Precerpt from In with the East Wind: A Mary Poppins Kind of Life - Brazil: Curritiba

 

Curritiba

Curritiba was never on my original itinerary for workshops in Brazil, but when Areta and I met at a national meeting in Brasília, plans rearranged themselves almost instantly. She invited me to her institute in Curritiba—she was the director—and of course I said yes. I no longer remember the exact workshop topic; it must have been something connected to language teaching or what we then called “learning differences,” long before the vocabulary settled into today’s understanding of neurodiversity. What I do remember are the people, and I remember the town.

The City

My time in Curritiba was lovely. It was winter back home, but in Brazil it was a balmy summer. Ipês, jacarandás, and bougainvillea spilled color everywhere, and the air carried that soft, humid perfume that makes life feel unhurried. The whole city seemed wrapped in green—parks, tree-lined streets, gardens that looked tended by people who loved beauty as much as practicality.

And the people matched the landscape. Life in Curritiba felt relaxed because the people there understood what mattered: friendship, family, and fun. They worked hard, were open to new ideas, and had quite a few innovative ideas of their own to contribute. My workshops were full and lively, but what stayed with me were the relationships, not the agendas.

Reconnection in Illinois

Perhaps those memories stayed vivid because Areta reappeared in my life a couple of years later, this time in Illinois. She had received a grant for graduate study at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, where my daughter Echo was also a graduate student and where I sometimes taught or led summer workshops. So, the fun continued. We met up several times, and by then Areta had brought her husband, Paolo, and their son, Fabio. With Echo and me added to the mix, the barbecues became true family gatherings—easy, warm, full of laughter.

Fond memories, all of them.

From the forthcoming book:

In with the East Wind...A Mary Poppins Kind of Life

Volume 1: ABC Lands

by Dr. Betty Lou Leaver

For more posts about and from this book, click HERE.

For more posts by and about Betty Lou Leaver, click HERE.

MSI Press, a veteran-owned publishing house based in California, United States

best known for turning new writers into award-winning authors,
has gained mass recognition for releasing highly acclaimed books of varying genres
that are distributed internationally. Check us out on Wikitia.

To purchase copies of any MSI Press book at 25% discount,

use code FF25 at MSI Press webstore.

Want to read an MSI Press book and not have to pay for it?
(1) Ask your local library to purchase and shelve it.
(2) Ask us for a review copy; we love to have our books reviewed.

VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ALL OUR AUTHORS AND TITLES.

Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter: get inside information before others see it and access to additional book content

(recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, links to precerpts/excerpts, author advice, and more)

Check out recent issues.

 

 

Follow MSI Press on Twitter, Face Book, Pinterest, and Bluesky. 

 

 

MSI Press welcomes submissions that reflect legacy and lived experience. Learn more about our publishing process on our website. We help writers become award-winning published authors, one writer at a time. We are a family, not a factory. Check our listing in Writer's Market, the most trusted guide to publishing.

Turned away by other publishers because you are a first-time author and/or do not have a strong platform yet? If you have a strong manuscript, San Juan Books, our hybrid publishing division, may be able to help. Ask us. Check out more information at www.msipress.com.

 

Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our author au pair services will mentor you through the process. See what we can do for your at www.msipress.com.

Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book in exchange for reviewing a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com.

Want an author-signed copy of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.

Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.

Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.

Steven Greenebaum, author of award-winning books, An Afternoon's Discussion and One Family: Indivisible, talking to a reader at Barnes & Noble in Gilroy, California.

   

MSI Press is ranked among the top publishers in California.
Check out our rankings -- and more -- HERE.