My Father's Archives #5

Can you spot the difference?

I couldn't until I was about 6 years old. Until then I knew very little about races, nationalities, First and Third World countries. My parents always made it very clear that their mission was to serve others. That's a paradigm that makes distinctions based on color, language or education obsolete. I spent my days strolling through our little town, playing with the children I met on the street.

After my sixth birthday I was sent to a boarding school for missionary kids about 1300 miles away from where my parents worked (back then there were no schools in their region). The school was a beautiful compound, complete with football and baseball fields and even a patch of untouched Amazon rainforest. Within those walls lived all white children and all white teachers from England, the US, Germany, and Switzerland, who only spoke English and German. The only Brazilians we had contact with were cooks, gardeners and housemaids, whose job was to serve us.

The wall's effect on my world view was profound. It not only told me that we were different from those on the other side of the wall, it also told me that the outside world was hostile and that we needed the wall to protect us from it. We were better than those on the other side.

Somehow this thought survived and festered in my subconscious during many years. After spending more than 15 years studying and working in Switzerland, I decided to return to Brazil. I believed that,  with my professional experience in international finances and my language skills, I would have no trouble finding a job quickly. I went to a couple of interviews, only to discover very quickly that a "gringo" wasn't welcome in their company. They didn't need the services of an immigrant.

It was the best thing that could have happened to me. This experience of being treated like someone from "outside", from the other side of the wall,  cured me of my arrogance and my racism that had been cultivated within those walls of my childhood.

Walls not only divide, they block your vision and blind the soul.