and yearn for a comfy couch, but the way has brought us to a place where we can practice yoga to make our bodies more flexible so we can sit on the floor and be comfortable in our bodies.

We yearned for a spiritual life and wished to leave the concerns of the material life behind us, so the Way brought us to a country where there isn’t very much in the way of material things. Here you make due with less. Everyone says in Brazil the people are poor but they are happy! This is true, beyond question.

We’ve asked ourselves what we want over the last couple months as we’ve been traveling about searching for a place to land and the answers have not been forthcoming. My mind has mostly been a blank state in open wonder and uncertainty. But from time to time one of us will have an idea of what we do or do not want. Paul wanted to return to the states last week, to a place where he could communicate in his own language and function easily with small tasks we once took for granted that now present major obstacles (like making phone calls for instance, or going to the bank to get money.) So we landed in a place where 9 out of 10 people we meet speak English. We weren’t expecting that, even though people said this was a place where many Americans and foreigners have settled. But this is true we are finding out.

We met a woman who settled here twenty seven years ago with a large group of followers of Osho who used to be Rajneesh before changing his name. In her perfect American English she told me, “This is the end of the road. You’ve arrived. There’s no where else to look.” Twice I heard someone say that – the end of the road. When I mentioned this to Paul his eyes lit up in recognition. At first his reluctance to be here was so apparent. He frowned and made disparaging comments from our small room in the pousada for three days before we found the house. “There’s nothing here,” he said, “there’s no doctor, there’s no veterinarian. What if one of us gets sick? There are no restaurants….” So we inquired. There is a vet who comes to town once a week, or is it once a month? I asked a woman we met who told me she learned how to make herbs to cure her dogs herself because once he was very sick when the vet was not here. She learns the cures during rituals. Another told me, this wasn’t true, there is an exotic animal doctor – she called her the panther doctor, and said when I inquired that she treated domestic animals too. I met her at the farmers market on Saturday where everyone gathers as their social event in addition to buying their supplies for the week. She was fascinating to look at with 3 piercings down the center of her face, but she had been away for a while and was just returning.

When we asked about doctors we were told there are many alternative practitioners here and one who is an Indian shaman who treats from the plant medicines of the cerrada. And as to restaurants, I was just commenting to Paul at dinner on Saturday night, “What if there aren’t lots of restaurants to choose from but the best vegetarian restaurant is here and the best ice cream place is here – do we need more?” As it turns out there really are a few more than just one or two, but they open only on weekends and holidays when the tourists come. Seems like new places keep popping up open that we weren’t at first seeing. But they seem to open when they feel like it. That’s my kind of way of being in business! I’ll be here if I feel like it – or I may just put a sign on the door – gone fishing…”

As his reluctance dropped away, he surprised me on Saturday afternoon when we saw the house and immediately decided to rent it. It’s the end of the road, he said. I’ve been given a gift of the perfect place to be to watch consciousness expanding on the planet. They’re living the new way here already. We get to watch and be a part of it.

There seems to be two parts of this town – the local native Brasilieros and the transplanted new-agers. They’ve been here for a very long time, close to thirty years, so they are just as much a part of this place as the rest, but there are two distinctive parts to town with some areas of overlapping. On one hill on the side of town you can walk down the street and see one unusual vision inspired hand built house after another. A Mandala Spa with practitioners of several disciplines, a yoga space, a meditation space, a house built in the style of a mosque or a dome…., each more interesting and beautiful than the next with a view over the tropical valley to the next group of hills and mountains, covered in lush vegetation and filled with wildlife. Yesterday I discovered a part of town which looked like many other Brazilian towns, filled with people and little shops mixed in with simple houses, quite distinctly different. I also passed six or seven different religious and spiritual houses of worship, if I can use that word. So I am finding there is more to this place than I first thought.

Ahhhhhh there is so much I want to explore with you in more depth but for now my thoughts are jumping from one point to another to be sure I don’t forget.

Before going further, let me stop and tell you about Rocket and his adventures. He is recovered from his illness and nearly back to his former self with the addition of three lumps which were a bit disfiguring. Each was caused by a separate injection of antibiotics but Paul has been massaging them and they are nearly gone now. His disposition has changed and his former macho demeanor has slipped away as this is a place of mean dogs here in Brazil and he has been in one too many fights, so rather than head straight for an entanglement he has learned to run quickly past and avoid some potential scrapes. We have found him the perfect place though. We are living in Vistara’s garden. Inside the fenced and gated yard, are four houses surrounded by gardens, including the house where Vistara lives with her two black labs. Rocket has become fast friends with the 3 month old Tonke who is twice his size and has more or less moved in with us. He is hysterical to watch as he hasn’t mastered his long legs yet and flops in a heap when he lifts a paw to wrestle with Rocket or climb through the barriers I keep erecting to block his way in through the open doors in my effort to keep out the mud. So Rock is having a lot of fun during the day, playing with Tonke, taking walks with us and having a large yard he can venture into as he pleases. After dark he becomes quite worried and concerned with the strange noises of the night. There are so many unidentifiable sounds, some delightfully pleasant while others are strangely scary and wild. And then there is the thunder which he hasn’t yet gotten used to. But everyday he relaxes a little more and soon we hope he will regain his old pleasant disposition.

The first few days after we arrived we were spending much time with Enrico and his friends and learning about this place first hand as we sat around the house talking and meeting the friends that would drop by. “It’s different here in Brazil,” Enrico said, “No one calls, they just drop in.” At fifty and sixty something it hasn’t been like this so much for us but back in the day when we were twenty, it was. I wondered if this was something to attribute to youth or to this place. From Enrico’s house it seemed we were surrounded by young people. This is great in so many ways but there usually comes a point at which you question, do I fit in here? Is it weird being so much older? And then I had two insights. One was that we were being given an opportunity to observe the new way- the new consciousness that is coming to the planet. These people are living the dream they wish to be in the world. These are the ones who will lead us into the new way of being. And I thought, no this isn’t weird, it’s perfect to watch and be a part of this. We have so much to learn from each other. But it wasn’t true that it is all young people here. On one occasion a friend dropped by who had as many years as we. On several occasions I have had the opportunity to meet women my age. Remarkably, Paul pointed this out and reminded me of both an astrological solar return reading and a comment made by a psychic who said this will be a time for me of kindred spirits and close relationships with women. Already in this short time I feel I am meeting women like this.

In this place there seems to be a common theme of sacred ritual to alter consciousness to access a higher self and open avenues for gaining wisdom and insight. This is done in many forms and as part of spiritual seeking following different traditions of various spiritual and religious teachings from around the world – not only from an indigenous source. From some perspectives it looks like kids wanting simply to get high with trance parties, while from other perspectives you can see a much deeper source of exploration, and it is not limited to young people. There is something strong driving an expansion of consciousness here and there are many forces and many different paths being followed in this process.

