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!

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.





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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.