Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Rio We Go

This week's good news is not just that i) I am off to Rio for a week with my mom (the benefit of having guests who need to see Rio!); or ii) that we will spend two days in charming Paraty; or even iii) that we will get to meet up with some friends that I only manage to see infrequently due to geography. Of course, all this is good news. Great news in fact. But, the really extraordinarily great news is that while in Paraty, I already know that we will eat at Banana da Terra and that I will order the banana-and-cheese-stuffed calamari dish that I ordered last time I was there in December 2004, and of course, blogged about here. I can taste it now....

Sunset Over Itamaracá

This afternoon we were treated to this glowing sunset over the palm trees of Itamaracá, a beach village an hour north of Recife. A perfect way to end a busy week of sightseeing in Recife!

How I Spent my Easter Holiday

One of the reasons why I encouraged my mom to come visit over Easter was so that we could attend the world's largest outdoor play -- Fazenda Nova's [also known as Nova Jerusalem] Passion Play. The play is presented in the largest outdoor theatre in the world, a one-third walled replica of the city of Jerusalem as it stood two thousand years ago, in a village approximately two and a half hours from Recife. The set consists of nine different stages where the story of the crucification is played out over a three hour period.

The amazing thing is that both the actors and the audience have to move to the next stage between scenes. The night we were there, there were 10,000 people in attendance. Yes! 10,000 people who had to change locations every twenty minutes, the approximate length of each scene. I was amazed at the level of organization that allowed so many people to up and move in an orderly fashion.

In many cases, the effects of the audience moving became part of the play, as the audience unwittingly transformed itself into the crowds of the crowd scenes. The theatre, a privately-funded multi-year labour of love, was landscaped and created so perfectly, that this movement of actors, horses, centurions, romans, wailers, and the audience blended into one flowing movement, neither of which could have existed without the other.

This blend of the acting, mixed with the open air setting [it was a full moon and a perfectly clear starry night] and the "choreography" of the audience was an impressive mix. Well worth the time!

Your Car - Update

Your Car - Update is currently the most common email that I receive these days. But ... this week with good news! The invoice has RETURNED from Sao Paulo! I didn't want to believe it until I had it in my hot little hand, but when the dealer arrived Tuesday afternoon with the note and the elusive stamp, I had to believe.* I have now shuffled a lot more copies of a lot more papers with a ton of signatures and sent the lot off to Brasilia in the hopes that one day soon I will receive my plates. Another hurdle overcome!** I can almost taste my first road trip....

* Okay, put up your hands, those who thought it would never arrive!
** I have a pretty good idea of the next hurdle, but dare not mention it out loud or in writing....

Friends, the Betting Pool is Still Open....

Remember my car? It was delivered to the dealer on March 31st, four months after I started the process to order it.

Remember the invoice, which is necessary for me to buy insurance and request my plates, that was sent back to Sao Paulo because the Custom's Agency forgot to stamp it ?

Remember the promise that the invoice would be back in Recife by April 7th, April 12th, April 14th?

Not only am I still waiting, there is no longer any ETA. Hedge your bets my friends, the pool gets larger and larger every day....

REALLY Poor Hospitality

While I'd like to think that last week's show of poor hospitality was due to circumstances beyond my control, there was really no excuse for the lack of hospitality shown to my poor mother who arrived in Recife last Wednesday. Ever trying to be the good hostess, I ensured that the sheets in the guest room were freshly laundered; that the soap, shampoo and towels were ready and waiting; that the windows were washed; that I knew what time her flight would land and that I got myself to the airport in time; that an array of travel guides were available to plan our itinerary; and that I even managed to call home the day before to see if there were any last minute questions. Amid the preparations however, never once did it cross my mind to ensure that there was food in the house! Really. There was nary a crumb, except for a few odd condiments cuttering up the fridge. My poor mom! It's a good thing that i) I managed to russle up a half-full box of cereal for breakfast; and ii) she has a good sense of humour! The flipside is that we've eaten out at some really good restaurants in the last few days. More to follow....