And speaking of forces at work, there is something strong happening here calling to some very special people from around the world to come here. We are a perfect example. We were lead to this place through a series of events. Everyday a few more people are arriving as we are. I asked someone about this, remembering how this didn’t fare well for my former home in Boulder, Colorado when suddenly many people from California moved in. It changed the character of the place in a way that was not positive in my estimation. It grew too fast and its concerns changed. But it’s different here. The doors are open and the arms are open waiting to kiss and embrace those who come because they know there is something bigger than they calling people to come. They hope the newcomers will breathe new life into this place and that its growth will be only positive and I feel in my heart they are right.

This is a place of social projects, Enrico told me, while his friends all nodded their agreement. There are so many things that need to be done. You don’t have to look for ways to help, they just come to you and you know what to do. This is a beautiful thing and what makes this distinct division of kinds of people work, with the new comers or new-agers working to help the children whose poverty keeps them from realizing a better life. No one is out only for themselves; it is everyone for each other.

There is one last thing I want to touch on briefly before I end this letter. We are watching the dollar devalue very quickly. Because we are here with a different currency, we can see this more clearly as the exchange rate drops everyday, making our small savings worth less as the minutes tick away. Perhaps it is not as apparent from where you are? We hear the interest rate has dropped to zero and there is nowhere left for it to fall. We know that it is crucial that we bring what we have here as quickly as possible and exchange it to Brazilian Reais while there is still some value left in it. This must be right now our top priority. We are watching and trying to get as much information as we can. We hope that you also are keeping yourselves informed about the economy and health issues and matters of freedom. This is something we hope to have more time to learn about so that we can do what we can to steer things in a better direction. Please do not lose sight of these rights. The consequences are too important. That is all I can say for now.

We are here with open arms to receive those who wish to join us. We send love and eagerly await your news.

Blessings and love

Mindy and Paul

October 23, 2009

Dear friends and family

I received a really cool email from my friend I wanted to share with you all. Some weeks back when we had only been in Cidade Ecletica for a short time, I mentioned the arrival at the hotel of a family who came to Ecletica after the youngest son committed suicide. He had been in a drug rehab clinic at the time of his death. Looking for solace and understanding of this tragic event, they came in search of answers. In this email my friend tells of meeting her dead brother…

My dearest friend,

I'm so sorry you're not well yet; but I hope you recover you health.

We're very well. The last too Sundays, my brother "Xandy" came to the temple to see us.

The first day, he kissed the hands of my mother, make she put her hands in the face of the medium and said: - look at me!

Last week, he came to me. I asked to talk to the entity and, when I came, I just said that I was feeling very bad and I don't know why.

She asked for help and, when the mediun came, he incorporate my brother. When it happens, I felt it was him.... He hugged me, putted his head in my belly and cried. I put my hands in his back, and I said: "Xandy..." while I was crying. It was a wonderfull moment...

I cried so much... But it was fine. After, I talked to "Vovó Rosa" and she said to me that he's coming to see us because he is missing us so much. But all the time he's protected by the entitys and there's no danger.

So, we're soo good.

I hope i'll see you soon.

lovely,

Déia

When we first heard the story of Xandy, we told our friend about a video we’d seen called “Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKYAmg5giAE This film gives a detailed account of the pharmaceutical industry’s use of psychoactive drugs being used for profit at the expense of millions of people. The diagnosing and pathologizing of normal human emotions was created in order to prescribe and market drugs for profit. It was enlightening and disturbing to us when we, and I would venture to guess someone each of you know personally if not you yourself, has taken an anti depressant or mood elevating drug of some kind. And how many children have you known diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), a fabricated condition designed for the sole purpose of profit. What most of us fail to realize is the fact that the drug is the CAUSE of the symptoms, not the cure in most cases, while the condition itself is a construct, designed for the sole purpose of profit. Please watch this documentary because it has such far reaching ramifications. We contend that the Rehab Center treating our friend’s brother could likely have been treating him with drugs that caused him to take his own life under their disorienting effects and that much of the horrific violent crimes committed in recent years may in fact also stem from this same cause.

But I shared this email from my friend more to describe the interaction my friend and her mother had with her little brother (and son, in the mother’s case) after he has passed on from this life, because he has not ceased to be after death, he continues, as I believe we all do, in a much grander and more expansive way. Many cultures believe that death by suicide is spiritually damaging and will not end the suffering of the one who takes his or her own life. This, I think, was a deep concern for my friend’s family. Personally I can not help but think that in this case he was not responsible for his actions, that they were a result of the chemical reaction of his body to the drugs. I could be wrong, but this is my speculation.

I’m writing this morning from the verandah of the pousada in Pirenopolis where we still stay after 13 days, too sick to begin looking for other arrangements during most of that time. But today we hope to spend the better part of the day looking at houses for rent. Suddenly the loveliest music began playing. I can not tell where it is coming from, but peering around the corner of my verandah I see many people on the lanai eating breakfast. It’s Saturday morning and the pousada is once again filled with people unlike during the week when it is quiet and mostly empty. In Hawaii they use this word “lanai.” I don’t know if it is the same here but it’s the only word I know to describe an outside room, enclosed only by a roof and two or three walls. In the tropics where the air temperature is nearly always warm enough to sit outside, the only element to consider is rain which can be generally kept off with just a roof and occasionally a roll down waterproof shade. This place has a setup with a vinyl shade that can become a sun awning as well as a wall when pulled straight down. I think this is too cool.

But back to life after death, a subject I find of the utmost interest! Is it a topic you have ever explored? During Paul’s doctoral studies, we (I say we because I was completely absorbed in it too) took a course about Life after Death. We studied the beliefs of many different cultures into the nature of this time. For many this falls into the area of religion as that school of thought often dictates one’s beliefs about what happens after death. For some it is a topic thought too morbid and simply ignored from consideration. Not for me. I find it fascinating! Kenneth Ring is one researcher who interviewed people who had a near death experience – pronounced clinically dead, before being revived and brought back to life. In every account a similar experience is described which gives us some information regarding the time immediately following death. Ian Stevenson is another researcher who documented many cases of children who remembered their past lives. There are highly advanced and adept yogis who can describe a longer time between lives and there have been books written by people who have channeled this information from entities in between incarnations. I find it interesting to see how beliefs from different cultures intercept. I asked my parents what they believed coming from a Judaic perspective because I don’t think it ever came up during my childhood education. Their answer was that they thought people lived on in the memory of others. There is a tradition of naming a child after a deceased loved relative. I think this is what they were referring to. Hmm something to think about if you’re so inclined. I can recommend volumes of books if anyone is interested…….

