Goiania

I only stayed in Goiania for about 48 hours. Matthew and Elsiene had come a week before, and then that Sunday the rest of us arrived, Biker before Pinker and me, and Liner and the parents in the evening.

I don't have a proper picture of the house or the neighborhood. The grandfather lives in a little house behind the one Elsiene's parents live in, and a third little house is behind that, all on a smallish lot. Beside the house is a little garden with assorted fruit, including bananas, papayas and a giant passion fruit. The neighborhood felt a lot like Puerto Lleras or Villavo, cities near where we lived in Colombia.

Her parents slept in the grandfather's house, and the eight of us slept in the front house. Pinkerton and I got one of the two entryways. The activities consisted principally of eating and conversations where we spoke slowly in English and Spanish, and Elsiene's parents and multitudinous cousins spoke slowly in Portuguese with bits of English. Aileen, Elsiene, and a couple of the cousins are all pretty fluent in both Portuguese and English, and Matthew is doing pretty well too, but the rest of us spent a lot of time rewording things and asking people to repeat something.

There was a wedding. Photography figured prominently. There were two official still cameras and one video camera, and it seemed like an average of one camera or camera phone per audience member. I believe Biker had four cameras. Right after the bride and groom are presented as man and wife, there was about a half hour interlude of pictures--with the parents of the bride, with the parents of the groom, with the official witnesses on one side and then the other, with the grandmother of the bride, with all the flower girls, ring bearers and such, etc. Afterwards, in the greet-the-new-couple line, there were more pictures.





Apparently the wedding was also fairly unusual in that it was more laid back than typical Christian weddings here, but not so laid back as to have dancing. I still find it a little hard to accept that my brother has had two weddings without any dancing. Biker, since as the recipient of the other bouquet, you're the next one getting married, I want you to promise to have some good Salsa and Forro at your wedding, okay?

That was over a week ago. I have gotten rather behind in relating my adventures. But I'm on freakin' vacation. That means I'm allowed to be a lagger, and have fun doing it. Which I am.