Why I love Brazil

We have just welcomed into our family a high school student from Brazil, and her name is Aline. In a house of men, she is a welcomed delight!! Not only am I happy to have some more girly things in the house, but I love that Aline brings stories of her home. I have so many wonderful memories of my time working with a team of Publisher Representatives throughout Brazil.

One memory was in a hotel in Sao Paulo. My contact and I were sitting in the front hotel lounge working on a training program. A man was playing bossa nova on his guitar, entertaining the guests who would browse and pause for a while before gathering their belongings and checking into the hotel. The wide doors of the hotel kept opening, letting in gushes of sweet smelling rain-soaked breezes.

Another memory was walking with this same contact on the beach in Rio de Janeiro. Favelas behind us and luxury hotels stretched out in front of us, we were deep in conversation about how we could pray for peace in the Middle East. She stopped me mid-step as I almost stepped on a perfectly round and clear jellyfish. How strange and beautiful that early evening walk was.

Another reason I love Brazil is because of the energy. Planning meetings with my team in Brazil were whirlwinds of ideas. Because I speak Spanish and English and not Portuguese, the meetings regularly were held in three languages with everyone translating their messages into at least one other language, if not two.

Once an idea was put on the table, it quickly gained momentum as one person would start an idea, another would interject and develop the idea and yet another would finish it up. All this while simultaneous translations were going on. I would literally get dizzy from these meetings. Energy high, ideas flying and keeping up with the languages. I loved it!! I would tease this team that once they heard half of an idea, they were off - having already thought of it, developed it and improving it to fit their multi-layered culture.

My experience with the people there was just as refreshing, elegant, graceful and spontaneous in the middle of such marked contrasts.

It doesn't surprise me that their reputation for innovation has brought forth some ground breaking ideas like charting " a course to energy independence by powering their cars with ethanol. Better yet, they're not using ethanol made from corn, which is not the most effective option for Brazil; they're making it much more efficiently from sugar." (See Christian Science Monitor). The fervor for a practical, living Christianity is surging forth in the growth of Pentecostalism. And Brazil is moving forward as a major economic player on the global scene.

To me, Brazil is the definition of diverse. With the spread of wealth one of the braodest and most notable in the world ( the spread between the most wealthy and the most poor), the heartbreaking favelas and breathtaking and mysterious Rain Forest, plus having one of the top five cities in the world, you can find just about anything here.

Movement is what Brazil is all about. You have to check out these sites: Dance Brazil and capoeira.com

If all nations were described with one of the attributes that Mary Baker Eddy gives for God - Brazil's attribute would have to be Spirit.

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