Sunday October 18, 2009

Pirenopolis

There’s a light drizzle now here in the middle of the day. Perhaps it will cool things down. It’s simply too hot to be out and about so we are resting back at the room.

Monday October 19, 2009

Pirenopolis

Everything I wrote yesterday started out so dismal, I gave up. Today I will attempt another go at it. Our search for a house to rent turned up only one viable possibility and though we are not in love with the place we are thinking it is still our best option going forward for the next 3 months.

Having come as we did with a few too many belongings to easily travel about – including Rocket – exploring the country by car with everything we have doesn’t seem like a good option. The little car holds it all but is packed to the brim, leaving Rocket a small space near the roof next to an open window, which gives him little more than head room. The small engine hesitates to pull the car up any degree of inclination and we are in a mountainous region. We have determined it best to rent a house for 3 months, find Rocket a friend he can stay with and travel from here as a home base. Today this is our plan. It has changed everyday for the last two weeks. However if the owner of the house accepts our offer we may know later this afternoon if it is a done deal.

The house is centrally located in town in what you might call a row house, abutting the house next to it, with about 3 feet between it and the agro store next to it on the other side. By day I like the neighborhood fairly well, but last night driving through, and later walking about, I felt a little less than secure. It was a strange feeling I had that I wasn’t sure I wanted to be there. Paul drove me around to several other neighborhoods to see if I would feel the same in others, by way of pointing out to me that perhaps I might not want to live in Brazil after all. I thought it was a city thing and that I might be happier living outside of town in the countryside, so he drove me there to see. It’s true, I said, I do feel more secure in the countryside.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Pirenopolis

I was going to continue to describe the little townhouse, when I was called away by a knock on the door. Marta and Leide (pronounced Lay-chee) came by our hotel room to take us for a ride to see their family farm outside of town. I may not have mentioned Marta and Leide before. They are our new friends who own the language school in the center of town. We have been going to teach English to their students in exchange for Portuguese lessons from Marta. They have taken us “under their wings” so to speak as foreigners in their country because they have lived a few times in the United States and remember how difficult it was for them when they first arrived and could not speak English and were themselves dependent on the kindness of strangers to help them establish themselves while they learned the new language and culture. They were not as lucky to find friendly people as willing to help and wish to give to us what they so dearly needed for themselves. But that is the Brazilian way – helping others. I have heard it described as the greatest gift to themselves when they can help another, by many of my friends here.

So we got in their car and sped off Brazilian style (they drive so fast here) out of town on the same road we drove to the waterfall last week. It’s a beautiful drive out past the airport and through lovely mountainous countryside. About twelve minutes out of town (Laide’s calculation, I wasn’t keeping track) we turned down a small dirt road after going through a padlocked gate. The lane led through old pasture land which had once been jungle, huge mature mango and cashew trees lining the sides of the lane, an old deserted farmhouse on one side. It was a long lane and led further back from the main road through beautiful “mato” high grasses, winding through more old fruit trees, passing cows until we at last arrived at an old adobe brick house. Laide told us his grandparents built the house from adobe bricks handmade on the farm from the soil which here was quite white and sandy unlike the red soil closer to town.

We had just the day before had a tour of the house Fabio and Denise, the owners of the pousada, were building from similar adobe bricks, only very deep orange and Fabio described to us the process he used to knead the clay soil, form it into bricks and sun dry, not bake, the bricks. But more on that later.

Leide’s family farmhouse is quite old and very rustic and absolutely charming. As we approached it from the car I remarked, “”This is the kind of place I’d love to live!” All along the drive when I’d ask or refer to where we were going as his farm, he would correct me and say it wasn’t a farmhouse it was a camp. He asked if I liked to go camping. I didn’t get that he was preparing me for a surprise. But at my comment he said, “We would like to offer you the house to stay in for free while you are looking for a place so you can get out of the pousada. It’s too expensive for you to stay there any longer.” They both went on to say that it wasn’t much; in fact his mother was too embarrassed to offer it because it was so old and too rustic. They wanted us to know we could paint it to freshen it up and make it cleaner. It will be like camping, they said. This is how they use it when they come for family vacations.

We walked through the house with different kind of eyes than we would have otherwise, noticing the gaps in the roof where the light came in, wondering if the rain also came through. I questioned if snakes ever came in as there were spaces under the doors and between the walls and ceilings plenty big enough for creatures to come in. They hadn’t seen snakes but told us about the occasional sloth in the trees nearby. Again my thoughts imagined swaying in a hammock under the trees, watching the monkeys come by to eat bananas, macaws, papagaios and toucans flying overhead…. But we walked through the house and around the yard, imagining the kind of time we might experience in a place more rustic than anything we’d ever lived in and wondering if we were up to the task.

It was like an old camp, the sparse furnishings covered with plastic to keep the dust off when the house wasn’t in use. Single beds and bunk beds filling the 2 bedrooms, covered with plastic too to keep off the dust. One had a straw mattress handmade by Laide’s grandmother. The dining room had a very long wooden banquet table, handmade by Laide’s grandfather. And in the kitchen a wood cook stove built from brick into the wall. Behind the house a small creek, which feeds into another and fills enough to form a swimming hole in rainy season, we were told we could reach if we walk downstream for a while. But in the swampy dampness of dusk, it was more frightening than idyllic.

Meanwhile out front, just before dusk, 5 young cows ran up to the house towards a paddock where they come for salt in the evening. Rocket thought he’d try to herd them and was hilarious to watch as one wanted so much to play with him or at least get a closer sniff but he was too frightened to let her come close enough and his barking kept her away.

Friday October 23, 2009

Alto Paraiso, Goias

It’s been a week full of changes. Should we go or should we stay? Is there a house for us or isn’t there? What about the farmhouse? So many questions and so much minutiae to deal with. In the end we decided we would go to Alto Paraiso for a while and then decide if we wanted to return to Pirenopolis. We would wait to see a dermatologist in Anapolis, the big city close to Pirenopolis and leave the following day.

Paul had a pre-cancer spot to be removed and after weeks of trying to make arrangements to see a doctor when we were in Ecletica, I thought to ask the owner of the pousada who lives during the week in Anapolis. The next day she had made an appointment and met us to translate. It was beautiful! We thought it remarkable that the doctor in addition to removing this one, prescribed a product to use on the skin that will bring all the newly forming pre-cancers to the surface of the skin and dissolve them. This was something we’d not been aware existed.

