Effort, bravery and experience

About 2 months ago, my Dad and I had the wonderful opportunity to reconnect to ourselves and to one another by doing a 3 day long 75km walk.





Scenario: São Miguel das Missões, where Spanish Jesuits built with the indigenous people 30 religious commutes which influenced importantly the culture of Southern Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

Remembering where we came from:
- the gaucho culture is amazingly simple, genuine and hospitable
- the liaison to the land and nature is an essential part of who we are
- redemption and learning come with effort, bravery and experience

At our last night on the road, musician and poet Claudino de Lucca met us and dedicated a very sensitive poem. A part of it says:

The finish line doesn’t matter
Nor does our own salvation
What matters is to water again our predecessors’ land
With tears, sweat and blood

Ilha Bela - a beautiful island

Last weekend, 9 friends and I had the pleasure to meet Galeno e reconnect to nature.

Galeno has been living in a place called Santa Seiva for 32 years now. In those years, he transformed an abandoned cattle raising land in a diverse, beautiful and thriving natural place. On top of cultivating all sorts of trees, flowers and organic vegetables, he has adopted principles of bio-architecture in all the constructions, so they would fit harmoniously with the natural whole.

As if the place wasn't enough, Galeno made sure we had a profound experience reconnecting to nature. We felt part of a loose rock being "played" by him, drank different teas, walked on a magma trail, climbed beach facing rocks, swam in cold transparent waterfalls, took part in a fire ceremony and had amazing conversations.

Hope you feel a little bit of the experience through the pictures below.

Galeno, the dedicated host

The place

Bio-architecture

Some of the reconnection experiences

Outback Diaries on YouTube

I just realised it's been over a year since we (Jhow, Marina, Salma, Lucy and I) went on our amazing Australian outback trip, when we learned a lot about ourselves, nature, aboriginal culture, trips and friendship.

To celebrate, I finally put our "Outback Diaries" film on YouTube. Enjoy!

Part 1:



Click here to see Part 2

Designing the Ekoa Cafe

A few weekends ago, I had the pleasure of taking part in the designing process of a different cafe. Instead of offering coffee, food or a space for casual chats, the Ekoa Cafe intends to be a space for nurturing relationships.

In a very coherent move, Marisa Bussacos (the entrepreneur) invited two dozens of friends to design the space, so that it could be a good option for self reflection, for meeting new people and for bringing friends for meaningful conversations.

As a result, the idea of fostering inspirational conversations and putting different people together happened even before the Cafe started working!

For all readers, stay tunned! The Cafe will be up and running in a couple of months!

More pictures of our Perfect Easter

Old centre of Paraty

Paraty's pier under the full moon

Chimarrão, sun & sea



Great company for special times

Family, friends, sun and sea

A little bit more of the pleasures of being back: family, old friends, beautiful nature, sports and happiness. What a hard life!


Waiting for the fireworks with Mum and Dad, by the beach

Back to Floripa to meet great friends and breath the Paradise's air

Getting ready to swim a couple of km to the island in the background

Uh, açaí!!!!



Mum and Dad celebrating their 32th anniversary

Australia with love

Tears kindly fall down my face as I listen to "Leaving on a Jetplane" and write this post.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye

But the dawn is breakin', it's early morn
The taxi's waitin', he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die

[...]

'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
I don't know when I'll be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go

John Denver

=============================================

Arriving back in Sydney I felt so home it wasn't funny. Not only the stunning beauty of the city, but also the realisation that I've lived close to best friends one could ask for made me enjoy even more my last days in the land down under. Receiving everybody's love was super powerful.

It might be hard, but I'll try to keep all this energy up for another special moment: going back home (the other home ;o)), being close to my family, feeling the Brazilian joyful spirit, enjoying the music and also facing the re-adaptation and job hunting processes.

The hugest THANK YOU, with lots of love!


