postscripts and addendums

An example of my preferred bathing environment (center).

Our "Barney Fife-ish dayguard", Vumba (green shirt). He's quirky and wonderful. 

Sara, my roommate, in one of the communities where she works.

The most wonderful neighbor I ever had, Lene (from Brazil), with her daughter Miriam.
That day she called and begged me to come home early but I didn't know why? It was so we could watch a Brad Pitt movie together.

My Macarungo landlady (and neighbor - she rented her house to me and then
moved next door to keep an eye on things), whom I called 'Mama'. I liked her.
She is a very shrewd, successful shrimp businesswoman.

Some of the little girls that live in her house, taking a outdoor, mid-day nap.

Augustinho and 'Vovo', who both work for and also live with Mama. Augustinho helped me out of many household jams:

Once, he sawed the lock off my back door when I was stuck in the house (long story); another time, the handle broke off my bedroom door while it was locked, so I asked him to bust into it for me. I think he enjoyed these tasks. Vovo does all their cooking and was a dear friend to me.

After I told them they had to smile for the picture.

Memory: Me on my side of the short concrete wall dividing our properties; Vovo on her side, wearing her usual tattered scarf over her hair, in front of her cooking fire, sitting on the simple straight-backed wooden chair she used. It was night, very dark. We'd been chatting for a while, alone together. “Vovo, what is the word for those in Portuguese?” I asked, pointing to the stars. She told me, chuckling to herself. I don't think it was a subject she was much used to discussing. I replied that they were beautiful, that we didn’t have so many in the United States. This also amused her. We fell silent and just stood, looking up at them together. “Lights of God,” she finally murmured. “His lights."