Secretaries versus Secretaries versus Secretaries

The occupational category of secretary has various meanings in Brazil, all quite different one from the other. In a game of Balderdash, everyone would be right!

Secretary: The first, and I guess most traditional, definition is someone who is hired to assist in the administration of an office: open and reply to correspondence, answer phone calls, file, make appointments, and keep things in smooth running order. Clearly we have this definition in North America as well.

Secretary: Also refers to appointed senior-level politicians who are responsible for a Ministry or Secretariat; as in the Secretary for Justice or the Secretary for Labour and Employment. Kind of like the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

And finally, Secretary, particular to the Northeastern part of Brazil, refers to one's maid or other domestic help. Now, this is the one that puzzles me. My extrapolation is that people refer to their domestic help as secretaries to avoid undervaluing the person's work. On its own, this seems nice enough and a reasonable way to increase self-esteem. On the other side of the equation, however, people routinely pay their domestic help -- in particular live-in domestic workers -- a pittance. It is estimated that 5,000,000 women (and some men) work as domestic labour in Brazil. Ten percent -- or 500,000 -- are under the age of eighteen, some as young as twelve. Wages are incredibly low, with a live-in often making the equivalent of CAN$150 a month and working conditions are not always optimum. Obviously this is not true in all cases, but this is one case in which generalizations aren't always too far off the mark.

At the moment, I have a woman who comes in twice a week to clean and scrub the mould off my furniture. I still think that twice a week is a bit much, but it's too late to go back now! In any case, Claudia makes more money working for me twice a week than she used to make as a live-in nanny caring for new-born twins in the same building. This is one of those cases in which the math just doesn't add up, no matter what names you use.

There's a Constant Drilling in my Head - or - Why Going to Work in the Morning is a Relief

There's a constant drilling in my head that just won't stop. Every day. Every moment. Oh wait. No. It's just the sound of the Savaroni hotel being demolished piece by piece. Day by day. Minute by minute. My mistake. Several other buildings are also in various states of repair/disrepair in the neighbourhood which doesn't help either.

Okay, I exaggerate a little. But mostly due to the fact that I get to go to work in the morning and don't get back until after dark thus escaping 95 percent of the noise. As it is, the Savaroni is being demolished floor by floor with the use of hand drills. Hand drills, I tell you. I found out from a neighbour that the reason why the hotel is not being demolished through more rapid means -- well-placed explosions or a wrecking ball perhaps -- is because my building is not structurally strong enough to withstand the impact of the collapse of the hotel. Apparently, the foundation of my building wasn't built all that well [ahem, no comment] and shortly after construction was completed, one side started to sink. For mucho money, the building [not sure who exactly: the construction company; the condo administrators; or the collective of owners?] managed to upright the building once again. However, since then, no nearby demolitions are permitted. Hence the chiseling away of the Savaroni, piece by piece, concrete cylinder by concrete cylinder. Of course, this is the same demolition company that also had the workers white-washing the protective fence with two-inch rollers....

Portuguese Words that Confuse

Welcome to the first post in the [perhaps] occassional series Portuguese Words that Confuse. These two get me all the time:

1. Puxe [pronounced pushee] means pull.
2. Empurre [pronounced empurhee] means push.

How could this not have been done on purpose!

It's all in the Eye of the Cow

And now ... for something completely different....


I bought this necklace in Rio when I was there at the beginning of the month. The seeds are from the Amazon and are known as Olho do boi, or the Cow's Eye. Is it just me, or is that not a perfect interpretation? They really do look exactly like cows' eyes! Apparently, they also bring good luck to the wearer. Maybe it's because evil spirits and happenings are warded off by those watchful bovine eyes.

Feuding ... and Dancing!

I don't really watch a lot of television either here or in Canada. But sometimes, when I feel that I have fallen too out of touch with popular culture, I turn on the set and watch a show or two, you know just to catch up and appear enlightened. Well, I guess that tonight was the night. Home from work, I decided to turn on the telly and see what was up in the world. And what did I stumble across but the Brazilian version of Family Feud. Check out the host on the website -- a little too much plastico if you ask me. People don't actually look like this do they?? In any case, the show strangely entranced me until the very end when I had to laugh as the sequence totally fell into my previous post on the whole Brazilians love to dance thing.

