Max Sennat taxi escapade

We are now in Asuncion, Paraguay as you can see from the postmark, but that information will have to come in the next letter. First I have to catch you up on Uruguay and for postage purposes, I have to keep this to four pages. I am working here at Apple headquarters for Paraguay. All the Apple outlets in south America have been more than willing to allow me time to use their machines and share some thoughts with you. Now if only some of you would share your thoughts with us. Hint!! Hint!!
We arrived in Montevideo after a three hour trip across a sea of chocolate mousse known as the Rio de la Plata. It is really incredible. It felt like we wer sailing across a pudding bowl and we expected to see Bill Cosby and a bunch of kids all with spoons in their hands spring out of the water. It truly is that color from all the erosion which takes place upstream, and we're talking three hours across the river.
Immediately upon landing things were different. It's only across the river, but everything was more tropical. The first thing we noticed about a change in personality between the Argentinos and Uruguayos was when the bus driver announced that there would be no smoking on the bus. All the Argentine buses had similar signs on board, but since a large number of the total population and a disconcerting number of young people smoke, everybody simply ignore the signs. We were traveling toward Montevideo when the bus came to a screaming halt. We thought that something drastic must have happened, but the driver came in a huff to the back of the bus announcing sternly, "I told you, there would be no smoking." We knew that we would like Uruguay. And like it we did. The flora wasn't the only change. The styles are not nearly as chic and the shops not as up to date. Bs.As. is so style conscious. In Montevideo, it just didn't seem to be important.
The climate is not nearly as humid which made it possible to have a hotel of "Lesser quality." Actually, it was the pits, but it was cheap and central, $12 a night. Air conditioning was not necessary as it had been in Bs. As.
Another change was the for the first time we saw blacks. We couldn't remember seeing any in Chile and very few in Argentina. There were just as many slaves sent to Argentina as to Brazil, but because they were poor and so many of them were in the military, they fought many of Argentina's wars and most were killed. In Uruguay, with its proximity to Brazil, the black population has stabilized, and they add a joy of life which really sparkles.
It was Easter week when we arrived and that means fiesta time in Uruguay, particularly gaucho fiestas. I always think of Argentina when I think of Gauchos, but we saw many more in Uruguay. We went to rodeos, barbecues, and had a great time. When we were walking aroun the campgrounds, we saw thousands of people camping and in particular the blacks had their own music and dancing and obviously were having the best time of all. When we filmed their music and dancing, they would absolutely perfom for us. The people of South America never met a camera they didn't like. The people were very poor and their food meager, but they insisted upon sharing it with us. We had honored them by taking their picture, and they had to honor us by sharing what they had. I've said it befor, the poorest people are always the most generous.
Everywhere in South America you see people with their "Mate" (ma-te). It is a bitte herb which they drink from a hollowed out gourd. The mate itself looks like ground alfalfa (tastes like it as well). They carry thermos bottles around with them and pour boiling water into the gourd which mixes with the mate and they drink it through a metal straw. We have seen it all through the continent, but never in the massive numbers of the Uruguayans. Everybody drinks the mate. At fiestas they have 50 gallon drums with fires underneath to heat the water inside the drums. They have rigged a spout in the bottom of the drum and people come and buy hot water to refill their thermos. It is not to my taste, but it took me a year of drinking coffee in college before I could honestly say that I enjoyed that, so it is hard to judge.
Geographically, this Nebraska sized nation is either beaches or rolling hills. The highest point is less than 1500 feet, so it was a change coming from the Andean areas we have been in. But the beaches are magnificent. I can't say the same for the look of the ocean, but the fine sand and mile after mile of spotless beaches were exceptional. One day I put on my swimming trunks and just ran barefooted right at the shore line for miles and miles. Well, actually, for parts of miles and miles. It was beautiful.
Carol had a 40 minute interview which we taped with the president of "Manos del Uruguay." It means simply the hands of Uruguay. It is an organization started 22 years ago to organize the creative talent of the rural women who wre very poor and who had no outlet for their work. It is a cooperative venture and they all share in it the same. The president makes the same as the women who spin and weave. they do everything by and and it is the most gorgeous I have ever seen. Carol, since she knows about the fiber arts was particularly impressed. We went out and saw the women in the countryside working, and Carol came away wanting to get back to her spinning and weaving. The president has only a 3rd grade education, but this lady is no dummy. Extremely literate and astute in business-wise, she can serve as president for only two years, at which time somebody else will be elected for the next term. Other groups in South America have tried to emulate the experiences, but it is unique.We came away $200 lighter but many suitcase pounds heavier.
