PALESTINE Memories of 1948 - Photographs of Jerusalem | Page 135

Brazil, and of sending 9000 tonnes of them to New
York by ship. At the time, I was under the impression
that I could do anything: nothing and no one could
resist Muhyeddin of Gaza! So, I accepted and made
myself available. Especially since it was the bosses of
Ford who were asking this of me. I had no idea of the
hell that awaited me.
First, the director of Ford sent a letter of credit for
US $180,000 to the Bank of Brazil in order to guaran-
tee that I would be paid. Then, leaving my wife and my
three children in Rio (Mona and Magda had been born
in the interim), and the garage in my brother’s hands,
I went far away to São Luis do Maranhão. 21 There I
got a shock: I had landed on another planet! The air
was saturated with humidity and the area was crawling
with jiboas – that is what they call the anacondas in the
Amazon – and jacaré, alligators. And also, it was said
that the indigenous people of the region were cannibals
and that they preferred the flesh of foreigners because it
was salty… Since snakes did not climb up walls, I hung
my hammock there, it was the only way of sleeping
peacefully! Picking the babaçu was not difficult, but
money was of no use to pay the people: in São Luis do
Maranhão, one bartered! In the beginning, I had choc-
olates, sweets, clothes and even wine brought up. Then,
an American from Ford came to give me a hand; he
came with a projector and started showing films on a
cloth stretched out on a wall in the street: publicity for
Working in the orchards, around 1910
Muhyeddin
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