Ivan Richard Special Envoy

Murici, Alagoas - This was like rubbing salt in a wound. After all the destruction caused by eleven straight days of rainfall and then the flooding, which took the lives of nine people in Murici, a small town in Alagoas (pop. 25,000) located about 50 km from Maceio, the captial, a group of survivors, about thrity families left homeless with little more earthly possessions than the clothes on their backs, settled down in a room in the local city hall where they had taken refuge. The group had come together to watch a soccer game. One of them, José Santos, had managed to save his TV.  It was Monday, June 28, almost 3:30 pm local time, when, thousands of kilometers away in South Africa, the Brazilian national soccer entered the stadium to play Chile in a World Cup last-16 match. The game was a chance to forget the nightmare of the last few days and enjoy a few moments of pleasure as, hopefully, their team slaughtered the Chileans. It was not to be. Just a few moments before the game was to begin, the electricity went out.
 Aurelina Leandro da Silva, a housewife, her fingernails painted in the national colors, green and yellow, was deeply disappointed. "How will I see the game? My TV was taken away by the flood!"
 Edson Mariano Peneda, another spectator, now homeless, once a truck driver, said he had managed to save his own TV but it got soaked and was not working.
Later in the afternoon, after the game, when they found out that Brazil had won 3 - 0, they were pleased. And everyone said they would be back Friday morning when Brazil plays Holland.
"I hope the electricity is ok then. It would be nice to see the game," said Edson Mariano Peneda.

Allen Bennett - translator/editor The News in English
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