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Published: September 6th 2006
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After more then 4 months here in Belo Horizonte, I'm departing. In due course, I´ve spent the past days saying my goodbyes - and realizing exactly how many people I know here. My work has brought me into contact with a huge number of people as I found myself working with some 200 children. Perhaps it speaks to the hospitality of the Brazilians, or perhaps it´s just my good luck that I´ve had the opporunity to meet so many fascinating people.
But let's rewind. A quick summary of "what I did on my summer vacation."
I arrived in Brazil without any idea of what I would be doing here. In fact, I only came here because I knew people and I had some familiarity with the language (the deciding moment was talking with Randy at Berlex when he said something to the affect of make up your mind, so I did). But in due course I got involved working with two different projects; one of the neighborhoods in particular became a kind of home. Liberdade, a suburb of Riberão das Neves (a small city outside of Belo Horizonte), started years back as Habitat for Humanity and the city both
built houses in an unoccupied area of land. For that reason, and perhaps others, the community was a real community, people knew one another, children played in the streets. The neighborhood also had a certain country sentiment about it, at least for this American, as many people had chickens in their yards and horses trotted down the street.
This is where it gets strange. Although I was only in the neighborhood for some short time, I ended up extremely close to a lot of people. And I don't know what it is. One can assign it to the bridge of being a foreigner, brazilian hospitality, class differences, language challenges, or work at the project - but I refuse to say more or think more about it, because it sells the relationships short. No one tries to understand why they are friends with their friends, and this is no difference.
Leaving is like a relentless ass kicking. I had a going away churrasco at Gordon and Teca's country home. There were around 40 people there, a mixture of friends I met from work and those I knew from Mark and José. There were a lot of tears, and there could have been a lot more. From Liberdade, they showed me a package they had put together - all 80 children with a card for me. Deisiane asked me to go the kitchen, then she started to say goodbye, tears welling up in her eyes -
Não esquerce de mim, ok? cê é meu irmão... (dont´t forget me ok? your my brother...), and I realized how desperately she needs someone in her life. Rosania and her family were my family in Liberdade, and in Brazil. I probably spent the most time with them. Some people didn't want to say anything, and dissapeared quickly with short words excusing them, but if they said more, it would hurt too much, and I understand. At the end, I stood by the car out in the dark driveway, saying goodbye to my best friends here - I said,
Até proxima vez (until next time) and Davison corrected me,
Não, até sempre (no, until always). I broke away, and walked off. All the faces were solemn, eyes glistening the dying light. I waited until the lump in my throat to clear so I could talk, flashing a thumbs up -
Falou, gente, I mustered, as I turned the corner into the dark.
So here I am, leaving to travel once again. The future is, as always, hazy, almost like the waking recollection of forgotten dream. I left with the intention to wander, and then ended up staying. A life lived wandering is one without definition, but a life experienced is one filled with specifics and infinitesimally precise moments. At the desire of omnipresence of experience, one risks sacrificing the personal and intimaticy of humanity.
Back to the earth.
I will be departing tommorow for a farm 200km North of Belo Horizonte, where I'll be for 3 or so days. Afterwards, my friends will return to the city, and leave me as I push towards the historic city Diamintina. From there, my plan is to head into the Vale do Jequitinhonha (one of the poorest regions of Minas Gerais, and possibly Brazil) up through the arid sertão (desert) of Bahia. At this point, I will either continue North through Piauí, or head east to the Atlantic, and skirt the coast to Fortaleza, where I'll meet my parents in December (I like to say that I'm traveling in the Idaho/North Dakota/Kentucky part of Brazil - nothing in the guidebooks about this area, nothing really to see, a lot of countryside and desert, and not a single english speaker. I've got a small bag, a guitar, and a functional knowledge of the language. We'll shall see).
photos here videos here
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Joey
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Sounds like the experiences are beyond what you imagined it would be. Take your time enjoy the experience, no regrets right? Wish I was there with you man.