S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Rana Aldeghaither, age 21, visited Brazil for the first time last week. A member of a group that attended the Saudi-Brazilian Youth Forum, she travelled to S\u00e3o Paulo, Manaus and Rio de Janeiro. It was also her first trip without the company of her family, which stayed in Jeddah, her native city. Rana lived days that were very different from her routine. She went to a forest, a favela <\/i>(slum), visited the statue of Christ the Redeemer, got to know a country she only imagined in her dreams, and now even considers living in.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of my goals is to be the first ambassadress of Saudi Arabia,\u201d she reveals. \u201cI had never met an ambassador in my life. The first diplomats I ever met, I met them here. Thus, the first embassy I want to work at is the Saudi embassy in Brazil,\u201d says the journalism student, who is one semester short of graduating. In Rana\u2019s country there are no women in the post of ambassadress.<\/p>\n
She explains that she prepared herself a lot before departing from her country. She read about the environment, social inequality, about the president Dilma Rousseff. \u201cOnce I arrived here, I wanted to talk to the people and understand what they said,\u201d she says. What Rana did not expect was that in addition to the subjects of discussion proposed in her exchange program, she would find so many other topics in common with the youths she met in Brazilian land.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got here, I saw the similarities between Saudis and Brazilians. We are both gentle people who respect the lives of others. I have learned many words in Portuguese, which led me to consider actually coming over and taking a course in the language,\u201d she claims.<\/p>\n
Regarding the cities she travelled to, she compares S\u00e3o Paulo to New York, Rio de Janeiro to Hollywood, and Manaus… \u201cGetting to know the Amazon is like being in an adventure movie. Walking in the forest along with many people, hearing the sounds of the birds and smelling the trees, is amazing. Brazil has a very large history, it is a deep country like the Amazonas River,\u201d she muses. \u201cWhat I imagined about Brazil before coming was good, but does not compare to what I saw,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Her visit to Morro do Cantagalo, a slum in Rio de Janeiro, led her to gain better understanding of reality in her own land. \u201cIt was an experience that got me thinking about many things, such as the common features to slums here and in Saudi Arabia. When I saw the people in the slums, I thought: Rana, you must change your way of thinking. In order to speak to them, you must feel them, feel their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
And what is the most important thing she is taking back home from Brazil? Rana replies: friends. \u201cI don\u2019t think I will be coming to Brazil just once, just because it is a cool place. I believe that I will come here many times, because I have friends here. Once you have friends in a city, it becomes your home, and you can come and go as many times as you wish. I feel Brazilian now,\u201d she finishes off.<\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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