In the morning before leaving we made another unsuccessful attempt to phone with skype to our bank to wire money. After several days of trying to get through we drove to Marta and Leide’s to ask for help in phoning the states from their landline. Who would think making a phone call could be so incredibly difficult! But with this task accomplished we left Pirenopolis behind for a while to drive 6 hours east through Brasilia and north to the Chapada dosVeadeiros.

Alto Paraiso means high paradise. It is more than 1200 meters in altitude in the middle of the central plateau on top of the highest concentration of crystals in the world. Today my friend Enrico described this to me as being like the heart of the planet and the source of its energy. This place has called many people to come here from all over the world. About 25 years ago followers of an Indian Guru came to establish a community. It was the beginning of establishing a place where people from many spiritual paths could come. I have so much to learn about this before I can say more. Today I met a woman who came here from the US 27 years ago, I believe as a follower of this guru. She has a place which Enrico described to me as the most beautiful place he has ever seen called Vale da Esperanca and Lua. I have not been yet to visit. Here is a link:http://yatra.yage.net/vale.htm

When we arrived in town we stopped to ask how to find our friend at the Lotus space. This led us through winding hilly streets where we saw beautifully hand crafted houses of the most unusual designs. They reminded me of a book of handmade houses built in the 60’s in Woodstock, New York. Someone told me people have come here to realize their dreams. They have visions and then create these visions in their reality. The lotus space was a teardrop shaped adobe house which houses a space for yoga and meditation. Across the street at the Mandala Spa, a place where many massage therapists and alternative healers work we found a person who knew how to find Enrico and walked us through the neighborhood to his house. She happened to live next door. In conversation she told me how she had come to live here 20 years ago but had just returned from living in Ibiza for a year. She, like a couple other people I spoke to today, tell me they like to travel and leave for a while but always they prefer to return here to live. There are many English speaking people here and many foreigners and the common theme seems to be a sense of spirituality, whether they are members of the Daime church or Vegetal or some combination of the two, or followers of this Indian Guru, Spiritists or one of many other paths. Today I saw a branch of Vale do Amenhecer and a Kardecist Spiritist center as well as several meditation and yoga spaces.

It looks like there may be several houses for us to choose from to rent and many pieces of land and houses to buy, all of which could be a paradise for us…. On our travels through town today Enrico took us to a very special place called Tom das Ervas. Tom is an Indian Shaman who makes medicinal remedies from the native plants; these were displayed in a little shop. When we arrived Tom was not there and we toured the shelves reading the labels, amazed at all the conditions they can cure. Afterwards as we were looking through the space next to the products at beautiful crafted musical instruments and works of art, Tom emerged from a back room where he had been resting. We were introduced and during our conversation he recommended two of his products for us to treat the effects of our flu. Amazingly this hadn’t come up in conversation, nor had we shown any indications that we had been ill – he simply seemed to know!

When I write next I will describe more of this place as there is so much to depict and so many pictures to share. Life is unfolding quickly and there are many things I’d like to express.

Until then, we wish you well and send our love

Mindy and Paul

October 13, 2009

Tuesday October 13, 2009

Pirenopolis

Dear Friends and Family

My apologies for such dismal writing last week as I suffered through my flu. Though still under the influence of its affects, my attitude has improved and I have emerged from the worst of it. Wish I could say the same for Rocket who is spending the day at the veterinarian’s office receiving antibiotics, food and fluids intravenously. We are very afraid for his survival so please join us in praying for him.

Returning to a brighter note, this exotic land of opposites gives much pause for thought. We once thought of this place as the land of the moon, compared with the US which for us represented the land of the sun. Again this notion reemerges. “The land of opposites!” Paul adds from nearby, “The US is the land of contradictions. Obama gets awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for starting wars!” Well. I wasn’t going to go there but merely say that here in Brazil where in many towns it can often look so poor and unattractive by day under the strong glare of the hot sun, but when the moon lights the night, the soft amber glow of the night time lamps from the open doorways and windows, a soft beauty like no other permeates. And this is also true here in Pirenopolis although even by the intense light of the noonday sun, this is a beautiful place. It’s unique, this little city perched atop a hillside in the midst of surrounding mountains reminiscent of the Pyrenees mountain range of Europe, from which it takes its name. This city is sparkling clean; no trash litters the roads or sidewalks. In fact daily people sweep and mop not only the entries to their homes and businesses but the sidewalks in front. It reminds me of a small sparkling town in the Mediterranean I visited once on the island of Santorini, in Greece.

I don’t know if this is true of all of Brazil, though I suspect it might be, but it seems that stores are open and people are out and about very early in the morning for a while, but in the middle of the day with the exception of a few restaurants and businesses, the doors to the shops are closed until after 6 or even 8 pm. Then the streets come alive with people, the shops are all open and the night is just beginning. I can not report on how late into the night this goes on because I have not yet shifted to this timetable myself. On Saturday night at the invitation of Fabio, we started the evening after 8:30 so that we could attend the performance of his rock and roll band at a bar. This was a good thing because when the people really come out in force, you can tell which of the restaurants, for instance are the more frequented which is always a good recommendation. That night Paul fell in love with this town. At the bar, which was also a health food store, wi-fi spot and coffee lounge, we met a diverse group of international people and were surrounded by other English speakers. This has become a thing of comfort and appeal for us in our search for a place to put some temporary (or long term) roots. This is also a community which attracts some wealth and could have a vibrant arts scene. We’d like to think so, but for now it merely hints at the possibility. It’s somewhat difficult to describe but this wealth makes a place a little more welcoming and appealing to us as newcomers. There’s also a sense of safety here in this place, being an obvious gringo, because we feel less of a target for being taken advantage of and more accepted and welcomed.

My thoughts seem to be all over the place today. Perhaps the congestion in my head is interfering with the clarity of my thoughts after all. This life that comes full bloom at night is a phenomenon that needs a little more explanation. I saw it the night we went to hear Aramis’ son play music at the club, the night the whole community of Ecletica came to the celebration of the arts center…. The children are there! Even the babies, they are all up late at night. It doesn’t seem to matter, the hour of the night. Is the concept of “bed time” or “school night” not taken into consideration here? It wouldn’t seem so. I once asked my friend Luana what time her family ate dinner. “Never before 8:30,” she told me. I remember many years ago visiting Europe and having difficulty adjusting to this similar culture with the dinner hour much later in the evening. For me and many other American families I knew, dinner was at 6 o’clock, rarely later. In Paris, a 10 o’clock meal was not uncommon. Well, one shift here in the dilemma of waiting for the late hour of the evening meal, is the addition of a fourth meal to the day. You see we have generally a breakfast (café de manha) of fruits and breads and coffee, followed by a lunch (almoca) between noon and 2pm. Another small snack called lanche around 4pm before dinner (jantar) sometime between 8 and 10 pm. Here in a tourist town you can find a few restaurants serving as early as 6, although many just continue to serve the same foods throughout the day at all hours. So that covers food (and explains why I have become so fat) but as to shopping or banking or conducting other business, for now, that’s just hit or miss. Could be open, might not! The proprietor might be in or might be home sleeping! In any case I like it!

