In honor of the Year of the Wrench, I am submitting photos of my recent trip to the Azores, where both of my paternal grandparents, my Vovoo and my Vovoa were born. I was especially close to my Vovoa, and seeing her birthplace was on my bucket list. It was a folkloric trip, I knew the small town (Ponta Garca), the name of the church, Senhora da Piedad, and the name of my second cousin, Mario Borges, but had no phone numbers (or phone for that matter) Mario still owns the house where my grandmother, Donatila Pimental, was born (which is also the house where his grandmother,Adelina, my grandmother's sister, was born). I drove up winding narrow streets along the coast of Sao Miguel (the largest of the Azorean islands) and when I reached Ponta Garca, the priest was at another parish. (It was Easter Saturday). I walked along the streets and asked a family who were stripping evergreens in their garage (the streets are decorated on Easter Sunday with flowers and evergreens) if they knew the Borges. They offered to help me find them, and we drove around until we found Mario's nieces, Maria Louisa and Zalia. We had coffee and attempted to communicate (my two rounds of Brazilian Portuguese and a few sessions on Rosetta Stone made for limited talk). That night at 10 pm, my hotel phone rang and it was Mario. On Easter Monday we drove from Ponta Delgado (where he lives) back to Ponta Garca and I was able to see the view Vovoa would have had of the ocean, the stone oven which is still the center of the kitchen and Mario's pineapples. It is a beautiful place and inspired deep longing to be able to talk to my grandmother again (she passed away in 1977).
I'm hoping by the time I reach the Year of the Wrench status (age 60 in 2012) I am able to return to Ponta Garca with a decent knowledge of Portuguese.