17 Years Ago Today

It's been 17 years ago today that I met my Tarzan (who I would one day marry!) I was with a Primary Health Care team and we'd just flown in to the city at the mouth of the Amazon, Belem, Brazil. Edilberto was on staff at the base where we were working. He was an interpreter for a health care seminar we gave to the base staff.

I remember the date because the day we landed in Brazil, was the day that the Gulf War started in 1991. We spent a week at the base in the city of Belem before heading-up river to stay in two different villages to plant clinics and train local health care workers. It was difficult being in those places and not having any news about what was happening with the war. We'd only get snippets of news by word of mouth from places that had shortwave radios.

Edilberto and I married many years later. But I'll never forget the first time I saw him. He was wearing a white v-neck t-shirt, pea green safari looking pants, was all sweaty and with a machete in his hand (he was clearing brush). He'd just killed a snake and flung it to hang in one of the branches of the bush he was working on. I asked him if he only killed the poisonous ones. He replied, "I don't wait to find out."

Strange was to have an attraction for someone so instantly. To have a lasting impression of someone I'd just met. For we left upriver after just one week at the base, for two months, and I only saw him on one occasion during the time we were staying in the villages. That was when he transported two of our late arriving team members to meet us. He didn't stay long and was off again. But it made me ponder why I felt somehow we'd be together. Even our team leader said, "I have a feeling about those two." Weird! And here we are today, married with two children.