Journal Archive June 13th-July 10th
June 13:
"It is just ten days since I started travelling, but it seems like much longer. I will try to make the most of my stay here. Almost every day we are having a "trabalho," tonight for Lucio Mortimer, with his body there in the church. It is difficult work, but I have already learned a lot--enough to see that there is much more to learn."
June 20th:
Hi everybody. It's Marlo here. I haven't spoken with Matthew since the 16th, where we set a "phone" date for every Sunday afternoon. It is a bit of a struggle for Matt to get to email regularly, hence, I have no new journal entry to post. When I spoke with him he sounded great, his Portuguese sounds native, and he is constantly busy with the church and taking notes. I can't wait to hear all about it. If he cannot get to a computer I will be posting his messages. Hope all is well!
June 26th:
Greetings,
Matthew and I had a nice long conversation tonight. On the one hand he is enjoying being an "anthropologist" and on the other, he has a head cold and misses home.
His trip sounds intriguing. Matthew met a couple (Owen and Heather) from Washington DC who are working to provide sustainable energy to the community via compost. So, Matt has been helping them gather compost which emits methane which, the theory goes, will be able to power stoves, and/or lights. Currently, people are using generators that are fueled with gasoline-not quite environmentally friendly. The three of them, Matt, Owen and Heather are living for free in a house owned by a woman who is out of town.
Matt was able to meet one of the leaders of the church, Padrino Alfredo, who has been out of the country traveling to satellite churches. He has also learned the Our Father and the Hail Mary in Portuguese. Apparently, these are two foundational prayers for the Santo Daime. Which is interesting because these are base prayers for the Catholic Church as well. And as I understand it (but don't quote me) the Catholic Church is the only religion that utilizes the Hail Mary. So many questions.
Matthew will be leaving Mapia around the 8th of July. He will be heading back to Rio Branco where he will check out research facilities. He was happy to inform me that once in Rio Branco he will have access to the Internet regularly. We have decided to talk to each other twice a week, so updates will be more frequent. He sends his love out to everyone, and especially to Grandma & Grandpa Meyer. He can't wait to come and see you in August.
Peace to all.
June 30th:
Matt: Everybody is running around with soccer jerseys on playing pick up games in a big cleared out area in the jungle. (congrats to Brazil winning the world cup) I just got back from a meeting up on top of this hill where a group of Washington D.C. tourist/members of the church were talking with Padrino Alfredo. They are trying to see if they can take a batch of ayahuasca back to their church in DC.
Mar: What else has been going on?
Matt: On Friday night we had a work in celebration of St. Peter. It was so long and hard, it lasted from 7 at night until 7:30 in the morning. Singing and dancing all night long with a two hour break in the middle. I was exhausted.
Mar: What is the dancing like? Any similarities to Native American shuffle-stomping?
Matt: Yes. But not in a circle, just back and forth. It's like a trance. At times you step from side-to-side and do a certain step. I'll show you when I'm home. Apparently one of the founding fathers received a vision of the dances as well as the church uniform (black pants and white shirt).
Mar: When are you departing for Rio Branco?
Matt: I will leave either on the 7th or 8th of July. I am looking forward to doing some library work.
Our conversation lasted quite a bit longer and ended with "love you, ciao!"
Wednesday, July 3rd; 6pm
Hi everyone, happy 4th of July!!
Matt: Gosh, it's hot and I'm sweaty. I hurried back here to make sure I was here in time for your call. I just got back from where they prepare the vine for cooking.
Mar: How do you do prepare it?
Matt: Well, the men take the vine and scrape it in order to get all the lecithin off. We don't have the leaves yet. The women clean the leaves.
Mar: Do the women scrape the vine as well?
Matt: No. The women are not allowed to handle the vine. The vine is identified with the King, the masculine force. The leaves are identified with the Queen, the feminine force. There is a lot of polarity between the masculine and feminine.
Mar: Oh yea, very cool. What else have ya been doin'?
Matt: This morning we went to collect firewood. Trees are cut down, stacked and left to dry out for a while. Once dried, they are cut up and split, in order to fit securely onto the sled that is pulled into town by an ox.
Mar: What do they use the wood for? Stoves?
Matt: No. They use the firewood to burn under all the pots that cook the vine and leaves. They put layers of vines & leaves all the way to the top of the pot then they fill it up with water. As the pot boils for a while the women scoop off the top water and places it into another pot that is filled with leaves & vines and the process continues. I'm not really sure about the actual cooking process.
We have another work tonight. For St. Michael this a healing work, powerful cleansing of your soul.
Mar: Wow, sounds really intense. I can't wait until we move there. I am so intrigued.
Matt: I just can't wait to be home with you for a while before we come back.
July 7th , 2002
"The Frog Medicine"
Matt: So, I took the frog medicine. I told you about that right?
Mar: No. Like the frog you lick?
Matt: Well, kinda. Except you don't lick them. Yesterday I got up early and walked down to the Santo Casa (house of the saints), it's a clinic for your body and spirit. We (there were other patients there to take part in the ceremony) all sat in the back yard area of the clinic and filled out forms with our name, address, and health issues.
