Anjinha (Little Angel)

After some brilliant car packing by HH, we set off today for lunch with Maria, aka Hurricane Mary / Miracle Maria, which coincided with delivering a kid's bike, a bed and a microwave, all bought through her (and my) favourite site, Gringos (in Rio) Buy & Sell.

The packing took so long that we were quite late getting there, and the family had all eaten (I suspect they had planned it that way anyway), but Maria laid on a tremendous spread for us. We had hoped to be accompanied by a British journalist, so he could see the conditions they live in, and particularly the difficulties for Maria's paraplegic sister, Anjinha. However, he was too tied up with covering street demonstrations against the new President and didn't manage to get out there. Maybe another time. Anjinha, who had been waiting at Maria's door, wasn't too sure about meeting him and was fairly cheesed off - probably equally about the whole idea of talking to a stranger and the fact that he didn't make it - so went off back to her room in her mother's house.

Over lunch at Maria's, we heard again the tragic story of medical errors and lack of proper follow-up after Anjinha's accident, and the lawyer who cheated her out of compensation. All the time, there were constant comings and goings of children, brothers, sisters, neighbours and friends, the house is a busy thoroughfare. Extra pic - the chicken that came to lunch and settled on the table by Maria.

Eventually, we went over to visit her mother and Anjinha and after a while, I left HH literally holding the baby (the brother's) and chatting to M's mother and another sister, while I went in to make peace with Anjinha. She came round very quickly and we had a lovely talk for about an hour, before all that female company became a little too much for my patient husband. So we set off home in the sunset, filled with admiration for these people, each of whom has a story to tell and so many difficulties to overcome,yet they carry on smiling and caring for each other.
There's a wonderful song by Milton Nascimento here (though not my favourite version) which perfectly portrays Maria and her type. It says that Maria is 'a gift, a certain magic...' and speaks of 'a people who laugh when they should cry, and don't live, just endure' - although they seem to me to live life to the full, in spite of all their hardships.