While we're waiting for Carnaval Pics...

A friend just sent me a link to this.  Prepare to be grossed out.  Yes folks, this is Carnaval. 

Carnaval is coming.  I'm sure I don't need to explain what it is - even those who are newbies to Brasilian culture know about Carnaval.  Part of the big deal here in Bahia is to go out with the Blocos or to watch the Trioelectricos go by from a Camarote.  I generally don't go to either of these options; I am a pipoca girl.  This year, however, I was gifted the key to enter the "exclusive" club.  In order to get behind the ropes or gates of these choice places, you have to pay for it and wear the proper attire.  Enter the abadá. 

As far as I can tell, these things are generally made of the hottest, most uncomfortable fabric that exists, perhaps in order to put most of the R$200-R$2000 you put into acquiring one into the pockets of those who run the establishment.  Often they come as a one-size-fits-all gigantic sleeveless sack like object, with holes cut somewhere for your arms, and another hole somewhere for your neck, sometimes with actual finished hems, sometimes something just sort of "hem like." They are ugly.  And usually big.  Any why not, as you will probably only wear it just this one day because of the amount of sweat, pee and other disgusting substances you will get all over it when you go out in to the biggest street party ever.  Disposable clothing!

  

A big temporary business here is revamping these one-time-wear shirts into something one might actually want to put on your body (ignoring the kind of fabric it is, of course).  I have no idea what the current going rate is, but I suspect it is around R$15-R$20 a shirt, depending on embellishments and what not.  There are rules you have to follow to do it, I guess - some things cannot be removed or changed at all.  Each bloco or camarote may have different levels of abadás that allow you to do different things, with distinguishing characteristics and colors for each day and level.  Maids, nannies, and anyone who has a sewing machine at home may try to make some extra cash pre-Carnaval by "reformando abadás." Signs pop up all over the city with phone numbers offering this service. 

Just for fun this year, I decided to try a few myself.  They came out pretty cute in my opinion.

And if you're headed to Campo Grande on Tuesday, be sure to look for me on the top of the Trio;)

Lavagem do Bomfim

Want to walk 10 KMs in the hot sun? Drink lots of beer and pee on the street? Nope, I'm not talking about Carnaval, our most popular event for drinking lots of beer in the hot sun and peeing in the street, I'm talking about Lavagem do Bomfim. Each year a group of Bahianas sets out way down by Mercado Modelo and walks the distance on the streets to the Church of Bomfim to wash the steps with lavender scented water, some assortment of flowers and plants and so on. This tradition, steeped in religious meaning and importance is a great excuse for a party (like anything here is) - so the streets are also populated with beer sellers, churrasco de gato (who knows what the mystery meat is) and some very specific things for the event like hats to keep the sun off, sunscreen and the famous Bomfim tapes. You walk the distance either to pay back for a miracle in your life, or to ask for one. Or just to drink. I did this walk myself about 3 years ago and didn't even feel the distance pass for all the beer. This year my husband went and brought me back a flower he found along the way.


Many happy returns!

What, I can't park here?

Streets here are kind of created as a second thought for much of the developing sections of the city. Poor people don't own cars, so why make streets a usable width? I have gone down streets here that were only a few inches wider than our car and that turned at odd angles that a typical American would never think of driving up. There are streets that I fear trying to drive a car up, their angles are so steep (wouldn't want to walk up them either) and you have to use 1st gear to get up for the whole length. There is also one somewhere that I swear I will take a picture of someday that continues at a steeper and steeper angle down a hill and abruptly turns into stairs and goes down to a sidewalk below. It's not really a street per-say, but it gets used that way eventually as the area develops and the city sees it fit to pave it with asphalt to try to avoid the typical mudslide situations we get with our rainfall.

I spent 30 minutes in a car trying to move about 40 meters. I was lucky to not have waited more time than that as this was NOT during rush hour. Traffic would sit unmoving, then move up one car's worth, then sit again. The reason for the slow down was soon revealed -

That's a large truck loaded with cinder blocks. This is one of the typical streets that should run one lane in each direction - really only wide enough for one lane in one direction (but Brasilians are amazing at their ability to fit many cars in many directions in places most Americans wouldn't dare to try), not to mention that people park on both sides of the street, halfway onto side walks... or not - it typically slows and speeds up according to how people are driving, parking, and how many bars have put tables into the street for patrons. It is somewhere in Boca do Rio, much of which is a developed/ing lower middle class section of the city. Seems someone was going to build... something... with a lot of cinder blocks. So they hired a truck and the truck brought them and here they sit, parked, on the street, taking up more than half of it. No driver in sight. And it wasn't just one truck, there was another one behind it, also parked in the same fashion. And another. And finally, the real reason for the hold up.

The fourth truck, going the other direction, was trying to park. You can see just beyond, that bus, probably sitting there with no way to get out, just like we were. At least our lane wasn't blocked by 4 trucks loaded with cinder blocks. Our lane of traffic slowly moved on. Their lane, going the opposite direction, just sat and sat. Bumper to bumper. I wonder how long.

Nap

I know, I'm overdue to post. I apologize profusely. I suspect it may happen again though, as it usually does, so...

