The Birthday Party (September 19, 2009)
One day last week Gaudencio told us a story about a friend’s birthday party. He wondered if we knew about a tradition they honor in South America and asked if we also did the same in the US. The birthday celebrant cuts the cake and gives the 1st piece to their favorite person. In his story this very special person had searched the room to find him to give him the 1st piece and he was incredibly honored.
The very next day we had gone to town with Sevenah to do some shopping for the restaurant. She stopped in a bakery and bought a chocolate cake, telling us it was the birthday of Vany’s son Marco who would be 9 years old the next day. Vany is the other woman who works with her in the restaurant in addition to her daughter-in-law, Alene.
Upon our return we were invited to come back later to sing happy birthday to Marco.
Marco is a delightful boy who always has a smile for us when he sees us, which lights up his whole face. I watched in delight as Marco left the room with the 1st piece of cake to find Sevenah. He then returned and waited happily as his mother cut each piece of cake which he then delivered to each of us in the room. He repeated this process of delivering a glass of soda to each of us and afterwards he went around the room giving us some candies until all three bowls of candies had been distributed, 2 or 3 pieces at a time.
Now this may not sound like anything special to write about, but have you stopped to consider the difference between what I described and the traditional birthday celebration you might have experienced? I recall that the birthday person gets the 1st piece of cake and then later receives a present from each of his or her guests. Not so here. The joy here is in the giving, not the receiving! Marco’s face was lit up with joy each time he was able to present a piece of cake, a glass of soda and a piece of candy to each of his guests.
My heart sang with happiness when I stopped later that evening to reflect on this. I wondered if I would have noticed if Gaudencio hadn’t just told me his story the day before or if it would have gone by without reflection….
A Million Tics
On each of our two visits to the valley where the farmhouse is located which will likely be our new home in Brazil, we returned to the hotel room only to find Rocket covered with tics. Although he wears protective oil which prevents any damage or illness, it does not keep the tics from attaching themselves. Paul counted in disgust something like 40 tics as he pulled them off one by one the first day.
Two days later, we returned to the valley, this time taking the upper road past the farmhouse further down into the valley where the road ends at a lake although in this setting the word lagoon seems more fitting. I felt like I had walked into a movie set and found myself in Paradise. Words seem to fall short of describing this landscape which to me feels like a landscape of opposites. Where in the Northern Hemisphere the mountains and valleys I’ve always known seem to find me starting at the bottom looking up to climb to the top, here it seems the top is my starting place and the journey descends. So this lagoon or lake looks to sit at the bottom of this tropical jungle paradise where standing next to it you can look all around and look up to see the land climbing to a rim, but as we walked the path which encircled the lake, we looked over one side and the ground continued to descend even lower into the most dense jungle landscape I’d ever seen. The closest I can come to describing it resembles an Amazonian rainforest. It took my breath away. The peace of this place is delightful. We’ve been told that people from the village come here to fish, but on this day there was not another person in sight. As we walked the path around the lake Paul heard the sound of a waterfall. His hearing is acute. I could not at first hear it until we approached a little closer. We discovered a small path through the woods which followed a creek from the runoff of the lake. It was not a waterfall but merely the sound of the water trickling over the stone bottom of the creek. This is dry season though and we both imagine the volume of water during rainy season will be enough to create little pools of water we could easily sit in to cool off where the water is crystal clear. The lake looks swimable but you can not see the bottom and here in Brazil we could be swimming with large snakes – not a welcoming thought.
Speaking of welcoming, I want to come back later and say more about that.
Meanwhile the discovery of this lake just minutes from the place which could be our new home, filled my heart with joy! I imagined many return trips to this place as my future played itself out in my head. Walking back we envisioned ourselves on horseback as we passed many signs of the presence of horses and the farm offers perfect accommodations to have a couple, with unlimited grazing opportunities. My imagination runs wild in this place but all these possibilities seem easily attainable.
Walking back the road you can look up the hill towards the village and see the school and a few of the houses at the edge of the rim, giving us the feeling of security, knowing a phone call would bring help in a matter of minutes if the need arose.
On this day we walked past the farmhouse without stopping so as not to impose on the gentleman who is currently residing there. Here is a lovely man who is aging and ill, who will move to the hospital to finish his days here. He told us he will live there next and then he will live in the spirit world in such a nonchalant way with such joy in the prospect. It was inspiring to hear death spoken of so freely and with joy in the anticipation.
