GLÓRIA IN BLACK AND WHITE

more material goods. Brazilian women began to realize that with fewer children, everyone in the family could have a better life.)

        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 (mentioned above) 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 and we would ride back with them sitting behind us. Then we'd ride home with the boys again, and thn they'd fo home on the horses.

        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 beside her with his shirt open. 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)