MARCH 15, 1968
Doug Pens Letters Home
After a two-week immersion course on learning to speak what Doug terms "mongoloid" Portuguese, he left the Rio de Janiero area for his new home in Aracatuba.
This town, which is about the size of Des Plaines, is located 300 miles inland from Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo. He has "hit it off real well" with his new family and likes his new home, which is "a huge structure with interiors of marble and wood."
His room, which he shares with his brother Edmundo, is "the size of a football field"; and he is provided with
Doug's latest escapades include an alligator hunt - "It was very dark, about 11 p.m. We went out in the canoe, and held a lantern over the murky water. After a while, two shiny silver dollars rose above the surface, and my father shot but missed . . ." - and a cattle round up at his family's ranch"Suddenly the cattle started stampeding toward us, and my horse moved so fast I almost hit the dust where I would have been trampled by hundreds of pounding hoofs."
It is now carnival season in Brazil, and Doug is "making the most of the festivities." He will soon begin school, since Brazilian summer vacation ends in March.