A heavy suitcase on a Sunday full of tends

by Adânia Souza (Brazil)

Making a local connection Brazil

I found myself carrying a suitcase up on the hills of Belo Horizonte (or BH for short), in Brazil, on a hot summer day. It was a Sunday and those days have some relevance over there. At downtown, right by the City Park, they close a huge avenue to make what we brazilians call a "feira", that is basically a gathering of people to buy and sell all kinds of products. It all starts after the bridge and you can see a sea of colorful tends protected by trees that almost leave the park to enjoy the party on the street on every Sunday. First things first and the beige tends welcome the furniture valley, that rides along with flowers and sweet smells helping to bring joyful to the morning. Right after, the environment turns into red and everything gets hotter. There is art all over the place, it is like a gallery where no walls are needed, but there is no caos. The local accent is the perfect ballance to the colorful background. Those warmimg people gently open their mouth on every vowel, an exclusivity of this part of the country producing an amazing sound. And then there comes the grey area with towels and bed linen, you'll feel embraced by those. The next move comes in yellow with white stripes and I have to agree with the tends because what we have at the clothing section it really is a mix. There is the spot where you can buy a shirt saying "I came to Belo Horizonte and remembered someone that I love", this way you give a gift, say that you traveled and say "I love you" at the same time. It's the perfect combo. Blue with white stripes are for kids's clothing but this is just a little taste of the big show because with the solid blue comes the toys. You can dress Barbie and her husband and their kids with bikinis or a suit and also redesign their house, every single room of it. In the middle, you can buy a truck made of wood or a fluffy mascot of the local teams, that happen to be a fox and a rooster. The locals make a huge effort to remind us all the time about that, even shouting it from nowhere. Keep walking and you will see belts, accessories and purses covered with green tends while the shoes come with brown. Just like a race, the finish line has white and green on the top. Green is a thumbs up in the shape of a color and white is peace for your feet. Finally. Also, the end smells incredibly. It's a mini brazilian tour with foods, there is local cheese, local bread with cheese, sugarcane juice, meat on a stick, foods from Bahia with shrimp, pastel and the unforgettable mix of bacon, saussage, beans, cabbage and flour. But if you stay in this area for more than ten minutes, the only thing you'll smell is oil and I don't think that is any problem. They also have cold beer and it does not matter if it is 8 o'clock in a Sunday morning. The whole route is filled with streets named after brazilian states, and those are crossed by indian tribes. You can be at Rio de Janeiro and Goitacazes at the same time and BH is the only place in the world that can give you that. I used to do this almost every Sunday with my mom on 2008 and 2009 while we lived in that lovely city. At the end of the day, I noticed my suitcase was a little heavier and I think it was all the memories that I collected along the feira, or it was just the stuff I purchased. Turns out, even after ten years, those type of Sundays are still relevant to me.