Getting Sick in Brazil

Getting sick in a foreign country can put one at a formidable disadvantage. Brazil compensates for this handicap, not by its plethora of pharmacies, but by the willingness of its people to aid strangers who become ill. Their nurturing nature, the byproduct of a sui generis generosity, is a discovery many gringos made long before I did.

American poet Elizabeth Bishop arrived in the southeastern port of Santos alone in 1951 where she fell violently ill because of an allergic reaction to cashew fruit. Lota de Macedo Soares, a Rio de Janeiro aristocrat Bishop barely knew –...