Creative Writing
English Events - Fulbright Brasil/CAPES

Traveling to Mamirauá 
By: Diana Köhler

It was my birthday, September 3, 2019, and I was turning 20. I was hoping to receive an email with the news of my internship application, which didn’t take long to arrive. I was accepted as an intern at the Mamirauá Reserve. I felt like I could not have asked for a better birthday present. I was euphoric, because my dream of traveling to the Amazon and working in the biggest tropical forest in the world was coming true. And only ten days after the great news, I was flying more than 3,000 km away from home, right into the heart of Amazonas. I can’t lie in saying I was scared to travel to a place so far from home, knowing hardly anyone, but I believe my adventurous spirit helped me overcome my fears. I took an airplane to São Paulo and another one to Manaus. As I was flying, I finally got to the Amazon Forest. I was amazed by the immenseness of the rainforest. Everywhere I looked there was a vivid green of the trees intertwined with the curves of the big rivers.  

I was really excited to visit Manaus, the big capital of the Northern Region of Brazil. The city that developed due to the rubber industry, and is now prosperous because of its industrial zone. My aunt, who had been living in the city for more than ten years, hosted me for a few days. I remember she was thrilled to finally see me and the feeling was reciprocal. The day after my arrival, we went downtown to buy my boat ticket to Tefé, where I would stay for four months during my internship. In northern Brazil, it is very popular to travel by boat because the Amazon River Basin is the biggest in the world. Also, there aren’t many highways since 80% of the Amazon natural forest remains preserved. The only way to travel around is by plane or by boat, the latter being far more popular. I don’t remember much of what I did with my aunt during those brief few days, all I remember is a morning when we had breakfast together. She introduced me to a traditional dish: x-caboclinho, which is a tapioca filled with tucumã, queijo coalho and banana da terra, and it turned out to be one of my favorite traditional foods.  

The next day I woke up really early to take the boat to Tefé. My aunt went with me to make sure that I would not get lost and miss the boat. Everything went well; I arrived on time, and we said our sad farewells. When I boarded the boat, I was happily surprised because it was very comfortable, even more comfortable than the buses I was used to traveling on, with wider and softer seats. Another surprise was that breakfast, lunch and dinner were included in the ticket. My trip was quite long and involved spending sixteen hours cruising along the Amazon River. Four of the hours were unexpected, and were a result of the boat breaking down in the middle of the trip. Luckily, it was repaired. All I can say is that despite some problems, it was a unique experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. While I was journeying along the Amazon River, observing the shore line covered in trees, the fluvial ports along the river, and even some wildlife, I saw a river dolphin for the very first time.  

My arrival in Tefé was later than expected, due to the boat incident. It was close to midnight. I knew Ademar, a man who worked for the Mamirauá Institute, would be waiting for me, which made me feel relieved. He took me to the inn where I had planned to spend the night. The host, Vancleide, was very receptive and helped me with everything I needed. I was feeling tired because of the trip, and simultaneously, anxious for the next day when I would finally tour the Institute and get acquainted with my internship. The next day, I woke up, had my breakfast, and chatted with Vancleide. She gave me some helpful information about her inn and the city. Soon after, I was ready to go. I noticed that at daylight, the city was very crowded with intense motorcycle traffic, which is the main form of transportation for people. I took a motorcycle-taxi and headed to the Mamirauá Institute. 

