One song. I close my eyes. Despite the winter I am back there, back in Brazil. In a small place called Buzios. The warmth of daily life at the time fills my ears, spills over into my chest. We were in Rio then. And even though Rio meant we were hundreds of miles away from […]
read blogpost »Yesterday, I was at a dinner. It was themed ‘Brazil’ for the guest of honor who came from Sao Paolo. I know the guest of honor from the past. He worked in Amsterdam, I worked in Brazil. And so our worlds kept crossing.When you separate, the web called life falls apart. Threads spread out over […]
read blogpost »There is a school behind my house. A Brazilian nanny was verbally abusing a blonde curly-haired toddler. His cry was coarse, animal-like. Her voice was low and raspy. She was strapping him up into his stroller with forceful and jerky movements, as she tried to hold her irritation and failed to do so. I understand […]
read blogpost »My father had taken me to Elmina Castle on coast of Ghana, quite a few times in my pre-teen years. At the time, most of this Dutch fort was inaccessible and we’d wander around making up the details of the story. Was this narrow window really where all slaves left their captivity in the fort, […]
read blogpost »She is a brunette. She has a short fringe and bobbed hair. Her cheekbones rise high above her nose. The cheeks themselves are dented inwards, the way one would look when sucking one’s cheeks in to look sexier. But she has all that, naturally. She has the dark, deep set eyes. It’s a pity her […]
read blogpost »I am in a village called Paraty. It is one of the oldest colonial villages in Brazil. It was preserved because people forgot all about it when a new port for the export of gold was built. Now, it is predominantly home to holidaying couples and guest-houses. The historical city center is full of galleries […]
read blogpost »A 70-year-old man lies right in the middle of the pavement outside our apartment. He has an open wound from his knee all the way down to his foot. People pass him without even looking at him. I take a photo of him and simultaneously wonder why I find it necessary to do so.I continue […]
read blogpost »Everytime I see an organ, I think of my Hammond. I say “my Hammond” but I actually don’t have one. Once upon a time I did. It was never in my possession, but it was mine. My grandpa – the first of all grandparents to have died, and the one I have least memories of […]
read blogpost »My son and I sat on the kitchen floor eating a raisin mix. “If I eat the black ones, my stomach will become black. And if I eat the yellow ones, it’ll be yellow,” he announced. Life can be so simple at that age. He waited for me to agree. I said, “and if we eat both, […]
read blogpost »Quite a few things happen in a day (and a half), and it's alway hard to choose what detail to write about. So today I'll write a few, such as: *I decided to be a brave and confident female who is perfectly capable of addressing the "smoke" issue, after which my friendly relationship with the […]
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