I made it to Sao Paulo! I had no problems with any of my flights and I arrived in Sao Paulo around 4am Saturday morning. I was scheduled to arrive an hour later, but it took a while to go through customs and baggage check so I didn’t have to wait too long at the airport to be picked up.
Two nuns picked me up at the airport; there are 5 total I’m living with—3 are in their 40s and the other 2 are older. Only 2 of the younger nuns speak English and the other 3 only speak Portuguese.
My first impression of the city when driving from the airport to the house was that it looked pretty sketchy. It’s a gigantic city, so naturally it’s really dirty with tons of graffiti everywhere. Even at 5am there were so many people wandering the streets—nowhere I’d ever like to be at night, alone or not. In general, it reminds me a lot of Rome—the driving is the same (absolutely chaotic). I’m not sure which city is worse. However, São Paulo seems to be much more run down.
When we got to the house (which is also connected to the school) I ate breakfast and broke all of the rules that my travel doctor advised me to follow. He told me no dairy, no salad, no water unless it’s bottled, etc. For breakfast I ate cereal with milk, and then later for lunch I ate salad. I haven’t gotten sick yet…
After breakfast I went straight to bed and slept all morning. I woke up for lunch and that’s when I met the rest of the Sisters. They were extremely welcoming and said they had been waiting for me to come for a long time. They kept telling me to make myself at home and they're so happy I'm here. Thankfully the two sisters who speak English could translate for me, but they mostly speak Portuguese and with the little Italian I know I’m able to pick up a few words here and there.
After lunch we went to the provincial house (aka the “mother-house”), which is basically the headquarters for all SSNDs in Brazil. This is also where the retired nuns live. It was really a welcomed change of scenery. The ride there was through the streets and then when we got to the house it was another world—full of trees, flowers, and fruit trees (which I somehow managed to climb to get the fruit) all surrounded by a wall so you couldn’t see the craziness of the outside world.
Also when I was at the mother-house I met a 92 year old nun, Sr. Fatima, who was so darn cute. She didn’t speak English but she was very curious about me. She asked how old I am, why am I there, what am I doing, and how I traveled all the way from the US to São Paulo all by myself without knowing the language. She said I should have come with my mom because it’s dangerous—how sweet!
For dinner we went back to the house where nuns from all over the world came to visit. They had a meeting in São Paulo so it was convenient for them to visit and also have a welcoming dinner for me. There were about 15 nuns total from Chile, other states in Brazil, Rome, the US, and Argentina. I had fun listening to them all speak in Portuguese and thankfully there were some that spoke English who could translate for me.
Also, on an unrelated note, there is a rooster nearby. This is the busiest, most crowded city I’ve ever seen and somehow, somewhere, there is a rooster that crows outside my room at all times of the day.
Right now as I’m typing this it’s 10:30pm and São Paulo seems to be just waking up. A Brazilian type of music, samba, is blasting outside my window. I feel like I’m next to an outdoor concert. Maybe I am, who knows. That’s just the way it is and I’m going to try to sleep. Tchau!
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