In the American version of the show, the last portion involves two members of the winning family having to answer five questions in fifteen seconds in an effort to reach 200 points and thus win a bunch of money. Normally, the second contestant has to leave the set so that they will not overhear the answers of the first contestant. Well, in the Brazilian version, the second contestant has to go stand in a glass or otherwise see-through box and dance in front of the entire studio audience to the musical style of their choice while the first contestant goes through the quiz. Today's contestant chose samba. I kid you not!

Through a quick internet search, I discovered that in fact, Family Feud is still on in the States -- now hosted by the dude who played Al on Home Improvement. Maybe it would just be better for me to remain pop-culturally unawares! Oh my!

Brazilians Love to Dance - It's not just a stereotype!

Basta! Enough about my car struggles and on to something more interesting! I took these pictures down in Recife Antigo last weekend after happening upon a frevo dance troop putting on a show. Before the troop's dancers went up, all the little kids in the audience were allowed to go on stage and dance. I think that rhythme must be genetic here ... these kids were absolutely adorable! Frevo is a frenetic paced dance which combines, among other things, elements of capoeira and Russian folk-dancing!

Teen Frevo & Kiddie Frevo: don't you just want to take the little one in the middle home with you?

Drastic Measures

Last night, in a minor fit of 1:30am rage, I left four notes under the windshield wipers of the four cars which are currently parking in my parking spots. Okay, yes. I have four parking spots. This in itself is obviously on the excessive side, but they came with the apartment and are definitely indicative of other, more systemic, issues. One of the funny things is that my four spots are spread out over two levels of parking garage so that not even I knew where they all were. From the beginning, I knew that one of my spots [the one that I pass everyday when I leave through the back entrance] had been invaded by another resident. I later realised that the second spot had also been invaded. And then last night, in the hunt for my final two spots, I discovered that they too had been invaded, leaving me with no spot at all. It was the last straw!

Now, I realise that I don't actually have a car with which to fill the spot. But this is not the point. I could have visitors with cars. I could have had delivery of my to-be-purchased car. Etc. The least that a car squatter could do is check with me to see if it would be okay to use my spot. The spots are all very clearly marked, so this is not the issue. So the question then becomes, why do people who already have four parking spots need to invade mine? Well ... it could be because they have more than four cars or it could be because their cars/SUVs are too big for their regular parking spots and thus need to spill over into other spots. Well, no more! It was time to take action.

So late last night, I finally got up the nerve to leave notes on the offending cars. Then this morning, I started wondering when/if the phone would start to ring. The first person called towards the end of the morning and was very apologetic. She explained that she had asked the administration for a different parking spot since their spots, all located on the upper level, were only accessible by a short flight of stairs which her elderly mother had difficulty navigating. In response, the administration generously gave away my spot with nary a word to me. Since the woman i) made the effort to call; ii) was apologetic; and iii) had a real reason to have a parking spot on the lower level which is accessible directly by elevator, I saw no reason to take the spot away from her. I am not that bad, I just want my neighbours to do the right thing and ask before taking. Now, I wonder what kind of stories, if any, the rest of them will have. The note was decidely firm, but not nasty. Hopefully I haven't caused any diplomatic incidences!

caipirissima Turns One!

Happy Birthday caipirissima!

It is hard to believe that a year ago today, caipirissima was born. Amid preparing my inventory, packing, running around getting Felix reading for the trip, and goodbyes [oops, no posts about the goodbyes...], somehow a few minutes of time were set aside to set up a blog. I admit that although I wasn't actually the one who physically created caipirissima, I seem to have caught on rather quickly! Initially meant as a way to post semi-regular stories about my adventures in Brazil for family and friends, caipirissima has evolved into a rather fun endeavor which has allowed and encouraged me to philosophise about the interesting, the strange, and the quirky. It has also introduced me to the wider world of blogging and bloggers. Lots of interesting, as well as lots of straaange stuff going on out there! Of course, if caipirissima is turning one, it also means that my first anniversary in Brazil is just around the corner.... Enjoy the cake!

