Brazil Stories

Before Rob was born, his mother, Frances, asked his sister Clara, 7, "What should we name the new baby?" Clara thought Bob was a good name, but when she found out he was officially named Robert, she wasn't too pleased, and insisted he be called Robert.

Clara and Robert Arehart - 06August 2005, 3rd Brazil Reunion

(Click on photo for high resolution image)

 

First Trip to Brazil

In 1942, when Rob was less than a year old, it took 2 months to get to Brazil as World War II had just begun. Pan Am off-loaded the family for up to 2 weeks at a time in Brownsville, TX, Canal Zone, & Equador, Peru, etc. In Peru, Rob was sick with a virus. An English doctor came to the hotel twice and charged one dollar a visit. He prescribed herbal tea.

The Seminary in Recife

The Seminary in Recife was next to a cotton factory that smelled horrible. Rob's father, Raynard, was the Seminary Director & also taught Bible courses. Their house was next to the Seminary. Rob & his family would eat dinner with the Seminary students. The Seminary had large porches on the front & the back. In the evenings the students would gather there. Between the age of 3 & 5, Rob learned to play chess, Checkers & Chinese Checkers with the students. A river ran past the Seminary grounds. The banks of the river were about 8 feet above the water. At low tide Rob could see crabs run into holes.

Pitanga

When Rob was about 3 or 4, he would eat the small red pitanga fruit. One day he and his brother Richard started eating some red fruit that looked like pitangas. Burned mouths and welts on their tongues, let them know they had eaten from a pepper tree instead.

Clapping

The front doors in Brazil didn't have knockers or doorbells, so when someone came to visit he would clap outside the front door and call out, "Whoever's home".

Bandits

While living at the Seminary, there was a famous bandit named Lampiao (Lightning) because it was said he fired his rifle so fast when he got into a fight with the police that it looked like flashes of lightning. He was a "Robin Hood" & a killer who finally was shot to death and beheaded in 1938. He was afraid of being poisoned by his own men, so he would stir his coffee with a silver spoon. The assumption was that poison would tarnish the silver. One night Rob's parents came home & found all the lights on & all doors & windows open. The maid said, "If the bandit comes in one way, I'll go out another."

Possum Story

Richard had a white Peking duck & a Muscovy duck, black with red on the head, named Miriam Pew Pew. He got 5 or 6 mates for her & they were all killed by possums. When Rob was 4 or 5, Timbu, the resident possum built a nest in some broken roof tiles over his bedroom. He looked up & saw a possum & 3 or 4 babies looking in through the hole. Richard was very mad when a couple of his favorite chickens were killed by the Seminary cooks for food. Rob, 5, took action & chased the cooks around the kitchen with a knife.

Alice Paige & Severina

Alice Paige came from England with a high ranking British family to Brazil when she was young. She stayed when they went back to England. She cleaned the Church of England in Recife but didn't have enough income. Rob's mother, Frances, had her come clean house one or 2 times a week. She lived several blocks away. Rob's parents were good friends of George from England & they later helped arrange for Alice to go back to England.

Severina was the maid from the time Rob was 5 or 6 until he was 13 or 14. She lived with them in Recife and Garanhuns until she married a barber. When Rob's parents went out at night, she would tell the children scary stories of werewolves and liver-eating men, & then send them to bed. Had the legend of liver-eating Johnson, an American pioneer who had a feud with the Indians reached Brasil? His trademark was to kill the Indians who came after him and eat their livers.  

Open the Door Richard

In 1949 they lived in Richmond, VA at Mission Court, a second floor apartment of a 4-unit dwelling. Rob's parents & Clara went to church one evening. Richard & Robert stayed home & went to bed. When they returned Rob's dad didn't have his key (not uncommon). They banged on the front door & the back door, no answer. They called. By now everyone in the building was awake & came outside to join in the chorus under the bedroom window for Richard to open the door. No response. Someone found a ladder & Raynard climbed up, entered the window & opened the door. To commemorate the occasion, they & their neighbors bought a record that was popular at the time - "Open the Door, Richard".

