Solidarity away from home Photo: Disclosure
	Solidarity away from home Photo: Disclosure
	Solidarity away from home Photo: Disclosure

When I started traveling on my own, first throughout Brazil and then abroad, one of the major comments I used to hear was, 'Are you crazy? What will happen if you get hurt or sick? There'll be no friends or relatives around and you can be in deep trouble.' Fortunately I never believed that and could feel on my skin as well as hear from other people stories that show how solidarity is still very much present in the world no matter how bad TV and newspaper news is. If this is what prevents you from experiencing some adventures here or elsewhere, read what I want to share with you.

In 1998 I was in Thailand and decided to go for this 30-day Buddhist meditation retreat in the jungle up north. It is not the point to go into details about this experience but in the middle of the retreat I started to suffer from arrhythmia (irregular heart beat). My first reaction was to get my backpack and return to Chiang Mai, the closest city where I had placed my 'general quarter' for the six months I spent in that country, but I didn't. I chose to be there to the end, feeling the symptoms that continued even after I was back to the city. One of my retreatmates, an Englishman named Michael, also stayed in the Supreme Guest House where I was. My heart kept being strange and I started getting really scared. I told Michael that I was going to go to an acupuncturist to see if he could help me out. He went there with me. The Chinese doctor put some needles throughout my body and sent me back to the guest house with a bottle of pills that I was supposed to take and theoretically get better. However, for the following two days I was panicking in bed with my heart speeding. E there was Michael seated beside my bed, reading or talking to me. He brought me food and water and on the third day he also went with me to a hospital, where I had a consultation with a cardiologist. Two days later I left Thailand with my heart still giving me trouble but eternally grateful for that 'unknown' who took care of me so well. (An interesting detail: I introduced Michael to an Israeli girl I had met in the guest house before leaving for the retreat thinking that they could get along well. Few months after our farewell I received an email from him saying that they were getting married on Cyprus island.)

This Michael also told me that in Mauritania he decided to go on a two-week camel journey on the desert. He got sick, though, just before it was over and back to town he stayed in a guest house. There, with high fever, delirious, and vomiting a lot a girl took care of him until he recovered, saying goodbye afterwards.

In Koh Chang, a Thai island on the east coast, I met an Israeli young man and we rent two scooters to go further, to see more of the island. We got the road and a few minutes later, as he was on a curve, he fell off it and hurt his leg and toes. Our tour was over right there and I took care of him. There was no drug store on the island and I helped him with the wounds. Then we spent the rest of the day together because he was comprehensively insecure to get back on the scooter.

In Laos I traveled along with a French girl named Marie who got sick in Luang Prabang. After spending a few days there, we were supposed to leave town in the morning for Van Vieng but she was feverish when she woke up. I wanted to stay with her but she didn't let me do so, saying that I should go on as we had planned and she would meet me somewhere down the road if she could. Two days later we actually got together again and then she told that the lady who owned the guest house where we were staying – and with whom we were unable to communicate with words since we didn't speak Laotian nor she spoke French or English – took care of her, brought her medicine and food in bed and checked on her every hour without any extra charge.

There are many other stories like one about a Brazilian guy who was beaten by skin heads in a train in Germany or my later meditation instructor who was suffering from hepatitis in India and was helped by two people, being one of them a Brazilian guy. I do not intend to speculate why people do such things because it can for a bunch of reasons. The message I want to leave here before finishing this article is that if you fear that you will not to be able to cling to people when you are in need away from home, forget it and go! First of all, it is certainly important that you consider that things can go wrong but do not focus on the negative that might happen; secondly, simply trust. There are good and supporting people all over the world and I do wish that you are one of them.