"SAUDADE"

BY TAMARA GUIMARÃES BUCALO (SWY20)

Feelings like déjà-vu, joy, excitement, shivers and, of course, "saudade", a Portuguese word difficult to translate to the English language, which means missing a situation or a person that will probably not come back. These are some of the emotions ex-PYs have when they go back on board Nippon Maru after their batches. And that was exactly what I felt when I attended the SWY21 Port of Call in Auckland, New Zealand, from February 11th to 14th, 2009. 

It was amazing to meet all the SWY21 participants and to see how much they look like my own batch. They had the same types of activities we had. The atmosphere of friendship and happiness that I felt when I entered the ship was the same as that which I felt in the last weeks of my program. I even met a JPY that was in the same cabin I was and I felt like she was my cabin mate too!

These things combined with having some of the ex-PYs from my batch from New Zealand, Oman and Japan there making me feel like a PY again, and a year after I got out of the ship for the first time full of memories and dreams, I get out of the ship once again with more fresh memories and new dreams! I feel really lucky to be able to say that I am part of the SWY family and to know that this family grows bigger as time goes by.

Tamara na frente do navio em Auckland NZ