Brazilians Share How They Are Navigating the Pandemic in Hawaii

With tourism devastated by Covid-19, the paradise archipelago of Hawaii is facing a true nightmare, and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed like never before. However, many people are confronting this crisis with creativity and managing to turn things around. Among them are two Brazilian women who moved to the island of Oahu a few years ago; they have reinvented themselves and adapted to the new normal, invested in social media, and are managing to keep their businesses afloat.Yoga in the Park and OnlineThe São Paulo yoga teacher, Alessandra Lopes, moved to Hawaii in 2009 with her husband and her two-year-old daughter at the time. Together with her Japanese friend, Tomoko, they are teachers of a yoga group in the park called 2F Beach Park Yoga.Alessandra started working with yoga in 2015, in a yoga program for children at a school in Honolulu where her daughter studied. “At one of the schools I taught at, the coordinator asked me if I could hold a class for the teachers and staff of the school. It was from there that I felt the need to have an open class that anyone could participate in, without having to be part of a studio or a specific school or company,” she says. Normally, her audience consists of locals mixed with tourists from Japan, Canada, Europe, the USA, and local Brazilians. With the pandemic, all tourists disappeared, and the park where she teaches closed twice.“Right at the beginning of the pandemic, in March, I was teaching classes in the park when park rangers interrupted my class, saying that the Mayor of Oahu had issued an order that starting that day, all parks were closed until further notice. At that moment, they were warning everyone to leave before the police arrived. It was very sad to have to leave in the middle of the class, especially not knowing what would happen next or when we could return to our normal lives.”During the first lockdown, Alessandra went two and a half months without teaching, and during the second lockdown, it was another 45 days off in August. Even when she could teach, her students were scared, and only a few locals were practicing.All the schools she taught at closed, and she had to stop the courses for children halfway through the semester. “I started giving online classes for children, but the dynamic of the classes became completely different.”One of the solutions she used to move forward was to reinvent herself and start using online platforms to promote and teach yoga. “I was never a tech-savvy person or someone who liked to use social media frequently, but I had to learn that technology is my friend and helps me connect with people to share all the knowledge of yoga and spread the spirit of Aloha to as many students and people as possible.”It turned out that the internet was her great ally, and she not only maintained her yoga classes in the park but also created new projects, such as her new Facebook yoga course “Yoga for Better Sleep,” where clients can sign up with their email and receive a free Yoga Nidra practice – yoga for better sleep. She also created her YouTube channel, Alessandra Yoga Hawaii, with meditations and further invested in her Instagram @alessandra_Yogahawaii_ and the park yoga Instagram @2fbeachparkyoga.She recalls that in life, everything changes, nothing stays the same, and it is necessary to live one day at a time while always maintaining faith, positivity, and hope that today can be a good day. “I have been through very difficult situations in 20 years in America, but wherever you are, there will always be some difficulties; nothing is perfect. What makes the difference is to persist in your dreams while adapting to reality.”VIVIANE FAVERJournalistvfaver@gmail.com