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!

Election

By the way, the results are in - João will continue to be our mayor. So much for the party in the Red Square.

A bug

Living in the city, you don't see much variety in your insect life. Outside of cockroaches, ants, and fruit flies, there isn't much in the way of diversity. Once in a while I see a random butterfly that reminds me of a cabbage butterfly. This guy came in and spent a good 10 minutes sitting on my T.V. until he was almost squished by a small child. I don't know if he survived the tour of my house - may have been eaten by the cat.

Ojá - white strips of religious tolerance

Anyone driving around Salvador may have noticed the plethora of pieces of white material tied to trees, lamp posts, and other tall objects. These are a sign of religious tolerance on the part of the Candomblé practitioners (? not sure, there may be a technical term for this, perhaps Markuza can correct me??) in response to a recent court decision. The story as I understand it is as follows - a woman named Mãe Gilda was persecuted by the Igreja Universal (IURD). Her picture was published in the paper with something to the effect of "these charlatan Macumbeiros do harm to your pocket and your life." The church was sued for defaming her and the ruling was made in favor of the Candomblé side. IURD actually had to pay out money to these people, which I have been told was unheard of up till now. In response to this decision, these Ojás have been tied up to show religious tolerance (and probably victory too). I feel I do a bad job of explaining it. There is more info here.





P E A C E

S H A L O M



P A Z

Today is election day

All over Brasil people are voting for city mayors, representatives and so on (but no presidents) today. Election day is a holiday here - everyone is supposed to have the day off so they can vote because it is the LAW. If you don't vote in Brasil, you can't open a bank account, you can't get a driver's license, and you can't get a passport, among other things. You show up at your polling place, show your picture ID, sign in a notebook and receive a little ticket that serves as proof that you voted. In Salvador, our voting machines are electric and look a tad like fax machines from the 80's. Each party has a number - 13 is the worker's party (P.T., Lula's party). Today you cannot buy alchohol, but you can walk around on the street drinking some you have from home. You cannot go to the polling place with the party number or candidate number displayed on your person (although I saw this rule enforcement was quite lax in our polling place). You cannot hand out little pieces of paper that support a particular candidate or party near the entrance to a polling place (again, this law was broken where we went). Like most laws in Brasil, there seems to be a bit of wiggle room here. My husband went to cast his vote in a PT t-shirt with an Obama t-shirt hanging off his back.

Teaching a dog new tricks

These photos were actually captured by a colleague of mine on her way home one afternoon. There is also a video, if only I could figure out how to download it. According to another colleague, this man lives in Boca do Rio and rides all over the city with his backseat moto-dog. I actually saw him myself about a month ago, going into Boca do Rio in front of the Convention Center.

Barack Obama on Brasil ballot

I came across this article today - rather an amusing idea. It's a little like our "no ducks can wear pants" kinds of laws, only it actually gets used.

Not a hurricane

Freaky weather is far and few between here, although every time it rains we have random flooding problems in various places. You'd think some where some engineers would have decided to tackle this problem, but none of them seem to be here. In the mean time, this is what a storm looks like when it comes off the ocean in the Southern Hemisphere.

Hey, who's that?

Scattered about Salvador are some rather distinctive billboards.




Look closer.

The caption here is "O Poder Mudou" - "the power has changed," "the person in charge has changed," or what have you. A friend of mine here who is rather Obama obsessed is worried these signs will jinx the election with that kind of statement. So we shall see...

Old and inaccurate

This post has less to do with going ons here, and more to do with good sense and reference. I have always used google maps to look up roads and pictures here - they are more up to date and it's an easy service to use. Today, I tried to do the same with MSN maps. And let me tell you, if you want to find somewhere in Salvador, at least, don't bother using them. The pictures are at least 5 years old (there are whole sections of buildings and roads missing that have been here at least for the last 4 years I have been living here) and their entire "street map" overlay is completely off by about 15 miles, so obviously so that some of them run through the open ocean. According to this map, I live north of Rio Vermelho (20 south west of reality) and Avenida Sete runs through the ocean through Barra. I hope no one out there is actually trying to use these accurately with it being THIS far off...

A prize to be cherished

This is one of our powdered chocolate mixes one puts in the milk or with water and powdered milk for a nice chocolaty treat. This is a common remedy here to encourage kids to drink their milk and many drink it everyday. As with many products here, there is an extra incentive - buying this brand over another type could win you a special prize.




Only in Brasil? I actually can think of a few different countries where this kind of thing might work. My first inclination for Brasil now, having lived here for more than four years, is that this kind of thing shows how far Brasil needs to go to join the "1st world." Although it is stated that one can win either they cow OR the equivalent in R$ of the value of it, what people who spend R$5 on chocolate mix powder are really buying it hoping to win a cow? Okay, so this might appeal to those in the interior who might have a good fazenda to keep the cow in. It might even appeal to the general minimum salary worker here in the city, since there is no law against farm animals within city limits, although the cost of upkeep of a cow might be a tad discouraging. Sure, sure, it's just a symbol to go with that fact that this is chocolate MILK, okay, whatever. It's still just a tad on the ridiculous side.

A 40 mile traffic jam

São João is a big holiday here in the northeast. The basic deal is that everyone tries to leave the city and drive to some tiny town in the interior, find someone's floor to sleep on, and goes to the public square to dance to Forró all night. It's one of my favorite holidays here, maybe because it's so focused on being in the country and just dancing - reminds me of home and going contra dancing. The holiday falls on the 24th of every June, but the major party is on the 23rd. This year the 24th is a Tuesday, meaning it was a 4 day weekend for anyone going out of town, and the public responded quickly.

This is a lame picture of my television of a live shot of BR324 in the BrasilGas sector, near Pirajá. This traffic jam went for over 80 KM, traffic stopped or moving slowly, everyone trying to get the heck away from the city. Having only 2 major highways to get you out, not at all surprising result.

See the number of people clustered at the non-bus station stop? And at the moment a good friend of mine visiting is out of town (Chapada) and will try to return on the afternoon of the 24th to catch an extremely early plane on the morning of the 25th - I hope she actually gets here in time....

Fusca leads a double life

Fuscas are the car. You can't go anywhere without spotting one and they are frequently the "goal" car for those who were not able to previously afford one. They are also very versatile.

Take the above example. Not only is a cheap an affordable, it can double as an office and a store. Need a snack? Find it here in the Fusca! Transportation by day - hard working restaurant by night.

Cool house

There is a lot of old architecture spread throughout the city. We have buildings from the early 1900's beside those built in the last 4 years I have lived here. There are many that have been fixed up, and others that are left as empty outer shells, full of grass and trees inside. I think those are the most interesting to look at, but they are seldom in places I am likely to 1) go to alone, and 2) drag my camera out and start photographing. I like this one in particular, near Canela. It's not that old, but has been kept up nicely and retains some of it's original feel. It'd be nice to have a look inside.