Recycling, Brazilian Style

According to official statistics, Brazil achieves a recycling rate somewhere in the 85-90 percent range. Unfortunately, this is not due to any massive level of citizen-based conscientiousness. And for those who are conscientious, in most cases the systems just aren't in place to support these habits. Rather, Brazil's enormous success in recycling is due to folks like these who spend their days sorting through garbage, either on the streets or in the dumps, picking out recyclable materials and selling them to companies that will process and resell or reuse them. Recife has its fair share of garbage pickers -- or catadores, as they are called in Portuguese.

What breaks my heart even more than seeing people poke through other people's festering and leaking trash, is that many of the catadores do not even have the most basic of equipment -- meaning hand and feet protection. While closed shoes would obviously be the best option for this type of work, many of Recife's recyclers do not even own a pair of flip-flops and instead walk around barefoot. When a job does not even allow the luxury to purchase a pair of rubber sandals for R$5.00 (CAN$2.50), you know that things are not going well.

There are efforts in Recife and across the country to organize the catadores into cooperatives and to work with the government for recognition and better working conditions. Last week we visited a catadores' cooperative which is trying to do just that. Simple and basic, the association has a small warehouse with a termite-ridden roof, which allows the catadores to deposit and organise their wares for resale. These two fellows are the ones who run the in-house side of the cooperative -- weighing, sorting, and liasing with the buyers. It was a really good visit, although somewhat difficult given the complexity of problems that the catadores face and the equally elusive complexity of solutions.

Foiled!

I think that the gods of transportation must be trying to tell me something. Either that, or I am truly not destined to be successful in my quest to own a car. This afternoon, I finally managed to get myself to the car dealer before it closed, with the intention of test driving a model or two. The sun was shining. I left work on time. Even the employee who deals solely with diplomatic sales was there. What could possibly go wrong? The computer crashed once, but it was successfully rebooted.

Well ... after checking out all the different models available, the pros, the cons, and the price, the salesman told me that it would not be possible to go for a test drive. There just weren't any test-drive models that had been liberated by the factory. It's not that a particular model was out being driven around. It simply did not exist. Added to the situation was the fact that the dealership was having a promotional blitz today with music and dancing teenagers. I imagined that this effort to increase traffic [no pun intended] would at least mean that there would be a model to take for a spin. Ah well! Perhaps next week!

Cell Phone Update

A little cell-phone update for those who are concerned about my communications challenges. We signed the contract last week under some pressure from the cell phone company to not worry about the fact that the contract mentioned official sounding documents which don’t/didn’t exist [kind of like my reference points, I guess!]. Apparently, there were only fifty models of the phones that we selected left for distribution in the Northeast. Just to remind, Brazil’s Northeast is home to approximately 47 million people and there are only 50 Siemens x-whatevers left.... I tend to not believe it, but I leave the math to you in case you do!

Where's That You Say?

One of the interesting things in Recife is that people rarely use proper addresses to indicate location. Of course, everyone knows the main streets and thoroughfares, but very few people – including cab drivers who drive around town ten to twelve hours a day – seem to have a strong notion of either numbers or the names of the side streets. Instead, people talk in terms of reference points and landmarks.

In fact, in many parts of Latin America, it is not usual for addresses to be given in terms of reference points. I live in the green house two doors east of the post office or I live in the apartment complex with the red door one block west and one block south of the old oak tree. While this type of reference system often exists in rural areas or cities that are more rural than urban [read: Managua, Nicaragua], it is a little less common to find this system in urban settings. One of the exceptions being Recife! Even on official correspondence like my telephone bill, a reference point follows my street address and number.

Now the funny thing is that not only have I started to talk in terms of reference points, I even use references that don't actually exist anymore. The most frequent reference point that I use is the plot of land where the Pão de Açucar grocery store used to be. The Pão obviously existed for many years even though at the moment it is a pile of rubble [lots of those here!] waiting to be turned into an Extra grocery store. The question is, will I, along with the rest of Recife, manage to change the name of the reference point? Or will we simply continue to confound and annoy out-of-towners who hopelessly search for the Pão de Açucar? Only time will tell! Until then, I continue to hold on to the past and speak the secret language of the Recifenses.

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time....

This is a picture of the old Savaroni hotel just off the beach. I keep wanting to call it the Savoy, but no, it is the Savaroni. Poor little Savaroni. Although it is directly on Avenida Boa Viagem, which runs the length of the beach, all of its rooms look directly into the living and dining rooms of its bigger and brighter neighbours. Clearly it was built back in the day when it was the only highrise on the beach and was surrounded by family homes as opposed to highrise apartment buildings. With that kind of set-up, everyone would have had a terrific view looking either up or down the sand and out into the ocean. Although it must have been a bit of an odd site towering above everyone else.

