My Hilarious Baby Girl Has Been Adapting to Her New Environment in the Cutest and Messiest Ways

"There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child, and an instinct to make any child who needs her love her own." — Robert Brault

During the last week spent in the forest where I was supposedly volunteering in an ‘ecological’ platform, I was feeling concerned about my beloved furry kid's integration into the new environment.

She lived as a wild tigress in mother nature. Watching her running in all directions, chasing butterflies or colored birds, playing with another cat going by the name of Cornelia, teasing the dog Simba, lying under the sunshine or the stars before deciding to join me in the tent — and the list goes on — was soul-soothing!

My baby hates all kinds of transportation means. Interestingly, there is an App in Brazil named BlaBlaCar. It’s a service close to Uber but intended for trips between cities.

The guy driving us from Sao Paulo to Ubatuba — the closest city to the forest — was not what I would call a good person. He charged extra fees for my Mimi which is not part of the contract. Given that I didn't have many options, I accepted reluctantly.

And that wasn’t everything… He forced me to keep her locked in her container for four long hours. My heart was bleeding for my baby who was terrified and insistently asking for being released.

Sadly enough, I couldn't predict his behavior. I was a stranger in a country where I didn’t speak the language. According to some locals, around 5% of the population fluently speaks English. My driver didn’t know a single word.

"Fear, we know is a magnet that attracts what we fear. It was Barry Kaufman who said all fear is fear of death. However, to the awakened ones, most fears disappear because of non-attachment. They are aware that death is an inevitable part of life and know that the soul journeys on. Death is NOT the end." — L anu Pitan

Even if this mesmerizing wisdom would have applied to me in such a situation, I couldn’t risk my kid’s life. When I adopted her from the street 7 months ago, I committed to protecting her till my last breath!

With a little hindsight, I am realizing the Universe has been sending numerous signs to warn me about how awful my first volunteering program would turn to be.

The driver was merely the first red flag. I didn’t tell you that he took me to his new place neighborhood since his carrier arrived with his furniture. He pretended it was the destination on which we agreed while I wasn’t seeing any bus station nearby.

Fortunately, I had some left battery and called the person with whom I interacted to discuss all the program details. He explained to me that he asked for my permission to stop for a while in Portuguese, which I surely didn’t understand!

Moreover, he said that he offered to take me to the platform — at a 30-min distance — should I be interested — at the same price as the 4-hour-trip! It felt so wrong, but I was tired and carrying a lot of luggage.

Most importantly, I wanted to stop my baby’s suffering as soon as possible; thus, I accepted his exploitative offer…

Appealingly, my BlaBlaCar experience from Ubatuba to Pao Paulo was anything alike. My heart was dancing out of witnessing how comfortable my baby was.

The driver didn’t say a word about setting her free. He was rather smiling. To my surprise, there was another English-fluent-speaker passenger who was sitting next to me.

She loves animals and offered to pet her when I needed to go to the bathroom when we stopped for a while. When the third passenger in the seat next to the driver reached her destination, the English-speaking girl took her place.

Mimi was calmly lying on the car trunk area and observing the road. When her new friend moved, she decided she also wanted to visit the upfront part of the car. Seeing how the driver was petting her affectionately was heartwarming!

After spending the night in my friend’s place in Sao Paulo, we took the airplane to Porto Alegre. Then, we had to go to Venâncio Aires where I’d be teaching English, and we used BlaBlaCar for the third time.

Our new driver was a policeman. Interestingly, I was agreeably surprised by his sweet being. There were two other passengers, and guess what? The girl was also an English speaker: an awakened spirit and such a beautiful soul!

I felt spoiled by my ‘pure love divinity’ for all the muses sent to make my experiences far easier and more enriching!

Mimi had such a good time and I had a blast for her well-being! The icing on the cake? The kindness of the 3 folks was beyond all my expectations: we reached our destination earlier than what was planned and my host wasn’t ready to pick me up. They waited with me for 15 minutes!

Here, we have a private room, which is convenient since we will be spending 7 weeks. My host alerted me from the car about their neighbor who could be labeled as a monster.

He is a retired policeman, hates animals, and is armed. She reported that they never saw any cat or dog who wistfully visited his place again… This was enough to ring danger bells. I knew it meant that I needed to be constantly alert!

Here are some pictures that were taken the second day from our new home:

Stay tuned for the mess!