I am flying

The flight from Brussels via Madrid and Sao Paulo to Manaus is the longest and most exhausting of all my flights. Still, it turns out to be much more relaxed and interesting than I expected it to be. We leave Brussels in bright sunshine, it´s a pleasure to see the Royal Greenhouses, the Atomium and the Cathedral of Koekelberg from close from the air. A few minutes later, I see the typical Western European landscape consisting of green squares; cities scattered in between. When approaching Madrid, the view has considerably changed. Yellow, brown and grey are the dominating colours of the mountains, the desert and the fields. Only a handful of green spots, orderly planted trees in rows can be seen.

Flying over the Amazon forest coming from the South-East, you can see what the “deforestation frontier” is all about. Huge colourful squares eat up the green rainforest. The further you go to the North, the fewer those squares become. Here, large and long rivers wind up their path through the endless green to meet the biggest and mightiest of all rivers on Earth: the Amazon.

Next to me in the aircraft sits Silvia, a young Brazilian women on her way back from a congress of Jehovah´s witnesses in Paris. This young trader in jewellery astonishes me with her sound knowledge of the causes of destruction of the rainforest, world trade and politics. Her profound foreign language skills only glimpse up when she traces back the etymology of words to their Chinese origin to help me with my poor Brazilian Portuguese. In Brazil, just as in Cameroon, religion plays an important role in life. It´s easier to found your own church than your own business – three followers are enough. It seems to me that in societies with little order and security, religion provides people with structures, values and guidance in life. In Nairobi, the church was one of the few trustworthy, calm and secure places in the middle of disorder, dirt and dust.