I found Amâncio and his cocadas.
The first time I saw him I didn’t have the guts to offer the scholarship. It would be my first time doing something like this, and I’m not very spontaneous. I walked with Raquel to the bus stop feeling bad about it, because I really wanted to talk to him and maybe I wouldn’t get another chance.
So I went back.
On the way back I remembered what I had just seen a few minutes before, Amâncio running from the rain to get himself, and his cocadas, under the tent of the UFSC event. I was a few meters away when I called him:
“Sr. Amâncio”
What a way to call someone, “Sr. Amâncio” (Mr. Amâncio). I got a bit embarrassed. He looked at me, and I asked:
“Are you Amâncio?”
I already knew he was, so I got even more embarrassed. But fine, after that clumsy start, and after asking if he had a minute and getting a weird look back, I went straight to the point.
“Amâncio, would you be interested in a scholarship at SENAC?”
He looked at me even more awkwardly, though not more awkwardly than I was looking at him. He seemed a bit suspicious and said he couldn’t afford any costs, so I told him it was a 100% scholarship, offered by my company.
My company was me. I thought “my company is offering” sounded a lot more serious than “I’m paying”, and that he would say no to a stranger’s money.
Then the conversation got easier. He said he wanted a course in his own field, sweets, and asked if he could give the scholarship to his wife instead. Someday he wants to leave his cocada business to a son.
“I want to leave this work of mine to my son”
We smiled.
He told me a door had closed on him recently, but he knew 10 others would open, and this was the first one, he said, waving the piece of paper with my phone number on it.
I wrote in my notes that night that it was the start of a change, even if only in a micro environment. I can do it, and Amâncio can do it.
Weeks later I ran into Amâncio around the university, and he told me he was interested in a Spanish course, since he sells to tourists and has contacts to export to Chile. We said goodbye and I got my hopes up again.
Months later, he still hasn’t called…