Change brothers, now!

I got to the door, thanked the driver and left, giving him 4 stars. I always think there could be better.

“MANOS PRÁ TROCA” (HANDS FOR EXCHANGE) can be read on the large glass door at the entrance to the building. Admission is simple, not complicated at all.

Right at the entrance, you drop off your four siblings, who are immediately redistributed across the various floors. No justifications, questionnaires or judgements. You arrive, sign up, deposit your siblings, visit the building, choose the same number of siblings, pay and leave with them. Simple.

In a single visit, everything has to be decided.

The only rule is to choose by character and characteristics, without ever seeing faces.

You leave Maria, the oldest, annoying and controlling, who thinks she is full of privileges and always has a negative comment on the lookout for everything. You leave Luís, the oldest boy, always right, who also annoys everyone because he thinks he is the heiress of privileges. You leave Rosarinho, the sister next to you, too soft, not a strong ally against the others, vain and only concerned with herself, little or not at all with others. You leave Manel, younger than you, who took away your privileges of being the youngest, the spoiled one who thinks he owes everything.

And parts in search of replacements.

You then begin your visit throughout the building, all the way to the top. Room after room, floor after floor, you select cards with characteristics of personalities that may interest you.

Common sense is needed, nobody is perfect (not even us, I know!). You prefer to look for a sequence similar to what you are used to (being the third of five siblings), so that it is not too much of a shock.

On the 1st floor, you look for an older one, take out two or three cards, some similar to the one you had, but in all of them you correct personality traits or interests and look for others that you think are ideal to complement you.

On the next floor, you look for the older boy, it's not that he doesn't have things similar to what you had, but you realize other qualities that he could use and that you had never thought about.

Next comes the next sister, you find another one with some good taste and active in more social and solidarity issues that you never dreamed would be good to discover.

Further up you will select the youngest, you choose one that seems a little more mature to you, an ally rather than a competitor, that entertains you and has good program ideas!

You get to the top, sit on the rooftop, order a coffee and once again analyze the three or four cards of each one that you collected. You eliminate them little by little until you reach the final selection.

After all, you focused on traits that each of you had that you now think your siblings might have had, but that they didn't reveal much about or that you had never discovered. We're sorry!

Once you have selected your “fantastic four”, go down to reception, they give you a colourful “Brothers’ Day – 31st May” leaflet (oh! what a great idea!), they confirm your choice and you get ready to pay.

– Very well, João Paulo, are you happy with your choice?

– Yes, thank you, I hope I got it right…. This new opportunity to be able to choose things that we couldn’t before is fantastic, it was already predetermined when we were born! There would be a lot less conflict in the world if everyone had this opportunity from the start! Less conflict at home, less conflict in the world, right?

– Of course! The dream of being able to choose the family you are born into, right?

– That’s it! I’m really happy… I hope I got it right! How much do I owe you?

– Nothing.

– Nothing? What do you mean?! I gave you my brothers at the entrance and I'm leaving with four new brothers... Don't tell me I'm the millionth customer, or I have a secret sponsor!

– No, John Paul.

- Then?

– In the end, you owe us nothing: after all, when you chose the siblings you thought you deserved and needed, you ended up choosing the ones you already had at home, your brothers and sisters. You didn’t know it, but they were always the right choice for you!…