Counting My Blessings Despite the Pain Is What I Decide To Choose Any Day
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional! — Haruki Murakami
Saying that my 30 plus-hour-trip from Tunisia to Brazil was exhausting would be an underestimation. My first flight from Tunis to Frankfurt was at 2 am. My beloved furry kid was terrified and too agitated.
We reached our destination at 5 am and the second flight was planned for 9 pm. Yes, 16 hours! Your eyes are not tricking you!
My baby was even more anxious during the second 12-hour flight from Frankfurt to Sao Paulo. As you may have guessed, they were two sleepless nights.
Given that 16 hours was a long period, I thought of checking whether there was an option to access the Business Lounge, which turned to be the case: economy travelers like me can buy a voucher.
The problem was that I didn’t have an international card. I spent an hour and a half at least going from an area to another one back and forth. The airport is so big that I needed to walk and take a bus every time.
The icing on the cake? I was carrying my back bag and my furry kid. There was an internal communication problem between the two compartments’ teams.
Eventually, I gave up on the idea and chose one of the most comfortable charge-free spaces. Luckily, I was sitting next to a couple and their baby girl. The guy turned out to be the consul general of Ireland in Brazil. His wife is Brazilian and they were visiting his family.
I was observing the connection between the dad and his 1-year daughter with tons of enchantment and admiration. We talked enthusiastically for a while.
When they were ready to leave, he expressed his gratitude for the interesting and heartwarming chat and gave me his card. I couldn’t help but send him this message:
Hi Eoin,
I thought I could send you an email straight away so that to get my email address and to express again how thrilled I am for having had the privilege to observe the parent you are! I am grateful to the Universe for what I witnessed and felt!
Appealingly, parenting is the most important topic to me given that the quality of our program is written by our caregivers. That’s why I thanked you for your healthy and heartwarming parenting style. I was crying earlier out of pure fulfillment!
Mimi and I reached our first destination in the middle of the forest almost in the evening. We were tired and starving. We ate quickly and headed to our tent to get some very needed rest!
Three days went by. I started feeling that my legs were itching badly. I thought it was the mosquito bites’ effect and that I was sensitive to the new insects.
I waited a few more days before checking my tent. What I discovered was shocking and disgusting. The bed was so wet that germs were having a fiesta. What I mean by the bed is a mattress.
It was a Saturday. My main two hosts — a couple — were shopping for the week in the City. The community member who was a witness to the horrible state of the bed called to inform them about the situation.
The guy suggested that I use some other too-thin paddings as a workaround. I checked them and was reluctant to the idea for two reasons:
- They didn’t seem clean at all and I was still traumatized.
- They were anything but comfortable.
Since I was lacking so much rest because of the terrible itching, the kind guy from the tribe suggested that I sleep in his tent, which I did after thanking him warmly for his altruism.
Meanwhile, I sent a message to the host asking him whether I could use his girlfriend’s bed since she was sleeping with him at his mother’s place situated 50 meters from the platform.
My request remained unanswered and, magically, the next day, she spent it in her tent. What a coincidence!
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