Above is a photo taken today at a really nice Sunday afternoon family gathering here in Rio. Pictured left to right include Renardo, Leonardo, Cleaine, Antonio, Carla, little Manuela, and me (Please excuse any mispellings). Today´s gathering was ostensibly to watch the world cup game, but yesterday there was a similar gathering, and I get the feeling these are very frequent events as the whole family lives within a few blocks of each other.
Relaxing after the family had left yesterday, Antonio (the father) and I were talking about where my family lives. `How long does it take to get to see them´he asked; well, five hours by plane for my brother,12 hours by car for my parents and in-laws and so on. ´Caramba!´he said. We had a very interesting discussion about cultural differences between Brazilians and Americans, and why for Americans it seems somewhat natural to move to be where you want to be (whether that´s for a job, environment, friends, or family). Antonio thought this was all very strange and wondered why we move so far away from each other....
I wonder as well.
(of course living a few hours apart is one thing we can probably attribute to national culture, our conversation didn´t touch on why we´d each be crazy enough to live in Delhi or Brazil for a year...)
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