We had driven partially down the road, leaving the car parked just before the 1st of the 2 giant potholes for our walk to the lake. We stopped before getting in to check for tics, remembering well the last time. We pulled off a few and returned to the hotel room thinking we had gotten whatever had climbed onboard. However later that night after falling asleep, Paul awoke to the sound of Rocket scratching some time before I awoke to find them both sitting up with all the lights on. Paul was most distressed as he reported having pulled off in the neighborhood of some 40 tics. He continued to sit up all night worrying about the state of affairs we would encounter on a daily basis if there would be this many tics to deal with ongoingly.
It is now 2 days later. Paul spent all day yesterday worried and concerned and more than a little frustrated at not seeing Gaudencio to bring news of our impending meeting with the town Elders who will officially offer us the house. We are told they will want us to sign a contract agreeing to the fact that the house belongs to Ecletica but we will be given the right to live there from 5 up to 100 years in return for some agreement to offer service. We do not yet know what kind of service we will be asked to give.
There is confidential talk that they want to reactivate the farm to working status as it was a good source of income to the village and was able to provide the revenue to buy food for all the people when it was active. At that time it raised some thousands of chickens. We have our own ideas for the farm and would like to see it raising layers instead of meat chickens to provide eggs for everyone and eventually producing an excess for revenue. We’d also like to see it producing excess food from a vegetable garden for the village. But we like the idea of starting small and growing slowly. Their idea, we are being told confidentially for now, is to receive government assistance with capitol and agronomic assistance with a third partner to contribute financial resources. We’d be given the 1st option to be this partner. If this were to go back to full scale operation with community members providing the labor, they foresee bringing in 2 or 3 families to live at the farm to run the operation. Our thought and one reiterated yesterday to me by Gaudencio, was to see if any of our family or friends would like to come here and live here with us to do this. The stipulation, he said, being that they were good people like us who the community would accept. So I feel okay in mentioning this now, in spite of the confidentiality, because I want you to consider if this might be an opportunity for yourselves to come join us in this most rare of adventures. Not everyone who lives in the community works as a medium, so do not let that be a concern in consideration.
The Welcome
A few years ago when we lived on Cape Cod, we were invited to attend a chanting group. I do wish I could recall the name of the Guru whom they followed but I cannot, I’m sorry. I can only say it was a woman with the most beautiful voice. On this particular night the group was studying a teaching with the theme of welcoming. They took this teaching to a depth of the concept which was truly inspiring.
When we moved to Vermont we were amazed to find several offerings sitting on our doorstep, a few days after moving in. The neighbors had each baked brownies and bread and brought baskets of fresh home grown veggies to welcome us to our new home. It opened our hearts with such love and amazement to be welcomed this way and it had been a first of this kind of experience.
These two experiences, which then blew us away with kindness and generosity, pale in comparison to the welcome we have been given here. If we understood the language better, I’m sure the depth of this welcome would be even greater as there are many who are too shy to attempt to communicate in the face of us standing there with mouths agape in utter non-comprehension. But there are those who will not be deterred and speak with us determined that we will understand, repeating slowly again and again and using hand and facial gestures until we at last light up in comprehension! Through our one intermediary, Gaudencio, who is commissioned by the Elders under instruction from their spiritual leader, we do achieve some level of communication beyond that of which we are able on our own. Yet everyday we are getting more able to speak and understand the language. Here in this place however, it does not take language to feel the incredible welcome that is extended not only to us, we are told, but to every person who comes here, whether poor or rich, or inclined otherwise in any way. It is the teaching of their venerable spiritual master which lives on some 24 years after his death.
PART TWO _ ONE WEEK LATER……
Sunday September 27, 2009
It has been more than a week since Marco’s birthday party. This has been a week of confusion, disillusionment and indecision for both of us. A week after being offered Ecletica’s farmhouse, we were scheduled to meet with the town officials to discuss the details. The 1st such meeting had been promised to happen 4 days earlier but postponed until this past Thursday the 24th to accommodate some negotiations happening elsewhere.
To make a long story short (something I’m not particularly good at) I will just say yet another offer has been rescinded. But I’ll still try to relay the details….
