Wanderlino
Arruda
Everything
was
ready
in
Campinas,
São
Paulo
for
a
great
meeting
of
fraternity
and
great
happiness.
Over
three
hundred
inscriptions
had
already
arrived
from
all
over
Brazil
and
curiously
enough,
from
Argentina,
Uruguay,
Peru
and
Colombia.
Just
from
Bahia
state
alone,
came
over
forty,
mainly
from
the
capital
city
Salvador.
From
Montes
claros,
almost
Bahia,
only
half
a
dozen.
For
the
first
time
in
history,
the
Montes
Claros
Esperanto-Klubo
came
to
a
Brazilian
Esperanto
Congress,
even
though
the
last
one
had
also
happened
in
our
state
of
Minas
Gerais,
in
the
historical
city
of
Ouro
Preto.
Too
many
people,
principally
for
a
cold
morning
in
July,
when
more
than
one
hundred
and
fifty
speakers
of
this
international
language
filled
in
the
last
inscriptions:
teachers,
students,
writers,
artists,
young
and
old,
conventionally
prohibited
to
speak
in
any
other
language
besides
the
one
created
by
the
genius
of
Zamenhof.
I
didn’t
yet
know
the
professor
Elvira
Fontes,
general
secretary
of
the
convention.
I
had
only
spoken
to
her
by
telephone
a
few
times
and,
as
strange
as
it
seems,
a
greater
admiration
and
friendship
could
not
be
found
in
face
of
the
simpatia
and
goodness
that
she
always
let
bloom.
Senior
school
master,
writer,
dictionary
composer,
Madame
Elvira
Fontes
has
the
charisma
of
the
teacher
Marina
Lorenzo
Fernandez,
with
the
same
physical
size
and
spiritual
richness.
What
an
enchanting
woman!
On
the
male
side,
the
professor
Walter
Francini,
also
from
Sao
Paulo,
this
looking
very
much
like
our
“Ducho”,
person
and
voice,
calm
and
good.
He
is
such
a
good
companion
it
is
as
if
we
were
in
constant
companionship,
selling
magazines,
newspapers
and
books
in
the
bookshop
Thais.
Both
of
them,
Madame
Elvira
and
Francini
of
coursee,
gave
that
important
meeting
an
refreshing
atmosphere
of
our
old
Montes
Claros,
Robust
heart
of
the
hinterland
of
Francisco
Sa!
On
the
way
to
Campinas,
also
in
Sao
Paulo,
taking
advantage
of
the
new
bus
we
had
taken,
a
Gontijo,
the
teacher
Antonio
Felix,
Cynthia,
Juliano
and
I,
of
course,
has
already
made
our
first
investidas,
trying
to
anticipate
these
four
wonderful
days
in
the
world
of
Esperanto.
Felix
and
I,
more
experienced,
almost
veterans,
already
knew
what
was
going
to
happen.
Carlos
Jose,
and
the
others
whom
had
traveled
separately,
would
by
only
beginners,
with
the
anticipated
natural
curiosity,
proper
to
new
beginners.
Fear
of
not
understanding?
Fear
of
being
put
to
the
test?
Completely
normal…
It
was
with
tremendous
satisfaction
that
I
reencountered
my
old
friend
Saraiva,
Adolf
Miranda,
the
master
Nelson
Perreira,
Dorini,
Xaxa
Arruda,
Paiva,
the
Columbian
Aragon,
Eleusa
Varanda,Nina
and
Dayse,
marvelous
people
that
live
distant
from
each
other
but
getting
together
at
least
once
a
year,
when
the
comprisso
yearly
congress
date
comes
near.
How
gratifying
it
was
to
be
side
by
side
witht
the
important
doktoro
Victor
Sadler,
the
director
of
the
Universala
Asocio,
who
was
touring
Brazil
at
the
Esperanto
village
Bona
Espero,
in
the
state
of
Goias.
Sadler,
one
of
the
most
notable
professors
that
I
had
ever
known,
had
lived
and
breather
Esperanto
for
twenty
years,
day
and
night,
thoughts
and
dreams
in
the
neutral
universal
language.
It
was
as
if
Esperanto
was
his
mother
tongue,
naturally
native.
In
England,
in
Holland,
in
New
York,
in
Beijing
or
Brasilia,
Sadler
is
the
eternal
esperantalist.
The
wole
convention
went
quite
smoothly,
pleasant
and
invigorating,
the
most
live
example
of
fraternity
and
linguistic
simplicity.
We
were
all
one
family,
united
in
Esperanto,
level
of
culture
or
age
completely
unimportant.
Next
year,
in
Belo
Horizonte,
Minas
Gerais,
we
will
be
reunited
once
more
for
four
more
wonderful
days
of
Esperanto,
the
language
of
the
future.
For
four
sublime
days
our
state
capital
will
be
la
urbo
de
la
espero,
the
city
of
hope.