After passing the security guard, I went directly to the secretary’s desk to start my registration. Once the papers were signed, I was invited to get to know the place better. It was bigger than I had imagined, with six big centers surrounded by a small forest, which literally made me feel like I was experiencing the Amazon. I was directed to the tourism center, to talk with my supervisor, Cynthia. There, she filled me in on the community-based ecotourism initiatives developed by the Mamirauá Institute and some other interesting stuff. For example, she explained that Mamirauá is an indigenous word that means mother, or the calf of a manatee, and that the reserve earned that name because in the past manatees were abundant in the area. However, due to predatory hunting, they are rarely seen nowadays. I was interested in everything she said and was extremely curious and energized to go to the Mamirauá Reserve with her and see the Uakari Lodge, which was my place of work. The Uakari Lodge is a floating lodge located at the entrance of the Mamirauá Reserve, 60 km away from Tefé. This lodge receives tourists from all over the world to experience the beauty and wildlife of the Amazon Forest. I would be one of the guides to lead the visitors in the tourism zone of the reserve, which comprises an area of 35 km². What is interesting about the Uakari Lodge is that its structure floats in the water to prevent flooding, since the river’s water level increases 10 to 12 meters every year during the rainy season, flooding almost all the land in the Mamirauá Reserve for 3 to 5 months. I’m talking about more than 11,000 km² of land, the equivalent of double the size of the Federal District of Brazil, that will be underwater during the months of intense rain. This fact literally explains why the Amazon Forest is a rainforest.  

Cynthia and I took the boat in the morning toward the reserve. Along with us were eight tourists that would spend three days at the Uakari Lodge, five Italians and three Americans. The boat trip lasted one hour. We left the port and navigated through the Tefé River, a river with black-tea-colored water. In the middle of our journey, we entered the Amazon River, a river with cafe-au-lait-colored water. It was easy to differentiate between the two rivers given that the waters with distinct colors don’t mix right away. This is a phenomenon known as “O Encontro das Águas” or the Meeting of the Waters. What I saw was a small-scale representation of what happens between the Negro river and the Solimões river. The two rivers meet, east of Manaus, when they flow side by side within the same channel for several kilometers. The cooler, denser, and faster waters of the Solimões and the warmer, slower waters of the Negro form a boundary visible from space and from the water surface itself. Besides the water phenomenon, which I already thought was awesome, at this exact point where the waters meet, we saw pink-river dolphins and tucuxis swimming and feeding. I was overflowing with happiness. We continued navigating toward our next stop where we could see one of the tallest tree species of the Amazon, the Samaúma tree, which can reach up to 40 meters in height. Cynthia explained that there is a saying that Samaúmas are the mothers of the rainforest because they shelter many organisms. After we passed the Amazon River and entered the Japurá River, we were at the entrance of the Mamirauá Reserve. At that point, the width of the body of water narrowed because we were leaving the river and entering a channel. The surrounding vegetation was more abundant, and the curves of the channel were sharper. I felt like we were getting closer to our destination. Also, it was easier to spot animals along the way, such as ducks and groups of cormorants on the water, kingfishers and hawks on the branches of the shoreline trees, fish jumping, and black caimans swimming slowly nearby. I was mesmerized by the diversity of life present in this single place. Our boat trip finished on the last sharp curve. Just after we turned the corner, we saw the Uakari Lodge ahead of us; six connected cabins floating in the middle of the channel. I knew it was only the beginning of an unforgettable adventure! 

The Magic of First Times
By: Juliana Ayumi Sakita 
 

On a night lacking warmth and light, there she was, lying down on her bed, feeling every single little shiver of her arm hair, which would tremble every time something touched her heart. She was all anyone would expect from a young lady who had those unrecognizable, yet so evocative, eyes. People would either scream from the other side of the room “apaj!”, (she didn’t quite know how to feel back when they called her that), or ask her if she could communicate with people who had similar features to her. Even so, she felt displaced, not belonging here nor in the birthplace where those strangers would beg her to go back to, though she had been born on the opposite side of the Land of the Rising Sun. Because of that and so many other things, she had difficulty embracing herself. That’s why she always struggled with the idea of who she was supposed to be. 

