Asking, Practicing and Teaching

My dears,

I imagine that some of you may be worried about me, so I'm jumping "ahead" to the present to let you know I'm doing great! I am in Nova Olinda, in the northern Brazilian state of Ceará. Nova Olinda lies at the mid-way point on the "Chapada do Araripi," which is a low mountain range running north-south through three states. It is an important and well-known area for geological and archeological research, as well as the location of the important but lesser-known Fundação Casa Grande (Foundation Big House), where I started volunteering today. I'm sitting on the couch in I and C's front room/dining area, using a borrowed laptop and the wi-fi connection from I and C's daughter (who lives upstairs with her family). As has been the case every step of the way so far, I am surrounded by people who love with mind-boggling, heart-opening ease and generosity.

I have so much to reflect and write about, and hope to do some catching up while I'm here.

The tidbit I'll share now is an appetizer about the only problem I've had since my travels began. I have broken a number of the travel safety rules: on quite a few occasions I've eaten delicious and/or unusual foods sold by street vendors (when out with friends); in an area with malaria risk, I took a long mosquito-ridden walk with friends through a wet forest (all of us were in perpetual motion, swatting ourselves and each other, and trying never to stop walking); I took a long (7-8 hours each way) night-time bus ride for a day-trip from Porto Velho, Brazil to Guayaramerín, Bolivia (lots of bumps, very slow going most of the time, and the only "hold-up" was for the excitement of a middle-of-the-night roadside contraband search by the Federal Police). Through all of this, and perhaps just beginner's luck, the only difficulty I've had was from a baked item I'd bought in the Brasilia airport. That story involves significant diarrhea at inopportune times, and will likely be told in more detail in a future post. It was an uncomfortable adventure at the time, and by now (a few days later) is just plain funny -- to me, at least.

I guess I'll share one other tidbit. My Portuguese has improved enough that I've had one long conversation with the stranger sitting next to me in an airplane, and one long conversation with a stranger while waiting in an airport. Both conversations were completely delightful. If I'm not mistaken, the young man with whom I spoke at the São Paulo airport was the same as that of the mysterious and magical king in Paulo Coelho's novel, "The Alchemist." As we talked about our life philosophies, he said, "Meg, there are three things that lead to sadness: (1) not knowing and not asking; (2), knowing but not teaching; and (3) knowing but not practicing."

May we all ask, practice and teach.

with love, meg   April 24, 2013