Politically, Uruguay is really confusing. For instance, they developed the best and earliest of the social systems in South America. By1915, Uruguay had nationalized the public services, controlled heavy industry, had free medical service for all, old age pensions, unemployment pay, legal status for illegitimate children, free and compulsory education, abolished capital punishment, and de-established the church. All this by 1915.
I remember that when I was in school, Uruguay was a model of how things could be. Well, things change. Most people blame the politicians, but by the late 60:s and early 70:s things had begun to disintegrate. "Everything was too easy," they told us. Nobody really realized that to maintain such a system required a lot of foresight. The roads fell into disrepair, the bureaucracy was interminably slow, inflation soared, and people began to talk about change. Some people did more than talk, and like many Latin American countries, a Castro-inspired group called the "Tupamaurus" gained a lot of public support. While their ideals were lofty, like many movements, they in the end resorted to terrorist tactics, and revolution was in the air.
Finally, no surprise in Latin America, the military took over and began a very harsh and repressive reign. In Chile, then Argentina, and now Uruguay, the pattern has been similar. Civil strife to improve life leads to military rule. Democracy has been reinstated now, and they have a democratically elected government. As an example of how repressive the military regime was, whenever a group of "Manos" women got together to weave their sweaters and shawls, they had to have a policeman present because they might be plotting revolution.
Once again, we hit the jackpot people-wise. One of Carol's students, Alissa Harris mentioned to her one day that while her mom was in high school, she had a foreign exchange student from Uruguay live with them for a year, and that they had remained friends for the last 25years. We were given names, addresses, and presents to deliver and spent some wonderful days with Laura and her family. They live in a small resort town called Atlantida right on the coast, of course. The setting and people wre magnificent. They were so kind to us. They took us all around, fed us, put us up for the night, and once again, we have new friends who we will see again. Laura's father is the governor of the district and both he and her mother are two very lively, bright-eyed people who only find good in the world. Laura found a prince of a man to father her five children and this family unity thing, again, was made very obvious to us. We certainly have lost something at home with our hurry-scurry lives which take us all in different directions. These people have something a whole lot more important than material success and social prominence.
Laura made it possible for us to visit schools and we had an opportunity to film in them as well. Our kids would die, but all the students here wear some kind of uniform. I can just see our 7th grade boys having heart failure that they had to wear a knee-length white smock with a big blue bow tied in the middle under their chin. The thing is none of these kids mind it. Since everybody does it, it is no big thing. They don't run home and tear them off as soon as possible. Talk about overcrowed schools. There is one school for the 7th - 12 grades, and the kids all go at different times. Laura has two daughters who go from 8 a.m to noon, a daughter who goes from noon to 4 p.m., a son who goes from 1 to 5 p.m., and a daughter who goes from 4 to 8 p. m. Four of them in the same school. Triple session. The school runs from 8 in the morning until 8 at night. Our kids would climb the walls at having to be in school at seven in the evening.
Right now in Montevideo they are having a problem with attendance. Not with themidle and poorer classes, but with the rich kids. More than 50% of them miss more than 50 of the 180 days of school. This is only with the upper classes and they are trying to figure out why. Editorially speaking, I believe that like a lot of kids who have it easy, it is had for them to see the advantage of having to make it on their own. I also wonder how long countries down here can maintain customs which are centuries old in the face of an onslaught of overwhelming influx of outside culture, particularly North American culture. TV shows, movies, fashions, fads. The whole works. I certainly am not convinced that it is a good thing. I only know that it is happening and is not about to change with the technological advances making this globe a lot smaller than it is.
I had my 50th birthday in Punta Del Este, that playground of the rich and famous in Uruguay. Miles and miles of beaches, magnificent homes with really different architecture, huge hotels, and just for my birthday enjoyment, casinos. I expected to see Robin Leach, I don't know if that is how he spells his name, but it should be. I had eagerly looking forward to my birthday here since we figured out that was where we would be. I wanted to have some fun for my birthday and gamble a while. Well....
