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I probably spelled that wrong, and i�m not in the tropics anyway, but Brasil rocks. I got here almost a month ago, directly to the rainbow scout council and to Ela.
It wasn�t easy. After 20 hours flight I arrived in Rio airport early morning, and trying to find a flight to Salvador, found that a cheap one only leaves in the evening, so I passed the day in Rio, going to the beach and trying for two hours to find a bus back to the airport. By the way, Rio�s airport is named after Carlos Antonio Jobim, who is a singer and song writer. Isn�t it cool? And the minister of culture is Gilberto Gil, another singer.
Now, arriving in Salavador and trying to find the bus station with my Portoguese, which was a hassle, as usual, and found out that the bus to Seabra leaves in half an hour ... but it is full. I have to wait to te morning. I found a pousada for the night (another difficult mission in the middle of the night), and took the bus in the morning.
Again, arriving at 3pm to Seabra whwn the bus to Piata leaves at 3:30 ... and is full. I couldnt bother, and i also had no money, since the bank there doesnt change money, and the ATM doesnt accept my VISA card. I persuaded someone to take me to Piata for 20 Euro.
And then I had to walk for two hours, which turned to three as soon as night came and I lost the trail. But I made it eventuly, crawling into Ela�s arms.
Since then we live in a house in the middle a field, and we have lemon trees and lemon grass and a neighbour that brings watermelons when he is around, and another that brings mangos. We have running water, and an oven (we made bread a few days ago), and a few of the old african gang are here - oli and ula and ashe and luka and marcus and budgie.
Brasil is not as poor as i expected. The people have staff, and you dont see much beggers. In the country side there�s lots of fruits, and people have cars that run on alcohol (you can fill up in every gas station), and cooking gas (illegal, but very cheap).
Me and Ela bought a car - a nice volkswagen station wagon for about $1400. Its green and nice and we like it. We are now married and pregnant and having a family car! We�re certainly settling down.
A few days ago we drove to Salavador (about 7 hours) to buy staff for a Tipi that we want to make, and for other things, and to meet friends here, and do missions for magic hat and friends, and to have fun, and so I swan in the ocean with Nara and Camille, and it was great. Last time I swan in the atlantic was on 3Feb last year in capetown ...
Everything is cool and happy. Ela is getting heavier, but we keep on.
Love to all, Moddy.
Today is a perfect day to let the world help you in simple things.
We were in Salvador, doing a big shopping mission for ourselves and for the rainbow, and i haven�t written since.. it will be a long letter.
The last day of shopping Nara came with us to make things simpler. The first encounter was with the local police who caught me doing a wrong turn. Maybe its the time to say that brazilian drivers are the worst I have ever seen in 35 countries. Worse than Indians. Worse even than Israelis. Ela calls them �temporary brasilians�, and they make driving very difficult. Besides them, the roads are poor, the signs virtually don�t exist, or too late, or leading you to the wrong direction, and the amount of trafic violations being done is enormous. When I first arrived to Salavador and stopped at the lights, four cars passed me into the junction, and I wasn�t sure that i was supposed to stop at all.
Anyway, doing the wrong turn (because we couldn�t find a left turn in two km, and it seemed a good enough turn for us), the olice stopped us, didn't like my licence, and my driving, and the car registration ... luckily, Nara speaks Prtuguese, and when they saw Ela, they became nicer. Eventually Nara asked 'And what do we do now?' and thet said 'what do you want to do?' so we went to the shop. They followed us, and parked next to us, and said they�re thirsty. So we gave them some money for beer and went on.
In the middle of this day we went to the hiper market, which was the biggest shop i had ever seen, with 72 cashiers, all working and busy, but they didnt have peanut butter! The lady we asked said we should go to the BIG supermarket. We went, and they didnt let us in because we didnt have shoes. They didnt have peanut butter either.
So we drove back to Piat�, meeting the other kind of drivers - the truckers. Apparently, they dont know how to overtake, and sometimes travel on the wrong lane for no apparent reason, and if they put their low beems, they will put them high again just before they pass you. Pretty not nice.
Anyway, we got to the site and there people where waiting for us because they wanted to check another proposed site, called Matoko. So me and other four went there with poor J.C. (our car).
