United Kingdom, London - A little about me

The Begining

The beginning of my travels happened on the 22nd July 1978 sometime between 5 and 6 PM, between my mother’s body that hosted me for 9 months and the exterior world that will host me in my earthly life. I had several names during my aquatic existence inside my mother’s womb: Filipa, Sancha, Sofia, Sara, but when I was born my mum thought that I should be called Joana, Joana Sara. The surnames are like stamps that reveal your genetic heritage (Portuguese will usually have mother’s and father’s family surnames resulting in rather large names). Santos from my mother and grandfather that I never met but from whom I suspect having inherited more than the name (the travel bug must have come from him too), Prestes from some overseas Governor from the time of the Portuguese Discoveries (in the sixteenth century – or so I like to think) whom generations later descended into what nowadays is my dad’s family. Oliveira also comes from my dad (and it means olive tree). Joana Sara Santos Prestes de Oliveira – my full name. And a name is a name whether you like it or not. It contains the hopes projected in you by those who named you and mostly because they enable, amongst other things, to know that someone is calling you!

Anyone who knows me must have noticed that I frequently ask why? ‘Why?’ may well be my best known and heard question. When I was 3 years old my mum bought me a book with answers to 500 ‘whys’, from why there are thunderstorms to why there are waves in the sea, however I seemed to be more interested in asking another ‘why’, than in the answer itself (for my mum’s despair). It seems to me that the discovery process is more interesting than the final conclusions, the answers that close the questions. I compare it to a leave when it falls from a tree and it doesn’t belong to the tree anymore, or when you give a present. The actions don’t end when you finish the tasks that originated them, things have continuity just like a leave that falls on the ground initiates a decomposition process and likewise when you answer a question new questions arise, or when you give a present to someone a friendship continues. Inside the precious complex system of nerves and cells that enables my brain to exist, and my brain is truly the only place that I can call home – just like Bob Marley once said, the ‘whys’ keep being formed: why’s about who I am, what I want from life, where I am going to. I am not looking for any final answers to these questions, but the search for those answers are part of the movements that form my life journey that I wish to share with you.

United Kigdom, London, 4th November 2007
Joana Oliveira