One adventure, one new life-Portugal

A new house in Italy: the birth of Andrei.

My husband’s brothers were working in Campania a region in southern Italy and so we too decided to come to this region.

I found a job as caretaker in Salerno, with a very nice lady and my husband got a job as bricklayer, together with his brothers.

The mild climate, the sea with a thousand shades of blue, people so kind, everything seemed fine and I felt welcomed, and so we decided to put our new roots here in Italy, in Lancusi, a little town not far from Salerno. We were ready to begin our new life in this country.

After a little time, I realized I was expecting a baby. On January 27, 2009, Andrei was born. My husband and I, think he is our link between Romania and Italy.

Romania will always be the place of the heart, and every year, with joy, we return there, but Italy, by now, is the future, for us, and for Andrei, too.

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ONE ADVENTURE, ONE NEW LIFE

Portugal Sandra Pereira

I lived in a house situated in Cajuru, a small town in the state of São Paulo, in Brazil. Cajuru is a name given by the ancient Indians which meant “entrance to the bush”. It is a small city which is about 750 km from Brasilia, the capital of the country, and about 600 km from Rio de Janeiro, “The marvellous city”.

Cajuru is known for having dozens of waterfalls in its surroundings. One of the best memories I have is discovering these waterfalls with my family.

We spent hours in the water, diving and playing. They are a bit of paradise on earth!

My classes were always in the morning. In the afternoon I did my homework and played football in the street. Football is a passion in Brazil! As I lived close to my uncles, I played a lot with my cousins. But I also spent a lot of time on my cell phone

I spent the beginning of the pandemic still in Brazil. We had classes through television, an initiative by the São Paulo Department of Education for students to have access to school subjects, since the schools had closed down. I had to spend more hours studying to compensate for the lack of direct support from teachers.

The idea of coming to Portugal came from a discussion between my parents. Life in Brazil was more dangerous, with less security and more crimes. The price of goods kept rising. Covid increased unemployment and crime.

When my parents got along, they decided that we would move to Portugal, where we had an aunt who had emigrated six years ago. She helped us prepare for the move: documents to enter the country, a job for my father, a place to live.

We drove more than 7 hours to Brasília, to catch the plane at the international airport.

When I arrived in Portugal, I was afraid of how my new life would be, my new school... As the same language-Portuguese-is spoken in Brazil and Portugal, I wasn’t expecting any difficulties. However, there are many different words, other words that we use with different meanings and the European Portuguese accent is different from Brazilian Portuguese, which sometimes makes it difficult for me to understand and communicate.