It was a rough mission. It cost us two tyres, the muffler, and the handbrake. At one point we had to push the car uphill because it didnt want to go. Very difficult access. The site itself was beatiful, and full of crystals and nice water, but with a very big access problem, and some other minor problems - e.g. it is sloped and has not much flat place for camping. For me and Ela this site seemed unacceptable, since we cant get our car there, and cant go out to buy anything, and Ela cant walk there - she needs to be carried.
We came back to the final scouts council. It was bad. Everybody accept for me and Ela wanted to go there, and the way the cicular discussion went was about me and Ela�s personal problems, and not about the pros and cons of each site. We were insulted and mocked and abused, and felt so bad that Ela left the circle, and I didnt have the emotional capacity to keep on blocking concensus and ruin everybody�s fun.
SO ... the concensus to go to Matoko was made. The name of the valley "Matako" means �horse fly�, so we changed the name to the name of the river "Agua Suja" which means �dirty water�, so we changed it again to the name of the big pool in the river "Po�o do melado" which means 'well honey-sweet'. We keep this name.
One good thing that happened in this circle was that everyone offered there unconditional help to the young couple, afer we explained how difficult it will be for us to go there. Therefore, in the following day I got people to help cut bamboos for tipi poles, and now we have a tipi! Stephan sawed it, and helped me cure the poles, and we went especially to Len�ois to boil it in a industrial lavanderia, and we are very happy about it. This help we got made me think more positively on going to the gathering there, despite the difficulties.
WE haven�t found a midwife yet, but there are two in the village next to the site (8km walk), and hopefully some will come to the gathering. Due date is 28-3.
After that, we took all our staff and drove to Arapiranga, which is the village nearest to the site, sent the tipi up with the crew and asking them to keep an eye on it, went bck to Salavador, for the sole reason of getting a visa extension.
The drive of about 560km was rough. We took the rode that looked nearest on the map, but it turned out to be 200km of potholes, about 50km of them the worse i have ever seen. It was a paved road which was only there to mark the potholes. We broke the muffler again, of course, and in the middle of the night, when we finally arrined to the main highway, we stopped for a sleep inthe car.
And it wouldn�t restart. Pushing made it, and we didn�t want to fix it until we came to salvador (we fixed to muffle, though, on the way). We went streigt to the federal police, and the process was fast and easy. They werent bothered by the fact that Ela was having a baby - in fact, the guy was excited enough to tell us we can both get residency because of that, and he even gave us the forms we should fill up after the baby is born!
Now it was time to fix the car. It cost us 180, which is way over what we planned, but we have a new battery now. We are happy.
So we�re here. Caranaval tonight, and tomorrow we go back to the mountains.
Love, Moddy.
Today is a good day to rethink old decisions.
The baby is not born yet, and i came to town from the rainbow for a quick e-mail and some shopping. This involves two hours walk, one hour drive, and then return ... a big mission.
ANYWAY, the salvador carnival was great party, and very loud. reminds a little of Purim, but way bigger. I didnt actually join the vibe, but had a good time dancing. its really big.
The way back to rainbow was long. we arrived in Rio do Contas, late at night and met some rainbow people there who came down to carnival, but we were too tired and slept in the car. The day after we drove to Arapiranga, which is an hour away and the base town of the gathering (two hours walk), and after a big hastle managed to find a car that will take us up the hill to the gathering. The place is more beatiful than i remembered it. I was a little sick when we scouted, and i didnt see the whole amazing place. It has a river with big pools to swim and nice shady trees nearby. Our friends put up the tipi for us on a small bank about 10 minutes walk from the main circle, and thats where we stayed.
After two days that it is just too far for ela to walk, so we had to move to tipi to a nearer place. We walked along the river until we found a place we can get out to the field, ,and ther it was - a perfect place for our tipi to stand. It took us a day and a half to move it, and just as we finished, a parade came to a tree just a 50 meters away and said �we found the perfect place for the chai-shop. We objected, and it was decided that this place will be the shanti chai-shop, no drumming at night.
The day after we were out for a shopping mission, and when we came back there were tents all around us, with Ela saying "I dare them come any closer". Ever since then we make people move their camps after they arrive. We need space.
The tipi turned out to be bigger than expected, and much less waterproof. We didnt actually put it up right, so we cant close he smoke flaps properly, but it works well - mainly, because it doesnt rain for long.