Breakfast close to the beach



Lovely picnic

Special dinner


=============================================

Everywhere you go you always take the weather with you

Now its the same room but everythings different
[...]
Strange affliction wash over me
[...]
Do I lie like a loungeroom lizard
Or do I sing like a bird released

Crowded House

A taste of Lebanon in Sydney

Last Sunday I was invited by Manny to visit Punchbowl, the suburb where she lives. I knew it was a mainly Lebanese region, but it's more: it really feel like a little Lebanon in Sydney. People speak Arabic, the markets have a different display, the posters on the walls are from Lebanese singers, Arabic styled clothes are sold and people eat the most yummy Lebanese food and sweets.

In order to live a little bit of all that, Manny showed me around, we bought some really good sweets and went to have lunch with her brother and father. I'm very glad we did, as I learnt a lot of things.

As you might know, Lebanon was created to be the Christian state in the Middle East. So around xxx% of the population is Christian, but another xxx% is Muslim.

Therefore, there's an ongoing tension. Formally, it is one country, but the education people receive at home segregate them into Christian Lebanese and Muslim Lebanese.

Discontent with this situation, Manny's father (who is Christian married to a Muslim wife) joined a political party which advocates the creation of one secular state comprised not only by all of Lebanon, but also Syria and Jordan. The idea is to acknowledge the difference but unite people around a bigger dream and, in his words, "let God decide whose religion was wrong when we die".

For the one...

... who’s been bringing me joy, tranquillity, care... thank you!

Lovely weekend in Brisbane

I’ve been to Brisbane this last weekend. The weather didn’t make justice to the capital of the sunshine state, but it was certainly lovely anyway.

Quality time with Brett for riding bikes, seeing the contemporary art centre, watching movies and enjoying each others’ company and catch up with wonderful Anh, after 9 months in Cambodia, a broken fist and a Portuguese love story.

Talking to Anh, the development work issue surely arose. We discussed how it seems to be the right thing to dedicate one’s career to, as it directly addresses fundamental issues. On the other hand, it so many times doesn’t work, neither for the professionals, nor for the communities!

Facing that, Daniel Quinn would probably say that "kids don't follow the circus to give up about things”. So I guess we need to listen to our intuition more often and consciously follow our circus.

And the drinking game winner is…

I know it’s hard to believe. And I’m not sure if I’m proud of this or not. But fact is I did win the vodka drinking game in Sveta’s red housewarming party. And there are proofs. Check it out!

Special Visit

Last weekend I have a very special visitor coming down from beautiful Brisbane to spend a pleasant weekend in Sydney ;o)

Outback trip - introducing the team

Hello everyone,

Sorry for not posting about the Outback trip until now, but it’s a very hard job to select a few moments, stories and pictures.

Marina, Salma, Jhow, Lucy and I had one of the most remarkable experiences of our lives, where we drove almost 7.000 km, visited some of the oldest geological formations on Earth, saw the beauty and the life of the desert, got to know a little more about the aboriginal way of seeing the world, faced some physical and mechanical challenges and especially reconnected profoundly with nature and ourselves.

This is the team:

Together we:
- watched the stars;
- had a collective massage session;
- played sleepy (cards game, great to re-hydrate and provoke some visits to the toilet during the night, right Salma?)
- shared our gifts in a talent night;
- had public speaking classes ;o)
- transmitted strong energies to one another in Mac Donnell’s Ranges;
- walked a lot!
- danced in the middle of the Oonadatta track, where no cars passed for 3 hours / more than 200 km;
- had a lot of fun!

Social events: great company and dancing

Last weekend, two amazing social events took place:

1) My flatmate’s birthday, with a lot of friends from each of the flatmates, good conversations, some drinks and lots of dancing

2) A great Indian day, with 3 hours-long Indian movies, fantastic food, great people and some more dancing.

Good stuff…

See you around the world, my friends!

Last week, 3 of the AIESEC interns left Sydney: Alenka, Augusto and Jerry, who were working for GE in the last 18 months.

To be honest, it was quite strange, because these guys have been around since I arrived and were quite part of my Australian experience. I'm certainly going to change Alenka's energy, Jerry's chili and Augusto's sense of humor a lot!

