Mariana van Zeller
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And they get there, and he starts talking to them.
And I'm on the phone with the team in L.A., and I'm freaking out and telling them, this is horrible, this is happening, they don't want us to leave.
And then my husband's on the phone with me as well.
He's telling me, I see the pilot's name and I think he's Portuguese.
And I ran to him at the same time as a military and I started speaking to him in Portuguese and telling him the situation and that do whatever you can to get us out.
And the military can't understand Portuguese.
So there was a secret communication happening between me and him.
And he was Portuguese and he decided to take the risk of getting us on the plane.
And we managed to get out of it.
But the guy from the military was still yelling as the door closes.
But so was the guy that I'd met at the airport who turns to me, yells my name, and I look back and he says, hey, Mariana, say happy birthday to your son.
So in the midst of the craziness, it was also a beautiful moment of connection and humanity.
No, it's really, it's what I love to do.
Obviously, that was a moment of a lot of uncertainty, but still when we spent a week on the ground and we still kept on reporting on the story we were there for.
We kept, we're stuck in this dilemma.
Do we stay closed in our hotel or do we go out and continue reporting on the story we decided to keep reporting?
But it is, it is, you know, there's a lot of sacrifice that goes into it, but I'm, it's what I love to do.