I’ve wondered if this night time vibrancy might be a result of people having more time to play and enjoy life after the long workday is over. If one could get by on less sleep, it would certainly create more hours in the day to have fun, be with friends, make music, kick back. If teenagers can do this, why not the rest of us? I’m all for a change, maybe dividing sleep to 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon and 4 or 5 at night… I’ll let you know if I manage it……

This morning we followed a lead from the young man at the cell phone store and stopped at his language school to inquire about Portuguese classes. We met there a lovely family all working together who will be happy to teach us. When we inquired as to the cost, the answer was, “if you spend some time here talking to our students in English, we will teach you Portuguese at no charge.” Again this theme comes back: either some will charge you twice as much because they think you have a lot of money or more commonly in my experience they will charge you nothing! At the open air market last week, I wanted to only buy 2 bananas for breakfast. When I asked for the price, the young girl looked surprised at her companion who simply gave them to me for free and then wanted to know where I came from and why I was there. That day I mentioned visiting Ecletica and they both wanted me to know that they love the people who come from there, especially the children and young people who always say hello and are so polite. So many times people are insisting on giving me things for free! I love this different kind of value there often seems to be around money.

But tomorrow we will go to the language school, speak with the students in English for an hour and then spend the afternoon learning Portuguese with our new teacher, Marta…..

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

It’s two months now since arriving in Brasil. Unlike the 1^st time when we came for 6 weeks, we were healthy until last week. That time we started our 1^st half of the trip ill. Now I don’t think this has any significance necessarily. It was a nice easy way to start our new life, coming to friends and so much help and welcome, a place to stay waiting for us, even though it was a hotel room. While I was at wits end about 3 ½ weeks into the trip, craving my own little house if only for a kitchen, the panic eased and I relaxed into being here just as it was. Paul, who has very little interest or inclination towards domestic activities insisted that he was happy with no dishes to wash or bathrooms to clean. At last his tune has changed, now that he is ill and wishes he had the ability to stay in, eating meals from his own kitchen. He is urging me to begin a search for a house to settle into as he is quite content in this town. I agree. It has been 4 months since we left our house in Vermont and a normal home life; longer if you factor in packing up and moving out for many weeks before that. Four months of living on the road though! It’s enough. I love to travel, but traveling from a home base is entirely different than this way with all its peculiarities. Still, we are on a quest for something, so there is a price to pay for this. And no one said it would be easy. Easy, there’s a concept we’ve been in search of…. Could happen yet!

Last week David Icke said something in his interview in Amsterdam that we’ve always agreed with, “If it flows, go, if it’s stuck, chuck.” Although we might have worded it a little differently, this is pretty much our philosophy. Because we follow the basic philosophy of the Tao, we feel and see the subtle messages in the natural flow of things. When things do not progress easily, with a free flow, when they are seemingly stuck, we understand this as a message from the Way that this is not the best course for us to follow. David says, if the door is stuck, find a different way out. We would say, if it doesn’t seem easy, it isn’t meant to be. Such were the events unfolding for us in Ecletica. When you’re stuck – chuck (it out). Yesterday things flowed easily into place for us, it seemed. Even though Rocket was so sick we returned with him to the vet, at the end of the day he was eating a little, running and back almost to his former self. We made a great connection with a language school to begin Portuguese studies. The bank seemed happy to help us open a savings account, a task we have been struggling with for 7 weeks at 4 different locations. Only a small detail left to complete. On inquiring at the café, help was forthcoming on locating a house for rent and the word is out on our behalf. There’s a certain flow to the ease of putting things in place to stay.

Two nights ago while questioning our next move, whether to head straight for Rio, I opened my email to find a response 6 weeks in coming from our friend in Alto Paraiso. “So sorry!” he said, “I almost never check my email. I hope I’m not too late. Please come here to visit. I have a lot of land to show you. This is the time. Everything is happening now. I want to help in any way I can.” It’s so perfect, we think, how everything comes at just the right time when you need to hear it. That very day, Paul thought not to go there 1^st to visit, but now we will go and see if that might be the better place for us. Our thoughts this week are to settle here or there and from this place take other trips, less encumbered, to see the rest of the country. But we know we were led here to this part of the country. Many people have come here, relocating from the cities, especially Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. They feel quite aware of an end time scenario and we wish to hear from them what their particular version of this is. This place has an institute where they are teaching permaculture and the creation of food forests. It has drawn an international following of ecologically minded people. We hear talk of the importance of owning land with water and eating organic foods. It is like another Brattleboro, here in Brazil. And these concerns have long been some of our own concerns, knowing what we know about the intentions of the ruling families. However, at this stage of our lives, we are not so sure we want to survive the end times. But it has not curtailed our insatiable curiosity or our desire to do what we can to help ease suffering and promote the expansion of consciousness on the planet.

Thursday October 15, 2009

Yesterday continued to be good all day. In the middle of the day we took an 18 km ride outside of town to one of the many cachoeras (waterfalls) surrounding the town. It was a beautiful ride though the mountains on gently curving roads, passing small farms. It seemed a long time before we spotted the sign to the waterfall, leaving the main paved road to start a 2km drive down a dirt road. It was strangely reminiscent of some of the drives to the campgrounds in West Virginia when as soon as we’d round the 1^st bend, we’d have the thought, “oh my god! What have we got ourselves into and how are we going to get the hell out of here?” The narrow road led through some fairly remote terrain with deep ruts and places partially washed out from the rain making us question the good sense in continuing without endangering the car. At one spot we passed two women, each pushing a wheelbarrow carrying a mattress. They weren’t particularly friendly and it gave us some pause for thought as to our safety in venturing further. Without voicing my concerns, I knew Paul was having similar thoughts but perseverance has paid off in the past under similar circumstances and we continued to the end of the road which led to a parking area. Although deserted, it looked safe enough and we parked, stopping to change sandals for hiking shoes before searching out a path that would lead to the promised waterfall. Within view we noticed a small and very creative wooden foot bridge crossing to a bathing area with a very small waterfall.?. It was little more than a trickle and we questioned that we had ended in the correct place. Upon further reflection, we re-crossed the bridge in search of a different path when we encountered a woman and three dogs. It was a good encounter for Rocket who has been shying away from other dogs since becoming ill which is totally out of character for him, but they were great and she was lovely and she showed us the way to continue to find the path to the waterfall after collecting the entry fee which was posted at the parking lot.

