Macbook pictures are still a novelty here.



I know I’m a much better person for having lived in Brazil. I have been refined by people picking apart my Portuguese (and making fun of how I close one eye and squint the other when I’m remembering a word) and unknowingly criticizing my country (Why do you only take one shower a day? Why don’t you learn about the history of other countries? Why doesn’t you country support fairer trade policies?)

I’ve been grown by strangers who intervene in my life and tell me to close my purse or grabbing me by the arm and saying don’t go down that street. I’m been humbled by people giving hours of their time to help me with my Portuguese, my paper and my travel logistics when I would have never done so much for another person. And I’ve lost a little weight (mental weight, that is, we know the other one ain’t true) when people make me cry with their weighty words and their two-cheek-kiss goodbye.

I’m learning it might be possible to have something other than a “vida corrida” -- a life of running around. If you take the time not to rush, you might have a little time to give to your neighbor. I’ve got a taste of freedom, defined as leaving my purse at home and feeling human because humans don’t need to be weighted down. And my novel can stay at home, too (it’s ok to catch a bus without having something to read. It’s not a sin to look out the window and rest the mind. It’s not a sin to (be) instead of (being) productive.

Now, when I walk around alone and feel people watching, I sometimes remember I owe them nothing. I don’t need to give them the power of knowing I feel alone and scared and that I’m probably more aware then they are that I don’t fit in.

I hope I don’t forget the truth that if you make time for people and are tactful enough to show them you see them, they’ll open up to you. I hope I remember not to be intimidated, and to watch what my face is telling people, and to stop eating when I’m full. I hope I don’t forget the way thing are said so differently in Portuguese and how happy noticing those nuances makes me feel.

Thanks/ Obrigada….não…obrigadão.