Computer problems

Our computer has a virus and is basically out of commission until we get the problem fixed, so I am going be a little short on the blog entries for a while. I will do my best to put an update in here and there from the language school computer lab until the home computer is back up and running.

Last night I had kind of a meltdown. Vilma and I were walking from our apartment down to the language school and I saw these 3 guys who looked like they were totally scoping out the scene to get ready to rob someone (there was another woman walking near them as well). It was like 6:30 at night. We needless to say got the hell out of there as fast as we could, and nothing happened, but the whole situation just made me furious. I walked the rest of the way to the school and then to the supermarket swearing and cursing them for making me feel scared, cursing Brazil for having all these problems with violence, and cursing the São João holiday that is coming up at the end of June because the crime level goes up a lot the month before as people are trying to get money in order to travel and celebrate this holiday. After going to the market and then returning home (on the way back they were not there and it was totally safe), I had all kinds of feelings about how I am fed up with feeling scared, how I hate that I can´t relax on the street at any hour, and how the problem is so huge and societal that there seems to be no solution.

I understand now why Brazilians have this kind of reluctant acceptance of the violence here. It is easier to just not think about it than to constantly be trying to fight against it. The problem is so big, that it almost doesn´t seem worth the fight.

Jogo de futebol (Soccer game)

Last night I went to my first ever Brazilian soccer game. I have been wanting to go to a game, but was always kind of nervous about it after reading in various travel resources that people get super crazy and even go so far as to pee in cups and then throw the urine into the crowds. Not wanting to get sprayed with pee, I have avoided this initiation rite towards becoming a "real Brazilian".

One of my students, Pissica, invited me to go with him to this game. It was Vitoria, which is one of the teams from Bahia, against Figueirense, a team from Santa Catarina. I figured that since he was bringing his 7 year old son, that it was probably relatively safe for me to go. So after battling the crowds at the "Marcha para Jesus" (March for Jesus) that closed down the bus system that goes to Pissica´s house, I finally made it to his house and then we were off to the stadium.

Pissica has some kind of season pass for everyone in his family which includes VIP parking right by the entrance to the stadium and a seat at the mid-field line that actually had chairs (the rest of the stadium has cement benches with no back rests), so we went in style and security. I wanted to bring my camera to take some pics, but Vilma advised against it. Turns out it totally would have been fine to bring it. Oh well, next time!

Anyway, I enjoyed the game a lot (!) and went back and forth between watching the game and watching the crowd. There was a large section of crowd that had an informal drumming group who kind of led the group cheers. There were various chants, together with hand motions that the crowd did throughout the game to motivate both the team and the crowd. It also seemed to be common practice to bring a small hand-held radio to listen to the commentators´ broadcast. Most of the older men in the crowd had one of these radios.

All in all it was an enjoyable evening and Vitoria won, 4-0. I was invited to go to a wedding afterwards, but passed due to the fact that I was not really dressed for the occasion and also because I wanted to get back home and hang out with Vilma.

The 2 teams in Bahia (Vitoria and Bahia) have a HUGE rivalry. You are either for Vitoria or Bahia, and once you support a team, it is like you are a part of a family feud against the other team. I heard parts of chants last night "Eu sou Vitoria" (I am Vitoria), "Vitoria minha vida" (Vitoria, my life), and "Vitoria meu amor" (Vitoria my love) that demostrated the ferver with which people believe in and support their team. You might ask if I am now Vitoria. Well, given that the majority of my students seem to be Vitoria, and I went to my first game in Vitoria´s stadium, I guess my leanings are more towards this team than the other. But who knows, maybe I will have the chance to go to a Bahia game and my allegiance will change! All I know is that for someone who doesn´t really like or follow any sports in the US, I sure do love me some Brazilian futebol!

Image taken from www.atarde.com.br

Uma peça de teatro (A Play)

Last night I went to see a play called "A Bofetada", which means "A slap in the face". It was a comedy and was playing at one of the English schools that also has a theatre in their building. I went with Pissica, his girlfriend and 2 daughters. I went because I thought it would be cool to check out another play (culture=good) and to see if I would be able to understand more of the dialogue than I did at the first and only other play that I saw here in Salvador. That play was called "Josefina, cantora dos ratos" (translation: Josefina, singer of the rats) and I saw it back in October. I understood probably about 50-60% of the dialogue and thought that was pretty good given where I was with my language development at the time.

Well, last night I think I understood about 25% of the dialogue. I left feeling kind of bummed out about my language skills. I start to feel really confident like, "yeah I´m fluent", and then something like this happens. The same thing happens to me when I watch movies that are in Portuguese. I have been to 2 Brazilian movies since being here, "Tropa de Elite" (Elite Squad) and "Meu nome não e Johnnie" (My name isn´t Johnnie). I spent a good portion of both of these movies whispering in Vilma´s ear, "what did he say?" and "I don´t understand what is happening!" I´m sure it must have been slightly irritating for the other people in the theatre around us, but at least I walked out of both films understanding the story and the general idea of what happened.

At the play I sat next to Pissica´s daughter, who is 15. She was cracking up the whole time and I didn´t really feel comfortable asking her what was happening, especially since the theatre was totally sold out, the action in the play happened really quickly, and our previous interactions have been limited to "good morning", "how are you?", and "is your father here?".

