Today, I learned that even if people do not share a common tongue or culture, many things can bring very different people together. As the day unfolded, I began to notice that even across different languages, there are certain experiences that we all go through, like health, hardship, and the joy of play that quietly remind us how connected we truly are. Once at ESEG, we had a much-needed Portuguese lesson. With this lesson, not only did our Portuguese get better, but the terms we learned proved to be quite useful during our trip to the InCOR hospital. This hospital specializes in the heart, hence the name Instituto do Coração, with the Portuguese word “Coração” meaning heart. During this visit, we got to learn a lot about the research and treatments that are done in the facilities through a presentation given by one of the doctors. This presentation helped me to understand how similar Brazil was to the US. The procedures and research that needed to be done is the same as in the US, because we are all people, even if we have different cultures. This new information helped to humanize the whole people of Brazil in my eyes. Even though we are so far from my home, we all can go through the same hardships and battles, for example, COVID. The issue of health and being human is not the only thing that can bring people together.
Another thing that helped me to understand Brazil more was when our group went to the park. There was a big soccer field, a futsal court, a basketball court, and two volleyball courts with one of which was sand and the other concrete. Now, just hearing this, you might be wondering, how is this bringing people of different cultures together? First, you need to understand that Brazilian culture and people are very welcoming. When we arrived at the park, the basketball court was open, so we went down and started playing basketball on one side and volleyball on the other. During this, multiple Brazilian kids joined in and played basketball with us. At first, it was surprising because a little kid came up to our big group of mostly American students and asked if he could join. We had no issue with him joining, it was just surprising because in the States, it is always taught that you should not talk to strangers. This helped demonstrate how welcoming the Brazilians really are. Even though he did not know our language and was much younger than us, he felt comfortable enough to join in and play. Although I did not play basketball, I played volleyball with a few of the Brazilian students and the other Roberts students. Although there is somewhat of a language barrier, we could understand each other’s actions and what was intended during the game. There was an understanding through actions rather than words, helping to reinforce my idea that sports can bring people together and act as a bridge between cultures or languages. This was further reinforced when we got back and played basketball at the park with our host brother and father. Although we could not understand each other the whole time, we could tell what the other was doing because we were playing sports together.
The biggest thing that has brought our host family together is food. Every morning and night, we have sat down with our host family and eaten a meal and talked as best as we could together, through the use of the Portuguese we have learned just by being here, and Google Translate. Although we can’t always fully understand what the other is saying, using context clues and explaining words that we don’t know helps us to grasp what the other is saying.
Everything that we did today helped me see that deep connections don’t require perfect communication. People from vastly different cultures can come together and support each other through shared experiences such as sports and meals. Although people may express themselves in different ways due to their cultural backgrounds, this does not limit the human ability to form and build relationships. Today has reminded me that humanity has more in common than we often realize, and that we should utilize and partake in these shared experiences to truly bring us together.
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