 Um Copo de Aqua

During a stay at the Arehart farm in Frankford, West Virginia, Rob, about 6, told his mom that he was thirsty & wanted some water. His mother told him to ask his grandmother she'd be glad to give him some. Rob said, "Grandmother, eu quero um copo de aqua." His grandmother said, "Eh, what's that you want, Dear?" His mother said, "You need to ask in English."

Goat

After furlough in the US, Rob & his family returned to Recife & lived in a house outside the Seminary grounds. On Sundays Rob's father would drop off Seminary students at various locations to preach. He would pick them up on his return trip Sunday evening. After one such trip, Rob's father returned with a young goat given to him in appreciation for his preaching. Rob & Richard would play with the goat by butting him in the head with their hands & thus encouraging the goat to lower his head & chase them. Clara preferred locking herself in her room with a jar of peanut butter & a good book. Rob, Richard & Clara rode their bikes to school - about a 45-minute ride. Clara led the way. Rob was in first or second grade. They had to cross a bridge over the river. Once a flood damaged the pilings and the bridge was closed for 1 or 2 months, so they walked & paid someone with a boat to row them across for school. During the flood they could see pigs, mud huts & shacks floating down the river.

Mad Dog

The house in Recife had porches on three sides with banisters all around. When Rob & Richard were playing with their dog Puppy they would jump onto the banisters to get away. One night Puppy came running up, foaming at the mouth. The maid yelled, "Mad dog!" & Rob & Richard jumped up on the banisters with the Mad Dog in close pursuit. Later they figured she must have tangled with a frog.

The Burning Bed

Rob & Richard slept in twin beds. At the foot was a small table with a sentinella spiral which they burned at night to keep the mosquitoes away. Raynard came home about 11:30 at night & passed by the room to see how his children were doing. He found the foot of Rob's mattress smoldering. He put it out without waking the boys. A chunk had been burned out of the foot of Rob's mattress. It was determined that Richard must have kicked the table over during the night.

The Burning Leaves

In their yard in Recife there were lots of different types of trees - mango, olive, cashew, star fruit & coconut. They enjoyed the fruits from these trees but the trees also produced lots of leaves. About age 7 or 8, Rob was stirring some burning leaves to keep them burning well. All of a sudden, there was a big pop & explosion. Rob ran into the house crying & everyone thought he was half dead because he was covered in red. There was a discarded, unopened can of catsup in the leaves!

The Christmas Tree

A new missionary arrived in Brazil in December & wanted a Christmas tree. It was summer in Brazil and that section of the country didn't have any evergreen trees. Rob and his dad Raynard went with the man to the countryside to cut down a tree he could use. On the drive back, the tree was sticking out of the trunk. A policeman stopped them and asked why they had a tree in the trunk. In Brazil the police were looking for a bribe whenever they stopped someone. The new missionary didn't speak Portuguese so he turned to Rob's dad and asked what the policeman was saying. Rob's dad answered in English making it appear he couldn't speak Portuguese either. Rob, 6, in the backseat took his cue from his dad and didn't speak up even though he could have translated what the policeman said. Rob knew his dad could speak Portuguese and figured there must be a reason why his dad was only speaking English. Eventually, the policeman gave up and waved them on.

Christmas with Santa Hap Neville

All of the missionary families were staying in the Girls' Dormitory at the Quinze in Guaranhuns for Mission Meeting in December. The meeting didn't finish until after midnight on Christmas Eve. All the children were asleep. Hap Neville was to play Santa on Christmas & pass out presents. He put on his Santa suit & went to the dormitory & turned on the lights, jingled some bells & shouted, "Ho, ho, ho". Kids came out of their rooms & chased him down the hall as he banged on doors. It was 3 or 4 AM on Christmas morning! Parents had already filled the stockings but the gifts weren't supposed to be given out until 10AM. Rob's mom said, "I could have just killed Hap Neville."