But these days are long gone. There are still a few family homes -- estates really -- left on the beach, but they are a dying breed. The ones that remain appear dwarfed and tenuously holding on to what once must have been a spacious plot on a leafy and sophisticated beach avenue. Apparently these homeowners do not sell their land to developers. Rather, they give the land to the developers in exchange for ownership of three floors in the to-be-constructed highrise. The family can then decide whether they want to inhabit, rent, or sell their new "homes".



So what about the Savaroni? Well, I think that the prices just kept getting lower and lower, until finally it really didn't make sense to continue running a hotel on the beach, which didn't actually face the beach. The demolition crews are now hard at work every morning and I wait patiently [not really, I wish they would hurry up and get the dust-creating part over with] to see what kind of phoenix will rise from the rubble. In the meantime, I lament the days of leafy avenues and wonder how long the rest of the home-owners will be able to hold out.

Wag the Blog

Who controls your life? You or your blog? Do you find yourself paying extra attention to your surroundings or taking even more photos than usual just so that you can post them on your blog? Do you look at things in terms of whether or not it would make a good story?

I'd like to think that I ultimately make decisions based on whether the proposed activity would be fun in general, as opposed to its blog-worthiness. However, I must admit that I do tend to keep my eyes and ears open a little wider these days searching out the interesting, the obscure, the funny, the noteworthy, the cultural, the historical, and of course, the absurd. Now if I just had more time to write it all down!

Linda Olinda

Now that I have clarified the fact that we do indeed have big buildings here in Recife, I can go back to talking about the colonial architecture. Yesterday, in honour of the visit of a colleague from Canada, we headed to Olinda, Recife's sister city, six kilometres to the north, founded in 1535. In the early days of the colony, Olinda was the regional base for the country's prosperous sugar trade and many of the state's powerful sugar barons lived in Olinda and controled the surrounding countryside. Recife was merely the port to ship the sugar out of the country, and had little political relevance.

In the early years of the 18th Century, as Recife's economic and commercial influence increased, the city's merchants struggled for increased political power. Backed by money and various factions, in the early 1700s, Recife managed to usurp Olinda's power. This change in tides led to Recife's eventual growth into a large, (mostly) modern city while Olinda retained much of its original size and infrastructure. Today, the historical centre of Olinda has become an artistic / bohemian pole, and a day in Olinda is usually spent wandering around the cobbled streets marvelling at the colourful houses, the old churches and convents, and browsing in the artists workshops and galleries. There are also some pretty good restaurants! No surprise there!

Yesterday, in addition to my traditional Olinda stops, we managed to make it inside the Monastery of São Francisco [restricted hours meant that I had never managed to visit the inside before]. The first Franciscan Order to be established in Brazil, the Monastery was founded in 1585 and has some of the most incredible examples of Portuguese tiles. I was astounded at how beautiful and well preserved they were. The photo below gives an idea of the tiles, but is actually from a church in Salvador, Bahia. I didn't bring my camera yesterday thinking, clearly mistakenly, that I had seen it all. Next time, probably when my next visitor happens along, I will definitely not make this mistake!

Olinda with Recife in the background


The Cobbled Streets of Olinda


Convento São Francisco


Portuguese Tiles [actually from Salvador, Bahia]


Basílico Sao Bento

The Rear View

When I first started travelling to Latin America, I spent most of my time in Central America -- more specifically in Guatemala and El Salvador. I tended to limit most of my time to small rural villages and towns of little physical infrastructure and for years, I would bring home photos of one-room adobe houses, fields of corn, small colonial towns, and local residents going about their daily lives.

Little did I realise that I was subtly shaping people's overall impressions of Central America. A few years back, my mother had the opportunity to billet a small group of Guatemalan Girl Guides at our place in Montreal. What surprised her the most were the pictures they brought of Guatemala City which showed tall buildings and an infrastructure reminiscent of the North. I was then accused -- light-heartedly, of course -- of inappropriately portraying Central America. In order not to fall into this trap here, lest you think that Recife is all about the beach and colonial architecture, I present to you, without further ado, the view from the back of my place.

