My husband and I have been living in Brazil for 40 years. We were born in Mozambique, and lived there until 1976. It’s a long story, and may be much the same for thousands of people who have left Africa.
Before leaving for Brazil I lived with my two children in Pretoria, South Africa, because the conditions in Mozambique had deteriorated, and with teenagers we had to be cautious. So we moved to Pretoria, where we lived in a residential hotel, the children went to private schools, and I worked. My husband had to stay in Mozambique.
Meanwhile, the political situation in South Africa changed, so we moved to Brazil when my husband was offered a job there.
It was very hard for me to live here in Brazil, where there are different cultures, although the same language – Portuguese. I was lost, and it was very difficult.
My son finished university and received a scholarship to university in Newcastle, where he earned his PhD. He never left England.
He got married, and he and his wife have two children. We go there every year to visit them.
I found that I missed the English language a great deal, so my son gave me a subscription to the Guardian Weekly a long time ago.
So why do I have such a passion for the paper? It’s a kind of connection with the past, and I get real news.
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