A week after seeing and being offered the farm and a week of mentally imagining ourselves there for better or worse, depending on which of us was doing the imagining, the anticipated meeting loomed ahead later that evening. For a week we had gone about our business thinking our housing problems were solved and that we had some real direction for our role here. However while I was busy fantasizing about peace and tranquility, swaying in a hammock, horses grazing in the field and delivering fresh eggs to the community, Paul was busy imagining snakes crawling through the rafters in the middle of the night, banditos on horseback riding in to hold us up in the night and the realities of living in barely a shack, deep in the jungle (I’m using the term loosely.) Two different scenarios! But every other day Paul found great possibilities in the prospect and seemed enrolled in the idea. On his off days we would walk back over down into the valley and I would try to put my mind into the reality of a future living in that house while Paul would get re-enrolled into the possibilities of how cool it could be living there.
There was a huge complicating factor, which I believe I touched on briefly earlier in the letter, that of the potential plan to reactivate the chicken ranch to full scale production with 20,000 chickens filling 5 large buildings. How would we feel having our idyllic secluded and tranquil life disrupted by being in the middle of such a large scale chicken farming operation? We’d be given the option to be partners in the business, allowing us to make a huge contribution to the community and also generating some income for ourselves. Well we didn’t come here to go into business, but we also know that we may not be able to count on the US government continuing to pay out social security. It could end at any time and then we will need to generate an income. So with these factors in mind, we spent all week on a see saw, riding up and down with positive and negative scenarios. In the end I think Paul was as excited about what could be possible there as I was.
Tired of waiting for the meeting, we decided to ride over to visit Pirenopolis for the day. We stopped on the way out of town to check in with Gaudencio for details about the meeting and what time that would occur. We’d be meeting with the deputy mayor because the mayor was gone for a two week retreat. Gaudencio let us know that the meeting would happen after dinner and that he was not being invited to attend because of political differences he had with the deputy mayor, unless we insisted on having him there. This announcement was followed by a long discussion and history of the dispute between the two of them and advice on how to handle the meeting as well as what to expect. There was no question that the affair was a source of tension for several of the people involved. With this knowledge we left town to spend a day, simply having fun.
Pirenopolis is an old colonial gold mining town surrounded by high mountain ranges and quite beautiful with its narrow hilly cobble stoned streets. It is a town listed on the National Historical Register and as such draws many tourists and visitors. This weekend it was hosting its 10th annual song of spring festival and had 2 stages set up for concerts in the center of town. We like this town because it is filled with restaurants and cafes and artisan shops and is very welcoming to visitors who provide a big part of its livelihood. In fact I’ve never seen a town so far in my travels with more pousadas.
On this day we were again considering in the back of our minds if living in Pirenopolis would be better suited to our lifestyle and if we should consider finding a place to live there, perhaps with a studio to make art and commuting to Ecletica on Sundays for our Umbanda studies and participation. Not knowing how the meeting later that night would go and with Paul questioning if he really wanted to make the move, we thought to consider all our options before committing to anything, but I was still hoping for the farm, while Paul was open to either outcome, though more in favor of not being on the farm. I wondered that I wouldn’t be very much in favor of staying one or two weekends a month in Pirenopolis, just to keep my foot in a more normal lifestyle.
We found we liked Pirenopolis even more on this visit than we had last February when we visited for the first time. It is a magnificently beautiful town surrounded on all sides by huge mountain ranges and much more reminiscent of the landscape we are familiar with in the States. On the drive back there is an outdoor café perched high atop a bluff overlooking a huge waterfall. We stopped to have a beer and an ice cream and watched 6 or 7 different species of birds feeding on the deck with the waterfall in the background.
Back in town later that evening, we walked out of the restaurant after dinner to a car pulling up to the curb. We were greeted by the deputy mayor and his wife who jumped out and introduced herself to us in English and informed us that we were expected at the meeting in 20 minutes. After inquiring, we were told that Gaudencio was not to be included in the meeting because his department was separate from theirs and that we would have a different interpreter. There was no opening for us to object. We were surprised but thought we’d just go with it. Twenty minutes later we showed up at town hall and were let into a back office to meet with a group of 5 people including the interpreter for what we believed would be a meeting offering us the terms by which we could move into the farmhouse. It was a friendly meeting but we were questioned about our intentions and then told rather matter of factly that we could not be offered the farm house and then given many explanations why not. I left the meeting and could not hold back the tears at my disappointment after more than a week of imagining the life I thought we’d have there, having no reason to imagine it wasn’t already approved.
Even though Paul was mostly relieved, I think he was a bit shocked at the way it went and left disappointed at the way everything was handled. We had a direction and now were left with none, wondering why we keep staying on here.