Chicken Pox

When living in Guaranhuans, Rob's folks had to go to Recife. The Nevilles, fellow Presbyterian missionaries, lived next door, so Rob & Richard, who had the chicken pox, stayed with them. They had cow tongue for dinner. Rob, 6 or 7, ate some. Richard declined.

Baptist Nun

When Rob was 9 or 10, living in Guaranhuns, there was a Brazilian nun who converted to become a Baptist. She traveled around Brazil speaking & was critical of the Catholic Church. She was going to speak in a Baptist church in Guaranhuns. A female student at the Catholic School warned someone at the 15^th of November School (The Quinze), run by Presbyterian missionaries, that a group was planning to march to the Baptist church & kill the ex-nun. The Quinze was comprised of 5 grades of elementary, 4 grades of high school, and three years of scientific/technical taught in Portuguese. Since the Baptist church was located right on the road, it was decided to have the talk in the school auditorium, half a mile away from a public road. There was a 5-foot high wall around Rob's home and the school property. About 6:30 PM, when he was eating supper, Rob heard chanting & rumbling & saw a procession of thousands of Catholics with torches. They passed by the Baptist church, found it empty, & figured that the nun was at the Quinze. They broke some windows at the church & proceeded to the school. The guard at the school closed & locked the gate. A student at the Quinze, who was a leader in the National Guard, had alerted the National Guard, which showed up just as the crowd arrived at the school. Rob went to the attic to look - there were people as far as you could see. They chanted for 45 minutes outside the gates before the National Guard made them disperse.

Puppy, Shiver, & Rags

When Rob was 10, Clara's very small dog, named Puppy, would get out of the yard onto school property where German Shepherds patrolled the grounds. They would chase Puppy. She would stay 3 feet ahead of them & jump/climb the fence, 3 or 4 feet high, into the safety of the yard. She'd then stare & yap at the big dogs as they looked over the fence. Since the Areharts were getting ready to go back to the US, Puppy was given to a Brazilian who lived away from Guaranhuns. When they got back to Brazil, the Brazilian kept Puppy but gave Rob the pick of her litter of new puppies. The Areharts were staying at the girls' dormitory of the Quinze during the Christmas holidays. The new puppy got out into the hall & started barking & crying. The echo scared him & he was shivering from head to toe when they found him, so Rob's mom named him Shiver. Rob only had him for 2 weeks before he disappeared from the school grounds. As consolation, Rob was given Rags (Brazilians pronounced it Raggis), a German Shepherd puppy. He was the puppy of the dogs that patrolled the Quinze grounds. When they moved to the Bible Institute that trained lay leaders, down the hill from the Quinze, they lived in an apartment attached to the school. Rob had wanted a small dog & Rags was a German Shepherd, so he became the Institute's dog & lived outside. He was very protective of the students. He would go to church with them on Sunday nights, wait outside for them, and walk them home after the service.

Jaguar Tooth

The jaguar tooth was on the tip of an arrow given to Rob, 15, by a missionary. The arrow was too long to take back to the US from Brazil, so Rob took the tooth off & still has it in his dresser drawer.

Valedictorian

With the decimal system, it was easy for teachers to use a grading scale of 1 to 10 or 1 to 100. On Rob's report card, he got a ten in English, which really meant he aced the course. All other grades on the report card were posted using the 100 scale. When the school administration averaged the grades, Rob came out second, and a girl was told she had the honor of being valedictorian. Something seemed wrong about the average. Rob discovered they had used a 10 instead of 100 for English when doing the grade average. Records were straightened out to send off to college, but no one else was told. Rob did not want to give a speech, and the valedictorian performed magnificently.

Trip to the South

When Rob was 15, he & Richard accompanied their dad to a Board of Missions meeting in Sao Paulo. They wanted to see South Brazil. The three of them rode the streetcar most of the day to see sights. It was close to Christmas & Raynard had some things to get at Sears that evening. Rob & Richard were exhausted & chose to stay at the hotel. Raynard gave them the key & told them to open the door when he came back.Raynard returned & banged on the door; then he went to the hotel desk & had them phone the room - no answer. Raynard said, "My 2 sons are in there." He had to talk for 10 minutes to persuade the man at the desk to go to the room with a key. The desk clerk banged on the door some more & didn't believe anyone was in the room. When he finally let Raynard in, he took the man & showed him his 2 sons sound asleep. The man said, "I've never seen anyone sleep that soundly!" The next day Raynard asked Rob & Richard, "How do you think I got in last night?" They looked at each other & said, "I don't know."

