I've spent the past three days in Sao Paolo, Brazil exploring as much of the city as possible. When in an urban setting, my tendency is to pick a destination location and just walk there, however long it takes. Time isn't really an issue when you have nothing you have to be doing and nowhere you have to be. Yesterday was a bit ridiculous - I think I inadvertently walked the better part of 10 miles in order to get to the Botanic Gardens and as a result have allowed myself a "chill day" today.
After three days of intimate time with the city, I feel like I've seen enough to start to describe some patterns. Keep in mind the thoughts I share about a place or the people in it are in no way conclusive. The thoughts are strictly observatory in nature and any feelings I feel or any interpretations I draw as a result are purely subjective and really have the sole purpose of assisting my processing. I ask that you continue to keep that in mind when reading these posts. Also, thank you for reading these posts :)
Hospitality and Generosity
Man, has this been a motif since my arrival here. Everyone I've encountered has gone out of their way to make me feel at home and appreciated. The most extreme example being my AirBnB host, Barbara, who has been a literal saint. She makes me a breakfast every morning featuring the local staples of bread, cheese and ham and seems to have strong coffee and exotic juices on tap. She is right now helping me with my laundry. She even was flexible with me when I asked her if I could stay one extra night as I had a slight change in plans. She's unbelievable and she alone has made my landing in this new city softer than anticipated.
But Barbara is only one person. So let me extrapolate beyond her. The servers I've had in restaurants and the drivers I've ridden with have also taken great care of me and gone above and beyond to accommodate my needs. Although everyone has been thoroughly positive and not in the least bit resentful of my clear foreignness and inability to speak even a lick of Portuguese, one could make the argument that these are people in hospitality positions whose job it is to ensure their patrons feel valued. So let's take it even a step further.
One of my Brazilian friends, Naama, who was really the impetus for my venturing to Brazil, hasn't been able to meet up with me yet. We have plans to meet up tomorrow as I basically booked the wrong airport and flew into a place that was seven hours from him! The upstanding guy he is, he put me in touch with one of his local friends, Sarah, my first day in town to give me someone to connect with.
Now, in America, if someone connected you with one of their friends who was in town, you'd probably maybe show them a cool place to eat or allot an hour of your day to connect with them at best, right? I mean your mutual friend isn't there so won't it be weird to just meet up with them? I mean what do you really have to talk about with them besides your mutual friend? All these thoughts that I as an American thought were instantly proven wrong.
Sarah reached out to me within minutes of Naama providing my contact info and she invited me to the Municipal Market, a sprawling and mindblowingly crowded cluster of local vendors that reminded me of a bazaar. We met up later that afternoon and she introduced me to her friend Hafa. We spent the better part of four hours walking around the marketplace, eating amazing food (this pork sandwich called Pernil is to die for) checking out the Sao Paulo Cathedral, getting sugar cane juice (yup, they literally just shove stalks of sugar cane into a processor) and hitting up a cool punk/skate-style shopping complex. They based the entire itinerary around what I wanted to see and we stayed in a place until I decided it was time to move on. As if this wasn't already incredibly generous, she invited me out later that night to a club called Rey Castro that housed an unbelievable live band in a Havana-style dance setting. It seemed that Sarah based her entire day and night around showing me cool places in the city and making sure I had a good time. On top of all this, I found out Sarah actually lives an hour outside the city and made her way back in to see me not once but twice! I'm beyond grateful and can't begin to describe the extent to which the hospitality of the people here has made me feel welcomed and loved.
Prioritize People
Another pattern I have observed in the people here is the prioritization of friends, family and loved ones over personal accomplishments. There appears to be less of an emphasis on productivity and busy-bodying. When the priorities shift and people let themselves breathe, time must relinquish its grasp. As a result, people spend hours on end just laying with loved ones in parks, immersed in conversations with friends and holding close what truly matters: the people in their lives.
I felt this same inclination during my time in Turkey and it continues to strike me just how much Americans have this wrong. I know it's the land of the free and the home of the brave and you can do anything you set your mind to and that entails running around like a frenzied maniac in order to get it, yadayadayada. But I've found that by and large most Americans schedule their lives around their work and then carve out time to spend with their friends and family as opposed to the other way around. At the end of the day, when you realize your own accomplishments can't care for you in times of need and you've amassed relationships purely on the basis of work, who will you have to turn to? It just seems to me that a life well spent is a life with people as the focus. Sure, witnessing this compassion and love between friends here makes me as a lone traveler miss dearly my loved ones back home. But it also instills in me a reminder of what is really important in life. And no matter how I slice it, it always comes down to people, people, people.
There is an oasis here called Ibirapuera Park that has to be the most beautiful park I've ever beheld. It's sprawling acre upon acre of lush green with a green-glass river cutting through it. Every square inch is occupied by locals playing with their kids on awesome wooden structures, kicking around a soccer ball, drinking wine with friends on the banks of the river, singing songs together and couples just making out with reckless abandon (PDA is quite a thing here). It just feels like Eden - a gorgeous land of harmony where everything belongs and has a purpose. And at the center of this Eden is a relentless outpouring of love, acceptance and beauty. Do you really think Adam spent his time counting how many more sticks he needed to build his fort or do you think he marveled over the stunning (and first) woman ever created? People first. People always.
A Day Without an American
It has been so damn refreshing to have been here three days and not seen one American. Not only does it make me feel like a badass who has explored outside the realm of the typical American destination (barriers to entry are high with that cute little $165 visa expense, the mandate of a Yellow Fever vaccination and almost a full day needed to travel one way), but it makes me feel like I've really been exposed purely to Brazilian culture. The absence of Americans has also made my presence more meaningful. The locals are eager to hear my story, where I come from and what brings me here. I still feel weird just responding "traveling the world" to the latter inquiry, but alas I guess that is exactly what I'm doing. So while there appears to be little resentment toward Americans, mostly on the basis of there not being many down here, I still feel like an outsider but I also feel taken care of. And that's about all I can ask for.
The last several days have been me exploring the city and many of the cultural destinations, museums and parks. Once my friend Naama arrives tomorrow, I'm hoping to get the local's insider glance at the best food and nightlife. Five more days in Sao Paulo before I jump on a plane to Rio. Weeeee!
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