I am sure that I have the right....

Since I have been in Recife for a whopping three months, I am sure that I must have earned the right to say that things just aren't like they used to be. One of the advantages of not having had a kitchen for the first five weeks after arrival was the ability to take the Best Of list for Recife and work our way down one restaurant at a time. Although the joys of eating out do (and did) wear off, it gave us a good opportunity to sample the Recifensen wares and get to know the city.

One place that we happened upon quite early in the move was Boteco, a lively bar / restaurant just off the beach, voted this year for the best draught beer and service. Indeed, we were not disappointed. As luck would have it, we also managed to discover two amazing dishes for which we would return time and again -- shrimp in a pineapple and cheese sauce cooked in the carved out pineapple [kind of like the pumpkin version, except with a pineapple] and a warm seafood salad. It was great!

In subsequent visits though, things started to change. First the seafood salad changed. Instead of finding wonderful pieces of warm shrimp, calamari, scallops, and fish on top of lettuce, we found pieces of breaded and fried fish. Thinking that maybe it was a one-time mistake, we ordered the dish on another occassion only to find that no, this seemed to be the new standard. And now, I have discovered that the shrimp and pineapple dish has also changed. It now comes with a cheese gratinée on top. It's still really good and I will still recommend it to all visitors, but really, things just aren't the way they used to be. ;-) 

Today in Recife

And people wonder why I don't go to the beach more often! I wonder what will happen when the summer actually hits!

Currency Watching

Welcome to my new hobby -- watching the Canadian dollar rise and fall and rise and fall and rise and fall again. When I arrived in Brazil last autumn, the Canadian dollar was worth close to R$2.30 -- an exchange rate which meant that I got to divide the price of everything in half and then take off even a little bit more. It was great! Well, at least for the foreigners, it was. In the spring, the dollar fell to a low of R$1.85 and since then has been fluctuating between R$1.85 and R$1.95.

My lack of movement on the car-buying front is intrinsically related to my currency watching. My choice of cars has been narrowed down to two options, one of which would cost CAN$5,000 more than the other, but would have a better resale value in two years time. Various factors are at play when it comes to my currency-watching for car-buying purposes:

1. What will happen in Canadian politics and economics? The dollar dropped dramatically in the spring when the minority government almost fell during a budget-related confidence vote. With renewed calls from the opposition for a fall election and the upcoming conclusion of the Gomery Commission, things do not necessarily look good for the loonie. Or maybe a little stability will help improve her rating....

2. What will happen in Brazilian politics and economics? Not to be outdone with the Canadian side of the equation, the Brazilian government is also currently embroiled in their own scandals involving alleged payments to opposition party members to vote on government-proposed bills and legislation. What effect will this, as well as next year's upcoming federal election, have on the real? Will the economy still be strong in two years time when I come to sell my car? Last time there was a federal election, in 2002, the real plummeted.

3. What will happen in American politics and economics? Well, we're all related whether we like it or not, aren't we? No but seriously, the US dollar is about the only currency against which the Canadian dollar is managing to hold its own. I can't even speculate on where this one is going....

So the questions remain: Do I buy now while the dollar is weak only to have to sell later once the dollar has rebounded, thus losing more than just the devaluation? Do I hold out and try to buy when/if the dollar gets stronger, risking the fact that it might fall even further [in 1999, the Canadian dollar was worth R$1.29]? and finally, Do I buy the more expensive car in the hopes that the Brazilian economy will still be able to absorb its resale in a few years time, but again risking a bigger loss than with the less expensive car? I suspect that the answer is: Just suck it up and buy the car. Forget the currency watching 'cause it will just drive you crazy.

This is why I am not a currency trader.

Urban Design Gone Right ... and Wrong

One of the newest and best attractions of Recife Antigo is Paço Alfândega, a upper-end shopping centre, built in an old Convent-come-Customs-House dating back from 1732. Of all the Historic-meets-Modern renovations/upgrades that I have seen, this one is one the best examples of restoring a building for modern usage while keeping the historic structure intact. Paço Alfândega has a small mix of boutiques, cafés, restaurants, and art exhibits. On the fourth floor, there is an outdoor terrace with a terrific view across the river as well as Assucar, a fabulous restaurant specializing in regional cuisine [and the great view!]. Since the Paço is a little bit out of the way for most people and a tad on the pricey side, it also tends to be a rather quiet mall, perfect for enjoying a cup of coffee and little wander.

