Green Hills and Clay Roofs

Yesterday, Tiago and Rodrigo, another Edumed colleague and friend, had both mentioned the possibility of me accompanying Tiago on a business trip to Sorocaba, another city about an hours' drive away. I was undecided whether I would tag along, and this morning Tiago brought it up again, saying that he had cleared it with Professor Sabbatini (the director) and that we would leave after lunch.

So after chowing down on some Burger King (not very different from it's US version), Tiago and I hit the road in Dra. Silvia's Volkswagon Gol. Soon, I was glad that I had left the office, as the monotonous reviewing of telemedicine literature was replaced by a glimpse of the Brazilian countryside. From my vantage point inside the car, speeding down the highway at 120 km/hr, I was able to snap a few photos of the sprawling green hills that made up the space between each city along our route. Every so often, this grassy and forested expanse would be suddenly split by an explosion of civilization, like a handful of weeds shooting out of cracks in the sidewalk. These small cities inbetween Campinas and Sorocaba were mainly comprised of dense concentrations of low buildings, all with red, clay-colored roofs.



This landscape that continued to pass through my window frame seemed so different than what I had become used to, both home in New Jersey or down at Duke. I tried explaining this to Tiago, how the cities in the states seem so metropolitan and plain in comparison - almost lifeless. How the highways are rarely surrounded by broad countryside between cities. Back in the states, the spot of green that specks the area off of the NJ Turnpike seems out of place. Here in Brazil, the cities themselves seemed like the intruders.