I got an equivalent of $40 in chips with which to start. Chips? I got one! Since it is the off season, there were only three of us in the whole casino and the other two were playing roulette. I wanted to play craps, a teacher at our school, Jane Walsh, had taught me how to play in December, but they don't play that here, so I headed for the blackjack table. I had the whole table and the dealer to myself, great. I converted my one chip into smaller ones and now I had three chips. Two worth $15 each and one worth $10. I wanted chips worth smaller amounts. I mean I want the $2 table, right? Wrong! The minimum bet is $15. After two hands of blackjack, I no longer have enough moneyto bet. So I headed to the roulette table where the other two guy are playing. I converted my $10 chip into five chips worth $2 each. Not wanting to spend my total wealth all at once I placed three of my yellow chips covering the corners of four numbers. Well, the other guys were not playing my game. They were in a world of their own. Seriously, they bet between $500 - $600 s pop. They threw their green and red chips all over the board and kept throwing them until the croupier said, "No mas." My poor little spots of yellow looked embarrassed to be in among the sea of red and green. It was really pitiable. They looked at me like "What in the hell are you doing here." These two had so many numbers covered with multiple chips there was no way they could lose everything. When the number was announced, there was a massive raking of chips and returning of multiple red and green chips, but my poor yellows disappeared forever. It took me about 2 1/2 minutes to go from the birthday boy to the stupid fool who should stay on the porch if he can't run with the big dogs. I walked away depressed, poorer, and probably not any wiser than when I entered. I left Punta del Este the next morning not looking back.
We left Uruguay and headed for Paraguay. It took us back into Argentina for the fourth time. It is difficult to move around here without crisscrossing it. we got a taxi to take us from the border town of Paysandu, Uruguay to Colon, Argentina. I sat in the front seat with the teen-age driver, he insisted on it that way. The woman, after all, belongs in the back. When we got out at the bus station at Colon, I realized that I had forgotten our "Bible," as it is referred to among travelers down here. The South American Handbook is an invaluable source of information ranging from hotels and restaurants to laundries to what to do with whom and at what cost. We had to have it back. With 30 minutes left before the only bus of the day left, carol jumped into another taxi to chase the first taxi back to the border. But wait, here comes the kid in the first taxi back with the book. He saw it on the floor of the front seat and came back with it. Only Carol doesn't know that, and she is chasing some phantom taxi back to the border. So the first taxi tears off chasing the taxi which is chasing him. It was all very surrealistic, like something out of "It's a Mad Mad World." I thought about getting into another taxi and chasing after Carol, but that seemed a little too weird, so I just held firm. Faster and faster Carol's driver went because he can't see the first taxi. Finally, at the border they find out that the first driver had not recrossed into Uruguay and they retraced their steps trying to find him. They did, because he had to stop when his windshield wipers fell off. It had begun to rain and he was forced to turn them on, always a chancy event. This tells you something about the condition of taxis down here. It all got sorted out, the bus was ten minutes late, which gave Carol enough time to get back and off we headed for Paraguay, bible in hand.
One other thing about Uruguay. Because they do not have any auto industry here cars are VERY expensive (The absolute cheapest is a stripped down model of Fiat from Brazil for $12,000) particularly on a Uruguayan Salary, they keep cars going forever. We saw many model A fords. Since Laura's husband is my age, he and I had a great time spotting cars from our high school days and trying to be the first one to correctly identify the 55 ford (not a 56 Dennis) or the 57 Chevy. It was maravilloso, as they say. One night a family was attempting to start a '49 Hudson. The battery was not up the the task so the wife and daughter got out to push while the husband sat behind the wheel and "Popped" the clutch. (Sounds like the Onas with their fishing). They were not getting very far, so I began pushing, another passerby joined in, and the engine caught with a sputter and they were off. It was great. I mean how many more times in my life am I going to be able to push a Hudson.
Well, they are about to close for the weekend here so I have to close up myself. I will write about Paraguay, which is just now coming out from 35 years of dictatorship under Stroessner. We are still having a wonderful time and it is every bit the great adventure that we had hoped it would be. We are learning much and it is certainly money and time well spent. Take care and we will, fortunately or unfortunately, be home before very much longer. It seems to be going very quickly.

Love to all, (except Al)