How does one thank the kindness of strangers? I shall recount the ways…

Celebrating free stuff!

The flight attendant on TAM (Brazil’s national airlines) for being patient with our Portuguese and letting us practice. Barry and I were thrilled to communicate successfully in our first conversation en Portugues. He was also very sweet with Ezra, who requested extra candy as he ate his brownie first when dinner was served. We had a great experience on TAM—clean, friendly service, professional staff, roomy seats with individual screens and extensive library of movies to select from; we were all ecstatic! Despite the fact that Ezra (and I) did not sleep well on the overnight flight we give TAM a thumbs up (Brazilian caramels upon seating goes a long way)!

Ezra finally fell asleep just as breakfast was served.

Teo the handyman from the hotel next door; who on our botched arrival to a rental house not ready for us ran out to buy us new phone cards and ordered water to be delivered to refill our empty dispenser. Apparently one cannot live without water, or a working cell phone.

The representative at the TIM phone store (Brazil’s equivalent to Verizon or AT&T) who sat with us for almost 2 hours trying to figure out which phones Barry pre-bought for our trip would work with which cards since nothing seemed to be working. Going 3 days without our own way of calling people for information or just plain connection was very disorienting. Can’t tell you what a relief it was to finally get a working phone (eventhough that meant buying yet another phone)—it’s amazing what a sense of security having a phone provided us.

Rose “hip-hop” Ribeiro, a lively woman we met in town while sipping fresh coconut water. She overheard we were looking for the Capoeira school and she freely volunteered to show us. On our walk there she pointed out important places along the way: bank, post office, florist, and basically gave us a quick tour of the town, out of the kindness of her heart—a kindred spirit in dance. She and Sidney played some Capoeira moves and she tried to get Ezra to dance Lambada with her. Few people in NYC stop in the middle of their city-routine to answer a question with a smile much less walk a few blocks to show someone exactly where a place is located. Rose was an angel and her kindness unlocked the “secret” of the town for us. After that we had a much better idea of what the town offered us.

In the beginning, we tried to find out where everything was located on our own, trying to be very self-sufficient. But that method can only get you so far. Eventually we had to open ourselves up to ask for help. Showing vulnerability was an uncomfortable place to be, but once we surrendered to it our boundaries became less of an armor and more of an open door.

Obrigada por tudo meus novos amigos!