SCHOOL EXPERIENCE

My mother was my primary caretaker in my childhood as she was not employed outside of the home until my Sophomore year of high school.   However, we lived in Brazil and always had housekeepers who also doubled as babysitters when my mother needed one.

I attended Brazilian schools until 4th grade.  Then we were coming to the U.S. so my other pulled all 5 of us out of school and homeschooled us primarily in English reading and grammar. When we came here I did half of 5th grade in Illinois and half in Indiana.  During this time I realized that my Brazilian schools were more advanced.  In Brazil I had learned things in 2nd and 3rd grade they were teaching in 5th grade here.

When we returned to Brazil, my mother enrolled us in a private American school that was a Christian school and primarily missionary kids attended there.  There were also some Brazilians whose parents wanted them to attend an American school.  There were a lot of Canadians there.  I attended there from 6th through 8th grade and they were some of the best years of my life.  I was always  academically gifted and made friends with others who also were and we had fun
competing for the highest grades.  We had excellent teachers and just a great atmosphere in the school. I bawled my eyes out when my parents announced we were moving back to the U.S.

I have mentioned in previous blogs about the high school I attended in Baton Rouge,  Louisiana.  it really was horrible and I can't believe I survived it.   Nevertheless, I was able to graduate with honors and go on to college.  I think my life would have turned out so different for the better if I had stayed at the American school in Brazil.

Adding to my previous posts, I understand that not every child gets to have a quality education.

WHERE WOULD I LIVE?

Well, obviously I have lived in another country, Brazil, a country which I'm proud to be asociated with.  I truly love Brazil and the Brazilian people.

However, I have lived most of my life in the United States and I also truly love American and American people.   Because I was born in Brazil to an American mother, I (and 3 of my siblings) were automatically eligible for dual citizenship.   So, when I travel, I travel with American and Brazilian passports.   And, that is the way that I feel--that I am dually Brazilian and American (although my father was Chilean, so I guess I am more Chilean/American by blood). 

However, if I were to choose another place to live, I think it would be Italy or France.   I don't know for sure, I've never been to Europe and that is a huge goal for me.    I really want to take a year (or more) sabbatical, if possible, and travel the world, hopefully with my kids who also have a desire and curiosity to visit other nations and learn about the culture, etc. . .  One of my daughters is a "foodie" and loves to cook, as do I, so one big reason we want to visit other countries is to experience and taste all the wonderful, different foods.   And that is certainly a big reason for wanting to go to Italy and France.   But Spain also ranks pretty high on my list, and I also would like to visit Portugal because of the Portuguese influence in Brazil.   Australia, England, Canada and South Africa are other countries I would like to visit as well as Ireland and Scotland.  Oh, yeah, definitely Greece and Israel too!   And, although my dad is from Chile and I have relatives there, I have never been there, so that is definitely on my list as well as Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark.    So, shall I just name all the countries? 

But, to actually live, I'm not really sure.   I think we have it pretty good here in America, maybe more than we realize sometimes.

The neighborhood in which we reside, I suppose would be classified as pretty middle-class, but I know that in comparison to some countries it would be viewed as more upscale.

Neighborhood

I previously blogged about how we moved so many times, so its a little difficult for me to talk about my neighborhood because there were so many!   However, in general, in Brazil when I was growing up in the 60s, we lived in mainly lower middle class neighborhoods.   The families were very traditional and my brothers and I always made friends quickly and easily and when we weren't at school, played out on the streets with our friends constantly.   We always felt safe and when we were about 10 and older, my mother didn't have a problem having us go down the street a couple blocks to pick up something at the store occasionally.

During one year, I think I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, we rented an apartment in a small building near a warehouse district.    Our building was surrounded by warehouses where farmers would bring their produce, so it was a very busy area during the week and alot of homeless families would be around on the sidewalks and would fight over food being put in the dumpsters as they tried to find something that might still be edible to feed their families.   I stood at the window of that apartment and watched that scene many times.
There were alot of Japanese that lived in that neighborhood, maybe because a large percentage of Brazilian farmers are Japanese.   Brazil has a huge population of Japanese because it was a neutral country during WWII and so alot of Japanese settled there during that time.   Anyway, we made friends even there and we loved our Japanese friends and still have alot of good memories of the time we lived there.

I loved and still love Brazil, even though I have not lived there for 40 years now.   Brazilian people are wonderful!   They are happy and kind and definitely always ready to party especially when their favorite soccer team wins!


Adding to my list of understanding about children and childhood development, I understand that children don't "see" different colors or different races when playing with other children.