Mar: Wow, I'm impressed, that it seems so, so, modern. Ya know. Its hard to picture this place but I wouldn't think that they kept medical histories on patients.
Matt: Yes, its pretty advanced. There was this woman, she is Chinese, she lit a small piece of a scared vine on fire and burned seven tiny holes in my arm (the holes would be positioned on the calf if the patient is a woman).
Mar: Yikes! Ouch, that's sounds totally painful! Honneeey, Why did you do that!
Matt: It didn't really hurt at all. After she made the openings, she took the viscous material that the frog secretes and made seven tiny pellets and placed the pellets into the holes.
Mar: So that it will get into your blood stream quickly?
Matt: Yes. After she did that she had me sit back down, relax and concentrate on your health issues. I thought about my stiff back, my cold, and my family. At first my head began to really heat up, then my torso. Then my heart starting beating really fast. It felt like I had received an injection of life! It felt REALLY good. My heart calmed down after about five minutes. The whole process took approximately 15 minutes. The rest of the day I felt great!
Mar: Wild experience!
July 10, 2002
Hi!
I am back in Rio Branco. I decided to stay a day in Boca do Acre to get a little bit of a feel for it, since the last time I came through I arrived after dark, then never went further than two doors down from the hotel to eat. This time we arrived at 4 AM something, and the bus out of town is at 6 AM, so I decided to take the extra day and walk around. The town, as its name implies, sits at the mouth of the Acre river, where it flows into the Purus. Most of whats to be seen there perches along one bank or the other of these two rivers. There are many shanty-type areas with narrow alleyways between houses. I
came upon some kids I knew from the hotel area (where they gather to carry peoples bags for change) playing some card game, Pife, for money. All along the banks there are signs posted by the Brazilian marine service saying that littering is prohibited, and right below
the signs descends a cascade of trash.
Just as I happened to be passing through Boca do Acre they were having the annual run of a certain little fish, headed downstream, I think. It only lasts a few days, so fisher-people flock by the hundreds at dusk and into the night, the presence of their little canoes marked by incandescent lights. Thiago and Giano, the Californian who was travelling with me, left Boca do Acre the morning after we got there, hiring a private driver for 130 reais to take them to Rio Branco. My way, I spent the extra 15 reais (about $6) for the night, then caught the bus for 16.50 reais this morning. It wasnt too bad. It seemed everyone had their styrofoam ice-chest, filled, no doubt, with those selfsame fish
that are running now. I worried a little bit about the live chickens stuffed in the hold right next to my backpack, but the worst that got on it was some dust, which I fully expected after last time.
We got to Rio Branco around 11 AM, and I hoofed it over the Hotel Triangulo, where I stayed last time. (They said they'd give me a weekly rate of 140 reais, about $55. Breakfast is included, and a nice fat lunch costs about 10 reais, or $4, which is a little high, but seems the best way to go, since I can have it added to my bill and pay with the Visa. If I end up staying there the whole three weeks, then, it will be about 630 reais, or about $250, plus whatever I owe them for the phone call I made last time. For dinners I plan to go to the supermarket and get decent snack-type foods.)
Plans in Rio Branco: While still in Mapia, I met a woman, Maria Helena, who was visiting from a really cool Daimista community in Visconde de Maua, Rio de Janeiro state. Shes a retired anthropologist and full-time Daimista, and she told me that Clodomir
Monteiro da Silva, who did one of the first anthropological studies of Santo Daime, is a prof at the federal university right here in Rio Branco! Alex Polari also gave me some contacts here, and echoed that information. He included the names and phone numbers of people involved in the governments enviromental regulation agency, IBAMA, who would know about the rules involving extraction of the vines and leaves. He also gave me contact info for a local prosecutor, who may be able to help me with some of the legal information Id like to find. Tomorrow I plan to head over to the university and try to
contact Clodomir Monteiro first thing; from all accounts he's a stodgy old academic, which sounds wonderful to my ears! Besides these contacts, there are also several local ayahuasca centers. I saw the entrance to one, belonging to the Unio do Vegetal, from the highway coming into town. The others are the Colonia 5000, the first community started by Padrinho Sebastio after the death of Mestre Irineu, on the outskirts of town; the Alto Santo church, the Mestres own stomping grounds, now apparently lorded over by his widow, Peregrina (his tomb is also near there, apparently); and the Barquinha (little ship), another line started by a contemporary and disciple of Mestre Irineu. So well see how it goes. Its strange being back in the city after a month in a small community where there weren't even cars. Here people seem weird; they don't look at you, except furtively, and many people have contorted visages, as though they are in the grip of a strong and unpleasant emotion. Yet they also have hot showers, a luxury I hadn't really missed but welcomed nonetheless, especially with the itchy bug bites all over my ankles and waistline. And they have a buffet at the hotel with vegetables! lettuce, tomatoes, carrots.
All of these things were hard to get in Mapia
 Return To Matthew's Page |
Send E-Mail to: meakes@mail.csuchico.edu
Copyright © 2002 Marlo M. Eakes Meyer. All Rights Reserved