As promised, I uploaded some of my favorite photos from my recent trip to Mato Grosso do Sul. Enjoy!
Images from Bonito and Pantanal
Month: April 2013
When am I moving back?
Recently, I have increasingly been getting questions about my future plans. My landlords wrote to ask if I am planning to stay in my apartment. My mother informed me of new companies moving to their town and offering good opportunities for me to consider. My grandfather was asking me what are my future goals – Do I want to stay a manager, do I want to become a CEO of a company? Do I want to have my own company? My little brother was expressing opinions about my marriage prospects and how he and EVERYONE are worried (?!?!!). And about hundred others asked how long do I intend to stay in Brazil and where will I move next?
The answer is that I have no idea. I have created a magical world around me in this crazy country. I have more than everything to be grateful for. I live in a place where winter does not exist. I have an excellent group of friends locally – they are funny, smart, fun, supportive, open-minded and loving (you know who you are). I also have a spread out network of similar individuals who have been visiting me constantly and sharing their time with me. I have been meeting a slew of interesting,weird, creative, different types of people that have exposed me to crazy and innovative ideas and experiences. I cannot sleep properly most of the time, nor sit quietly for more than 5 minutes, because my head is so full of ideas and I cannot make my mind stop running. I am always running somewhere and doing something. I have my sad moments and difficult times, but those never last very long because the next good thing happens, and there is no time to mop around. Finally, I already feel at home here. I speak the language and I get the culture, and how to navigate within the local chaos and irrationality.
Getting to this point has not been easy at all and required a lot of will power and effort. So when I have to think about leaving it all behind and starting all over again. Where would I even go? I just block this train of thought completely. Plus – how can I think about trading happiness for a promise of happiness? Now, that’s crazy.
Maybe it’s something related to the excellent points brought up in What Happens When You Live Abroad?
Who knows?
A bit on human kindness
Often, my posts about daily life in Brazil reflect a critical point of view, coming from comparing a developing country to my previous life in the developed world. I wanted to write today about a very positive cultural aspect I really appreciate about the Brazilian quotidian.
The sense of community and helping the ones in need on a daily basis rather than donating to charity is very strong.
I want to tell you about Cida, to illustrate this.
Cida, or Cidinha as we affectionately call her, is a service lady that works in the kitchenette on my floor at work, bringing coffee and water to our tables and meeting rooms. Cida looks thirty something to me. She is a single mom of two kids, living in a favela far away so it takes her two hours to get to work every day. She is proud to say that she has social housing (Minha Casa Minha Vida), rather than living in improvised structures like many of the other favela inhabitants. Cida has only elementary school education; She says that her father did not want her to study, and preferred her to stay at home but she used to go to school despite this. According to her, even though he used to beat her mother and sisters, she loves her dad very much as he was always very devoted to them. It is Cida´s dream to have her kids study and go to University. She is saving to send her 12 year old for English classes as she sees he is doing very well in school on this subject.
Aside from her work responsibilities, Cida does various things to make extra money – she sells cosmetics, she stays up late to bake cakes and sells them at work, she buys groceries and fruits to make juices and sandwiches to keep us away from hunger in our daily routine. Everyone loves Cida with her big smile and kind eyes and spends time chatting with her about life, soap operas and other issues in our little kitchenette.
Recently, Cida didn´t arrive to work one day, and when she finally did arrive she looked very sad and defeated. We found out that in the recent rainfall, her neighborhood got severely flooded among the various damages her house suffered, her fridge was destroyed. In the same day, our floor collected almost two thousand reals for her to get a new fridge. The response was immediate and everyone was more than eager to try and help out.
When we delivered the money to Cida, along with a card, she didn´t know whether to cry or to laugh. She first kept quiet and then she asked to speak. She thanked us and instead of complaining about her situation, she talked about how grateful and happy she was because her situation was much better than some of her neighbors, who had lost everything and will not be able to recover. She was hosting some of those in her little house.
That day, and Cida´s speech really made me reflect about how much I have in my life and how it can be so easy sometimes to make a difference in the life of someone who is close but yet so far.
Local Desserts – Sorvete Assado
One of the more fun desserts I’ve tried so far in Brazil – Sorvete Assado, or Baked Ice Cream.
Ice cream, a layer of fresh fruit salad and a layer of marshmallow. All baked in the oven in a small pot.
Delicious.
Mato Grosso’s endless farmland
Grobetrotter 