Riots, Tears and Babtism

Rio de Janeiro, July 2022

Mama, Deborah, Manolo and I had planned long in advance our stay in Rio for the baptism of Guggi‘s twin boys.

Guggi‘s father Manolo recently quit New York City after more than 30 years to return for retirement to his birth country Ecuador. Unfortunately he was not able to join us at the end. He had to postpone his flight for the fall, because the current political situation in Ecuador would not allow him to travel. Various indigenous organisations are protesting against rising fuel prices and governmental restriction measurements. Road blockades, serious riots and citizen hijackings appear to be far too risky for Manolo to travel from Ambato to Quito.

Where as Mama and Deborah only had to suffer the super chaotic current situation at airports including cancelled flights, long cues at security check, disorganized connections and totally overworked staff. Their flight from Paris to Rio was delayed for 22 hours, in which they had to spend the time in a cheap airport hotel with a poor food voucher. Guggi and I received them a day later, totally exhausted by night in Copacabana.

Meanwhile, the twins had passed me on their grippal infect after I had spend three days in a row at home with them as they could not attend school and Guggi had to work. After all, Mama got hit by the infection through me. What an amazing start for a wonderful family reunion!

The day before baptism, tensions where brought up to surface and we suddenly had a mayor family discussion with tears and drama amongst us four women. Finally, we were able to sort out one the two important topics and came to conclusion. Good for us.

Next day, I had to confront the fact that, during the preparation talks with the church representatives and the catholic brazilian family, I had been very rude saying out loud that I don‘t believe in God at all. But carrying the honor of the godmother’s role of one of the boys, I was obliged to go through those rituals. At the end, baptism procedure turned out very well. Only the priest seemed a little confused. He constantly forgot the boy’s names and had to be recalled by shouts from the benches. At the end, he went up to Guggi: „Oh wow, so you are from the Philipines. Then your boys must be from Cambodia. What a nice family!“ To me he only said: „Be aware of your responsibility“.

We went for lunch with the numerous brazilian family and spend the rest of the sunday digesting food on the sofa in the spacious flat we had rented out. Only Manolo was deeply missed.

Ave Maria