The next morning we had an appointment to meet with Gaudencio and his son-in-law’s father to go car shopping. After waiting a month, the day had at last arrived, only one day before we were due to return our rental car. The four of us drove together to Taguatinga where to our amazement at being given this incredible help, Arimis did all the negotiating on our behalf in dealer after dealer up and down 2 full blocks of car dealerships until late into the afternoon when we decided on a purchase. We’d hoped that we could put the purchase on our visa card and drive off with the car the next day after the dealership rotated the tires and registered the car for us, but unfortunately it was not to be that easy so we will have to spend the next few days trying to wire in more money and wait for it to arrive. This led to the further task of renewing more time on the rental car while we wait to get the money here. During the course of the day we let Gaudencio know how the meeting had gone the night before. He took in the information quietly and let it sink in slowly throughout the day, saying only a comment or two that it was not their place to deny us the house.
Back in Ecletica, we spent yet another Friday night in the hotel and decided to return again on Saturday to Pirenopolis in search of a pousada that would allow us to stay with Rocket. As we were about to pull out the next morning, Gaudencio pulled up at the gate.
He had spent the evening in meetings with the Elders who were not happy at the outcome and said that they were the final word on whether we do or do not get the farm. They are asking us, Gaudencio explained, to please hold off on our decision to leave and move to Pirenopolis, forgetting the meeting even occurred for another week while they straighten things out. They asked us to please give them more time before making any decisions.
So where does this leave us? We are awaiting word from the Elders on what we will be offered. We will find out what is expected of us as to what help they believe we can offer them. We are contemplating leaving the area entirely to travel by car from here in the central high plateau to the South of Brazil where there is a European community and perhaps a more suitable lifestyle or relocating to Pirenopolis. But all possibilities are once again open to us and once again we are on hold while we await the outcome of our future. We have reopened communications with language immersion courses in both Rio and Salvador, trying to find an apartment that will allow us to bring Rocket, but meanwhile it seems heavy negotiations are going on here behind the scenes while we wait, in an effort to keep us here…. Why is this? Who do they think we are, or more to the point, who do they think Paul is?
Last night a strange thing happened. It was an annual celebration called Cosme e Damiao (I think) in honor of these two saints. This was an amazing thing which I will say more about but first, I wanted to tell you that during the event Gaudencio came and pulled Paul from his seat and took him to introduce him to Ezekiel. Ezekiel is, I believe the 4th highest ranking Elder. During the introduction Paul replied that it was his pleasure to meet Ezekiel, that he had heard many good things about him. Ezekiel replied “Oh no, it is my magnificent pleasure to meet you!” Upon the retelling of this response to his wife, Gaudencio told Paul this morning, she was absolutely blown away in amazement at Ezekial’s reaction. I guess this is not a common reaction from him….
Paul is finding this a bit disturbing while I know perhaps as well as some of the people here who he really is better than he knows himself or can allow himself to believe. Somehow they see beyond the persona to his real self, the spirit who continues before and after this life of Paul Marko.
So last night was a big night here in Cidade Ecletica and I guess all around Brazil when they celebrate the lives of the twin doctors Cosme and Damiao. I haven’t yet understood the full story of who they were, but I think as I understand it they were pediatricians from a wealthy family who no longer wanted to be Christian or Catholic, but wanted to follow the teachings of Christ in his charitable ways and treated the children who came to them for free. This didn’t go over well and they were beheaded and later sainted???? Now they come back as angels once a year and all the children are given candy. It would seem that many of the mediums on this night incorporate angel entities. They sit on the floor with gobs of candy and bowls of honey and sweets, giving candy to the children and playing. We were told the people over fifty also get candy like the children, but last night everyone got candy! They had such a huge response of candy donated to the Temple that it was overflowing with candy. Some of the entities and all of the mediums were walking around handing it to everyone, filling their pockets. Eumenes, one of our favorite mediums, had incorporated a delightfully childlike entity and was walking around with a bowl of honey, dipping his fingers in it and licking it off, offering it to the people he passed and showing them to do the same while giggling like a little boy. And speaking of honey…. After Paul was introduced to Ezekiel, he was taken to Irma Helenira, who is one of the most revered mediums in the Temple. She normally incorporates Grandmother Rosa and when she is not working as a medium is quite serious and hardworking. Last night she had incorporated a very childlike entity who sat on the floor with a bowl of honey. Gaudencio translated what she said when Paul was taken to see her, “You are very soft and sweet on the inside,” she said “but on the outside you are very hard. It will be easier for you when you get through the hard stuff and can be soft and sweet on the outside.” And then added, “Don’t worry about what men think. It is only important what God thinks.” That was about the fifth time Paul had been told that last phrase by as many different entities. Then she dipped her hand in her bowl of honey and wiped it all over his face and head.
