Bem Vindo a Mariri

Mariri is very, very mato. Mato is Portuguese for “in the middle of absolutely nowhere.” Our town lies 10 miles off the main road, and is isolated due to its lack of a market, electricity, or running water. Seriously, no one comes to Mariri.

I think that maybe two people in our town own private cars, and there is one chapa (public bus) that goes to the city once every day, but everyone else rides bicycles or motorbikes.  Needless to say, we don’t get out much! Fortunately, our house is less than a five minute walk from the school, so the transportation nightmare doesn't haunt us on a daily basis. However, we don’t have access to groceries or supplies without going into the next town, so we’ve been eating a lot of stuff like rice and canned fish, rice and onions, rice and potatoes, rice and water, etc…

Mariri is, however, beautiful! I feel like I live in a park. The school grounds were part of a mission and seminary before the war, so there are many mature mango and papaya trees, as well as palm trees, banana plants, and gorgeous Portuguese trees. The ground is very sandy, and right now the entire area is very lush and green; we have three lakes (full of catfish) and a beautiful green mountain. 

The town consists of three neighborhoods, one of which is at the top of the mountain. We climbed it last week to attend the church (yup, I climb a mountain to go to church!), which was an experience in and of itself. For many of the kids in the very isolated neighborhood, Jamie and I were probably the first foreigners they had ever seen, and they all repeatedly called us “white people” in the local language. The church experience was interesting, too: communion was distributed out of a Tupperware, I’m pretty sure the presider wasn’t actually a priest, and the altar boy asked me to marry him.

It was a cool cultural experience, though, and Jamie and I are planning to go back in order to better integrate in the community. And that mountaintop view isn’t too bad.

Photos of the town to follow, as well as of the inside of our house! For now, here’s a picture of our neighborhood crianҫas drawing on the front porch (they’re real cute, and bring us fresh mangos every day!). 

Love,

Elizabeth