The Village of Garapua

Garapua is a small fishing village consisting of two main neighborhoods.  The first is on the beach, and the second is inland about a half mile (A Vila).  It is all sand roads except the main road of the vila entering town.  There are only about 10 automobiles on the island and they are not allowed in the  beach neighborhood, only horses and tractors are allowed there.  We never have to worry about the kids getting hit by a car. :)  The automobiles on the island are small trucks or jeeps and are used to transport tourists between Morro de Sao Paulo, Garapua, and Boipeba.  There are approximately 1000 residents in Garapua.  Their economy comes from fishing and tourism.  Life here is very difficult to put into words.  The people here are the happiest in the world; they seem to have no real demands on time, or stresses to speak of.  They could not understand why we were a little stressed out that we were without internet for a full week.  Brad tried to explain the urgency in the matter, but it fell on deaf ears.  Finally Brad paid the R$200 round trip fair, went to Morro and found the one internet guy on the island and personally brought him to our house to fix the internet.   Garapua has two small markets that sell rice, beans, crackers, milk in plastic sacks, eggs, ice cream, dish soap, super glue, and personal hygiene items, and a few fresh produce items that come in each Thursday. There are horses in the village that roam freely, we still haven't figured out how their owners find them when its time to saddle up.  There is a small 3-4 room school that all age groups share.  School is in the morning for the elementary kids, the afternoon for junior high age, and at night for high school.  School is only 4 hours long for the younger students and 2 hours for the older students; our kids are very jealous.  They don't have a substitute teacher system so if your teacher is sick or out of town, school is cancelled for you until your teacher returns.  The houses are very close together, and small.  Each house is apx. 15 feet wide, like a town home set up in the US.  The houses come out to the narrow street, so no landscaping to worry about and maintain.  People hang out on their front porches and talk to their neighbors.  The people here have figured out that we are here to stay a while so they are opening up to us, and treating our kids like locals.  As you walk through the village you see kids lined up to buy a geladinho, very competitive soccer games on the beach at low tide, stray dogs that everyone feeds, kids playing soccer in the street, horses roaming freely, women talking on their porches, men playing dominos on a table set up on the street, and lots of laundry hanging out to dry everywhere.  Laundry has been a real challenge for us, washing our clothes by hand is very hard work.  We miss our washer and dryer terribly!  There are a few women with washers in the village; it is the item that separates economic status amongst the people here.  We have learned many things from the people here and will keep this place in our minds forever.  They epitomize the word hanging in so many of our homes, "SIMPLIFY".

A very competitive game of soccer between the men of the village, tempers flare!  Soccer is taken very seriously; it's probably the only thing taken seriously.  They are preparing for a big tournament between the villages on the island of Tinhare. The goal posts are large sticks dug into the sand.

In the Vila, main road with pavers

Fisherman making his net, very laborious!

Brad walking down one of the three streets in the vila

The tractor and trailer that picks us up for our Valenca shopping trips

Houses in Garapua

Medical center.  Anyone can go in for free medical care: Socialism at its finest

Sitting in front of one of the local churches...and the neighbors laundry

Bashford family laundry line

More laundry

A tractor in town, the only "vehicle" allowed in the beach neighborhood.  You can see the bar across the sand road keeping out all jeeps and trucks.

The girls on their way home from getting a chocolate geladinho.  They taste just like fudgesicles.

Taryn scrubbing the laundry.

Leaving the house and heading to the vila

One of our favorite stops for maracuja (passion fruit) and acerola (yummy cherry like fruit) geladinho.  These delicious home made otter pops are made from the fruit in her yard.  This is her kitchen on the back patio.

The local market in Garapua.