Seeking out diversity moving from Brazil

Otago Daily Times

a day ago

Beneath the surface of Michelle Silva and Evandro Santos's success story is a tale of hard work and overcoming familial separation.
The married couple are originally from the town of Minas Gerais in Brazil where they were married and had two children.
Mr Santos and Ms Silva came to New Zealand at the beginning of 2020 under a work visa, leaving their children with family members in Brazil to see what life was like in this country.
Ms Silva, who was trained as a materials engineer, had a galvanizing job in Christchurch and not long after the move Mr Santos, a civil engineer, got a job as a tiler in Wānaka.
The couple were then not only separated from their children but from each other too.
'This is the immigrant life," Ms Silva said.
'Sometimes we don't have a choice, we don't have other options."
It was diversity that drew them to uproot their comfortable life in Brazil.
Ms Silva wanted her children to experience a spectrum of cultures and learn different languages.
'I decided I want to go to a country where my kids, they can learn English and they can learn about another country,'' Ms Silva said.
She was confident about the idea, but Mr Santos needed some convincing.
He said their life in Minas Gerais, unlike other parts of Brazil, was very safe.
'For me, I feel homesick a lot because our life here it's harder.
"You need to work more than we worked in Brazil," Mr Santos said, explaining that New Zealand's higher cost of living had meant more financial stress at times.
Once Ms Silva found a job in Wānaka the two were reunited, but their son and daughter remained oceans away.
Due to the Covid-19 lockdowns, it took the couple two years to bring their their family back together.
Their daughter, Ana Ribeiro, is now 9 years old and their son, Lucas Souza, is 16, both of whom have been able to immerse themselves in learning a second language and meeting people from all over the world.
'To be honest, they love to live here," Ms Silva said.
'Ana has friends from Canada, from London and she has friends from Qatar. And she learned gymnastics here and how to swim."
Seeing their children benefit from the move was the first success, next was building a business from nothing.
Mr Santos worked for a company in Wānaka to start with but quickly felt he wanted to do more.
'Evandro never wanted to work for someone.
'He always wanted to work for himself," Ms Silva said.
Three years ago, Mr Santos became self-employed and after one year the couple set up their business, VIP Tiling.
Mr Santos tiled and Ms Silva managed the business and the pair were to growing their enterprise, slowly expanding their team.
In addition to building a business they also built a life in Wānaka with a supportive Brazilian community by their side.
"What I love about New Zealand, it is like communities are open," Ms Silva said.
'We go to the New Life Church and we have a big community there.
"But at the same time, we support the Calvary International Church as well, because it's a Brazilian church."
Although the couple experienced periods of homesickness from time to time, they said they could not imagine living anywhere else and felt fulfilled with the life they had worked hard to set up in Wānaka.