Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski’s wrote in his inspirational book Travels with Herodotus:

During all those days after my arrival in Delhi I was tormented by the thought that I was not working as a reporter, that I was not gathering material for the stories that I would later have to write. I hadn’t come as a tourist, after all. I was an envoy, engaged to render an account, to transmit, to relate. But I found myself empty-handed, and feeling incapable of doing anything, at a loss even to know where to begin.

Kapuscinski was sent to India in the 1950s, leaving Socialist Poland for the first time, knowing little English and even less about India. I am in a slightly better position that him in regards to Brazil and Brazilian design, but I too feel overwhelmed by my mission. The more I talk to people the more they say mine is a necessary, but Herculean task. Like Kapuscinski, I want to think my stance on the topic will not be as a reporter, but as an envoy, “transmitting and relating” with a critical viewpoint.