2008 - A year unlike any other

Ready...Set... Well, maybe not exactly, but, GO! 2008 is here. It has been for a bit over a month now. One of the two months I'll end up spending in the United States this calendar year. Tomorrow, February 4th, the year 2008 will forever become synonymous to me with "away," "adventure," "excitement," "discovery," "challenge," "apprehension," "longing."

"Brazil."

In early 2005, after returning from a semester in Spain, I knew my life would not be complete without spending a significant amount of time abroad after graduating college. In June 2006 I knew I would get such an opportunity after becoming a lucky recipient of a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship that would send me abroad for an academic year. Three weeks after that announcement, I left to spend the remainder of my northern hemisphere summer amid the lilting voices of the colorful (literally and figuratively) people of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. It didn't take too many days in this place where speaking felt like singing and breathing felt like dancing for my one-and-a-half-years-into-the-future self to realize it had found its home. So, from my arrival date of February 5th to my December 6th departure, I will represent the Iowa City AM Rotary Club of District 6000 while studying Brazilian history and geography at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Rotary District 4520.

When I tell people I'm going to live in Brazil, I know I'm evoking one or more of the montage of images in the January 1 post below. For many, the scantily clad women of Carnaval, or the seemingly genetic deftness and grace of Brazilian soccer stars like Ronaldinho come to mind. Others see visions of the country's iconic favelas, forever imprinted in American minds thanks both to international news and to films such as City of God and Bus 174, or other images emblematic of Brazil's racial and class disparities that are at the same time overt and subtle. The more erudite may see the almost constantly smiling face of current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or simply Lula, as he is called (which, incidentally, means Squid - at least our president is named after a shrub...), and cite him as further evidence of a Latin America that has veered almost collectively to the the left in the wake of the United States' war on terror.

Whether plucked from international headlines or skimmed out of stereotype, the truth is that each one of the images below, any one of the images I may plant in people's minds, is merely the tip of a continent-sized iceberg. Even I, who have become a supposed expert on this land that will soon be my home, have delved only slightly below its surface thus far. But soon that will change, and with it, I hope, the understanding of those who would take the plunge with me. The ultimate goal of the Ambassadorial Scholarship is to spread goodwill and foster mutual understanding between the people of your home and host countries. My first mission of course will be to channel Iowa and the United States through me and into the hearts of my hosts. But as far as bringing Brazil back home is concerned, I plan to do so through two of my greatest passions: photography and writing. Through my photographs I hope to fill the minds of my compatriots with fresh and intriguing images of Brazil, whetting their appetite with the first chapter of a novel that can't be passed up. Through my writings, both here and in a more extensive work, I hope to tell - as best as I can in 10 months - the full story of a country and a people that deserve to be known beneath the mere surface.

I invite you, the reader who I have invited here or who has stumbled upon me by internet accident, to follow me here as I tell the story of what I discover in my new home, in its past, in its future, in the soul of its people, and in my own soul as it bends and grooves like a samba dancer in its every encounter with this polyrhythmic land.

As I slowly put things in and out of my suitcase, anxiously await 80-degree weather, and dream of what dreams a night under the Southern Cross may bring, I can't help but think of the people who have helped to bring me to this point. I am nothing without all of you. The debt I owe you for sculpting me I feel I could only repay by taking each and every one of you down to South America with me. I'll try my hardest to do the next best thing: to show to everyone I meet a face that is a reflection of all of your faces, a face that shows that a country that has sadly become so maligned in the minds of many in our world can still produce a vessel of goodwill crafted by thousands of hands. Thank you all for all you have contributed to my life. I promise none of it will go spoiled.

I know it's late, but Happy 2008 to everyone! I know it will be a year unlike any other for all of us!