Brad and Rebecca Howe Just another weblog 
OK, time to write again, I guess. It’s Monday, August 4th.
Well, what’s been going on around here? Most recently (like about 10 minutes ago) Joe Snake finished filling our water tank out in back of the house here. Poor guy was doing all of this in the rain. I did make him some peppermint tea and gave him one of Reb’s muffins left over from breakfast to pay him for his work. He didn’t want to come in because of being wet so we had to insist. Nice to have the tank full of water again.
Currently, the smell of half-rotten meat is wafting throughout our house. Yes, we have had quite the experience with trying to “go native” here and do as the locals do. If you ask me, the entire idea stinks! It all happened on Friday as we had been out walking around and were headed back to our house when I noticed that our neighbor had a wild pig hanging from his tree and he was out butchering it. I told Reb to get the camera and I stayed and watched the fellow do his thing. Apparently, a couple of the guys had gotten several wild pig earlier in the day. After a while we start to leave and one of the guys standing there yells at the guy butchering to give us some meat before we go. Well, he gave us some meat. He gave us an entire leg of pig! I was trying to politely decline so much and kept saying that it was too much meat for just the two of us but nobody was taking no for an answer. Then everyone was telling us that we just needed to dry the meat and it would last for a while. Poor Reb had all these women trying to tell her at the same time what exactly she needed to do with the meat, how to salt it, then dry it, etc.
We finally made our way out of the neighbor’s yard with our heads spinning…and an entire quarter of the pig! On our way to the spring to take our bath, Maria asked us if we had gotten some of the pig meat. Boy how word travels! Yes we had. Maria immediately offered to help Reb the next day in cutting the meat up to be dried. Both Reb and I thought that that would be helpful.
Well, Cricket, Maria’s husband, showed up and I was telling him that we got some of his pig (I had learned that it was Cricket who actually shot the pig) and how his wife was going to help Reb prepare the meat the next day. Cricket just kind of looked at me for a while and then said in his very hillbilly Portuguese, “Pastor (yes, you get the title here whether you want it or not), preparing the meat is the job of the woman, not the man.” So I reiterated that it was Reb that was going to learn how to do this. I know Cricket doesn’t have real good hearing but I also think he thought he would say that for the benefit of a good laugh from those standing around listening.
The next day Maria did come over with her old machete and helped Reb slice up the pig leg. She cut it all into real thin slices and packed quite a bit of salt on it. She told Reb to leave it all in a bucket for now and then first thing the next morning wash the salt off and put it in the sun. Reb did and on Sunday morning we had steaks all over the top of our lid to the water tank out back.
We have a tree about 50 yards behind the house here and there are always at least five or six black vultures sitting up there waiting for an opportune time. Apparently, they have grown to be quite the forward individuals as even before we left for church we saw one hopping around inside our yard not far from the water tank. The smell of meat already had a slight zing to it when we took it out of the bucket Sunday morning so as we walked off to church I wasn’t entirely displeased with the idea of those vultures enjoying a feast while we were gone.
When we got back from church it was the neighbor’s dog that was working on his fourth steak! We did yell at him some. We did hate seeing all that meat going to waste but I wasn’t sure if my stomach was going to be able to hack eating any of it with the constant odor that I was now associating with it. We tried to make sure the meat stayed in the sun as much as possible. Tried to make sure the vultures stayed in their tree. Tried to make sure the neighbor’s dog was holding off on the steak dinners. But there were still the flies. Thousands of them all over the meat as it lay in the sun. The pastor’s wife told us that the flies don’t lay their eggs on the meat if the meat is in the sun. Well, there were some moments when the meat was not in the sun…but how could we keep our eye on that meat 24/7? Just this morning we pulled our drying meat out of our bucket to find all kinds of maggots crawling here and there.
Mana, Joe Snake’s daughter, was over here showing Reb how to give the house a good mopping, so I asked her if all the maggots meant the meat was too far gone and should be thrown away. Oh no, she told me. You just wash the pieces real good and put them back out in the sun. You’ve got to be kidding me!
So, here tonight our meat (what’s left of it) is back in its bucket and sitting in the corner of our kitchen. And, yes, I can smell it as I type this email! I’m thinking that tomorrow, in the heat of the day when everyone is inside and nobody is around to watch, our neighbor’s dog is going to be filling his belly. Maybe I will even throw a couple of slabs to our ever-present vultures out back. Who invented the freezer, by the way? Let’s all give that individual a standing ovation, shall we!?
Saturday while Reb was being taught how to prepare meat to dry, we had our front room full of Ashes. Piri had showed up with his wife, another woman, and several kids. The other woman’s little baby boy had bad diarrhea so Piri was hoping for some medicine for the baby. Reb was finally able to visit with the Ashes and checked out the baby. He really looked quite happy and only occasionally fussed…usually right before he would do his thing in the rag wrapped around his buns. Reb didn’t think it would be wise to give the baby any medicine, yet, so we tried to instruct the Ashes to make sure the baby kept nursing and that the mother needed to make sure she was drinking plenty of water. I could tell that Piri really wanted some sort of medicine to give the baby but after explaining a couple of times that only if the baby gets worse should the baby take medicine, they all seemed content and left for the village. We did serve them a lunch while here and we were surprised by how much they all ate.
