First Impressions of Brazil (After Two Months)

A few weeks ago, I had a moment of clarity.  I realized that I hated Brazil and that I really never wanted to come here in the first place.  There were at least seven places I wanted us to go before São Paulo.  After that moment passed, I realized that even if São Paulo were not where I thought I would go, I ended up here anyway.  I had a choice to make; I could continue to be unhappy or I could try to like it.  After many prayers devoted entirely to “please, help me to like this place”, I have started to like it.  I even would say that it gets better every day.   I have come to realize that there is a reason we are here and it will be wonderful. 

With this newfound perspective, I have been trying to think about what really are my first impressions or thoughts about living here.  It seems that when I go to a new place, the newness sometimes makes my brain hurt.  It takes time for me to digest the new sounds, smells, flavors and sights.  One way that I have found to make sense of it all is to start lists.  We did it in Bogotá and it really helped me express my thoughts.  Therefore, I started a list of thoughts about Brazil.  It will probably be the first of many as I assimilate my surroundings and learn to love Brazil.

1. Not since my mission have I moved to a place where I was not fluent in the language.  It was an incredible challenge to enter a country and not be able to speak to a store clerk or a taxi driver.  I forgot how lonely, isolating and frustrating this can be.  However, I was lucky this time.  This feeling passed rather quickly when I realized that I could more or less speak Spanish if I pronounced it like Portuguese.  It is not pretty but it usually enables the person to understand what I mean.

2. The church has been a breath of fresh air.  The first day that we walked into Sacrament meeting an incredible peace came over me.  I admit that I did not fully understand the meeting.  However, it was so inviting and wonderful.  We have been blessed with a wonderful Bishop, Relief Society and Primary.  BLP cannot wait to go to nursery and AJP is just as excited about Primary.  JTP has been called as an assistant to the High Priest Group Leader and TSP is the secretary in the Relief Society.  In our short time attending the ward, our hearts are full of love for the members.

3. I never thought I would equate bureaucracy with lack of corruption.  It seems like everything here takes forever.  We did not receive our air shipment until we had been here 6-weeks.  Our other shipments came just last week and our car was released from “lock-up” by the Brazilian government only a few days ago.  Now starts the waiting for license plates to be issued.  This was very different from Colombia.  We had received everything and had our pictures on the wall by this time in Bogotá.  When I was mentioning (read complaining about) this to our Bishop (a Brazilian), he mentioned that all of the bureaucracy was to help inhibit corruption.  I asked if he thought it worked.  He said it did.  I was, admittedly, skeptical.  I read just the other day an article online about investing in Brazil and it confirmed what our Bishop stated.  It said that, for a developing country, Brazil has very little corruption.  I was shocked and had to reevaluate what I previously thought.  I suppose that all the waiting was worth it if it truly makes the country better.  It does not, however, make it less frustrating for me.