The next day, Sunday, I took it easy in the morning because I was not feeling well. I had picked up a bug in MG most likely after swimming since I developed a sore throat the very next day. In the early afternoon I checked my email, and read P-L. In the mid-afternoon I started out to visit my friend. It took longer to get there than I had thought because the bus took several forays off the main road. These forays were through narrow, congested, residential streets that were dotted with speed bumps, sharp curves, and gaping potholes that made the driving very slow. I arrived at her house around 5:30 pm. Hers was a modest 1 story home. It was intended to be a 2 story house but the second story was only partially built. Her parents were divorced for some time and she lived with her mother and her older sister. I also met her niece and her niece's baby, a female cousin, and a woman who was either an aunt or a friend of her mother's. Everyone was very nice. We sat outside in the front yard. Her sister was somewhat shy with me. My friend told me that she had seen my photo, read my letter, and was interested in me. However, the sister was quite overweight and came across to me as having an immature personality. There was no way. Her cousin was quiet but friendly enough. She was tall, slim, and fairly attractive. She mostly listened to my conversations but came across to me as quite knowledgeable and very intelligent. Her aunt/friend was very interesting. She seemed to be in her late 30's, was attractive, and also fairly quiet. She enjoyed travelling and had been around much of Brazil. She had lived in Rio de Janeiro for several years and done most of her travelling in south and central Brazil. She was intending to do future travel in the northeast. We traded stories of my experiences in Salvador, Recife, and Fortaleza with hers in MG, Sao Paulo, RJ, Curitiba, and Florianapolis for some time.
One thing that surprised me was the amount of venom my friend showed towards her niece, and not surprisingly the niece made herself very scarce. My friend was very angry that her niece had had a baby at 18 with a guy just as immature and even more irresponsible than she. According to my friend, the niece does not have any particular ambitions to do anything with her life or to make her baby's life better. She calls the niece a "boura" to her face. Apparently that is someone who knows nothing about life. My friend feels that it is grossly unfair to everybody else in the family for the niece to go and have a baby she can't support. Everybody is struggling so hard to get ahead and then she goes and brings everyone down by having this baby. Neither she nor the father can support the baby so the rest of the family has to help. That diverts them from helping themselves. The idea of not having children until you have made a life for yourself and are ready to support them is part of the value system that I had seen in my friend at our meeting on my previous trip and was/am attracted to. This particular conversation confirmed my feeling that she would make an excellent mother and role model. I was impressed with the "tough love" tactic she was taking with her niece, though, at 18, it would probably not sink in and yield results for a few more years.
My friend apparently had forgotten that she had previously invited some friends over for a get together. Around 7:30 around 8 of her friends showed up expecting a party. She went around apologizing saying she forgot. Anyway, some beer was bought from the store next door, more chairs were brought into the yard, I was introduced to everyone, and then they started chatting away. All the friends were guys except for on very sexy thing who seemed to be hooked up with one of them. As far as I could tell, one of the group had recently gotten serious with a girl (who wasn't there) and this was some sort of congratulatory celebration. Things became very busy was the next few hours as the front yard was filled with friends and relatives, and every fourth person walking by in the street was a cousin, friend, or something of someone and they would stop and chat. Everybody was talking very fast and I was finding it very difficult to follow conversations.
One guy was so funny. As far as I could follow in his conversations, he was complaining about Brazilian women; too this, too that, and not appreciating Brazilian men. He used himself as an example. He stated that he was a very good looking guy, at this point everyone broke out in hysterical laughter, and claimed that Brazilian women don't appreciate his good looks. Why does he think he is so good looking??? It seems that he works in a barraca on the beach and all the Italian, French, Dutch, and other European women who buy drinks there try to hug and kiss him. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
Around 10 pm the group walked me to the bus stop and waited with me for the bus. This would be one of the last buses for the night and they said it was unwise for people to wait alone at bus stops late at night. I made it back to the hotel without incident.