Piri was the only one that really could speak some Portuguese, so I tried to talk to him for a while. I then remembered that I had that Birds of Peru book so brought that out and, boy, if that wasn’t like TV for all of them! They loved paging through that book and identifying the birds. Even making the call sounds now and again. If Piri didn’t start near the beginning of that book and work his way all the way to the end! I was glad that I had it and thought about it as it really seemed to keep them all entertained.
Sunday I preached for both the morning service and the evening service. I started in on The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus lessons in the morning and quickly realized that I was talking over the congregation’s head, to some extent. The lesson talks about the vastness of the universe, using that as an illustration of something that is so mindboggling that it is incomprehensible…just like the eternalness of God. Anyhow, by the end of that illustration I wasn’t even sure if anyone was comprehending that they lived within a solar system, let alone the eternalness of God. We did hit on some other things as well and there did seem to be some comprehension.
In the evening I did something completely different and didn’t go as long. It’s good for me to get the practice of preaching in Portuguese and learning just how to communicate to where my audience is following me. The reason I spoke for both services this past Sunday was because Pastor Evando is away in town. He comes back this week. I still imagine that he will ask me to speak now and again…so whenever he does, we will continue with the lessons.
Sunday after the morning service the guys were beginning to gather to do their weekly soccer tourney down on the small field. I decided I would go down and play. On my way down I stopped and talked to Cricket. He said that his buddy there with him was forming a team and I could play on their team. It was a bunch of “old codgers.” We played and were getting spanked pretty badly. Right before the game ended, Reb showed up and was yelling that the Ashes had returned with the baby. So I found someone to sub in for me and went back to the house. Cricket told me later that we did indeed lose. I told him that I thought they would end up winning the game with me having to leave toward the end and he got a chuckle out of that. I like Cricket. He is a man of the region. Probably the best hunter in the community as he can go out on any given day and come back with something…usually something substantial.
As far as the Ashes that showed up Sunday, it was Joao, his wife, the witchdoctor’s wife, the man with the bad arm, the mother of the sick baby (she may be the man with the bad arm’s wife??), the sick baby, and a sleuth of other kids. The baby still had diarrhea and they were all concerned. I helped Reb make some lunch for all of them…and, yes, brought out my entertainment system, the bird book! They all ate well and Reb mixed up a solution (soro) to give the baby orally. After several hours and with their bellies full they were all ready to head back to the village. We sent the soro with them.
No Ashes today so we figure that the baby must be doing better. We kind of wonder if a lot of the ones that showed up yesterday were coming to see what Reb looks like…and hoping for a free lunch. I was talking to one of the local men here and he was telling me that the Ashes had told him that they were excited about more missionaries coming. So that is good to hear.
One funny thing was that when I got here to the house to see the group here on Sunday I had been talking to them for a good 15 minutes before I noticed that one of the women (witchdoctor’s wife) had a small monkey on her head! You know that you are getting used to the Ashes when it takes 15 minutes to notice a live, four-legged animal crawling on one of their heads. Reb said that she noticed it right away. I find the Ash women’s hair to be such a mess that you don’t notice things like monkeys climbing around up there.
We continue to get such a kick out of our neighborly parakeet. He is such an opportunist! It seems like almost any time that you are putting food out or even walking around the yard eating a fruit, here comes Curica. He will land close and just keep eyeing you, waiting for a handout. How can one resist? We’re often entertained by Curica.
The neighborly dog is another story. Not only did he steal our rotting meat, but he will come in and make himself at home if you aren’t careful. Today we were both laying in bed when I start hearing noises like someone is in the house. I kind turn to look toward our bedroom door and here is the dog looking around the door at me. I shooed him out, but he seems to be getting bolder every day.
Kris and Mary Jane, we are getting the messages about Colton Gordon Howe. We will be praying for Colton during this time that he is battling pneumonia there in the ICU. We are so glad that Dad and Mom can be down there with you guys during this time! We did hear from Adriana (Brad’s sister-in-law) that José and Suelaine Rodrigues (our coworkers) and family did leave town for here yesterday. We figure they will get up here at the earliest Wednesday.
Tomorrow we are hoping to be able to follow the river and walk up to the village. I’m thinking it will take us about an hour. Reb does want to do some laundry so we may try to leave for the village after the laundry. Maybe they will feed us this time? Most likely most of the men will be out working in their fields. We will see how long we actually stay before hiking back.
Reb continues to get bigger around the middle and has really been a stalwart woman with all the work that has to be done to live out here. Much washing of dishes and preparing of meals…not to mention keeping track of those rotting steaks out on the water tank! I try to help as much as possible…but don’t want Cricket to catch me doing women’s work. Today Reb did really feel worn out and was able to lay down for a while. Her resting was interrupted by a woman coming looking for medicine for belly pain.
Alright, will wrap this up for this edition.
Brad