Paço Alfândega:


Side Entrance:


Central Mosaic and Art Exhibit:


More Art Exhibits and a Café:

So where has the urban design gone wrong? Well, just next door to the Paço is Recife's newest bookstore, Livraria Cultura. From the inside, Livraria Cultura is amazing. It has a huge selection of books and cds in all kinds of languages. There is a funky café on the second floor and tons of comfortable couches for people to peruse the books before buying. In all, I suspect that it is a welcome addition to Recife's literary scene. The downside is that from the outside, the building is perfectly atrocious. Made of graying cement, it looks more like a penal insitution than something that belongs next to the traditionalness of Paço Alfândega. I have no intelligence on whether Livraria Cultura built the building or whether they moved into an already existing space. It almost seems like they tried to copy some of the Paço's design.... The contents and interior are great, unfortunately the exterior leaves a bit to be desired. You can catch a glimpse of the Livraria to the right of the Paço.

Recife Antigo

Recife Antigo -- or Old Recife -- is one of the original areas of the city, developed during the 17th Century as a port for the blossoming sugar trade. Politically and economically, the sugar trade was centered in the neighbouring town of Olinda, with Recife acting as the port. Together, Recife and Olinda were one of the most prosperous cities in early colonial Brazil. However, when the sugar trade lost importance in the 19th Century, Recife's port area began a long period of decline. Recently there have been efforts to rejuvenate the port and encourage local businesses to set up shop. There has been some success, however, much of the area still needs a coat of paint or two. A bit more people traffic during the day would help make it seem safer as well.

This Weekend's Project [a.k.a. More Gourds on the Brain]

Ah the weekend! Long live a little lie in and my morning cappuccino. This is the first weekend since mid July that I have either been home and/or without visitors. What a strange thought to have to entertain myself for once! Plans include a little trip into the historic part of Recife where the city has been jazzing up the old buildings as well as a foray into my latest gourd plans [seeing that the Great Pumpkin Experiment went so well].

Several weeks ago while foraging in a local market, I stumbled across a woman selling dried gourds. Well, I didn't physically stumble over her ... you know what I mean!


I quickly snatched up three of the best ones with the intent of turning them into graceful ballerinas.


Since then I have been haphazardly gathering up what I believe to be the remaining ingredients -- paint, paintbrushes, modelling dough, sealant, and wire to help shape the arms. I was going to start the modelling part last night, but realised that I needed to buy wire cutters before I could go any further. One more errand for today and then I think that I will be ready to start this latest experiment! If I never blog about this again, you can just imagine what has happened!

The Blogs That Don't Get Posted ...

I assume that all blog writters have blogs that never get posted. Either they are never written and remain in one's head, or they do get written and the "post" button never gets pushed. As I have been enjoying the ups and downs of opening a new office here in Recife there are many many blogs that have either been written and not posted or have remained as potential blogs in my head. Mainly these blogs have had to do with some of the incredible processes that I have encountered while trying to accomplish what I assume to be the simplest of tasks. I suspect that it would be a downer to read daily accounts of these struggles -- but this week's story deserves sharing!

For the past three, yes three, months we have been trying to procure a couple of office cell phones. A seemingly simple task, enormously complicated by the fact that all the cell phone companies requested a mere fifteen documents from us in order to prepare the contract. These documents included our incoporation act; a copy of our by-laws; a copy of the most recent modification to the by-laws; if the most recent modification is more than two years old, they needed some other document; photocopies of everyone in the office's ID; three business references; two banking references; etc., etc. Now, as an entity of a foreign government, we don't actually have many of these documents. As far as I know embassies do not have incorporation acts or by-laws. No doubt we have other official type documents, but definitely not the same ones that a private company would have.

