Lucas - People of Brazil

    This is probably not the image that comes to mind when you think of the people of Brazil, but he is fully Brazilian!  It is surprising how many fair-skinned people live here.  Because Brazil was not heavily involved in World War II, many people fled here for refuge, including Germans, Italians, Jews, and Japanese.
     Most lighter-skinned people in our area are of German descent.  In fact, a couple weeks ago I was waiting in line to do some paperwork and the lady in front of me noticed our children and began speaking to them.  In the course of explaining to her that I don't speak Portuguese, I discovered that she speaks German and so (because of my Pennsylvania-Dutch background) I was able to carry on a conversation with her in German!  It was quite amazing since almost no one speaks English and I never think to ask if they might speak German!

     This boy, Lucas, is as Brazilian as can be and as far as I could discover, so are his parents.  However, he was of German descent and his shirt proudly displayed a German flag next to a Brazilian flag.  He loves to run up to me with an excited, "Hi" (his one English word) and then he runs off again!