Later that evening, her stomach was craving something sweet… but anything would do. Right when she opened the cold, white door, she noticed the usual light did not turn on, as it always did when she opened the door. So she decided to touch it, and in a single breath a strong and endlessly bright light came straight toward her eyes. She almost fainted. Still feeling unsteady, she used her hands to get up from the freezing floor while trying to regain her consciousness. She was bewildered but after a few minutes of confusion, she came back to her bed and tried to take a nap. She was in a state of dreaming just between waking and sleeping, experiencing what some people would call “lucid dreaming”. In a moment of impulsiveness, she got up, and went to the kitchen hoping to fill her emptiness, then she opened the door and saw the light was not working. Again. “What’s going on?”, she thought for a second. All of a sudden, she realized what was happening: everything was repeating: the hunger, and the light. So, she came straight back to her bed, and there she was. Her. Lying down on her bed. Deeply perplexed, she started to freak out. “Why am I seeing myself if I am here?” She knew something was off, and her legs were pulling her back to the place where it all started. Her body was getting heavier as she got closer to the kitchen, and before she realized it, she was entering the bright and blinding light. 

It was a cold, white, and bright night. Her feet felt the snow freezing her skin, and the feeling went up her entire body, going ‘til the end of her extremities, and filling her arms with goosebumps. Out of nowhere, a tender and soft voice came to her ears and told her to look at something a few meters in front of her. It was a kind of capsule, with some sort of date that you could change in a single movement. It said, “Relive any moment”. It was really windy and was getting late. She was curious but afraid, so she started to hold back, but then she heard  a voice saying: 
 

“If you knew (how) it was going to end, would you still choose to live it?”

“That’s the million dollar question,” a second voice interrupted.

“But maybe reliving the moments you have already lived once might not be that special after all. Those people who we once cared so deeply about might not be the same. To be honest, now they are only ghosts,” the first voice replied.

“But look, here’s the thing, if you decide to enter the capsule you will repeat all the moments you want and as many times you wish.”

“And…?” one of the voices said uneasily.

“But when you finish, it is gone.”

“You see??? She should not do it, STOP IT.”

“What??? Leave us alone, she wants to, who are you to stop her from doing it?”

“Are you kidding me? Don’t you remember the last time? How many first times do you think it would take her to get over it? If she keeps living it again and again, that will be the end of her.”

“ExcUSe me? Can’t you see she NEEDS to live that first time once more and then never again?”

“Sorry, you are reckl…”

“Oh, you should stay out of it, you are such a…”

…

She froze in the middle of that mess in her head, but deep down inside, she knew what her heart asked for. Back then, she just couldn’t imagine butterflies could break the barrier of her stomach and cause her to feel such coldness one only felt during the hardest winter. She really wanted to enter the desired, yet undiscovered, place where she could find many things, not only noticing the way someone had looked at her but also why they did it. In the end, she stood there, because something pulled her body away from experiencing every single sense of that moment again. The smell of the air, the view of the trees, the sound of her voice, the taste of the food, and the touch of her hands. Would she be strong enough to handle the situation or brave enough to throw herself into the unknown? No one could really answer that but her.

Mountains
By: Lucas Yaegashi Campana 

Why am I still trying?

What keeps me climbing these steep walls?

The wintry wind penetrates my soul,

The fatigue carves its painful letters into my bones.

Time seems paralyzed,

Has it been a week or a year?

The only thing that guides me

Is that snowy, distant, hypnotic peak.

A bang breaks the stupor.

I feel something, finally.

Icy arms gently drown me,

The mountain submerges me in its bosom

The white landscape turns into darkness.

The cold fades away along with my conscience.

Then, I don’t feel anything,

Only the white peak in my mind remains.

Be a Daughter 
By: Julia Bueno
 

Share something about me? I don’t think I can talk about me without talking about her. She is my world, my inspiration, my best friend; she is my mom. 

I remember when people said: "You look like her". Something in my mind said back, "We are the same person, but in different ways”. That fact made her whole life, and mine, interconnected. 

When I was a kid, I was a crybaby when she wasn't around. I woke up and if she was not in the apartament I felt like something was missing. In the afternoon, when I went home after school her smell calmed me down, it was like her way to say: “Everything’s okay.” 

