Friday evening, at about 10:00 o'clock, Krista and her host family met me and my host family for dinner at the Coco Bambu Pizzaria Creperia Tapiocaria Restaurant, a couple of blocks off the beach in the middle of Fortaleza. Under common ownership with our Tuesday evening restaurant, this facility provides a more casual atmosphere. The “Tapioca” part of the name refers to a northern Brazil specialty – cooked tapioca cakes. These treats are delicious, and, like pizza, are cooked with various either plain or with various toppings.

 

     Joining us a few minutes later was Fortaleza - Planalto President-Elect Walter Torquato and his wife. As always, the food was delicious. Krista enjoyed pizza. I had crepe de carne de sol, or "meat of the sun" wrapped in a crepe. As we were eating, a couple of ducks waddled by.

 

     Saturday morning, as Krista prepared to depart, I went to the Mercado Central. While there, we saw several fans of the Vitória soccer team visiting from Bahia, sporting their team's colors. I'm not sure, but I've heard there may be something wrong with those people that compels them to favor such an obviously wretched team.

 

     While Krista began her trip home Saturday afternoon, we went north a few miles outside of the city to Cumbuco Beach, yet another beautiful spot. There I took a trip about a half mile off the coast in a jangada, a small primitive wooden boat that is about 15 feet long and about five feet wide. Area fishermen still use these vessels. They travel 50 or more miles offshore for several days, returning when their jangada can hold no more. Our trip was a bit shorter, lasting a half hour or so.

 

     Sunday morning I met briefly with our Rotary Club of Fortaleza - Planalto hosts, Flávio, and exchanged text messages with Krista confirming her safe arrival in OKC. In the afternoon, I went to the big soccer match with my host family. It was also 13-year-old Natália's first time to go.

 

     There are two local teams, Fortaleza and Ceará. It may be hard to believe, but those two teams despise each other. Our team is the good one – Ceará.

 

     Ceará moved up to the first division this year, having finished in the top four of the second division last year (Fortaleza, by contrast, moved into the third division, having finished last year in the bottom four of the second division). We joined about 25,000 other fans of the Ceará team. The other team, Vitória, is from Bahia state. Ceará and Vitória are the only first division teams from the northeastern part of Brazil. Vitória was favored to win.

 

     The game was exciting. Lots of jumping, lots of shouting, lots of singing, lots of celebrating. But there was not a lot of offense. Although Ceará was on offense most of the time, the first half ended tied at 0-0.

 

     As the second half progressed, and the sun began to set, many fans lit large sparklers. But, throughout the second half, and into the additional time beyond the allotted 45 minutes, the game remained scoreless.

 

     Then, with about a minute left in the game, Ceará stopped a dangerous one on one play by the other team and moved the ball onto the offensive side of the field. With only a few seconds remaining, a Ceará player named Washington scored the only goal of the game. The good guys won the game, 1-0, and a huge celebration erupted. With the goal and the win, Ceará moved into the top four (out of 20) in the first division.

 

     Our trip to the beautiful Brazilian state of Ceará is coming to a close. We have learned and experienced much. We have a lot to consider, and many stories to tell. More on that in my final email installment.

 

Andy