Enthnography Rough Draft

It is Saturday evening around dinner time and you see about forty plus people waiting to be seated at the Algarve Restaurant. They are all gathered together yet they all appear to be different. You look around and see short to tall and young to old. What could all these strangers possibly have in common? There are all part of a group know as the 20cousins club. This club was started about 15 years ago by a group of people that were all cousins. There were twenty cousins total and so that was how the name was decided.
These 20 cousins use to spend a lot of time together when they were younger. As kids they would all gather on Sundays for a cookout or to go to the beach. Now years later these kids are adults with kid and grandkids of their own. A conversation started between a few of the twenty cousins at a funeral of one of the cousin’s spouse about fifteen years ago. This group spoke about how they only saw each other at wedding and funerals and so they decided they didn’t want to continue like that. The 20 cousins club was then formed. I know of this club well as I myself am a member, since my father is one of the original 20 cousins.
The club meets every month at a different restaurant, usually Portuguese food as we are original from Madeira. The group is seated and you see a woman wearing a tiara and handing out papers to all that are in the group. A cup with writing on it is being passed around and everyone seems to be contributing some amount of money. This money will be for the summer feast at the beach in late July. This feast if put together once a year and involves lots of Portuguese food, a talent show, and lots of fun in the sun. All the money being collected at the dinners each month will go to preparing the food and finding new games to play at the feast at the beach.
The woman in the tiara is this year’s 20 cousin’s queen. She is in charge of setting up the dinners and keeping all the family members in the loop as to what is going on. Email has been great for this. A new queen will be crowned at the summer feast at the beach. The queen in the tiara will soon be a former queen and put on the board of directors in order to assist the new queen of her duties. This club has even had some men crowned queen, my father included. It is a big responsibility to be named queen as this involves lots of work and dedication. It is quite a funny sight from an outsider looking in as when the queen is crowned they are crowned not with the tiara being worn tonight but with the Madeira crown that was made 15 years ago. This crown is basically an old straw type hat with lots of comical items attached. When the new queen is crowned the former queen then has to add something to the hat that is reflects their own individuality. Examining this hat you will see everything from a tiny bottle of Madeira wine, a miniature toy cheeseburger and even fava beans strung across the rim. It almost looks like someone threw a bunch of garbage on a hat. The amazing thing is that almost everyone from the club could tell you which member put what piece on the hat. When the ceremony for the new queen crowning takes place the new queen parades around in the Madeira crown and plays music on the brinquinho. A brinquinho is Madeira traditional instrument made with dolls dressed in Madeira outfits and distributed in two circles with one doll at the top. Each of these dolls has two bottle caps each which make sound when pushed up and down. It is like a sort of right of passage.
The papers being passed around are newsletter to update each an every family member on all the new things that are happen within the club. On the newsletter you see near every name of the person a number or a number and a letter. I asked my father to explain this to me. Each of the original 20 cousins has a number from one to twenty. This is determined by their age. My father is 18 as there is 17 cousin older than him and 2 younger. So if you were to see my name in the newsletter you would see 18a next to it. This refers to me being my father’s child and the letter a means I am the oldest. My sister is b again this is based on age. My daughter is considered 18a1. This is because she is my daughter and if I had another child they would be 18a2. You get the idea I am sure. There are approximately 112 members of the club now. The only way to become a member of this club is either to marry someone who is already a member or if you are born into it.