So, how do I plan a thing like this? There are many things that need to be set before the trip, more than I can count actually. I have created a special place in my stomach that constantly works to restrain the nervousness I have stored there.
I’m trying not to be naïve so I started in Marsh (it can never be to early…) to get someone in Brazil to help me. I might be exaggerating a little bit but it felt like it took me a week to formulate the letter (hopefully, when all this is over, I’ll be feeling more secure writing letters in Portuguese…). You never know with the Portuguese language, if you should be very formal, never write “voce” but always “senhor” or “senhora”, or if it’s better to loosen up a bit – address the person with “voce” and use “senhor” only some times. I guess it depend on who you are writing to, but how can you know when you are writing to someone you don’t know in person?
I was thinking: in my position, standing in front of a task like this, really wanting it to work out and be as perfect as possible, you really need a experienced and helpful supervisor in field, one that rely knows your subject, that can give you advise and guidance… so I sent a dozen e-mails to a range of institutions working with education for sustainable development, to universities and directly to professors that I had found through articles on subjects close to mine etc. I got some few answers with people saying they could not help me but most of them did not answer at all.
When I was starting to give up I came across this government website, the secretariat of environmental development in Salvador and I took a chance and sent an e-mail to their info-address. A very polite woman answered and told me she was happy I had thought of turning to the secretariat for help and that she recommended I contacted the head of the secretariat who also was a professor and head of institute at one of the in-land public universities in Bahia.
This little game of patience and stubbornness gave me the best contact I could ever imagine! I came in contact with the most helpful man I have met in my professional and academic life. I have always known that Brazil is a very friendly country, and ever since I set my foot in Bahia for the first time, people have been happy to see me and happy to help me, show me around and be my friend, I just did not imagine that this would extend to the professional realm in this way.
As it now is, I have not only a very nice, experienced and helpful supervisor in field but also an Internship at the Directory of Environmental Education at the government of Bahia… Indeed, it seems too good true, but evidently its not…
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