It's not usual to see people just sprawled out on sidewalks in the city during the day. The homeless or poor pretend homeless generally have their "beat" they occupy and the traffic signals they prefer to frequent, sending their children to beg for change or anything really there is to offer. There is a gallera who hangs on at the traffic light on Paulo VI near my home who I walk by frequently, who all know me by now, and who generally don't bother me asking for things unless one of them is really hard up for something (the kids just ask regardless, it's in their nature) like juice for the baby or something along those lines. We have a generally amiable relationship, although I do not appreciate the amount of trash they leave on the corner where they hang out. Sometimes I walk by and they are all sprawled out on pieces of cardboard or old mattresses, sleeping at 4 in the afternoon. That is the best time of day to sleep, really. How many of us are just dead tired after lunch? Just find a comfortable and reasonably clean place to lay down, and close your eyes.



This guy found a way to do this which serves two purposes - make sure no one steals your wheel burrow while you sleep, and get off the ground!



At 4 in the afternoon, in the middle of a busy area, buses passing, people commuting, and here he naps and no one will bother him. Que vida boa, neh?

Death Metal in a biker gang club thingy

A few weeks ago now, I went to a death metal concert with a friend here. Her BF plays in a band that was preforming and so I tagged along. This particular venue is the home of the Red Devils, soon to be Hells angels. Formerly they were known as the Red Pigs. In order to be promoted up this motorcycle royalty ladder, your gang has to do things to help the community and other good deeds. I was told that this particular gang is so helpful that they pay some poor local women to do a strip tease for them every Wednesday. That's some hearts of gold alright.

Having been to few other concerts here in Brasil, I have little to compare it to. Death metal isn't really my thing either. It sounds a little bit like the sound my car made when driving down a gravel road with my tailpipe hanging off.

One main comment I have to make though ---->

How tacky is it to wear your own band's T-shirt while performing? I mean, seriously.

signs of a democratic government

A few weeks back I was sitting watching the news in the evening. Every once in a while, usually close to election times, the airwaves get taken over by political messages that last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour long. Not like the typical 30 second spot in the USA, these things consist of set up interviews with people in the street, the talking head politician, "public service announcements" and any other typical political propaganda you can think of. When these things come on, there does not seem to be any way to escape them - they take over every channel (at least on the free antena fed stations, as I am too cheap/busy to pay for things like satellite here), as this video demonstrates. Right in the middle of the usual news casts, suddenly PPS took over with their message about how worried the public is about the government confiscating their savings from the bank to deal with the country's debt. It went on for half an hour on every channel, even MTV. Not what I wanted to watch, but I did learn a new word "Popança."

Yes, as I flip through the channels, you will notice there are only like 5 or 6 (I watch so little TV, I am not even sure). Still, the effect is nice, a little like brainwashing.

Rain showers don't bring mayflowers, they bring floods

The rainy season has arrived fast and furious. Despite the fact that heavy rains plague us at least 3 months out of the year here, engineers cannot be troubled to deal with adequate drainage when designing roads and city spaces. Sometimes it seems they cannot even be troubled by trying to address traffic flow. Today it began raining heavily around 10 AM. A normal 5 minute drive took more than 2 hours. Some parts of the city were completely under water. Where I work people were out digging canals around the building to try to get the water directed somewhere other than inside the building.



Streets like this one, which are so numerous around the city, become waterfalls of rushing water carrying with it all manner of crap from the surrounding areas above. It all pools at the bottom, some low laying area, sometimes inside a parking area, or worse someone or several people's homes, and more often than not, also a busy street. People try to escape the rising waters, driving the wrong way down one way streets, coming head to head with motorists trying to go the opposite direction trying to do the same thing and bringing everyone to a complete stand still.

---------->@#$Q^@^#%&<-----------

Our mayor, or someone, declared a state of emergency (again) and advised everyone to stay home so as to not float away in their cars. Here I am at home, despite not having a car.

Drink this!

Mmmm, aloe vera. Good for you.

English words are used the world over, just for something different, new, cool, novel. I have seen T-shirts in upscale stores here with words from a newspaper article about Dan Quayle (where'd they dig that up?), random slightly off phrases like "The noise is come to the your town," among others. Is this just another random case or did the makers of this drink really think this would make a great name?

The power of rain

It rains often here, sometimes everyday during certain seasons. It is a fact of existence here that if you place something outside, it will probably get rained on, even if it's in a "covered" area. Knowing this, certain precautions should be taken when building, one would think. Like using certain types of paint, sealant, cement, what have you. I am not an expert in construction, but generally speaking it seems some people who are building things here are not either ( actually many people who work in construction here were probably never formally trained to do anything, but learn on the job).

Take my balcony wall, for example. A solid cement low wall. Then pained white. Then painted again. And again. And probably a few more times. And then the rain falls on the edge of the wall. And more rain falls. And more. And soon there is a small hole in the paint surrounded by a bubble that when tapped either squirts out 1) water, if it has been raining, or 2) cement dust, if it has not. Then more bubbles develop. Then a large sagging mound begins to form at the bottom as all the paint separates from the wall over a two month period. Finally, a whole section of solid paint falls off, pouring piles of cement dust all over the balcony to blow into our bedroom. The rest quickly follows with the help of the resident small child.

