Stories Inspired by Life in Rural Brazil
It took a couple of tries to find an amenable sales representative. “A cell phone plan in Brazil? Really? How long will you be traveling for? ” Forever. I’m going for forever. That concept didn’t quite register with her. I tried to explain that I’d be moving, but traveling back to visit periodically and would …
Happiness is in the language here. You greet someone: “Como esta? Tudo belleza?” And the appropriate, automatic response is always “Tudo joya.” (How are you? Is life beautiful? Yes, it’s joyous). It is so very easy to forget that we are in charge of our own happiness. I’m in a country where most people, even …
I get a lot of thinking done while swinging a scythe. Shamefully, today I spent most of my time mentally cursing out the in-laws who had dumped their trash among the bushes I was trying to clear. Bottles, lost shoes, tin cans–I never knew what I was going to hit. How could they be so …
My first library card Here was my first official document in Brazil. A library card. A small thing, really. Nonetheless, it gave me a finger-hold on normalcy in this mental terrain still trembling with the aftershocks of my relocation. I drifted among the stacks, comforting myself with the familiar patterns of books on shelves, familiar …