She left us standing at the edge of the river pointing us toward a suspension bridge which swayed and bounced and was barely wide enough to place both feet side by side. It consisted of a series of 6 to 10 foot long planks of wood, maybe 6 inches wide, placed side by side, some with loose bolts, connected with heavy gage wires to a long heavy wire handrail which suspended the bridge across the river below. It scared me, as each step I took made the bridge bounce, so I walked very slowly, placing one foot at a time and waiting for balance before proceeding. Paul was much braver than I, carrying Rocket in one arm and holding the handrail (a braided wire rope) with only one hand. Had the river been much further below than it was I’m not sure I would have been willing to cross.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the three of us were safely across and we followed the directions to continue on our way to the waterfall. The place was deserted and it was hard for me to tell if it had been days or months or years since there was activity here as we passed first one small restaurant and then later a large seating area under a covered pavilion filled with hand crafted wooden tables and benches on the way to stone paths edged with rocks bordering small alcoves set up with barbecues, the occasional table and stool, small picnic areas under the palm trees, opening out to a large sand beach with a bar and the waterfall as centerpiece. As we looked out over the river which the waterfall emptied into, a new species of bird flew past and up into the trees high on the opposite bank, screeching its exotic call. It was quite spectacular in its uniquely Brazilian way and I could imagine the place filled with happy Brasilieros drinking beers and playing music. But this day it was only Paul, Rocket and me and our 3 new canine companions who had no trouble apparently crossing that crazy suspension bridge.

We felt that many things moved forward this day and in spite of the fact that Paul’s flu was a little worse, we enjoyed the day which so happened to be the 2^nd anniversary of our wedding day, and 9 years to the day from when we met. Rocket’s health continued to improve which made our hearts both sing with joy.

Today we began by spending an hour speaking English with the students at the language school. It was teacher appreciation day and we joined the class celebration with some local foods and drinks. It has been 9 days since arriving in Pirenopolis. Since that time we have joined in 5 days of different celebrations! We have honored saints, children and teachers and the birthday of the city. I could be mistaken but I get the feeling that Brasilieros love any opportunity for a celebration.

The pappagaios are loud and plentiful here and quite large. The wildlife seems much more abundant than where we came from. There we saw only the kind of predator bird that ate other birds, and a few small owls and monkeys. Here we have seen macaws, toucans and parrots, fascinating insects, very large and assorted lizards and the same wonderful little monkeys. I wish I could record the sounds in the air as they are so varied they create an orchestra. I am sure the percussion instruments of Brazilian music are inspired by the wildlife, especially the birds and insects.

After class our teachers drove us through the city looking for houses for rent and showing us different neighborhoods we likely never would have known about. Then we picked up their daughter and had lunch together in a spot we may never have discovered on the 2^nd floor of a supermarket. It was excellent fresh food and amazingly cheaply priced. Anything you could load on your plate for about $3. The sign on the wall read (in Portuguese of course) R$6 per plate; R$8 with leftovers. Afterwards we succeeded in completing the necessary paperwork and opening our bank account. This may sound like an ordinary non event to most of you, but for an American in Brazil, it was no small feat! We treated ourselves to the most delightful milkshakes at the café where the owner was putting out the word that we were in search of a house to rent and were given 2 leads to follow up on. Back to the room to retrieve the numbers from our email, we attempted to phone from our new cell phone only to be foiled by yet another obstacle to overcome- the necessity of phone credits! Who knew? We thought they came with the chip we bought which we understood to contain 4 hours of time. I mention this because I want you to get the full flavor of the difficulty of functioning in the most simple of occupations. Making a phone call here is very complicated! Now granted I am not at all cell phone savvy, since I haven’t had one that could function in the mountains of Vermont nor on the Cape of Massachusetts and the technology of cell phones have changed so much in the last 6 years since I had one I could operate. But here, there is a code for the city, a code for the state, a code for the phone service, before you even get to things like chips and credits. And the phone has a TV! Not only that but a camera and an FM radio and audio and video player. There’s little hope I’ll learn how to operate it. And I am even a little technically inclined, I can write html and post things to a website! But making a phone call in Brasil – that’s a different matter all together.

Fortunately for me, Izzione (pronounced Easy-own-ee) the most delightful girl ever, who doesn’t speak English but can communicate well to me regardless, is here to help. And as luck would further have it, a couple from the south of Brasil arrived speaking perfect English to help intervene on our behalf to phone and follow up on some possible houses to rent. More on that saga tomorrow perhaps….

Tonight in one hour, we will return to school to speak with another English class. Tomorrow more Portuguese lessons….

I can not find a way to segway into this last note, but one I find so useful, I want to add it in. Here in Brasil, everywhere you go, people have a thermal pot of coffee (and sometimes tea) out for their guests, patrons or clients. The tray of sugar with accompanies it has the unfortunate problem of attracting ants, for there are many ants here in the tropics. Here in this pousada, they came up with an ingenious (in my opinion) solution to this problem! The sugar bowls (one natural or raw and one brown) sit inside a shallow tray of water. No ants! Just thought I’d pass along that tip in case you might also find the occasion to do this.

Now that the worst is over with our flu, we are beginning to explore more of what this town has to offer. I hope to have more to write about that might hold some interest again. It may not be ballandrous and angel entities, but one never knows what lurks beyond the next corner. With any luck life will continue to be full of surprises.

Until next time we send love

October 7, 2009

Wednesday October 7, 2009

Pirenopolis

I am sitting on a verandah outside our new room overlooking a beautiful garden beyond which and around the corner is a pretty, round swimming pool. I’m writing to you this morning with high speed wireless internet at a table and chair, having had a delicious café de manha of different breads and pastries, granola, fruits and coffee, juice and tea overlooking the pool. Paul is in heaven! The sounds of exotic birds and insects fill the air and Rocket is delightfully watching and listening to all the new sounds. We woke this morning to the sound of roosters crowing, fireworks and a marching band off in the distance, because today is the birthday of Pirenopolis and this is a town that loves its celebrations. This pousada sits off a bit from the downtown, in a neighborhood closer to the perimeter and we can see the mountains just over the trees outside our room. We’re pleased we found this place (because of Rocket) a little off from the center because it will be quieter and cooler yet we can still walk to parts of town.

