We are not meant to live in isolation. What makes us healthy and whole are the connections we form with one another.  With our families. Our friends. Our colleagues and our community…  The thing we need the most to feel healthy has become harder to get.

After more than 30 years in the field of social work, I know one thing to be true. We do not need to be victims to our situation. We have choices to make, each and every day about how we want to live our lives. How we choose to show up for ourselves and each other.

One of the hardest things about this time for me has been the loss of travel, the opportunity to explore. If you know me, you know I love to travel. Give me a passport and a seat on a plane or in a car and I’m on my way, ready for what comes next. I thought it might be fun to travel, however virtually, around the US and yes, even abroad, to visit with people and hear how they’re doing during this difficult time. Over the next few weeks I’d like to bring you a glimpse of what life is like for our friends and neighbors in other places.

Today we meet Raphael who lives in Indaiatuba, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.

Welcome Raphael. What is life like where you are?

Indaiatuba is a beautiful city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Unfortunately my city has 9 deaths so far and a lot of cases confirmed, but the situation is much better than other regions where cases are growing every day (Brazil now has more than 11.000 deaths). Most of the people are being responsible and doing things to avoid spreading the virus, like using masks in public spaces. Bars, restaurants and other public spaces are closed, operating only on a drive thru system, when possible. The problem in Brazil is that in addition to the coronavirus, we are also going through a huge political crisis (with all this mess, can you believe it?). Our president is totally insane. He wants to relax the quarantine in order to not cause more impacts on the economical situation of the country. 

How have you been affected by the pandemic personally? Has it affected your work? I've been working as a flight attendant for a Brazilian airline since 2015, so my industry has been very affected by the pandemic. The company that I work for had an average of 800 flights daily before the crises starts, and now has just 50. As the coronavirus started to spread around the country, I began to feel unsafe flying, worried that I might get sick, so I decided to take an unpaid leave and stay at home. My last flight was on March 25. It was very sad to see all the airport terminals completely empty and almost the entire fleet of aircraft grounded. As I decided to leave my job for a while, I moved from Rio de Janeiro (where I'm based) to stay with my mom in the countryside of São Paulo, where things still are safe.

Do you have friends who have been infected by the virus? Fortunately all my friends and family are safe so far and I know just one flight attendant that was contaminated by the virus but she is healthy now.

What has been the hardest thing for you to deal with? I think that for me the fear of someone that I love getting sick. In my family there are a lot of people with advanced age, so they are a vulnerable group. I also have to deal with the fact that I can lose my job that I really enjoy, as a lot of flight attendants could be laid off in the following months.

What have you appreciated during this period? The good thing about all this mess is that I'm really enjoying my time at home. Over the past 5 years, because I'm traveling most of the time, I haven’t been able to spend this much time at home with my mom. It is funny to say that, but it has been a huge privilege for a flight attendant to be able to sleep 8 hours every night. I'm also taking the opportunity to be truly connected with myself, reflecting on my life and thinking about the possibilities for the future.

How do you keep yourself emotionally healthy during this time? Most of the time I try to avoid news that is sensationalized and that only shows tragedy. Four mornings a week I go out to jog around a park nearby. I spend time at the lake listening to the birds and enjoying the nature (I think that this is my favorite time in the day). I also take time to think about all the things that I have achieved so far in my life. Remembering all my travels and good moments with my friends and family really helps me to feel good and also have the feeling that everything will be good again soon and I will be able to keep following my dreams. 

What have you been doing for fun? I really enjoy movies, so I'm spending most of my time watching as many as possible. Since I started my quarantine I’ve watched more than 50 movies. This has been really interesting because I have re-watched movies that I saw for the first time when I was child. It is amazing how our opinions about something can change over the years!

It’s also a good opportunity to discover new things about ourselves. I like to write about the movies that I watch. This is a project that I'm trying to work on. Maybe someday I’ll transform my personal notes on a blog about movies :)

Thanks for inspiring us and for sharing your experience, Raphael.

Let’s broaden the conversation, shall we? Would you like to be featured in our guest interview posts? We want to hear from you! Email me at suzanne@suzannemaggio.com.