Parties!

Monday 5 of us went to visit a friend in Passagem for her birthday.  She turned 104....yes, 104 years old.  Imagine!  We arrived and her son and daughter-in-law greeted us in the front yard.  He painted the house inside and out for her birthday and it was decorated with balloons and flowers.  They said that some of the neighbors had visited in the morning and some family was expected to arrive later in the afternoon.  Dona Margarida was in bed, but they woke her up for her "party."  She wore a long white dress covered in beads and sequins, her nails were painted a bright tangerine and she had plastic iridescent beads around her neck.  She sat there in her wheelchair absolutely sparkling as the afternoon light flooded in the door.  Seldom have I seen anyone so beautiful.  We took a birthday cake and a pie--she wanted the cake.  She chowed down on 2 pieces of cake and gulped a cup of pepsi, followed by a very satisfied belch.  (I thought if cake is the secret to longevity I will survive at least to 100!)  She spoke little, but was very attentive to the conversation in the crowded living room.  Once she looked at me so intently and held my gaze for so long I thought she must be remembering someone else.  How many people has she known in more than a century?  How many has she seen as newborns, how many has she seen die?  More than a century of joy and suffering, of victories and defeats, of hungry days and days when you get all the cake you want.  Which does she treasure most?  The good times when they had enough food on the table and all the kids were at home?  Or the hard times when she was alone?  Can you really enjoy prosperity without knowing poverty?  Oh how many things I'd love to ask her, how many stories she could tell!

Sunday is the feast day of St. John the Baptist, and a huge holiday here.  It's as big of a deal as Christmas. Everyone has been talking about it for a month.  You have to refer to things as being "before São João" or "after São João."  Lucia was very concerned when she discovered 3 weeks ago that I didn't yet know what I was going to wear.  You're supposed to dress like a country bumpkin and can't match, so I didn't really think I needed to give it much thought.  Apparently I was mistaken.  Thank God I have a Brazilian to pick out clothes for me :)  My outfit is perfectly hideous!  I can't wait to show you all photos.  The kids are off school for 2 weeks and no one is working on anything except for official party business.  We are planning a big ol' shindig in the Fazenda.  We're expecting 40-50 people to arrive Saturday morning and stay until Sunday afternoon.  Erica and I are the official decoration committee.  Erica being Idea Department and I am Implementation Department.  (I'm not on food this time because the food is very specific Bahian food that I don't know how to make.  Only Brazilians are allowed in the kitchen.)  We're going to have Brazilian square dancing, complete with lessons Saturday afternoon, a bigger-than-Texas sized BBQ, a bonfire the size of a house, a mock wedding (I'm playing the part of the mother of the groom, but shhhhh, it's a secret), and forró dancing until the am.  And then we get to sleep for a week...HA!  I wish!