Brazil Epilogue

Welcome,

I have returned safe and sound (or at least as sound as I was when I left). Did you know that there were five jet crashes in the past month? Luckily, I was a passenger on none of those flights.

So, having come to terms with the fact that I am in, indeed, becoming a sell-out, I learned a few more interesting little tidbits about Brazil. It is one of the largest countries in the world, geographically speaking. My driver was telling me that if it weren't for the corruption, it might be one of the richest as well. While he may be a bit biased, he might have something there. Owen confirmed the fact that it was large (maybe the fifth or sixth largest in the world), and their climate is well-suited to growing things. The area that I was in had red earth (iron rich, like PEI). In fact, the orange orchards around our site produce two crops each year, which is unusual I'm told. They have the Amazon there. They grow coffee beans and sugar cane there. They have tourism there, which would be an even greater money-maker if they could control the crime I'm sure. People come from all over the world for Carnival. They don't have tsunamis or hurricane season. They don't really have earthquakes or tornados. It seems that the biggest obstacle to their pursuit of the 'American Dream' is the corruption in the government, which is too busy stealing (accepting bribes) to actually serve the people.

Speaking of crime, I was told that one of the more popular crimes of late is what they call a 'mini-kidnapping'. The perpetrators will accost you (often in your car) at gunpoint, force you to take them to a bank machine and get all of the money you can out of your accounts, then let you go (after relieving you of your other valuables as well). Which is nice of them... they don't actually cut your hand off to steal your watch like the theives in Mexico city apparently do (my Mexican colleague confirmed this rumour). They let you live.

And live they do. They took me dancing one night. We went to a bar where they have a buffet and a happy hour (which was actually about three hours long) where you could have as much food, beer and caipirinhas (national drink of Brazil - made of Pinga [alcohol made from sugar cane], limes and sugar - really strong) for about fifteen Reals (Brazilian money, worth about eight Canadian dollars). They had a live samba band for the happy hours playing traditional samba music, which people actually samba to, then they cleared away the buffet and they had a DJ playing dance music, and the people all dance. The patrons were singing along with the band to certain songs. One of my hosts would translate the songs to me and explain their significance if it was an especially meaningful one, or if everybody got up and got into them. Then we danced the night away, and all on a Wednesday night.

That sort of thing doesn't happen in Canada; at least not in any part of Canada that I know of. Perhaps in the East Coast. They sing more there. But here in Toronto and in Vancouver, we don't really have national or regional (because the one that got the most applause was one from Sao Paulo) songs that we all sing to. We don't have a shared history that goes back hundreds of years that people have written songs about that we all know all of the words to, that make us get up and dance. It wasn't just the women singing and dancing either: the men were singing just as loudly and dancing just as much.

Well, I think that's all I have to say about Brazil for now... I did bring back a bottle of Pinga, so the next time we're at a barbecue, I will make caipirinhas! I was told that you can make them with vodka if you don't want them to be as strong... then they're called caipirouskas.

Ciao for now peoples...

Lesle, The Artful Traveller