Back in the seat where I am waiting for him, he is telling me this story when 10 minutes later our friend Andrea comes over to talk to us, covered with honey. “My aunt asked me if I was sad,” she said. Helenira is her Aunt. “I told her I was a little. She told me not to be sad and wiped honey all over my face!” She was dripping with honey and laughing! She could barely open her eyes.
I’d been walking around trying to get a closer look at the mediums who were incorporating the angels to see if I thought they were for real or just a spiritual version of the WWF, just putting on a really good performance. I am not one to generally be skeptical, but Paul had been putting this idea in my head for days. I was watching one guy who was a big man and like most of the men here who are very stern and serious looking most of the time. He was sitting cross legged on the floor acting like an innocent little child having a lot of fun. He was breaking apart a giant lollypop into pieces and giving it to the kids who sat on the floor around him, but keeping most of the pieces for himself. He looked like he was for real to me! There were so many children and people of all ages crowded around the angels. I couldn’t really get around much to see more without forcing myself through people, but I kept being handed bags full of candy so I walked around where I could handing it back out to everyone I encountered. Some of the children like to say one or two words to me in English when they see me and have such smiles of delight that they know how to say hello or thank you.
I wish I could describe this scene last night. The Temple was overflowing with people. All the seats were filled. All the aisles and the whole front area of the temple was filled with people of every age from new born infants to elderly people and everyone was happy and smiling and laughing and playing and eating candy with bags more and pockets full to take home for later!
Any minute now I expect a knock on the door, or more accurately a loud booming voice saying “PAUL” to let us know Gaudencio has arrived. We will drive back into town today to pay for the car, but we’ll have to return again on Thursday to pick it up after it has gone through a government inspection and received its papers.
I have another short little story I’d like to tell you though. It’s about the symphony of insects. This is the time of year just before the start of rainy season when the insects are out in full force with the loudest and strangest songs that fill the air. By the way, this week was the first day of spring, here in the southern hemisphere. We are opposite on this side of the equator. The sound fills the air with a screeching noise that amplifies like a police whistle or like thousands of people whistling, or even strangely screaming. It begins as background noise and just gets louder and louder until you must stop and take notice. So we’re talking to Sevenah after dinner two nights ago and we stop to comment on the sound filling the room through the open windows when she describes to us in her solely Portuguese dialect with wonderful facial gestures and body language that they whistle until they explode! She calls them exploding insects and tells us they make themselves little houses that attach to the trees and grow bigger and bigger while singing this loud song until they simply explode!
Speaking of really cool sounds in the air, we were stopped on a corner in Pirenopolis the other day with the car windows open when we heard this really loud exotic sound. We stopped and looked at each other to say “What was that!” We looked over and sitting on top of a high wall were two bright blue Macaws! They were huge and very brilliantly colored. First time we’d seen any quite that exotic. Most exotic animal we’ve seen since we came are the little monkeys in the trees by the restaurant. But the sounds, now they are exotic, including my new name which is now pronounced in one syllable and sounds like Minge! It’s so unlike the sound of any Portuguese word, I can always pick it out when someone is calling me. Little 3 year old Carolina likes to call both of us together at one time from across the room, “Oi Paul e Minge!”
This morning at 10 will be a special service in the Temple we are told to celebrate Saint Geronimo and Arch Angel Michael when all the mediums will wear different colored Ballandrou to represent the different level grades they are in the Essenic school. We hear it will be very beautiful with bright yellow and various shades of blue.
Yesterday we learned something interesting. I had noticed while translating a text by Yokaanan the other day that he referred to Yogi Ramacharaka, who is one of our revered teachers whose writings we study. Paul mentioned this to Gaudencio and with extreme surprise he told us that the Essenic School follows his teachings and that Yokaanan used to incorporate Ramacharaka and write down the teachings he gave him.
In a time of major questioning on our part if we will stay here or move on, this news sways me in favor of staying and may even occur to me like a message that we are supposed to be here.
Once again I have written a very long letter and offer my apologies for not being more succinct. Until next time Paul joins me in sending our love and wishes for your well being and happiness.
Mindy and Paul