Wonders

Third stop on the trip, Recife/Olinda, state of Pernambuco, Nordeste, one day and a half. Trip: 5 hours of bus very early in the morning from Natal.

Here is more a list of great people, met one after the other in a very short time, than a travel story. But this gives the general feeling that held me for this day and a half.

        

                                            Giant masks in Olinda

  The bus. This woman, agreeing that these stops the bus makes are quite weird and unsecure, we will wait thirty minutes more to get down at the bus station.

  The metro station. Lots of people. Don't like this place. This young man who offers me his help right away, seeing me looking around with my bags. I will say no, unfortunately taken into this climate of stress.

  The bus stop. This man asking me where I come from and then telling me passionately about all the    French philosophers he's read. A bit ashamed, I don't know half of them.

  Arriving at the hostel "The beach's pirates". The pirate Will, of civilian name Hermeson, welcomes me. Follows a great laughter with him trying desperately to guess my origine on my accent. He will give up after trying German, British and even Polonese and will instead offer me the "welcome shot" (we are indeed in a pirate hostel...). He will be my little favorite of all the staff in the best hostel ever visited, where anyone of them would infect you with their smiles and good mood in a heart beat.

  Sitting at the table. Jana, super nice traveling German, to whom I took a malicious pleasure to make experiment some of the brasilians culinarian specialties, from açai to tapiocas, by brigadeiros and sugar cane juice.

  During breakfast. An amazing German woman, 65 years old, definitely not making them, lived my dream life, and still travels with all her soul.

  In Olinda. This jowelry maker sitting on the floor in the shadow of a tree who wants to show me his art. From his accent I guess he is from another south american country. I tell him that unfortunately I am out of cash today, but stay chatting with him, he is interesting. He will shake my hand and thank me for staying to talk with him.

  At the hostel. Anyone I talked with during this short stay, each with different travel stories and good tips, so interested in each others' stories that asking our origine becomes way more important than knowing our names.

                 

                                           Careful: shark attacks

  And finally, in the bus to the station. Jaci, the "cobradora", this person to whom you pay your bus ticket. She asks me where I am from, lets me sit in the front of the bus on her side. Follows a real fifteen minutes conversation. She tells me how life is hard in Brasil, she who earns the minimal wage (R$750, not even 180€) and raises however she can her son and daughter of 16 and 10 years old. Her sister's name is Joana (like mine), they all have a name in J in the family. She tells me her brother has already been to France, but she has never left Recife although she dreams of seeing the world. The conversation turns, I tell her about my fear of the violence in some cities and of how ill at ease I feel having to take the bus so late to get to the station having no money left for a cab (it is 20h30). When hearing this, she takes care of me with all her advices. To only ask things to older people, who are safer; to never get my wallet, my cash or my phone in public...

The criminality coming essentially from the youth, she told me this sentence, very strong, that touched me because of how real it is here: "the children in my country have a serious sickness: the abandonment. Their parents don't have money, they can't afford to give them good education, they are abandoned and turn themselves towards the drugs, which then leads them very young to crime.". She tells me that when she sees these young people, she feels a pain strong enough to cry.

  We arrive at the metro station. I thank her for her kindness, she shakes my hand and tells me that it was a pleasure to meet me. I promise her I will not forget her, because it was a meeting short but that touched me a lot. She tells me to think of her when I will be in France.

This woman has made my day beautiful in a small quarter of an hour, with her sincerity, her beauty, her simplicity and her words. I will think of her when going back to France but also in anyone of my future trips. She, who doesn't have money to travel, I will bring her in my thoughts in all of mines.

      

                                       The end of the way ?