Who is responsible to fix it? Well, techincally the condo, as it is an outside portion of the building. We spent about 6 months with cement dust wall until we arranged someone to do it ourselves.

I gather this sort of thing is not entirely uncommon, considering I have seen buildings go up here that 6 months later have whole sections of tiles missing from the side where they just peeled away from the wall and fell to the ground below.

Rain, it's a powerful thing. And it's raining now. Again. As it has been for days.

Fresh Greens

For sale on your local street corner. This cilantro is way better than what you get in the super market, usually fresher and more crisp and we won't even go in to the taste of the basil. Could be grown in someone's window box, or maybe in the community garbage dump area, so wash thoroughly.

It always rains during Carnaval

Just the thing you need to cool off while dancing the afternoon and night away, a little shower. I got one last night, from what I remember of the evening.



Happy Carnaval!

Carnaval traffic

The rush to pick up Abadás began earlier this week. Traffic had picked up and made passing through certain parts of the city near impossible in a timely manner because there are so many people trying to park anywhere and everywhere in order to pick up their cheap-really-hot-fabric brightly colored shirts that allow them access to the "safe side" of the ropes and walls that make up Carnaval blocos and camarotes.


One of these pick up points is Aero Club on the Orla, one of the main veins to get from anywhere to anywhere in the city. At all hours of the day, traffic is built up to a standstill while people park on the grass, sidewalks, and even on the street. Vendors with coolers line the edges of the road, waiting to sell beer and anything else you might want as early as 7 a.m.


There are way too many cars in this city.

Hiper knows what you need for Carnaval

The first page of the Pharmacy section gives you a taste of what to "expect" for Carnaval. Some medicine for an upset stomach, some eye drops, oh, and these, you will probably be needing.

Not bad to pay for your safety this Carnaval season. I like the name of the brand too. And notice that some even have "heating lubricant." Just what we need! It's a good price to pay for your health, don't you think? Compared to the price of sunblock...

Now, you can see the value here - for your everyday person living on R$430 a month, obviously your sexual safety much more doable than avoiding skin cancer. Although that depends on how much sex you plan (or don't plan) to have during Carnaval. For some it may even out.

There is a term for people who were conceived around this time of year, mostly born in November - Novembrinhos. If your birthday falls in that month, we know what your parents were doing during Carnaval!

What to do in case of an Emergency

In Bahia we often park just about anywhere that is available. It may or may not be legal and the likelyhood of parking in a no parking area is 99% dependent on if SETE (the traffic police) will come and find you there and give you a ticket. Apparently that risk is about zero in the Emergency lane. Hope no one has one. FYI - The number to call to get an ambulance here is 192.

Carnaval comes

No one reading this site is probably a stranger to Carnaval - 5 days of drinking, music and insanity. Already there are signs of Carnaval to come, specifically the 22nd-24th of February, but in Bahia it starts the week or even the month before and may go for several days after. "Pre-Carnaval" "Post-Carnaval" - any excuse for a party here. Even at the local home building supplies center this weekend, we saw shredded paper all over the floor and they had a pair doing live samba music on a raised platform in front of the lighting display area. There are all kinds of pre-Carnaval sales going on, and the rush for Abadas (the shirts that allow you access to Camarotes or Blocos) is already on.

This is a Trio Electrico. A giant truck of speakers - the band rides on top, doing a live show for hours at a time in the hot sun. I don't envy those who ride up there, except that they probably have easier access to somewhere to pee than those of us in the "pipoca" do. I have never followed a Bloco or been in one. I usually hang out on the sides and just fight the crowds (called the "pipoca", or popcorn), but I don't knock those who want to pay the money to be inside those ropes. Peeing is important and not having somewhere to go when you really got to go (blame beer) can put a damper on your festivities.

Hot car!

Caught driving in the Pituba area, rumor has it there are only 2 of these things in Salvador.

Do you know where your seafood comes from?

This is a private lobster boat. The owner probably gets up and goes out at whatever hour is low tide to retrieve lobsters from the rocks. This particular day we caught him coming in at about 9 a.m., dragging his boat in with assistance, and then he allowed us to take some pictures of his catch that he keeps in an old plastic bag. He will walk around the beach attempting to sell them to whoever wants to buy, about R$7-R$10 or so apiece.



Lobster - tastey and fresh. And still moving.

R$4 gets you a buzz cut

Need a hair cut? Shave? It's cheap!

Like many store fronts in the city, barbershops and nail salons can take on a hole in the wall appearance. It is, in fact, quite practical to just pull up the garage door in the morning, sweep all your trash into the street and scrub your floors with a broom and buckets of soapy water to clean at the end of the day because the liquid can just run out the door into the gutter. It's especially practical if you don't want to pay the high electric bill for A/C.

Now filming

Shooting started this week on Trampolim Do Forte. Photos to come later. The director happens to be a friend of ours, but the movie is really a big deal. Check it out!



Update! A picture!