Meu Coração, Minha Familia

I have arrived!  Safe, exhausted, and hotter than I thought possible!  I think my whole heart sank when the pilot announced it was 39 degrees.  Over 102 F and that's not including the humidity.  I have to say the good news was it only gets hotter from here!  I am so blessed to have picked a city on the equator!  That wasn't on their welcome website.  They should really give that disclaimer to people before they make such big commitments! 

I have spent the last few days PACKED with wedding planning, family, a little beach, dancing samba, and more family.  With my cousin having the first GRAND CHILD a few months ago, we all gather on
Saturdays with the family for big lunches!  The family in Brazil is something to marvel at.  The connections, passions, and love in the room is like nothing else you have felt.  The heat that resonates from the cramped room filled with so many people, is a warmth you welcome.  

There is something to say about the embrace between father and son and brothers and sisters.  They hug, hold each other, and kiss.  I think if more people practiced love like this, the world would be a better place.  

Last night, my cousins and I went dancing Samba.  The beat of the drum resonated through the floors and seemed to lift the dancers.  Gallotte, a musician friend of my Uncle, played till 6 in the morning.  The building was an old Portuguese House with exposed beams and intricate stone walls. Half way through a dance my cousin said to me, "You see that wall?  It is like my mind.  At first, it appears to have no order, but it can hold up a building.  It makes complete sense, you just have to know how to look at it."  We moved across the old tile dance floor as 8 musicians sat around an old wood table and only stopped to refill their beers.  A country surrounded by poverty, fill their lives with the joy of music.  If I died, I would want it to be while dancing Samba. 

Just as I start to feel at home, I am off again tomorrow.  I will be taking a 6 hour flight to Belem, Brazil.  An old colonial town, at the mouth of the Amazon.  I will see what my new adventure has in store.  Sweating through it will be the only guarantee I have!

I miss you all...BEIJOS!