My Journey To Salvador, Bahia

I’ve been considering volunteering with Cross Cultural Solutions since 2012.  This year I had the desire and capacity (financial, approved PTO, etc) to do so.  I was overwhelmed with the number of tasks I needed to complete prior to departing and didn’t truly take the time to acknowledge the journey ahead until after I sat in my seat during my flight to Sao Paulo…

The flight from Atlanta to Sao Paulo was 9 hours.  I had a 5 hr layover that looked awful on paper, but actually allowed me to observe and take in a bit of Brazilian culture.  I’ve traveled abroad in the past but for the first time I felt like I was present in a place where no one was speaking English.  As soon as I exited customs I was immersed in Portuguese.  I spent 5 hrs in an airport equipped with 3 words…Hello (Ola), Thank You (Obrigada) and the terms for the Brazilian currency Real/Reais (pronounced he’awl | he’ais).  I thought I was supposed to use the Spanish conversion for male/female and said Obrigado to every male in the airport so received a few looks of confusion.  To make matters worse I was also approached by multiple people at GRU and cringed each time I responded with “I don’t speak Portuguese.”  I was later told by a local I look Brazilian so I better start using the Duolingo app I downloaded a few weeks ago.

After 16 hrs of traveling I arrived in Salvador, Bahia without any complications other than my lack of language preparation.  I grabbed my luggage, found the CCS driver, met Ilona who’s from the Czech Republic and one of 13 volunteers I’ll be living with the next 2 weeks.  Shortly after Helene arrived and had just concluded her journey from Norway.  Ilona and Helene are participating in a volunteer program with their company Eli Lilly along with 9 of the other volunteers.  After an amazing dinner we all naturally congregated in one of the common areas and Sherri a native of Iran whom currently resides in Virginia, encouraged us to each share something personal about ourselves.  Xioa Feng one of my 3 roommates is from China, a Lilly volunteer and also blogging about her experience. Helene is a native of Denmark and married a Norwegian.  Tony is a Lilly volunteer that resides in Indianapolis.  Marc a native of Lebanon, is a Lilly volunteer with a positive and energetic spirit.  Ivelisse is a native of Puerto Rico that currently resides in Augusta, Ga.  Luis is Salvadorian/Canadian, has a 6 yr old son that made a video saying hello in Portuguese with hopes of the children here making one for him in return.   Kimberly is a Lilly volunteer that has taken on the task of motivating the corporate volunteers to document their experience.  Mimi is a world traveler that currently resides in Rhode Island, cares for elderly and has received a grant to volunteer abroad multiple times a year.  Shirley turned in early so I haven’t had a chance to interact with her much.  She did invite a couple of us to attend church with her tomorrow morning which I can safely say I won’t make since I’m still up blogging.  Justin is an 18 yr old that has been in Salvador for 2 months and has decided to spend his Gap Year volunteering in different parts of the world.  Since Justin has been here awhile he gave the group helpful info and pointed out that I’m the only Black volunteer in the group and my interactions/experiences with the locals with be different than everyone else.  Justin and I talked for about an hour after the volunteers dispersed and I shared some of my memories from my study abroad in South Africa at 22.  There’s also another volunteer arriving tomorrow.

It’s hard to believe all of this has happened the past 26 hrs. I should probably be resting with the other volunteers but my adrenaline is rushing from thoughts I’ve just shared and anticipation for what’s to come the next two weeks.  I guess I’ll turn in and climb into my top bunk.