The gathering is not so focussed. We have a major supply problem, since we need 4x4 cars to fetch the supplies, and we have to do lots of runs. We had abundance at first, with fruit breakfast and huge dinners, but the magic hat (the donation box) was empty. Everything that was put in was immediately spent, expecting large donations at the full moon.
but this never happened, and we have no much money now, so we buy less and there are guards in the kitchen stopping people from taking food and eating all the time. The craziest thing was a sister smearing avocado on her face for beauty reasons, because she could take it for free.
Many of my best friends arrived, and keep on arriving. A large proportion of the zimbabwe gathering are here, which makes me very happy.
Ela is fine. She is very tired all the time, and cant sleep well. I feel i miss out on this gathering becasue i dont do lots of things i want since i dont want to leave ela alone. Last night was a big party in arapiranga, which everyone who was there said it was one of the best parties they had ever been to, and i didnt go ... is it going to be like that? i still think that love and family are the best, but i also want to party.
The only workshop i did so far was Santo Daime Ceremony - a christian church that drinks haluzinatory drugs to get connected with Jesus. I joined and had the wildest trip of my life. I didnt see God or anything like that (though many others did), but I had a long and intersting coversation with a tree. (Dont worry, mum. I�m as sane as i was).
So - baby is due in a week or two, and the whole gathering is ful of expectations, and we are miraculously not stressed but excited about our new life coming soon.
All the best in the world. No war.
Love, Moddy.
Today is a good day to be prepared.
Well, I have a baby, and terefore no time for anything ... so this message is a forward from Ela describing the birth, and I�ll write my comments later.
Love, Moddy.
This is a good day to let other people do your job.
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Greetings all, Forgive me for not writing to you all personally ... Anyone who has had a small baby knows I dont have time to write to everyone at the moment - travelling accumulates a lot of email correspondants, and since you all want to know the same details, here is a (much briefer) story of the birth.
So after we moved from the rainbow back to our old camp in the Gerais do Piata with about 10 friends, I was bitten by some nasty kind of spider on a Friday afternoon. I spent the night in a good deal of pain, sweating with trouble breathing. It wasnt too good. The pain slowly made its way up my leg and started cramping in my lower belly... The next day I started getting mild contractions about an hour apart, not very regular. By sunset, they started becoming a little stronger, and five minutes apart, it seemed like labour was starting!
Everyone went to bed, expecting to be woken up for the birth, but Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny and I was still having 5 minute contractions. We had a normal Sunday, made pancakes (see moddy's website for a photo of my flipping pancakes in early labour!), and I even went over to the house 1km away to do laundry (even tho i had to sit down every 5 minutes!). By sunset I was tired and fed up of it, and asked spirit for the next hour to be four minute contractions, then an hour of 3 minutes, an hour of 2 minutes and then the baby to be born.
The next contraction came after 4 minutes! Then it started raining. All our friends worked hard to collect a huge pile of firewood to last the night, and 2 other friends showed up unexpectedly. They boiled up about 20L of water, and we now know why one needs to have boiled wather to give birth - to keep helpful people busy and out of the way!
So the Labour progressed thru the night, contractions steadily getting stronger and closer together, but they never quite got regular. I'd have several contractions of 3 minutes, then one after 8 minutes, then a few of 4 mins, then 6 mins, again 3 mins for 1/2 hour, and then 5 mins... we got down to 2 minute contractions and it seemed to be soon. Moddy was great thru the whole thing, he stayed by my side and helped me thru every contraction. Heather, my doula checked me when I was jsut about to lose my strength and freak out, and she announced that I was fully dilated. Such a relief.
The night was getting on and we were sure the baby would come with the sunrise. When the first grey light showed thru the trees Moddy kicked everyone out of the tipi to prepare for the birth. Only then the contractions completely stopped! for 2 hours there was nothing. It was freezing cold, I could barely move. but we tried to get it giong again by going for a walk, but it was just too cold and I was too tired. I took some cohosh tincture and eventually the contractions started again, but so soft I could barely feel it. and totally irregular.
Then it really started again, I got such strong contractions I couldnt breathe thru it any more and I was just screaming. But still nothing seemed to be happening. Aniha went to call a real midwife to come. He turned out to be a french-canadian shaman who arrived on motorbike from Lencois, about 3 hours away. He came mid-morning, and gave me an awesonme massage. after about an hour he checked me and said I was not dilated at all!!! Heather checked again and wasnt sure - she didnt have much experience.