In my teenage years, she discovered the cancer. I know saying this makes all the good memories a little bit sad, but, I don't even remember the disease, I just saw a strong woman who was going through hard things. 

It wasn’t a bad time for me either. I can't, and I shouldn't, try to hide all these afraid feelings, but, when I look back I see her smile and I hear again: "You look like her". So I go to the mirror and feel the same thing, like when I was a kid and her smell came to my nose, as if she was saying: "Everything's alright". 

Some time after her death, I now understand that I'm not alone, not at all, I just don’t have her with me. I also understand that death is not evil like everyone thinks it is. It's just a natural thing that happens to both good and bad people. And, every time I think about it, my mind says back to me: "She is still alive, in your heart, in your mind and in the memories of other people”. 

After all this, I can't say anything about me without talking about her. I owe my life to her, my love is because of her, and her death says a lot of things about me. And my future, I will live for her. I will keep on smiling, because: "Your smile looks like her smile".

Why Don’t We Believe in Science?
By: Rayanne Regina Beltrame Machado

Why do some people love science while some people hate science? 

Why don’t we believe in a pandemic or in a vaccine, even though the whole world is studying it?

Hi guys, I am very happy to be here and want to know, how are you doing? My name is Rayanne, and I’m a student of Biological Sciences. And today, I want to talk to you about science. 

I’m not here to change your ideas or to tell you that you’re wrong. I’m here just to explain to you: what science is and how we do it. 

“Science” comes from the Latin language and means “knowledge”. This term refers to the act of discovering or increasing human knowledge about something, using the scientific method. But, what is the scientific method? You will discover this soon. 

Let’s get back to science. We have so many areas in the field of science, which includes exact and human sciences. Today, I’ll focus on exact science, which is capable of determining and predicting through rigorous processes using standard criterias to test hypotheses, and to prove or disprove any hypothesis; similarly to mathematics, physics and biological sciences. 

The scientific method is based on many rules that consist of putting together observations, comparing them, and analyzing the data, in a rational and logical manner. 

In summary, we do the experiment a number of times, and based on the evidence, we elaborate a hypothesis. After, we test this hypothesis, and decide whether or not to confirm the idea.

Consequently, published data is highly reliable, and revised by other researchers. We have a lot of rules and bureaucracy to follow, and above all else, ethics.  So, why do we not believe in science? Why don’t we believe in evidence, even when it’s right in front of us?

Psychologically speaking, some people don’t believe in science because it’s hard to relate to the study of science as a natural thing. When our realities are challenged, we tend to think with our emotional side, forsaking our rational side.

That’s part of human nature, it’s a natural reaction! We always prejudge everything with our emotions, and we tend to resist changes. Change means inviting discomfort into our social reality and even when we don’t know anything about the topic, we will fight not to expend energy to think about it. 

To summarize, the moral of the story is: people don’t believe in science because it requires us to think, to  evaluate, to reevaluate and all of those things are hard to do. 

In conclusion, if you want someone to believe your evidence, don’t appeal to their emotions. If you can, appeal to their curiosity and avoid presenting evidence that will trigger joy, anger, fear, or disgust. Instead trigger their thinking caps; their cognitive processing.  Finally, if I haven’t already convinced you with any of this, maybe read this text again… Without using your emotions! 

Theme: Disappointment
By: Tatiana Francisco Moreira
 

Youth are our hope
They can do anything
Past mistakes won’t get us
As long as we have the future

Theme: When Day Becomes Night
The Day at Night
By: Vinicius Vattos Costa

 

When day becomes night
You are trying to find your home
Because that's when the world goes to sleep
And you decide to wake up
But little did you know that
When you were dreaming about the dawn
There was eclipse going on
Making the day become the night

We Do Not Learn to Say Goodbye
By: Juliane Borchers

Lara is a young, married woman who was raised by her grandparents in a small town after her parents died in a plane crash. When she finished high school, she moved to the big city to do her degree in psychology. She usually returned to the small town she grew up in to visit her grandparents two or three times a year, mostly at Christmas time.

