Elaine Moon Balsam

When everyone else packed their bags and spread their wings... I stayed in Sao Paulo for six more years... teaching English to children at Jardim Escola Barifaldi... and spending delicious summers at Camp in Sousas, Campinas as well as staying with my sister Judy and her family in Minas Gerais... and just enjoying all that life in Brasil had become for our family.
In 1972 I finally decided to take my "el Norte" option and said good bye to all of that and set off for new adventures. Quebec, Canada for a year, living near my eldest sister and her family who had a dairy farm... while I worked in a Nursing Home (opposite end of the spectrum form my previous work!) and then down to Virginia, USA to live with my next sister, and there I met Fritz... married him in 1975... lived in Miami for awhile and then we spent almost a year in what was then Zaire, Africa... and then back to the USA, to Maryland... to having a family... and the rest is history ! Now our three are all working and going to Maryland U. Chris is National Guard, Infantry and has been to Iraq twice. He is back at school, sharing a house with Josh who is just finishing Engineering and heading into his Master's studies. Julia is in her Junior year at Maryland U. in Education... wants to teach kids, possibly Special Ed. Fritz works for USAirways and keeps our small farm running... and rebuilds old sports cars for fun. I am back to what I love to do, working with four year-olds and having the time of my life. Just this past summer we went to Brasil... and as I stood outside a Padaria where we had breakfast, in Jardim Paulista, listening to my "hometown" rumbling, rolling, roaring all around... I once again gave thanks that I had been given the blessed privilege of growing up in Brasil.

Back at the "old school" (sixth grade...) I was racing through the upper hallway on my way to somewhere... when Mr. Randall (High School principal) appeared in the throng and stopped me. "Just what do you think this is? A race track???"
I instantly responded : "I wish it was !!!" He stared back at me, slack jawed, and I hurried off, my mind filled with visions of jockeys, steaming race horses and the smells and sights of the equine world that would have been my first choice... instead of sitting at a desk and pushing a pencil across paper endlessly.