Deja Don’t

At a staff meeting back in November, we watched a video of someone telling a story about a prisoner of war who made it through his experience by not allowing himself to imagine ever doing anything other than being in the prison camp.  According to him, others around him struggled, and even died, because they dared to hope that there would be an end to their imprisonment and so were constantly disappointed when freedom didn’t come.  This survivor said that after Christmas was always the hardest for those that hoped.  I think that the intent of the video was to help us gain perspective and to hear about the resilience of the human spirit, but unfortunately, in the middle of a pandemic it ended up feeling like we were being told that we would be much happier if we simply abandoned all hope.  I have been trying to find that balance between settling in for the pandemic long haul, and also holding onto the hope of the vaccine coming and changing our world.  Unfortunately, it looks like we are in for another pandemic prison camp Christmas down here.      

March 12th was the date last year when our city and state went into lockdown for the first time, with all non-essential business closed, schools included.  We have been slowly climbing out of that hole ever since.  We even made it back to in person instruction every other week in October, and Monday was to be the first time my class would come back to campus full time.  It was supposed to be the end of distance learning for my kindergarten kids.  No more parents sitting off screen whispering all the answers to their children, often incorrectly.  No more cats, dogs, sisters, brothers, and horses (true story) interrupting our Zoom classes.  No more kids falling off their stools.  No more kids wandering off and never coming back.  No more kids deciding five minutes into the lesson that they are tired, saying goodbye and logging off.  No more overdressed dads and underdressed moms.  No more frustrated students crumpling their papers and throwing them at the camera.  No more Zoom.  So yes, I had allowed some hope to creep into my life.  I planned my lessons for next week without creating a Google Slide show for a single day.  I had dreamed of using an actual physical book as I sat in front of my class.  Alas, it is not to be.  As of 12:01 AM Monday, our city and state return to a full closure of all non-essential businesses.   We return to Zoom.   

Why now you ask?  Statistically, it is a combination of a rise in the number of cases, the arrival of variants, and the lack of availability of intensive care beds, 98% full as of Friday.   Realistically, we think it is a combination of Carnaval gatherings, vaccine dreams, and pandemic fatigue.  And no, we have no idea how long this lockdown will last.  I could say that we hope it will be shorter than last time, but that would mean we are hoping, which I’m not quite ready to do again yet.  

I worry most about the girls, who had just started to have sports practice after school, and were feeling connected to real people again.   They are amazingly strong, but this one hurts.   So, we are spending this weekend pouting, planning, and dealing with our new, old reality.   At least we know what we are in for this time, and we know what we need to do to keep our sanity.  Takeout dinners, chocolate bars, and Netflix are proven winners.  If we can keep regular exercise and time outside on our schedule, we will make it through this bump.  

And because we feel like we know how to do it safely, we are still traveling.  We had a week break not long ago and we were able to spend it on the coast with friends, hiking, swimming, and surfing on amazing Brazilian beaches.  And we are planning a few long weekends before school ends to squeeze a few more destinations into our time here.  We still count ourselves among the lucky ones, and we continue to be grateful for our health, thankful for the experiences we continue to have here in Brazil, and “cautiously optimistic” that this lockdown will be shorter.

Be safe, be well, and be happy,

Adam, Sara, Hannah and Lila

Hannah finally got her wish, to hike in bare feet and her swimsuit in the middle of a torrential downpour.

Shallow rocks make for fun pictures.  This is Hannah enjoying the beach after the lightning had passed.

Same beach just around the corner 30 minutes after the storm.  

The next day’s hike.  We are headed all the way to that beach in the background.

There is a small chance that I convinced Lila to detour onto a random trail through a bamboo forest.  Clearly we made it back.

The term trail is used lightly.  This one dumped us onto the beach and left us with a kilometer of boulder hopping before we could head back into the jungle.

Yeah, the trail is just around that corner.

Lila loving every hop.

Hard to see, but there are four more people above Lila on the “trail”, which after the rocks, turned into a near vertical mud track.



This beach was definitely worth the hike, rocks, mud and all.



Lila catching a friendly wave on Itamambuca Beach.



Hannah catching a wave of her own.  That is my yellow board on the left.  It is actually much harder than you might think to get your board to stand up like that.  That would be called Hanging Zero.