Besides saying goodbye, the other strange feeling that arises is for the fact that it's been almost 7 months that I'm here already, therefore in the middle of my experience. Time flies...

Christmas

Well, it was definitely strange. I went to Melbourne, met my good friend Digidy after 4 years and got to know some of his amazing friends, most of them have lived in China at some point.

Most of the time, I stayed in Michelle and Simon’s house. They were fantastic hosts!

On Christmas Eve, we went to Alfie’s family chinese restaurant and ate great food. On Christmas Day (the most important part of celebration in Australia), we went to the church, exchanged presents, ate a lot of great food (cooked by Simon’s mother) and had a lot of fun.

Luckily, I managed to talk both to my parents and brother. Christmas without family is not the same thing…

My brother's wedding

Well, the posts that everybody has been waiting for... my trip to Brazil!

The main reason why I went was my brother's wedding. Quite a special date, isn't it? The whole "wedding process" was great! We arrived in the city where my brother is living some days in advance (it's 10 hours away from Porto Alegre), went to the civil wedding and had great conversations.

On the wedding day, a bus and 7 cars arrived with the whole family and many friends. Seriously, I don't remember the last time I had so many people from my family together. Even some cousins I don't see very often, but with whom I have some strong emotional connections. Awesome!!!

In total, there were almost 400 people in the celebration and absolutely everything was thought in its details. Great party!

Lots of happiness to Ju and Pati!

Below some pictures from the civil wedding. Religious ceremony and party to come.

Lucy going to Thailand

It’s strange to say goodbye to new friends. After Steve, one of my first friends - currently in Colombia - now it’s Lucy’s time.

Lucy is certainly one of my best friends in Sydney. She does 100 things at the same time, knows a lot of people, is sweet, a little disorganised, a big dreamer and a fantastic company. She is going to Thailand for 4 months in order to found an AIESEC chapter in Bangkok. (Her blog is http://www.lucysymons.blogspot.com/).

Have a great time there, my friend!

Sri Lankan community

Continuing my path on getting to know different cultures, I went to have dinner with Nath's family. Nath is Sri Lankan and came to Australia with his parents when he was a kid.

They received Jhow and I wonderfully, Nath's Mum cooked a banquet for us and we saw many pictures from Sri Lanka.

But the thing that impressed me the most was the fact that there were at least 20 people in the house. Nath told his friends and neighbours that we would be there and they all came to meet us, have a good time amongst themselves and eat great food.

Big Sri Lankan community in Sydney… Thanks, Nath!

Unexpectedly tiring but fantastic weekend!

Last weekend was great! But quite busy! So the post might be a little long…

Colombian Lunch

On Saturday, Liz invited a couple of people to have lunch with a Colombian family in the south of Sydney. As the network worked, soon we were 16 people, from 11 different countries, confirmed to such a fantastic program!

We arrived there around 1:30p.m. And it was just great! Apparently all the family is living is Australia for the last years (I think at least 7 people) and we can feel Colombia in all moments, seeing the objects, looking at people faces, listening to the music and especially feeling the Latin American warmth.

The food was amazing! I had a big Bandeja costena (fish, coconut rice, fried platanos and salad) and lulo juice! No words…

After eating, singing and dancing. It’s hard to describe how much I enjoyed the environment, especially to feel the Latin receptive spirit around. Si, si, Colombia!





Foosball

In order to continue enjoying the great company, he headed to Jhow’s new house, which was quite close. There were some good conversation and bad films going on, but the funniest part was to play foosball (pebolin – the “soccer table” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foosball). We literally played for hours! And the only team who never lost was… the Brazilians! Oh yeah, Jhow and I are accepting challenging rivals.


Movie Marathon

When we were in the bus to go home (11p.m. already), Sid was thanking Anna for insisting on leaving, which meant we would sleep comfortably in our beds and not in Jhow's floor after some more hours of foosball. Then I sais that I actually liked those sorts of stories, because they were the ones we'd remember afterwards. Sid, then, looked at me and said: by the way, what are you doing tonight?