We waited all day yesterday for the long promised meeting with the Elders, the car loaded and ready to leave afterwards to consider the offer we’d been told was forthcoming. In fact that very morning as we walked from our hotel room to the restaurant for breakfast, Aspacia pulled up in the van filled with the women who go once a week together for shopping in town. Cleuosa was sitting in the front passenger seat and waved me over. “We’ve been waiting to see you before we left,” she said. “There’s really great news. Have you heard? The issue with the farm isn’t closed. Are you happy with this news?” I hardly knew how to respond, besides I still had very little voice to respond with, since my laryngitis which was beginning to clear up had turned into a bad cold with a sore throat and a cough. She added a few more words to be sure I understood that the farm was going to be re-offered to us to live in. All I could say was that we would have to wait till the meeting to hear what was proposed and thank her for stopping to tell me.

So wait we did, until 4 o’clock that afternoon with no sign of Gaudencio to announce the time for the meeting. Ready to blow out of there, we finally walked over to his house to say, we were off and would return on Sunday if the Elders still wanted to meet with us then. We had said our goodbyes, paid up all our bills, even had a fascinating conversation about mediumship, astrology, numerology, perception and various other topics with Yvonnia while we waited. You know, this woman Yvonnia is so intriguing to me. She had so much she wanted to tell us and wanted us to understand, and more than anything we wanted to understand what was so important to her that we knew, but again our limitations with the language prevented a full comprehension.

Here we were in a place where we could be learning so much, yet this limitation exists….

Without much explanation Gaudencio had let us know that the Elders had been given a proposal for us but were not happy with it and sent it back, to whom, we don’t know, probably the mayor, to be redone. Our level of frustration was very high as we can’t see not having the courtesy to let us know the meeting needed to be postponed again instead of leaving us to wait endlessly. Is it a power play, a way of exerting dominance? Whatever the intention whether pre-calculated or simply mishandled, it has us ready to wash our hands of the whole thing, regardless of the opportunities staying would provide for us to learn or for us to help. We have too many unanswered questions about the intentions Yokaanam set for his community. All information points us to feel that the Way and the guardian angels that seem to be always around us protecting us and guiding our path are not in favor of us being there.

Paul drove off with a sense of joy and relief like he had never before experienced. Ever since hearing the origins of Yokaanam’s connection to the Dutch royal family, questions and connections have occupied his thoughts unceasingly. A more formidable sense of dread was overcoming him. Bigger than worries of protecting Rocket and me from poisonous snakes, the potential implications were ominous. If only we could read Yokaanam’s writings, or understand the ritual ceremonies in the Templo or the teachings at Umbanda class…. This would begin to give us a sense of whether we are involving ourselves with the light or the dark forces. But we just confirmed a suspicion which had been developing, that both light and dark forces are controlled by the same powers. It’s how they can manipulate and control all the outcomes. We have a sense that Umbanda is a pure and good practice, but the Essenic school and the Eclectic brotherhood’s purpose is a mystery we need to explore further before we deepen our own involvement. I don’t wish to cast aspersions unnecessarily, only to voice our concerns and questions as to the intentions of their revered leader, this visionary who was Yokaanam.

Just the other day our internet connection was strong enough to discover and begin to watch a new interview with David Icke on YouTube which deepened our understanding of what might be happening in Ecletica and explained in a beautiful way the unfolding of expanding consciousness. He is brilliant at explaining in a simple and understandable way what has proven for us to be a complex area to discuss. We highly recommend this interview: New David Icke: Freedom Central in Amsterdam! 1/14

Driving here last night, leaving as we did near five o’clock, we were blessed with the light from the setting sun, lighting the mountain ranges that lie between the two cities. It is always a beautiful drive but at that, my favorite time of day, it felt like a gift to renew and refresh our senses washing them with the glow of this mysterious and magnificent beauty. Arriving in town we saw another red beaked toucan which felt like a welcoming sign very much like the dolphin I spotted the day I arrived in Florida years ago.

I’m writing now from my favorite place, inside a hammock. It’s not the most ideal location for typing but I have been longing to be in a hammock since leaving Vermont, back in the day before everything was packed up. I discovered a technique for relaxing a couple years back on a visit to Costa Rica when I rediscovered the art of swaying in a hammock. You may think this is silly, but my whole life the ability to relax has been most challenging for me. I am unable to fall asleep for an afternoon nap and the closest activity to relaxing I’ve ever found was reading a good novel, until I rediscovered lying in a hammock. It’s like being rocked like a baby in the mother’s arms, or better yet like floating in the nurturing waters inside the womb. I recommend it highly! Relaxation is an essential ingredient for expanding consciousness.

I don’t have any other relevant news to report at the moment so I find myself simply rambling on, attempting to describe this experience. It has become more exotic in some ways since leaving Ecletica, there is more wildlife, both fauna and flora, and the sounds in the air are wild and intense and different. Tudo bem. All’s well.

Saturday October 10, 2009

Pirenopolis, Goias, Brasil

Surfacing back to the land of the mostly living, after two or three days of semi comatose illness, known here as a grippe, I spent the better part of the last two days in bed, in and out of fitful sleep, coughing and gasping for clear nasal breath. Although I doubt I’ll get much further than the hammock on the verandah today, at least my brain seems to be functioning again to write a few reflections. Can’t say I’ve really enjoyed much of the culture and atmosphere yet of this lovely little city, because since arriving I’ve been too ill and left the comfort of the pousada only long enough to sit through a meal before returning to the bed or hammock. It’s not the bargain basement of travel destinations like Nossa Hotel at 30 reais a night, (aprox$15) here we are in the high rent district with prices for a night during the week at 80 reais, jumping to 120 on a regular weekend and up to 500 reais for a 3 day holiday weekend which it turns out this one is with a packed house! Hardly seems worth spending so much when we’ll likely not move far from the bed until this illness runs its course. BUT since I’m too sick to move and Rocket limits our choices of places to stay, here we are. We’ve been making friends with the proprietor who speaks English and comes by once a day to chat with us for a while. He’s an interesting fellow and we’ve enjoyed listening to him rehearse music with his band everyday in the house he’s having built next to the pousada. They play a selection of our favorite old rock and roll tunes; some of Dylan’s, Rolling Stones, Hendrix and other legendary greats from the 60’s and 70’s when the music from our youth was more powerfully poignant. Yesterday morning at breakfast he sat with us for a while and shared some of his past history and knowledge of the medicinal value of the plants and fruits native to the area, while brewing me a tea from the peels of a fruit, rich in healing properties. At our enquiry he told us of a doctor I could visit in town, as Paul feared the turn of my flu like condition to potentially deadly pneumonia.

