Quest for Vitorin Saldanha

My ancestral quest for the ancestors of a friend. 

Nothing compares to the feel of having a mission, of having information to discover. Adrian gave me one of the most amazing days I've had in India. The pictures are gone but the experience remains. 

A few weeks ago, I rented a scooter and drove down the coast of what could easily be Portugal, but is in fact Goa (a former Portuguese colony). Adrian sent me to Siquerim, to the "Church on top of the mountain", where his great-grandfather was a priest. I arrived after a 2 hour journey to find a dark red fort on a cliff above the ocean. I saw a mountain, and thought "this must be it". I climbed. I climbed. I cut my feet on rocks, but kept climbing. Then, I slipped, sliding down the mountain as Indian people laughed at the white guy climbing a hill. I decided that this wasn't it, and asked around about the church. After a 5 minute drive around (and up) this mountain, I arrived at a fort next to a church. I asked the woman selling me water:

-Are you from here?

-Yes

-Do you know where the church of Vitorin Saldanha is?

-Its right there! (she laughs and points at the church we were right next to). But he passed away 5 years ago.

-Is he buried here?

-No, he is in Saligao,

-Where's Saligao?

(She shrugs)

I go to the church, but it is closed, so I am forced to climb over a fence. As I approach the front doors of the church, a dog starts barking at me. I pause. He runs away, I relax. Then I hear the barks of several dogs, I decide that now is when I run. I leap over the fence as 5 dogs appear, barking and baring their teeth.

Back on the scooter to Saligao. An hour of asking ends with me walking into the home of a Saligao family. They look at me, I look at them... "Do you know of a priest named Vitorin Saldanha?"

-Of course

-Do you know where his home is?

-Its now a home for nuns, next to the cathedral

After finding the cathedral, I ask for the Vitorin Saldanha house, and am instead directed to the "Victory House" of the El Shaddai Charitable Trust, a home and school for abused children. After talking to the people in charge and to some of the children, I made a small donation, (they don't accept volunteers without a background check) and left to find the home of the nuns.

At this point, I had appropriated the quest for Adrian's roots as a quest for my own roots. The imagination is an amazing thing. I found a stage built by the Adrian's great grandfather. I was living a story...

The quest ended in front of the tomb of Adrian's great grandfather.  I cleaned the dead flowers off the tomb and left a pebble.As I know no Christian prayers, I searched my memory for the closest thing to something Christian and that I could share with Adrian...

Donne's Holy Sonnet X

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so ;
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy picture be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke ;  why swell'st thou then ?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more ;  Death, thou shalt die. 

I got lost on my ride home. I ended up on small roads headed towards the ocean as I watched the sun set. I trust that I'm going in the right direction though nothing on this road is familiar. Driving down empty lanes in fields of green, I arrived at the beach in time to melt into the ocean with the sun. I left the ocean as the last rays of daylight vanished.