We were allin shock - something was going wrong. We decided to go to the hospital. The hardest decision I ever had to make, but I was in so much pain and so exhausted, I just wanted it to be over and I didnt care how.
So we caravanned into town, Heather driving our car with Carolina to translate in the front, and me lying on moddy's lap in the back. Aniha followed in her car with a load of people and a couple of others ran to the neighbour to beg a lift...
the 15km ride was the worst I've ever been thru. we stopped for every contraction, and the car stalled out when we crossed the creek, luckily it get going again quickly. Only we never made it to the hospital. I guess we just needed a bumpy drive to bounce the baby out, because when we got to the edge of town I felt the baby coming!
We stopped on the streetnext to the soccer field, Moddy sitting in the back seat with me sitting on his lap, feet in the mud and our crew milling around, holding blankets over us to keep the rain off. A few deep breaths and out popped a purple head, shotly followed by a screaming angel! At 2pm exactly, local time, ,Monday 14th April.
So she turned out to be a little girl, against all expectation, with a head of red peach-fuzz and big dark blue eyes. She was so small for one 2 weeks late - less than 3 kilos, but she's putting on weight fast. We did a lotus birth and didnt cut the cord, but it started to come off by itself on the evening of the 2nd day. Only it was hanging by a thread and pulling, so we cut it off, and the stump came away by itself that night and healed perfectly after 2 days.
So we have a beautiful baby girl, her red hair is fading to gingery- blonde and her eyes are a dark steel-grey that you cant tell if its blue or brown, and she has a great voice that she loves practicing.
We jsut spent the last 2 1/2 weeks in our tipi in the forest, getting used to having a baby. moddy had been the best father ever - he does most of the diapers and most of the laundry and his share of middle of the night wakefullness. I am so so blessed.
Now we are on the road again with no destination in mind. We have no postal address at the moment, but I should have one soonish.
Love and poopy nappies, Ela and Sequoia xxx
I gave you ela�s report about the birth, which was pretty accurate, so I wont bother you with it again.
So, we were all at the gathering, having a good time and waiting for the baby. We lived in the tipi which was next door to the shanti chai-shop. However, one day a group of cashasa-drinking brasilians arrived and took over te chai-shop, turning it into a bar. Making lotta noise in the night, and being drunk and aggressive. Down goes the neighbourhood. Everybody who came to visit us said we should move them away, but whenever they tried to do it, they came back to us and said "maybe better to move the tipi", which we didn't like at all (besides being a lot of work, pregnant women need their nest, and not to move at all).
The situation sorted itself out quite accidentaly: being rainbow people, the efforts to change the vibe were friendly and peaceful, but they didnt work. One morning, Stephan went there to take the trash to town, and found that the trash was a mixture of plastics,compost,rotting food and good food. He freaked out, dumped the trash in the middle, was thrown to the ground, and a big commotion started. People came over screaming. Meanwhile me and Ela took the non-rotting food back to the kitchen. A big clean-up started, and healing circle and talks. They all became Staphan�s friends now and respected him.
Just to show you that peaceful ways are not always the best ways to deal with things...
Me and Ela were more concerened about a midwife. Jurema came and had to leave after three days, which was a big disappointment for us, since she was trained at the Farm by Ina May herself! (Ina May is the auther of "Spiritual Midwifery"). Jenepha, and American midwife who is a personal friend of Ela arrived but had to leave in a week, and due date was over, and I began to freak out. The gathering was over. everybody left. We didnt want to stay alone on the mountain without car access, though our friends were willing to stay with us. We didnt have a proper midwife, and we knew we would have to leave in a week anyway, and if the baby doesnt come by then, it will be even more difficult ... we decided to go.
Ela was reluctant, and all through the moving process she hated me for making her move. It involved an hour of driving down the mountain in the bumpiest road ever, which was extremely painful for her, a whole day of driving on bumpy roads to Piata, and when arriving there discovering that it is not as nice as when we left it. The creek dried out, and cows came (they took Ela�s bag from the car and ate it), and the ants annoyed us ...
But it all sorted itself out in a few days. We put the tipi up, out friends arrived, and we were expecting the birth, which came (if you remember Ela�s story) in the car on the way to the hospital, on Monday 14-4-2003, 2 in the afternoon. And the wonderful baby is named Sequoia Keshet Dawn Forest, and she�s cute and wonderful and cries a lot and keeps us awake all night and ... see the pictures!