As he just came back from China with 29 new DVDs, the 5 of us decided to go to his place and watch a couple of them. In the end, we watched 3 movies, until 8 in the morning!


Coffee

After the marathon, a little bit of sleep and we woke up about 10. Completely tired, we decided to go home, but before we stopped in the city for a coffee. Not only the coffee was great, but the conversations, inspired in some of the films we just watched, especially "The interpreter". We talked about how people face unfair situations, the economy in Norway and even how the brilliant people from Atlantis didn't use all their knowledge to survive. As you see, we were extremely inspired!


Seven Bridges Walk

At this point, it was already 1p.m. and the girls decided to go home. Martin and I, taking advantage of the sun and the rest of our energy, preferred to go for the Seven Bridges Walk (http://www.7bridgeswalk.com.au/).

The event was created to promote a heatlhy life style in the beautiful city of Sydney, while you help some social projects. This means that you walk 22 km, passing through 7 bridges and once in a while there is a check point, with sunscreen, water and voluntary toll box. There are quite a lot of volunteers working, many sponsors and around 7.000 walking.

I think I don't need to say I was completely dead in the end. But it was completely worthed. Greatest sleep ever after the intense weekend!

Poems #1 - My Crazy and Saint Friends

A homage to all my great friends, from close and far, the serious and the crazy, the social and the introspective, the big dreamers and the daily builders, who give me the opportunity to learn every day and be what I am.


My Crazy and Saint Friends

I choose my friends not by the colour of their skin or other archetype, but by the pupil. It has to have questioning shine and unsettled tone.

I'm not interested in the good spirits or the ones with bad habits. I'll stick with the ones who make me crazy and blessed. From them, I don't want any answer, I want to be reviewed. I want them to bring me doubts and fears and to tolerate the worst of me. I want saints, so they don't doubt differences and ask for forgiveness for injustices.

I choose my friends for their bare face and their open soul. I do not only want the shoulder or the col, I also want his greatest happiness. Friends that don't laugh together don't know how to suffer together.

All my friends are like thus: half foolish, half serious. I don't want predictable laughter or cries full of pity. I want serious friends, those that make reality their fountain of knowledge, but that fight to keep fantasy alive.

I don't want adult or boring friends. I want half children and half elders. Children, so they don't forget the value of the wind blowing on their faces and elders so they're never in a hurry.

I have friends to know who I am. Then seeing them as foolish and serious, crazy and saints, young and elder, never will I forget that normality is a barren illusion.

Oscar Wilde

Russian Night

Oh yeah, babe! We had a Russian night! But before you think we got smashed, I should say that no drinks were served.

In total, there were 4 Russian, around 10 other internationals and 10 Aussies. The atmosphere was great and we had lots of fun.

Talking about the food, the cooks – Serge, Marina and lots of helpers – really did a good job. We had a cucumbers’ salad, beetroot soup (Bourscht), dumplings and sweets. Great! For the ones interested, here comes the Bourscht recipe: http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,russian_borscht,FF.html

Check some pictures:





Well, as people are quite strange, check the best faces of the night:

Thanks, guys!

Now the Brazilian colony is getting ready for a Brazilian night! News in some weeks…

Cultural backround & beliefs

I’ve written about this more than once, but I keep getting in touch with unique people, who certainly deserve comments.

While in Brisbane, I met these three very different people, all with strong parents and with very interesting characteristics.

Angie is Australian, grew up in the cost, daughter of professors, with a very clear sense of what’s important in life, i.e. building respectful relationships, developing herself intellectually and working in something that matters.

Anh is daughter of Vietnamese parents and developed a very nice bi-cultural identity, respecting the differences and finding her place. She founded the Engineers without Borders in Brisbane, to work with emergency situations and sustainable development, and is going to Cambodia for 1 year, from where she intends to meet her Vietnamese relatives quite often.

