The first week they sailed some 2,000 miles through the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean to reach Barbados. This beautiful little island in the Lesser Antilles lies just outside of the Atlantic hurricane belt, 250 miles northeast of Trinidad and Tobago and almost due north of the border between Venezuela and Brazil. The Spaniards who named the island were the first Europeans to land there and its name, which means “the bearded ones,” may refer to the hanging roots of the bearded fig tree that is indigenous to the island or to the allegedly bearded Caribs who once inhabited it. It was the English, however, who first settled there permanently in 1627 and made it a colony. In 1966, two years after this trip, it became an independent country and a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
During their short stay the Bedfords did some rapid sightseeing in the capital city, Bridgetown, taking in their stride the traffic that circulated on the left side of the road, British-style. They dutifully mailed their medical reports and graded papers to the U.S. and found a cobbler for David. He had boarded the ship on crutches, recovering from surgery intended to stop the growth in his left knee joint, thus allowing a polio-induced difference in the length of his legs to be shortened and the consequent deviation in his spine to straighten out. Struggling up the gangplank and catching a glimpse of the number of stairs on the ship, he instantly decided to forego the crutches. Now he needed an insole and a lift for the heel of his right shoe to even up his legs, and the friendly cobbler soon had him ready to go. Thanks to his timely operation, David never developed a limp and his spinal column recovered its rightful shape.
They reached the Equator approximately 1,000 miles further along, an event known as “Crossing the Line,” which has traditionally involved initiation rites in many of the world’s navies. It usually takes the form of a “Court of Neptune,” in which Trusty Shellbacks (veteran sailors) induct Slimy Pollywogs (first-time crossers) into “the mysteries of the Deep,” and generally involves an increasingly embarrassing series of ordeals similar to fraternity hazing. Shellbacks are allowed to capture pollywogs, interrogate them and crack eggs on their heads or whatever else strikes their fancy. Passengers often celebrate with a considerably scaled-down version of the initiation rites. The S.S. Del Sud was no exception: there was a costume party complete with heavy teasing of the pollywogs that included a race in which they had to push ping pong balls with their noses along the floor of the Grand Lounge. Fortunately for the Bedfords, they were all confirmed shellbacks except Nancy, and she was too small to be hazed. David attended the festivities as one of the newly famous Beatles and sang She Was Just Seventeen to the accompaniment of a table tennis paddle guitar. Afterwards, the inductees received certificates with the name of the vessel and the date on which they had crossed the Equator.
The long, lazy days also gave the Bedfords time to prepare themselves for their new assignment in Argentina. The entire first term and part of the second had been spent in Rosario, the great port city on the mighty Paraná River. They had loved it there and formed many close ties until they felt called to do pioneer work in Comodoro Rivadavia, the Oil Capital on the Atlantic coast, deep down in Patagonia. There they had fallen in love all over again and had been looking forward to going back. However, while they were on furlough in the U.S., the Mission informed them that there were so many needs around the country that there could only be one set of missionaries in Comodoro. Ben and La Nell offered to leave the choice up to the other family, which had arrived there shortly before they themselves had left, and the Pippins chose to stay. A long period of praying and soul-searching began. Among the many requests for help, the Bedfords received an invitation from the South Zone Association in the Greater Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area. Multiple letters were exchanged between them, the Convention, the Association and the Mission, and they gradually became convinced that it should be their new place of service. Just about when they had made their peace with the idea, the Mission wrote that the Pippins had decided not to return to Comodoro after all and the slot was still open. It was a great struggle between heart and mind: if they had been guided by the heart alone, they would have returned like a shot; however, the church had called a capable national pastor and they knew that they were not needed there nearly so much as in Buenos Aires. So, they accepted the South Zone’s invitation, with the proviso that at first they would continue to have some responsibilities as interim area missionaries for the Comodoro area.
By the time they reached Rio de Janeiro, 2,700 miles after their first brief stop, everyone had to get used to walking on land again. As in 1957, the Bedfords were met and shown around by friends, this time the Gray family. Dr. Jack Gray had been one of Ben’s Missions professors and he was in Brazil gathering first-hand information and perspective on the field.
Rio is a fascinating city. It took over colonial administration from Salvador in 1763 and in 1808 the Portuguese royal family and most of the aristocracy fled there from Napoleon’s invasion, making it the only European capital outside of Europe. Prince Pedro proclaimed the independence of Brazil in 1822. Rio was the administrative head of the nation, first of the empire and then of the republic, until Brasilia was made the new capital in 1960.
The Bedfords took in as many sights as they could, crowned by the magnificent view from the enormous art deco Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks the city, before going on to the next stop in Santos, the busiest container port in Latin America. Ben took advantage of the opportunity to get his hair cut. He was feeling quite pleased with the flow of bilingual conversation with the gregarious barber. He pondered out loud on the fact that the Portuguese-speaking Brazilians tend to understand the Spanish-speaking Argentines better than the other way around, attributing it to the pronunciation characteristics of the respective languages. Spanish has only five vowel sounds and is timed so that all syllables are of equal length, while Portuguese has a much broader range of vowel sounds that can be loosely categorized as open, closed, reduced or nasal and is timed so that stressed syllables are longer than the others. The barber cut into these linguistic musings, allowing his professional courtesy to slip and unmasking the deep-seated Brazilian-Argentine rivalry with a curt:
“Não, é porque argentino é máis burro!”1
Ben manfully swallowed this insult to his beloved adopted country and continued to try to understand as much as possible on a bus trip to São Paulo, the largest city of Brazil, with a local church member as tourist guide. The only significant breakdown in communication was when he mistook the Portuguese falar (“to speak”) for the Spanish fallecer (“to die”) and wondered who had passed away.
The weather had been turning increasingly cooler as they advanced southward and eventually turned into full-fledged winter. As they rounded Uruguay, they met the waters of South America’s second largest drainage basin.2 Some geographers consider the Río de La Plata a gulf or marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, while for others it is a river, the widest in the world, reaching as much as 120 miles across. It behaves like an estuary where freshwater and seawater mix. The huge discharge of its tributaries prevents salt water from penetrating the inner Río de La Plata. The capitals of Uruguay and Argentina are both important ports flanking the river, Montevideo on the east and Buenos Aires on the west. The shipping route is kept open by constant dredging.
The next-to-last port of call was Montevideo, with an overnight stay. The Bedfords were received and shown around by their longtime friends the Bartleys. The family’s excitement reached fever pitch: tomorrow they would once again be on Argentine soil!
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
What kind of vehicle would they be assigned this time? So far, their experience had been mixed. On their first term in Rosario, it had been an ancient and arthritic Humber that