We finally managed to put together the necessary package of paperwork only to be told by the company that we also needed an official letter stating that I was authorized to sign the contract. Well my kind colleagues at the embassy whipped up a letter nicely signed and emblazened with the embassy stamp and letterhead. The letter was even sent off to the Brazilian department of Foreign Affairs for their official certification and blessing. The authorization letter arrived at the end of last week and I though that at last, we were good to go. But no! It was not to be. The company then asked us for documentation proving that the signator of the letter was authorized to authorize me! I can just see this working its way all the up to her majesty, on whose behalf we work in the first place. Picture it ... Did you, Queen Elizabeth, authorize the Governor General, to authorize the Prime Minister, to authorize the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to authorize .... You can see where this one is going ....

Surprisingly enough, after all this, the company rep actually showed up today with a copy of the contract! Yes, all ready for me to sign! He laughed when I asked whether or not he would be leaving the phones with us upon my signature. Once signed, the company will analyse our credit rating and if everything pans out, we will be the proud owners of new cell phones in approximately three (!) more weeks. Oh dear ... I hope that they do not stumble upon the CAN$500 billion that constitutes Canada's external debt ....

All That to Explain This ...

... the latest installment in caipirissima's Fun Phone series. Introducing the cangaphone!


This photo was taken in Recife's Casa da Cultura, a old jail converted into a artesans' fair, with each cell becoming one seller or artist's little store. The building is rather impressive, three stories high and built in the shape of a cross, and still has the creepy feel of an old dank jail. Even the picture makes it look a little sinister! It's definitely worth the visit to see the building even if crafts aren't your thing.

T-e-r-r-o-r-i-s-t-s Among Us

For my birthday back in July, Mark bought me two dolls -- Lampião and Maria Bonita, two of the most popular folk heros of Pernambuco and the Brazilian Northeast. These two are everywhere! They can be found in abundance as clay figurines, wood carvings, as etched engravings, on the covers of folk literature, and as life size cut-out dolls so that you too can be Lampião and Maria Bonita. From the little that we knew about Lampião, it seemed that he was some kind of Robin Hood figure for the Brazilian Northeast back in the 1920s and 30s. Fighting against the machine, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, Lampião and Maria Bonita were the leaders of a gang of (mostly) men, called cangaceiros, who roamed the backwoods defying the law and living off the generosity of the poor exploited peasants.

Now that I had these two cuddly dolls in my possession, it seemed to me that I should do a little bit of research to find out just who Lampião and Maria Bonita were. Well. Imagine my shock when I discovered that Lampião and Maria Bonita were simply bad bad people [at least that is what most of the literature says ...]. No revolutionary, hero-of-the-poor going on here. Lampião -- whose real name was Virgulino Ferreira da Silva -- was born in 1897 in the semi-arid backlands of Pernambuco. Life was tough and the local peasants ecked out their livings subject to the rule of large landholders and political bosses. Virgulino's family was involved in a vicious family feud [not such an uncommon thing ....] and his father was killed during a police raid when Virgulino was in his early twenties. Vowing revenge, he headed into the bush and became Lamipão, a deadly bandit who raided, looted, killed, and terrorized. According to one account, the most positive thing that could happen would be that if he had nothing personal against a particular town or village, he would throw a party with lots of music and cachaça. Other than that, these guys were nasty. Pure nasty. The peasants who collaborated did so mostly out of extreme fear.

In 1938, the cangaceiros were betrayed and Lamipão and Maria Bonita were killed in a surprise attack. The attacking soldiers cut off the heads of the dead [approximately a dozen] cangaceiros and sent them off to the city of Salvador where they were examined and then put on display for over thirty years. It was only in 1971 that the heads were returned to the families -- Lamipão and Maria Bonita had one daughter in 1932 -- for proper burial. And now these two are huge folk heros and can be found in every tourist stall for sale in some form or another.

More info on Lamipão, including pictures of their heads on display [kind of gruesome, you have been warned] can be found here and here.

Success!

It worked! Amazingly enough, my attempt to make Jerimum Recheado com Camarão ao Creme de Manga turned out almost perfectly. Half way through the experiment, I was worried that the pumpkin was not cooking properly. But, after keeping it in the oven for an extra five minutes, the result was delectable. The only thing I would change for next time would be to not skimp on the shrimp. As I was in a rush to buy the final ingredients, I bypassed the giant shrimp since I did not want to spend any time deveining them, and instead bought small - as in shrimpy - shrimp, which were all ready to go. It tasted good, but I think that the jumbo shrimp would have made it taste even better. So for those of you with pumpkins just piling up in the pantry, here is a translation of the recipe that I used, courtesy of the Art of Gastronomy in Brazil website. Apologies for half imperial / half metric - I am just copying directly from the site!

