Three days after I arrived in Salvador, the elevator in my apartment building stopped working. Using the stairs to the fifth floor after a long day of walking in the sun or rain and up and down the hills of Salvador has been pretty tough, however on week 3 I started to whisper to myself, “power thighs, and gurrl! Go for it!’ it’s week five, I came up with groceries, half way running up the stairs saying out loud, ‘ it’s all about attitude gurrl….’ The security guy downstairs keeps saying, ‘amanha, amanha” I do not trust him. He has been saying this since it broke down; even if it got fixed now am not interested, I need those power thighs anyway. I emailed my landlord the other day, worried that when am leaving I will have to drag down two suitcases, heavy ones- I packed for Cairo and Uganda too. The thought of leaving saddens me. I walked through Pelourinho today and my heart was sad, I do not want to leave, I love this place so much. I met Khaled today, he's half Jewish, half Sudanese, born in Israel and raised in Brazil. Said his parents decided this was the best place to live because they would be accepted here more than anywhere else. Even I agree, he and I had a connection; he works for 'Projectoaxe" which am interested in. It’s a project that encourages street children to use their skills through art education, the clothes they make and pieces are world class. There is an edge in Salvador I have not seen anywhere, people are not limited, they go to great lengths to express who they are with such passion and energy that makes the place come alive.
After I recounted my elevator woes to my landlord in an email, he felt it was reasonable not to charge me energy separately to compensate all the inconveniences with the elevator. Smile :0 My friend Nicole in Paris, was amazed she reminded me that Egyptian landlords would not do this, so here I am being appreciative , while cranking up the A/C and not worrying about how much it’s going to cost me anymore. Am not taking this for granted, as gratitude makes me more aware of the gifts that I have been given.
Tomorrow am going to visit the project. I visited the Nigerian Cultural center where I met Raquel who had received an email from me, at the Steve Biko institute, she was very helpful and spoke English really well. I have been wondering why on earth there is a Nigerian Cultural Institute here; however after visiting the place I understand so much more . Renato, a Brazilian artist was telling me about how Brazilian slaves came from every part of Africa, and have been able to exploit that to express themselves. Most West Africans after slavery returned to Africa, the East, North, central and Southern Africans did not return and instead have continued to build on this history. Am sure some of the Nigerians who returned kept those ties and are using this through the cultural institute to promote their culture. Brazilians are such a great mix and I must admit they must be some of the most beautiful people on this earth, maybe this is really what the world is going to look like in fifty years. Hence my desire to stay here, I mean a culmination of factors being the reason.
Brazil will pass a bill anytime now to grant stateless people and refugees Permanent Residence rights to reside within the State, in my sub conscience I have thought of staying here and pretending to be stateless, then leave in four years when I have attained Permanent residence. The other option is make sure my dissertation research is based in Brazil and then come here every year for Post Doc research; I guess I’ll opt for the latter, much more promising and challenging. In this thought, my reach is exceeding my grasp, should this not be the case?