So I basically sat there the whole time, was able to pick up on individual words, and a few general themes. Then was happy when it was time to go and eat crepes at this cool restaurant down the street. Yay for shrimp crepes!

Scary Hill

This is a view of the hill that I walk up and down every day. It leads from the main drag with all the bus stops up to my apartment building. I have nicknamed it "Scary Hill" for 2 reasons. First of all, as you can see there really is no sidewalk. There is kind of a mini-one on the right side, but it is below a bunch of houses and people are known for dropping stuff out of the windows, spitting, etc and so you take your chances if you walk on that side. Plus it is the side that goes with traffic, so is not so safe if you try to walk just off the small sidewalk in an attempt to avoid being rained on by unknown objects from above.

People drive like complete maniacs here and cars generally speed up and down the hill and take little or no notice of pedestrians. I have more than once had to kind of jump off to the side (there are parts of the hill where this is not an option as you are walking on the edge of a ledge!) in order to avoid being nailed by a speeding car, usually driven by someone who is talking on their cell phone and not paying attention.

The second reason that this hill is scary is that it borders a favela (slum). My apartment is actually in an upper-middle class neighborhood, but I am on the edge of this neighborhood which borders a favela. I was going to walk down this hill to take a picture of the favela, but there were a bunch of guys sitting at the top of the hill and I didn´t want them to see that I had a camera with me. So I will try to get a pic at a later date.

Here is a picture of the street that my building is on. So after you walk up the hill, you turn onto this street and my apartment is like 1/2 a block up on the right. I always breathe a sigh of relief when I get up to the top of the hill in one piece. My street is super quiet, super chill and I feel safe because there are security guys who work in most of the buildings keeping an eye on things. I could always ask to be let into a building if I needed to.

I thought you all might like to see a bit more about my day to day, and where I live is certainly a part of this! Enjoy :)

Primeira pintura

I bought my first painting ever. And here is a photo of it! An aquaintance (now a friend) from Portland came here to Salvador to spend a month training capoeira and checking out the city. His girlfriend, who painted the above picture and who is also now a friend, came with him. Being so happy to hang out with fellow Portlanders, I spent quite a bit of time with both of them. After seeing Flora´s work, I decided to take the plunge and buy my first painting. Also, my apartment (see my previous post with pictures) was severely lacking in the art/decorations on the wall department, and so this painting now beautifully fills up a previously empty wall. I love it!!! The name of the painting is "Magia" which in English means magic.

Flora´s website is here: www.florasbowley.com if you want to check out her work. She also hosted a cool art show in Portland last December called Thirty and will be hosting a follow up show in August (? I think it´s August!) called Thirty-one. If you are in Portland, you should check it out.

Thanks a million Flora!!! I already miss you guys!

Comments

I heart comments. Yes, I do look at my blog on a regular basis to see who is reading it. And unless you leave a comment, I will not know you have been here reading about my adventures. So please, take a quick moment and let me know what you think!

Abraços-
Cheryl

Thinking positive

In the last week or so, I have been feeling pretty down and negative. Of course finding out about my grandfather yesterday did not help matters, but I woke up today determined to try to start thinking more positively. Recently I watched the movie "The Secret" and while some of you may think that it is kind of cheesy, the idea about the law of attraction really resonated with me. If I am walking around thinking negatively, negative things will come my way. I need to focus on the positive so that more positive things will happen. So I am posting this picture and will now tell you about one of the most positive (and unusual) friendships that I have here in Salvador.

Yes, this is a picture of me driving a yacht. No, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would ever ride on, never mind drive, a yacht. But here I am, thanks to one of my students, and now friend, Pissica.

I started teaching him in October, and he very quickly decided that he wanted to be my friend as well as my student. He started inviting me to hang out with him, his girlfriend and his other friends. Now what makes him one of the most unusual friends I have ever had is that he is 60 years old and super rich. And his philosophy is that he likes to have fun, go out, bring people with him, and cover the bill. This means that I get to go out on his boat, go eat at fancy restaurants, go to family dinners and parties and that he does not expect any financial contribution. This has allowed me eat at places I would never had eaten because the bill is in the range of my monthly rent!

Now I have never been a "gold digger", nor have I been very concerned with the amount of money that people make. I have friends in the US who have some money, and I have friends who have little. For me, I don´t really care about what brand of shoes you are wearing or how much is in your bank account. I have to say that experiencing all of this with Pissica has not changed my views about this. And yet I also have to say that it is kind of nice to be treated to all of these luxuries!

He really has proven to be a good friend to me, offering help at any time. He said to me once that if anything bad ever happens to me here, that I should call him and he will "take care of it". I heard about 2 women getting mugged at gunpoint on the street that I walk on every day to go to the English school. I called Pissica and he immediately got on the phone with some high ranking cop who then met with me and went to talk with one of the witnesses of the crime to get more information. I am not sure how it all ended up, but I do know that there have been no more muggings in that area.

The only thing that Pissica expects in return for all of this is that I only speak English with him. That I can do.

So when I start to think negatively about my situation, or about Salvador in general, I am going to think about Pissica- his generousity, openness and friendship, and know that this will help me to focus on the positive side of where I am now.