Ingredients:

1 pumpkin (1.5kg)
250g peeled jumbo shrimp
2 cups concentrate mango juice
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon chopped mint
1 teaspoon fennel / anise
salt to taste
2 Tablespoons creamy cheese [creamier than cream cheese, but cream cheese or sour cream may be the closest substitutes]

1. Wash the pumpkin well.
2. Carve open the top of the pumpkin and remove all the seeds from the middle.
3. Replace the top and cook the pumpkin in a bain-marie [water bath?] for 30 minutes. The recipe did not indicate a temperature, so I set the stove at approximately 220°C [425°F] which seemed to work well.
4. In the meantime, bring the mango juice and shrimp to a boil.
5. Once boiling, add the olive oil, mint, fennel, and salt.
6. Once the shrimp are cooked add the mixture to the pumpkin. Stir in the creamy cheese and cook for a further ten minutes.
7. Serve hot.

See. Easy!

Happy Birthday Brazil!

Not just an excuse for another day off, today is the 183rd anniversary of the day that Brazil became its own country. The story of Brazil's independence is rather unique and bears telling. A Portuguese colony since 1500, Brazil became home to the Portuguese Crown in 1808 when Napoleon's armies descended upon Portugal. Two days before the invasion, the royal family - led by Queen Maria I and Regent João VI - and their entourage (all 15,000 of them) sailed away to govern Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves from the safety of the New World.

The Royal Court settled in Rio de Janeiro and immediately began to modernise the colony and loosen some of the strict trading controls that had been previously established. The Royal Family became thoroughly enchanted with Brazil and decided not to return to Portugal once Napoleon fell in 1815. Maria I died in 1816 and João VI officially became king. He declared Rio the capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, Brazil having been elavated to the status of kingdom a year earlier. Dom João VI continued to rule the Kingdom from Brazil until 1821 when he finally returned to Portugal to rule amid mounting pressure from the mother land.

Upon his departure, Dom João left his eldest son Pedro in Brazil to rule the colony as regent. Following João's return to Portugal, the Portuguese elite tried to revert Brazil to its subordinate position as colony, rather than co-Kingdom and, as a result, on September 7, 1822, Pedro, loyal to the elite of Brazil, declared Brazil to be independent. Pedro then became Dom Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil! If you are wondering what ever happened to the Brazilian monarchy, I'll share the second half of the story in November when Brazil celebrates Republic Day. In the meantime, enjoy your day, Brazil! It's 9:30am and the beach is already packed!

Goodbye Gilligan

Well, I don't usually post celebrity gossip, prefering to leave the task to other dedicated and prolific bloggers out there, but of recent note is the September 2nd passing of Bob Denver, more commonly known as Gilligan. Could a complete adolescence or childhood even exist without some connection to Gilligan and the gang? I suspect not.

Maybe I Should Stay Home

I am beginning to think that maybe I should try staying home for once, as it seems that whenever I go away something cataclysmic happens somewhere in the world. Over Christmas while we were blissfully playing in the ocean off the coast of the state of São Paulo, the same waves that teasingly tossed us around were reeking havoc and destroying lives all over Asia. It was only upon our return to civilization that I discovered what had happened. Suddenly, our beach vacation seemed frivolous and irreverent. Over New Years, while we had a bit of a fun time in Rio, revellers in Buenos Aires ended up trapped and suffocated in a club fire. And now, during a business trip to Brasilia and a weekend in Rio, I spent much of my free time glued to the television, confounded, mesmerized, shocked, and angered, watching the drama of the gulf states unfold. What made/makes this particular tragedy even more difficult to digest is not just the natural dimensions of it, but the human and institutional drama that followed [I'll leave it at that ....]. Around the world, the poor are always more vulnerable to natural disasters than are the non-poor, the latter usually having more options and/or facilities than the former to escape or weather the storm [no pun intended]. It's hard to watch. Those who can least afford to suffer, often suffer the most. My poor friend Ysa – not only was she travelling with me over Christmas, New Years, and now – she was also travelling during the shopping mall fire in Paraguay and the tube bombings in London in July. It is an unexpected world out there – stay safe, all.