11 toothbrushes…
July 2022. These are my last days in Brasília, the last days of fourteen unforgettable years.
Days filled with an anticipatory nostalgia. As if I were already in the future, experiencing the present as though it were already the past.
You say goodbye to people without knowing whether it will be the last time. You leave behind a dog. You leave behind objects that you will no longer use, or perhaps only rarely. But you know they will be useful to others.
I leave “my” Brasília — the one where the monthly per capita income is 1,760 euros — and head to Itapoã, on the outskirts of the capital, where the average income is around 150 euros.
I arrive at Viví’s home carrying a refurbished computer and my brother’s camera, which had been used during photography workshops with the children of Solar do Sentir.
Viví’s younger children take part in the activities of the community centre, which offers recreational, educational and cultural programmes. She and Antonio are the devoted caretakers of the Solar. Every day, Viví opens the centre and makes sure the rooms are clean and welcoming for the children. Antonio was my friendly and efficient companion in distributing basic necessities to families during the pandemic lockdown.
Viví’s modest home, made up of two or three rooms, welcomes me with a warm family atmosphere. We turn on the computer: it works. We take a walk with Eloisa, Lucas and Marcos to test the camera.
I share a few notions of photography while already feeling the bittersweet taste of nostalgia. The camera captures the present and turns it into the past: a necessary cruelty.
We return home and I too capture a few memories with my camera.
Pause. I go to the bathroom. On a shelf sits a cup holding eleven toothbrushes. I smile. One is missing.
Viví, her husband Miguel, and their ten children. Júnior, Daniela, Vitor, Vitória, Luana, Lorrayne, Samuel, Marcos, Heloisa, Lucas.
A family that Viví, with her wisdom and “bicos” (odd jobs, as she calls them), and her husband, through his work, manage to keep united and loving despite adversity.