Alan (Anh’s boyfriend) is son of an Australian Christian missionary, who met his mother in Papua New Guinea. They moved to Australia when Alan was 4 year old, but the memories from his birth country are very present in his house, in his mother’s accent, in various pictures and in lots of stories. Alan is very glad he came to Australia, as it’s very safe and full opportunities over here, while the situation is New Guinea is concerning, because of unemployment, migration to the cities and violence.

I find it very interesting to understand people’s backgrounds, influences, beliefs and mental models…

Brisbane - preparation and getting there

Last weekend I started my longer trips inside Australia. And it was just fantastic!

Two weeks ago, I met my Argentinean friend Cecilia in the MSN and she told me she had a friend in Australia, who was very nice. This person, Ahn, was not only nice, but extremely receptive and excited. She wrote me saying I should go and visit her, that she could organise a good outdoor program and that I should do that soon, as she was going to Cambodia in less than two months, to do some humanitarian work for 1 year.

I loved the idea! Getting to know we would have a long weekend in 1 week, I bought train tickets, wrote to my other friend Angie, and decided to go. The trip took 14 hours each way, but was 100% worth it, as you’ll see!

Watson’s Bay

In a beautiful, beautiful Saturday, a crew formed by people from all continents – 1 Nigerian, 1 Indian, 2 Lithuanians, 1 Norwegian, 1 Italian, 1 Australian and 1 Brazilian (;-P) – did a very special program, aligned with the beauty of the day. We took a ferry and went to Watson’s Bay, which is one of the places in the harbour cost.

The beach is very nice, there is a small nudity beach as well, some fish and chips bars and a big cliff facing the sea. We tried to play some cricket there, but I lost the ball in 2 seconds. It happens…

Friends from all over the world!

It’s with lots of pleasure that I write this post!

Besides me, there are 6 other AIESEC interns currently in Sydney: Siddharth (India), Gerardo (Mexico), Augusto (Italy), Alenka (Czech Republic), Salih (Turkey) and Salma (Romania). Isn’t it cool? And all of them have been part of AIESEC national committees before, which mean everybody is quite competent, experienced and definitely have friends in common.

Last Friday, we all met for our weekly happy hour. Besides us, there were 3 Australians and 1 girl from Lithuania, which means we were a group of 11 people, from 9 different countries.

After some beers in our Rugby Bar, we went to eat the best hot dog in the city (!) and visited 2 other pubs. I think I don’t need to say we had lots of fun!

Social life every day

One of the things I like a lot about Australia is the general philosophy of enjoying life. People don’t work too much and the social life is quite busy.

This atmosphere is helping me a lot on my objective of having a more balanced life style. So far, I’m having some kind of social moment almost everyday. Yesterday (18/08), for example, it was Aleka’s (Czech intern) birthday. We went to a pub, celebrated, welcomed the new Turkish intern – Salih, changed pub and had some more cool conversations.

While we were there, a German guy appeared and – guess what – I knew him! He was from AIESEC in German and was part of the organization committee of the conference I went in India, last year. He is doing a MBA in Sydney right now and showed up in that specific bar that night. Small world…

YUM CHA

On August 12th (Saturday), we went to a Chinese Restaurant for to have Yum Cha. It is a kind of Brazilian rodizio, with all sorts of Chinese food and it comes from a Chinese tradition of gathering people together to drink tea and talk.

Check what wikipedia tells us about Yum Cha:

“Yum cha a term in the Cantonese spoken variant of Chinese meaning "drinking tea", refers to the custom of eating tiny servings of different foods while sipping some well-brewed Chinese tea in southern China. It is an integral part of the culinary culture of Hong Kong and the Guangdong Province. In any city with a sizeable population of Cantonese people, Yum cha is a tradition on weekend mornings, and whole families gather to chat and eat Dim sum and drink pots of Chinese tea. Yum cha is also a morning ritual for the elderly to spend a good part of the morning after early morning exercise of tai chi or walk. The tea is important, for it is said to help digest the rich foods, which may be included in the choice of offerings. In the past, people used to go to a teahouse for yum cha, whereas dim sum restaurants have been gaining an overwhelming popularity of late.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yum_cha

Very interesting… It reminded me of a chimarrao round ;o)