Brugmansia and Red, Red Wine

Reminiscing on the nights spent with new friends in Brazil, and I remembered something that I felt was beyond magical and pretty much summed up the trip in general, even though it happened on the very first night I was there.

A small group of us went to dinner after a long day at the congress (conference). It was a vegan shop where the menu items were named after Brazilian feminists. The only one I can remember is Marielle Franco. I remember reading about her assassination earlier in the year and feeling a little trepidation about the trip, but I quickly squashed that feeling because I don't live in a utopian society either. Far from it. However, I was moved that there was this level of mourning for this extraordinary woman who was doing her best to level the playing field for women and POC in her city, Rio de Janeiro. 

Yes, it was a restaurant, and, yes, it was only a menu item, but in a country on tenterhooks about what can be said and done due to political turmoil, it was, at the very least, a beautiful gesture. I don't remember the menu item because I don't read Brazilian Portuguese, and the night was alight with whorls of energy, serving up a constant state of distraction. We sat and drinks were ordered, bottles of wine and water and beer. There was a white Brugmansia flower being passed around the table for everyone to smell, and then before long, someone had poured wine into the flower. Glances passed around the table, yes, we all knew that the flower was toxic, but that didn't stop it being handed around and gingerly sipped from. I did not partake, not because I was afraid I'd poison myself to death, but because I was a stranger in a strange place and being intoxicated, even on wine, seemed the least intelligent thing to do on my first night there. Plus I had a presentation to give the next morning. As much as I would have loved waking up under a blooming champaka tree, waking up half-drunk and under the spell of Brugmansia in the champaka tree-lined city streets of Belo Horizonte seemed the least safe place to do it. 

For the record, no one died.