Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Last but not least, we need to consider the drama of the chronic lack of hospital
vacancies represented in the children's performance. In real life, the kids are forced
to wait alone in unfriendly corridors, hooked up to intravenous fluid, for a vacant
hospital bed. Parents are not notified about the little ones' destinies, and there are at
least four different hospitals the children can be taken to.
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Government officials from
different organizations in the state of São Paulo blame one another for the anarchy
of the health care system, and the tremendous amount of bureaucracy involved in
the process obstructs communication with the communities. The children suffer.
Guarani health agents at Itaóca, who should be, but are not, paid by the Fundação
Nacional de Saúde, spend precious time trying to locate the missing children so that
relatives can visit. Sometimes the information comes in too late: a death notification
and burial authorization at the Cemitério da Igualdade.
TRAVELERS, MISSIONARIES AND WARRIORS
Donations of second-hand clothes, toys, and furniture from tourists and missionaries,
as well as leftover bread from local bakeries and even cattle bones from nearby
butcheries are common at Itaóca. The arrival of a truckload of lollipops and toys,
brought in by Protestant missionaries of the Evangelist Church Assembly of God,
caused major excitement among the Guarani children in March 1999. I witnessed
the distribution of goods to the kids, who waited patiently in line and thanked the
preachers for the candy with an automatic “God bless you” (
Deus lhe pague
).
Following the offering, the kids were told to sit in a circle and sing “Grateful Rain”
(
Chuvas de Graça
), the opening anthem of the topic
Christian Harp
.
After singing, adults and children alike scattered throughout the village,
carrying home the valued gifts. I remained seated in front of Zeferina and Antonio
Fernandes' house, watching the couple's kids - Mizael, age 7, Florentina, 4, and
Izael, 2 - handle the candy and plastic toys along with their cousins Dirceu, 11 and
Kátia, 10.
Florentina and Izael filled up 3 small trucks with candy and pushed them around
in circles around an extinguished bonfire, used by the children's grandmother to
cook some beans. Florentina recited: “Tembi'u ma owaee ma!” (food is coming!).
As Izael noticed I was watching them, he brought me a lollipop. I asked him what
they were doing, and the boy responded: “We're visiting our relatives.”
Other children joined in. Dirceu and Kátia, the oldest ones, sucked lollipops and
hummed evangelical carols, while undressing plastic dolls. These are the cheapest
dolls you can get at local supermarkets: 3
reais
(about U. S. $1.30 in 2014) for
6 blonde-haired, blue-eyed flimsy dolls dressed in pink and white mini-skirts and
blouses. The naked figures were placed on the ground, and the kids exchanged candy
from one truck to another. Mizael came out of his grandfather's house smoking
tobacco in a traditional pipe and singing in the Guarani language. The boy spit
twice on the ground and began blowing smoke on the unclothed dolls. The children
observed Mizael attentively and started humming the same tune. Two months earlier