Because healthcare outside the US is so different, we thought it of interest to describe our experience. We visited a private doctor, not a public hospital per the recommendation of Fabio. It was a short drive to a building signposted as a hospital with a banner outside with the message that Dr Edumar had been serving the community of Pirenopolis for thirty (?) years. Inside we encountered an empty waiting room of wooden benches and two well dressed women working behind the counter at a computer and a classically old typewriter. They immediately acknowledged us, asked for my name which was handwritten in a large leather bound journal. I was informed of the cost for the visit (150 reais) and both women proceeded with some confusion and difficulty to use the credit card machine to collect my payment. I was then led through a corridor into the adjoining office of Dr Edumar (which, by the way, is his 1^st name) whereupon the receptionist handed the receipt of my payment by visa to the doctor and left the room. Dr Edumar sat behind a large old fashioned desk with all the time in the world for me to describe my symptoms while he asked questions to elucidate more detail. We conducted most of the conversation in Portuguese and hand gestures, with the doctor nodding in comprehension and occasionally after a while throwing in a word or two of English. He spoke in a very loud voice, not so that we would understand him better, but because that was his way (and a feature we had been notified of in advance by Fabio) Doctor Edumar is a rotund man with a big full head of white hair and full beard, very kindly and caring and the kind of man who liked to laugh at his own stories. Extremely friendly and not all rushed to move us through the process to get to his next patient as is our experience of the medical profession in the US. He had me lie down then on his examination table and went through the standard checks of pulse, blood pressure and listening to my lungs and so forth. His prognosis was reassuring that my condition was viral, not infectious or bacterial. He said this type of grippe was common around here because of the long dry season on the high plateau and associated allergies from the lack of humidity, even now at the start of rainy season. He prescribed 4 pharmaceutical products to relieve my symptoms but also recommended which foods to eat and which to avoid, as well as recommending fruit juices especially agua de coc (the water from coconuts which is high in electrolytes!) and mentioned some activities like cachoeiras (waterfalls) swimming and showering, however I’m not sure if he asked if I had been to them, was telling me to avoid them or suggesting I participate in them! This is the major problem with only partially understanding the language! Because we were Americans which he distinguished 1^st by asking if we were German and then European (as everyone else has done!) he wanted to engage us in a conversation about politics and especially Obama. This last too has been a common theme among people who wanted to engage us in conversation either with a small command of English or without.

In this economy, 150 reais is very expensive to see a doctor where I believe at the public hospital the care is not as fast or easy or possibly as individualized but I’m fairly certain is free. However, for our American standards at a little more than $75 or $80 (depending on the current exchange) it’s reasonable and no health insurance required. About $35 more later after the trip to the pharmacy I am on my way back to better health after a pretty decent night of sleep (the 1^st in 3 or 4.)

We’ve been the only guests except for 1 other in the pousada until last night as people began arriving for the big holiday weekend. This morning at breakfast the place began to come alive and now from my verandah I can see and hear a family swimming in the pool from behind the gardens separating us from view. Fabio told Paul yesterday that when he came here 7 years ago there was no vegetation, that he planted everything. Now it is a tropical paradise with many species of different plants, flowers and trees. The place is called Arvoreda, which means the place of trees and is aptly named. Walking around the circular driveway this morning with Rocket we took the time to look closely at the many varieties of flowering trees and plants and the different species of small animals and insects. We saw the largest ant we’ve ever seen at 1 ½ inches long, standing 3/8 of an inch tall. Fabio is an environmentalist and as such is a wealth of information about the nature of Brasil, both here in the cerrado and elsewhere. I don’t know if any of you have taken the time to explore the blogspot that Charlie has been setting up to post these letters and Paul’s articles, but please do as he has found many interesting links to further information about the region where we’re visiting and Ecletica and Yokaanam’s history with further links about Umbanda. I’ve learned more in depth knowledge from his links than I have from my first hand experience, thanks to him. This has been helpful for us because of our difficulties with internet access until arriving here, it has limited the amount of research we could do. And simply being here we were using other modes of gleaning information. With our language limitations, my reports of our experience have been limited as well.

Although our experience with Ecletica may not be over completely yet, we feel fairly certain that we are moving along now to explore other places and things. Brasil is a huge country filled with different types of geography, different cultures, different spiritual and religious movements, providing a vast array of experiences for us to explore. It seems that the people here (so far as we’ve encountered) are more aware of both the spiritual aspect to life as well as the “end time scenarios’ that has been coming to light for many researchers and followers of this line of exploration. We are curious to know how these differ and where they converge. So far we find mostly similarities but with the focus bent towards either environmental causes or biblical apocalyptical leanings with the same end result. When speaking with people who have environmental leanings, they point out the catastrophic weather events that are now occurring and have been occurring for a few years. Right now there has been catastrophic flooding in the south of Brasil, causing the evacuation of many cities. I believe that Indonesia is again experiencing more Tsunamis. Even in religious communities the belief is still held that much of the land mass will end up under water from earth changes and that there will be a new coastline. They believe in some places here in the Central Plateau that they are safe from earth changes because of the elevation and distance from the sea. I don’t exactly know where I myself stand on these things but Paul has moved them further from his concerns and wishes to explore both the southern most regions of this country as well as other countries around the world. Perhaps Brasil is not to be our last destination but one of many yet to be explored…..

One last note of entry before signing off this segment of news from travel in Brazil: I am not the only one who is sick at the moment. This morning Paul awoke with a sore throat and for several days has been re-experiencing the symptoms of the Candida which we had succeeded in curing (so we thought) before leaving Vermont. If we are not very strict with his diet he suffers distressing pain and bloating. This sore throat leads me to worry that he may begin this weeklong bout of grippe that I am now emerging from in addition to digestive concerns. But even more worrisome to both of us is the health of little Rocket who has been gloomily moping around since last Saturday nights festivities at Elliana’s house. That night you may recall I mentioned he got into a squabble with the little Chihuahua who as we later discovered gave him a pretty good bite behind his ear leaving a bloody series of scabs by the time it came to our attention. It seemed a small trifle at the time and overlooked in the midst of other activities like moving out and my illness. Paul noticed he hadn’t eaten and I thought he was in my morphic field, sleeping a lot because I was and hot to the touch for the same reason, although this morning after several days of lethargic behavior our thoughts turned to worry at his lack of appetite and drowsy behavior. After falling on his face when attempting to jump to the floor from the bed (the floor is so slippery he has trouble with traction) he was interested in some yogurt and granola rather than his boring kibble. That and a few treats from the breakfast buffet, he seems to have also, like me, rounded the corner to recovery of his energy and appetite. We’re keeping a close watch in case a trip to a veterinarian is warranted later today.

Until next time, dear friends and family, we send love and wishes for your well being and happiness.

Mindy and Paul