Augusto is an honest person, a father of four children and a grandfather of eight grandchildren: six girls and two boys that he loves very much. But he has a special relationship with his granddaughter Lara, who he and his wife Otília raised after the death of Lara’s parents.

It was because of the relationship that Lara and Augusto had that Lara continued with her studies, despite thinking about giving up numerous times when she had difficulties with the subjects. On one of those occasions, Lara received the following input from her grandfather:

Lara: "Grandpa, I am thinking about dropping out of college, it is hard and I miss my family."

Augusto: "But Lara, now you have so little left to finish. You really wanted to do it. Trust me, you will make it. And you know you can count on my support."

With this support, she finished her degree, and in addition, decided to pursue a Master's degree in the field.

Meanwhile, Augusto followed his life away from his favourite granddaughter, but continued to be surrounded by his other family members; celebrating birthdays, weddings, and the birth of his great-grandchildren. Everything seemed to be going smoothly in their lives.

Then one day, all of the sudden, there was an outbreak of an unidentified virus in the country where Augusto and Lara were living. The virus was spreading rapidly and had already begun killing people. Faced with the likelihood of contagion and the severity of the virus, the country's rulers forced people to wear masks and to isolate themselves from each other to control the spread of the virus. So, Lara was barred from visiting her grandparents until the restrictions were lifted. Augusto, on the other hand, continued to follow his normal life, as he believed that because he lived in a small town, this virus would not reach him.

However, the spread of the virus only continued to worsen and ended up affecting all cities in the country, regardless of their population size. Christmas was coming, and the situation was critical. Lara needed to decide if she was going to visit her family even with the risks involved.

Those were not easy days for Lara. She talked with her husband Gustavo every day and questioned over and over again what would be the best decision to make.

Lara: "Gustavo, what do you think about this trip? I miss my grandfather so much."

Gustavo: "Lara, I think it is risky because it is an eight-hour trip that involves having contact with many other people… What if we get infected and end up taking this virus to your grandparents?"

Lara: "You are right, I would never forgive myself if I knew that I infected my grandfather and the worst happened. I think I can deal with missing him until all this passes."

So, Lara decided not to visit her family that Christmas, waiting for the situation to improve, and hoping that next Christmas they would all be together again.

With the decision made, she told her grandparents. They did not react well to this decision, because they didn’t think the situation was that serious. They believed so strongly that the virus wasn’t real that on Christmas they gathered all their family members and neighbours for a big party, including one of their granddaughters who was contaminated by the virus.

In early January, Augusto began to feel the symptoms that doctors said were caused by the virus. Since Augusto was an elderly person, his health quickly deteriorated. Two days after the doctor's diagnosis, he needed to be hospitalized, and a week later he was transferred to the ICU, as he could no longer breathe.

Meanwhile while all this was happening, Lara was isolated in her city, working from home and complying with all the measures recommended by the doctors. She was furious when she learned that Augusto was sick, as she had warned him to take care of himself. During the time that he was hospitalized, Lara kept receiving news and medical reports about his health from her aunts. Some days the news was good; the doctors said they would take him off of sedation. On other days the news was bad; he had contracted a bacterial infection, and he would need a blood transfusion. But one Friday, she received the worst news of her life. The doctors informed her that Augusto would probably not make it through that night.

Augusto was fighting for two months. But on Saturday morning he died.

Lara was sleeping when it happened. When she woke up that Saturday, she saw on her cell phone that there were countless calls from her aunts. And at that moment, she knew that she would not see her grandfather again. Lara could not even say goodbye to her grandfather, because March of that year was the worst moment of the pandemic and she was afraid to travel and catch the virus. The hospitals had no more beds to receive patients who were sick and needed medical care.

Now Lara lives with an ache in her heart, as she has lost the person she most admired in the world. Unfortunately, we do not learn to deal with the pain of losing the special people in our lives. We just go on living and this pain is simply transformed into a longing to see them again.