05/25/2024 – 5:13
With the waters receding, volunteers and those affected by the floods look for belongings that carry stories and affection.”No one will see the sofa, the TV, everyone runs to look for photos or some type of souvenir. It’s unanimous: everyone”, reports Gustavo Oliveira, 27, creator of a volunteer task force in the city of Novo Hamburgo that has helped clean houses affected by floods in Rio Grande do Sul, Limpa Novo Hamburgo.
More than material goods, those affected by the tragedy lost spaces and objects that carry their identity and sense of meaning in their lives. “One of the most striking scenes we saw was a man who found his ring in the mess left by the water. As soon as he caught it, he desperately put the ring back on his finger”, says Oliveira, who, with the group, has already contributed to cleaning more than 60 homes.
Unlike the ring, many other objects filled with memories and feelings could not be saved. In the midst of so many emergencies, rescuing memory is a concern for individuals and communities.
Oliveira reports that some photographs found by families are highly damaged, making it difficult to identify their contents. “The photos are very blurry. There was a father who showed us photos of his children, but we could barely make out the children’s faces. But he talked about the image in absurd detail, as if it were possible to see it all. In his head, it was still possible to see a lot of things there,” he reports.
Many are paralyzed when returning to their homes and facing the state of things. This feeling of entering a place that once welcomed your family, which was tidy and cozy, and seeing it destroyed was experienced by artisan and communicator Luciana Gastal. The house of his maternal grandparents – now deceased – in the small town of Sinimbu, where he used to spend his holidays as a child, was taken by water.
“The things from the kitchen were in the living room, the things from the bedrooms in the kitchen, all mixed up and in the dark. It’s very different when you’re inside, cleaning up your own mud, than when you’re outside, cleaning up other people’s mud. My reference for home, for home, for family, was that house there”, she reveals.
From the house, Gastal says that all the furniture went in the trash. She managed to save a few photographs, her grandfather’s clock and her grandmother’s crocheted and embroidered cloths. “I managed to tear a page out of a photo album that was dry, it was my aunt and uncle’s wedding photo. I gave it to my cousin, their daughter, who lost everything in the flood. A photo of my daughter with her grandmother was covered in mud in the room. That touched me a lot.”
A close look at the rubble
When it comes to tidying up the house, those affected are often under pressure to try to clean everything quickly and numb with emotion. Amidst the chaos, it can be difficult to identify pieces and utensils that could be restored. “For example, at my grandmother’s house there was an antique piece of furniture that had beautiful handles. The furniture was destroyed, but I could have picked up the handles, but they were covered in mud and I didn’t realize it. But when you’re on the outside, cleaning as a volunteer, you can better discern and help families tell that story later. Even if it’s rescuing an item, you know”, explains the businesswoman.
The belief in the value and importance of small things kept Gastal going. “When I looked at the street outside my grandmother’s house, it seemed like every house there had turned into rubble, that I couldn’t save anything, but of course I saved something, and that was very important at that moment. ”.
Gastal spent two weeks in Sinimbu, cleaning not only the family’s house, but helping to clean other people’s houses and restoring the memory of the city itself. “I went to the street and started walking. Every house had its own mountain of rubble in front of it. I started collecting things from that trash, because the patrol [máquina que faz a terraplanagem] It passed quickly and took everything away.”
Sinimbu is a city of 10 thousand inhabitants in the interior of the state, in the Rio Pardo Valley, of German colonization and which maintains a tradition of work linked to the land. The waters reached three meters high in the city’s main streets and all homes, shops and other establishments in the central area were flooded.
Due to its dimensions and the size of the damage, Gastal fears the erasure of the city’s history: “The city’s entire history was there inside those houses. There is no museum. It’s not someone who came from São Paulo to live there. Whoever is from Sinimbu, his grandfather came from Germany, it’s all very distant. So the story is the objects that are there, and are going to waste.”
An ant’s work
Together with her friends Viviane Rizzolo, digital influencer, and Bettina Backes, teacher, Gastal created a project on social media entitled “São Nossa Origens” to recover belongings of affected families.
In the peaceful town, they searched for crockery, china cabinets, cabinets, beds, chairs, saints and religious objects. “In front of the school where my mother was a teacher, there were several old, good quality chairs and desks that were going to be taken away. I put together a very beautiful science box, which must be about 60 years old. There was also all the laboratory equipment there. We gathered very precious things”, she reports, “we will pack them up and return them to the school in the future”.
The group uses social media to attract the necessary help, such as carpenters, cleaning volunteers and all types of professionals who can help restore the objects.
The idea is to return restored items if the owners are located and donate some found objects, such as tables, chairs, beds, to the population most in need. “We have already donated some things that we were mining for those who were there and had lost everything”, points out Gastal.
Write new stories
The group realized that perhaps a significant part of history had indeed been lost when the water swept away such a small town, but that, from now on, it would also be possible to write new stories. What was mined could become an important element for homes that will be rebuilt.
“I see a lot of love in these things. Soon, a colorful kettle that we picked up from the trash could become a flower vase and bring life to a home”, says the artisan.
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