GLÓRIA IN BLACK AND WHITE

Click on any photo for a larger image.

         When I arrived in Glória, Brunie had already been a PC Volunteer there for about a year. She welcomed me into her home which we shared until she left. 

        Brunie has been reading my blog. A few days ago, I received these photos from her in the mail.

        If I remember correctly, Brunie had a camera that took only black and white photos. There was a young man in town who was a photographer who took and developed his own photos. He was a student at the ginásio and also worked at the Post Office or the bank. I think his name was Ronaldo, but I'm not sure. (The memory has quite gone after 40 years.) And although I have no memory of these photos being taken, I think it was Ronaldo(?) who took the last one in this blog because I have a few that I know he took and the format is similar.

        Some of these photos are not very clear. They were very small, quite dark, or too light and had some flaws, mostly due to age. I scanned them and retouched them, but they are still not in perfect condition, but they brought back great memories, even though I cannot remember everyone's name.

        The photo above and a detail of it below shows Me (left) and Brunie (right) with Irene who was a home economist who worked at the agricultural extension agency in Glória, and Brunie's best friend. When Irene moved to the capital city, she was replaced by Maria José.

        I think this was taken soon after my arrival, probably in August or September of 1967. By the shadows on the ground, it appears to be high noon. This may have been taken near the town square in front of the ANCARSE office where Irene worked.

        Below is a photo taken in front of the house Brunie and I shared. Our house is the last one at the end of a row of houses. Our landlord, his wife, and baby lived in the house to the left of ours (out of the picture.) In the background, is his shed that he used for his work as a carpenter.

        On the right is the road into town from the east. When we went to the capital city, the bus would return on this dirt road and drop us right in front of our home. Although most streets in town were paved with cobblestones, we were on the outskirts of the small city, so our road was not paved.  By the way, one of my favorite Portuguese words is the word for cobblestone: paralelapípedo. (I may have spelled that incorrectly.  I can't find it in an online Portuguese dictionary.)

        Pictured are (left to right): unknown, our landlord José(?), me (at rear), the landlord's wife Lourdes(?), Dona Guiomar who later became the elementary school director, Brunie, unknown.


        Below is another photo taken in front of our house. I am leaning against the utility pole with letters just delivered by the postman.  A group of neighbors seemed to have gathered to see what was going on.  I think the boy in the hat was our landlord's younger brother and the landlord's wife is leaning against the door frame just left of the utility pole. Between the postman and me is Nadja, a neighbor girl and student at the ginásio.


        And finally, there I am on the back of a donkey. My riding a donkey is about as ridiculous as Michael Dukakis riding a tank, but I don't think I actually rode it, I just posed with it. 

        Occasionally Brunie and I did ride horses or mules. A large family from the interior would invite us to lunch (the large meal of the day) on a Sunday.  They sent two of their smaller boys on two horses or mules & we would ride back with them sitting behind us. 

        I think this was taken outside of town at the dam which had been built by DNOCS, the National Department of Works Against Droughts.

        In this photo, Linda, a Volunteer from Brunie's group is on the left. She lived in another town in Sergipe (Propría, I think) and was visiting us for a few days. (Linda is featured in a previous post.)

       Gugu, the boy who delivered water to our house is to Linda's right. An unknown person is hidden behind me. In the water is Overland, one of my students.

        Overland (pronounced Oh-ver-láwn-dee) was named for a truck his father saw in an American movie. He was the oldest child. The next child was a girl, so they named her Maryland and then didn't have a name ending in "land" for the next child, so called him Joséland. Their father was known as Zé de Shell (Zé is short for José) because he had, at one time, worked for Shell Oil. He ran the town's generator which gave the town electricity from 6-10 pm before full-time electricity came to Glória.

        On at least one occasion, Overland loaned me his horse.

        In the morning, Overland often rode the horse to his family's farm several miles outside of town to get milk. He would stop at our house for Brunie to make hot chocolate to share with him.

THANKS, BRUNIE

for the photos and the memories

(text, ©2009, C.J. Peiffer)