Sam Both

Well it’s been just over three weeks that I’ve been home now and I’m still making adjustments. It’s bittersweet being home – after an exchange it’s like leaving your close family and friends two times. When I look down deep it is really nice to be home and I will always have my excellent unforgettable year and experience.

Anyway, back in Brazil two weeks before I was to return to Oregon, there was a festival of the corn harvest called Sao Joao. I took full advantage of it as a going home party. I went to a city in the interior of Brazil for a week of celebration including the most spectacular fireworks show I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness and an extreme variety of corn-based food from corn Jell-O to a corn smoothie. This was the beginning of my year’s end in Brazil, after this it was a week of fun on the beach with my closest friends; sand, sun, surf, and palms were the only other invites.

It was like that until the very day I left my Recife home for the one here. I came home at 5:30 a.m. and left at 1 p.m. for the airport. The flight home was an adventure in itself. It all started with my plane departing an hour later than scheduled, and from there it was downhill depending on how you look at it. Skipping the big sad goodbye and the wait alone in the departure room, I made the most of my flight to Sao Palo meeting several interesting people-some were friendly enough to give me their home phone numbers if I ever happened to be in Sao Palo again. (Incidentally, Sao Palo is the airport where I was stranded on the way down.) Anyway, we landed 10 minutes before my connecting flight to Dallas left. You can probably guess that the plane didn’t wait for me, or my things, so once again I was alone stranded in the Sao Palo airport, only this time I was equipped with a language that came in very helpfully. The flight I missed was a once a day flight, and after racing between agencies I found that I had two reasonable options. Keep my ticket or re-route my flight and pay the difference from my pocket.

I neglected to mention that the next day was the World Cup Final. In Brazil this is life, and I made the decision to stay after talking with an exchange student who happened to be working for a flight agency. He gave me some inside flight agency info and I ended up staying night in the Caesar’s Palace branch in Sao Palo on the airline’s dollar-everything down to the mini bar included. The morning of the game I caught a taxi downtown where the city of Sao Palo (20 million persons) had closed several blocks and put up several theater-sized screens televising the game. We’ll have to say I wasn’t the only one who went-it happened to be the largest soccer party ever, numbering in the millions, and when Brazil beat Germany to win their fifth world title it was fanatical. It was a near riot of happiness, everyone radiating electricity in the air.

I made it back to the hotel and had my things ready for my 10 o’clock flight. With the delay it seemed my perfect year had terminated with an even better outcome. My connection took me through Dallas where I had to clear customs and immigration. As soon as I passed immigration I was in the customs area where they X-rayed my bags and almost instantaneously began filling out an MIP ticket for alcohol possession: this was a bummer. I was offered a choice by the officer, who was actually quite pleasant; she told me that I could avoid any ticket if she confiscated the “goods.” I agreed, but in doing so I lost quite a few presents for friends and family. So after 15 minutes in the USA I had already tested my chances with the authorities. It was a little different and a little difficult, but I had made it, I was back. Just 10 more hours and I’d be in Wallowa County, home.

Coming around Mt. Hood into PDX Portland was probably the best feeling I had since arriving in the states. I was greeted by my Portland-based Rotary counselor along with a Brazilian host brother of mine that is participating in an exchange in Salem. You may be wondering why my parents aren’t mentioned? Well, it’s because they weren’t there. I was trying to surprise them. Late, but there, my friend had come all the way to Portland to give me a ride home. The ride flew by and it was a chance for me to start adjusting and catch up. I can’t explain what went through my head as we approached the “Lostine Small and Friendly” sign or coming down the street to my house.

It’s been almost a month now that I’ve been back. Strange how fast a year can go by, and now looking back at how long it actually was. I wouldn’t trade it for anything and I want to thank everyone who made it possible, and all of you who bothered to read some 17-year-old’s writing in the local paper. It’s really startling to me how many people actually took time to read my articles. I’ve had an extremely positive reintroduction to Wallowa County thanks to all of you and I truly appreciate it. As they say in Brazil VALEU.

Editor’s note: This completes a series of 10 articles written by Sam Both, a Wallowa High School student who just completed a year in Brazil on a Rotary exchange program.