The Parrot Story

Rob's senior year of college, he, Clara, her husband Charlie Marah & daughter Rose all visited Brazil. The Presbyterian Mission had been given 5 square miles of land on the road between Belem & Brazilia in the Amazon to be used for farming by the poor of Brazil. The Mission needed to send a Jeep station wagon to the site. Charlie wanted adventure, Rob went as interpreter, and a Brazilian car mechanic went with them to deliver the vehicle. The trip took 4 to 6 days because the roads were unpaved with deep ruts. They stayed in mud hut hotels along the way. They were supposed to be met by missionary Jon Crow when they got there. Since they arrived early they decided to go hunting. Charlie had a shotgun & they provided Rob with a flashlight, a "buffalo gun" rifle, one bullet, & a machete. It was like a sword & the point dragged on the ground when he strapped it around his waist. A Brazilian drove Rob, Charlie, the mechanic, & 2 local Brazilians 5 or 6 miles to the jungle, then they walked from 9AM to 1 or 2 PM in the jungle. The men said to Rob, "This is a good place to hang your hammock." They helped him hang it between 2 trees 10-12 feet up across the game trail. The Brazilian style of hunting was to hang a hammock over the trail. When an animal approached, shine a flashlight in its eyes & shoot it. Rob said, "This looks nice. Where are you going to hang your hammock?" The men said, "We can't stay here. Too many people will scare the animals. We'll go a mile or 2 down the road." And off they trekked & left Rob alone. It didn't take Rob long to get in his hammock, ready to fire. He waited, nothing showed up, night came. It was pitch black - your couldn't see a thing. He heard a rustling of leaves & turned the flashlight on to see what kind of animal was below. The flashlight bulb only glowed a little because the battery was almost dead. It got very cold. He decided to try to sleep. Finally the sun came up the next morning. About 8AM, Rob saw a wild pig coming down the game trail, but it turned aside when it was about 30 yards away. Rob decided it was now or never, took aim & shot. Boom! Black smoke was everywhere for what seemed like 5 minutes. He couldn't see a thing. When the smoke cleared there was no pig to be seen anywhere. Without any more bullets, Rob decided to stay in the hammock. Forty-minutes to an hour later, the other men came back without having caught anything. On the walk back, everyone was getting hungry. One Brazilian said, "We can get a parrot & eat it while waiting for the car to pick us up. They came to a huge tree - the lowest branch was 20-30 feet off of the ground & it towered upward from there. It was covered with jabbering parrots. Charlie took aim, shot once, then 2 or 3 more times - nothing happened. One Brazilian said, "I'll show you how it's done." He took Rob's rifle - Boom! Black smoke was everywhere. There was total silence in the jungle. Charlie said, "You must have missed him." "No, wait, I got him", the man said. One minute later, a parrot fell down dead. He picked up the parrot, walked back to the road, plopped it in the dirt, plucked the feathers & cleaned it out. Then he reached into his pouch & took something out that looked like brown dirt (he said it was salt) & put it on the parrot. He gathered some leaves, started a fire, put the parrot on a spit & waved it over the fire five or six times & said, "It's ready."  Rob said, "It's not cooked enough." The man said, "If you cook a parrot any longer, it gets tough." He gave Rob a drumstick. When he tried to take a bite, all the meat came off in one piece. Rob started chewing & chewing & chewing. Thirty minutes later he was still chewing - it was hard as rubber. He finally got tired of chewing & swallowed the piece whole. When asked if he wanted any more, Rob said, "I've had enough, thank you." His jaws were so tired he couldn't chew any more. No one but Rob ate any of the parrot while they waited for the car to pick them up.

Modern Miracle - Answered prayed, faith restored