I moved to Rio from Sri Lanka in 2015,   in a time when the Economist had published its famous title “Brazil takes off” depicting Jesus Christ shooting like a rocket out of the Corcovado.  Would Brazil, the everlasting “Land of the Future”, finally match Stefan’s Zweig famous prophecy? Well, at first, my wife and me took off: It all started with a benign phone call on a early  Monday evening: Whether we wanted to participate in the Carnival Parade of one of Rio’s most famous Samba schools, Unidos da Tijuca- tonight ?!? My wife decided in second: Yes we did! 

Off we went to the sauna of a tropical Rio summer night to secure our costumes. The frenzy of the second of the two carnival nights had already started outside of Rio’s Sambódromo. Six samba schools, each a few thousand dancers strong, were already lining up to compete to ultimately become Carnival champions of Rio. Finally we briefly learned our roles (farmers of Pernambuco) and the iconic Samba song of our school, got our costumes, some pieces too big and my shoes too small. Drinking caipirinhas and beers, as all pour fellow dancers did, helped to cope with pain and our excitement. A colossal fireworks announced when our turn had come to commence our parade. We turned left, 700 meter stretch of the samba runway losing in front of us. 90.000 spectators cheered, I felt like Messi, danced for 20 minutes like a madman…pure adrenaline… Graça à deus I totally forgot that judges werde seated in specific locations spread along the parade route analyzing the songs, checking our enthusiasm and audience engagement, watching every dance move and every sequin on our costumes. 

Two days later, on an on innocent Wednesday office afternoon, my Brazilian colleague came into my office, announcing: You are “campeão”. I first did not understand, but then I realized that my wife and me had become Samba champions with Unidos da Tijuca. It proved to an adequate kick-off for amazing for years in the world’s most beautiful city among the world’s coolest people – the Brazilians. We feasted on lazy Churrasco afternoons,  climbed through the jungle to unbelievable vistas from Rio’s granite mountains,  took a swim on Ipanema beach before work, downed lots of Frutas Rojas caipirinhas after work,  celebrated the world’s greatest Reveillon party from our rooftop, found friends and a  weekend home on the beautiful island of Ilha Grande,  spotted 6 jaguars on a single day from a boat in the swamps of the Pantanal, did a roadtrip along the beach between Jericoacoara and the unbelievable Dunes of Lençois Marahenses, and, finally, we let Cristo glow in black, red and gold when Germany became world champion against Brazil’s special buddy Argentina in the Maracaná. Life moved on, Brazil still stayed to be the “Land of the Future”. And me, to say it with one of my favorite Brazilian songs: “”Estou morrendo de saudade”