Here is a good place to thank all our friends who helped us there - Ashe Eve Denny Malin Sam Marwan Luka Heather Aniha Paulo Otto Jisela Jack Carolina ... The best friends anyone can hope for.
But this was almost four weeks ago ... the few days after the birth were awsome. We were in the tipi. learning to put diapers and teacing Sequoia to eat, while our friends washed the diapers and cooked and fetched wood for us ... and by the weekend they all left, and we were trying to leave, but we needed to fix the car and get the birth certificate and the mail and it all took time and passing public holidays, and sometimes it is a whole day of not managing to finish anything because the fussy baby can�t be left for a minute without both of us cuddling her.
But eventually we left, and drove to Seabra to do internet ... that was friday, a week and a half ago.
But I�m tired now, and will continue the story next time.
Love, Moddy.
This is a good day to have a rest.
We stayed in Seabra for a while, not knowing if to go to Brasilia and the regional ENCA gathering, or go to the beach where our gang stays. Anyway, we wanted to be as soon as possible in the Policia Federal, to get Brazilian Residency, and this can be done either in Salvador or Brasilia...
We flipped a coin, and went to salvador. On the way we had a tyre exploding, and finding that the tyre iron had disappeared, we tried to stop someone to help us. Eventually someone did stop, lent us his wrench, and actually did most of the work. We went on, but because of the delay we were very tired, and just after sunst we were stopped by the police since one of our headlights didnt work. They took my licence and sent us a mile up the road to fix it in a 24 hour mechanic shop. But when we came back they had another issue - the Tipi poles are too long! Apparently in Brasil you are not allowed to carry anything that reaches out of the car�s length, not even a centimeter. We have encountered police before, but they didnt say a thing... but this time we were forced to leave the poles there, and promised that we can pick them up again when we have a bigger car.
And then we reached Salvador, crawled into a cheap and lousy hotel only to upset Sequoia, who screamed all night long and got us beyond the limits of sanity. We were dead tired. And in the morning, first thing to the Policia Federal ... and what was supposed to be n easy process turned to be an impossible mission, because of an apostrophe.
You see, my name in Moddy Te'eni, and so it appears on Sequoia�s birth certificate, but in my passport it writes Teeni, because of some computer problem that eats apostrophes. No way arround it. They sent us Back to Piat� to get a new birth certificate. Ela and I (after sleepless night) almost freaked out in the office, but nothing helped. The guys there were completely assholes, and refused to talk to us, explain anything, but repeated everything in fast Portugues... Se the next day we went back 700km to Piata.
In Piata everything was easy. Everybody was estonished by the apostrophe problem, and produced a new certificate. We kept both of them. And back to Salvador... We stayed the weekend there, attempting to go to Arembep� to visit Beatrice, but it was raining the whole time. A bit of a difficulty when you have a baby. We got stuck one time in a music shop until I went out and bought an umbrela (and a guitar). We also bought some tapes of Gilberto Gil and Tom Jobim to listen to in the road.
The next time in the Policia federal was no problem at all. Within an hour we had out passports stamped for permanent visa. We still dont know if we aer allowed to work or register our car, etc. Then we tried to get Srquoia a brasilian passport, since we may want to leave the country ... but they explained that for now its better to get her only an ID card, since she can use it to travel all over south america ... so we went to the SAC office.
Problem list: We are not brasilians and dont have an address. The address we gave doesnt have a house number. we couldnt take a photo of her without her screaming, and eventually we took one but Ela�s fingers are showing (why is this a problem? we dont know, but it was), and finally, they need to fingerprint her, and its not allowed to babies under 30 days ... and she was only 28. The apostrophe was no difficulty. However, this time the crew was friendly and helpful. The guy suggested that we come back in an hour, when is boss�s shift is over, and a more agreeable guy comes, which we did, and it worked! She didnt even cry when we fingerprinted her....
So a week ago we went to the beach south of Itacare. We live in a house by the coast with 10 of our rainbow friends, and have a good time. The boys are surfing (I�m not), and everyone likes to hold Sequoia and give us parents time to breath, and finally we are rested. Since we are not stressed, she isn�t either, amd she sleeps at night, and screams maybe half an hour a day. We become more proficient in taking care of her and calming her and diapering and washing... Everything seems fine and happy, and so we are.
Love, Moddy.
This is a marvelous day to do a thing that has been delayed too long.
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