Poor Hospitality

First they got my rice. Then my pasta. Then my instant soup mixes and my spices (even the savoury ones). One by one all these products have found their way into my fridge and freezer as I try to avoid the Wrath of the Bugs. But last night, I was saddened even further. Since I had some tea-drinking friends coming over, I decided to spice things up a bit a serve a pot of Café Santropol's amazingly unique Hospitali-tea. Once I had the kettle safely heating up, I reached into the pantry and pulled out the box of tea, only to discover that it too had little bugs scurrying in and out of the bags. How annoying that the bugs chose to attack Hospitali-tea's blend of red clover flowers, camomile, spearmint, linden, peppermint and orange blossons rather than some everyday run-of-the-mill grocery-store purchased tea. So now I have bugs with discerning taste and am quickly running out of room in my fridge in which to store the rest of my pantry!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

It divides brothers and sisters; husbands and wives; colleagues; neighbours; and friends. It even causes heart attacks (muita emoção!). Last night, underdog Sport beat high flying Santa Cruz 1-0 in the final game of the state football championship! This morning, the streets are awash in Sport's red & black, while the tricolours of Santa Cruz (red, white, and black) are conspicuously absent.... Fortunately with the World Cup just around the corner, I can easily dodge the question of whether I am a Sport or a Santa Cruz fan by saying that my true backing is for the Seleção Nacional. No matter where a Brazilian fan's domestic allegiance lies, come June, the country will unite as one as Brazil heads to the World Cup and tries to earn the coveted title of sexta-champion.

A Social Commentary on Bedtimes

An article on kids' bedtimes in yesterday's Globe & Mail suggests that today's school-aged children are getting substantially less sleep than kids of the same age a generation ago. According to the article:

For growing youngsters, sleep is the balm of brain development. Chronically sleep-deprived children have higher rates of learning difficulties, behavioural problems, obesity, illness and accidents. Sleep shortages are perhaps most pronounced at school, where teachers see a host of consequences. Concentration shrivels. Creativity suffers. Hyperactivity increases. Attention spans shrink. Short-term memory suffers. Immune systems wane.

The parents interviewed in the article lament the difficulty that they have trying to get their six-year-old to get to bed in a timely manner. Should this difficulty continue, they warn that they will be forced to remove the television in his bedroom on which he plays video games late into the night.

Ummmmmmm .....

I am not even sure my commentary needs to be verbalised....

Clothing Imperialism

I am not sure whether to laugh or to cry. Is it so aburd that it is funny, or is it simply another cog in the wheel which is a little off kilter? Winter in Brazil roughly falls between the months of July and August plus or minus another month or so. In the south and southeast, winter is a distinguishable season, and while it might not be the frostbite-in-fifteen-minutes-or-less type of winter that Canada experiences, it is still a season that is marked with dipping temperatures and the need to wear a heavier jacket and perhaps even a scarf. It has even been known to snow in southern Brazil, although any accumulation is virtually unknown. However, in the Recife and the rest of the northeast, there is very little temperature variation throughout the year and seasons can be classified as either hot or hotter (28 to 35 degrees). So when I walk through the mall and I see that stores are coming out with fall and winter collections which include puffy jackets, thick wool sweaters, and fluffy scarves, I have to wonder! Can it all be for people who will be travelling to these cooler climes? Do people need to wear warmer clothes simply because the season is called winter, regardless of any real variations? Or is it another example of the south ruling the north?

Hurray for Friends!

And a special hurray for friends who visit! I have to say that since moving to Brazil a year a half ago, I have had a fairly constant stream of visitors, starting with Eliane, who arrived chez moi four days after I did, to Barbara and Cristina who returned to Europe just a few short days ago. I have to say that I have enjoyed each and every visit immensely. I always love showing off my haunts and I consider myself quite fortunate to have had so many opportunities to do so. Here's a fun photo of Barbara and I posing with our friends the playmos in colourful Olinda. Hopefully the next picture I post of the playmos will be the real thing! My next visitor arrives in less than a week -- my mom!

Why Holding One's Breath Can be Hazardous to one's Heath

Remember my car? Well ... as promised, it did arrive in Recife on Friday. However, the invoice (nota fiscal), which is necessary for me to move along with the next set of transactions, has been SENT BACK TO SAO PAULO! As it turns out, the invoice had not been stamped by the Federal Customs Office thus rendering it useless. It has now been sent back to the Customs Office so that it can receive its coveted stamp to then be returned to Recife so that I can do things like purchase the insurance and request my plates. The dealer estimates that the note will be back in town by Friday....

A Weekend in Salvador

Taking advantage of the fact that two friends of mine were visiting Brazil from Europe last week, I jumped at the chance to spend the weekend in Salvador with them, my decision aided by a really cheap flight that I managed to find. Hurray!

The capital of colonial Brazil until the honour was moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1763, Salvador is the heart of afro-Brazil, having received 1.3 million African slaves over the centuries. In addition to being home to some amazing colonial architecture, Salvador also has an incredible pulsing vibe, unique even within Brazil. Since we only had a couple of days, we spent most of our time in Pelourinho or The Pillary, the historical centre, so named after the infamous squares where African slaves were bought, sold, traded, and tortured. I'll leave the historical (and current) connotations for another time, and end on a happier note. Overall, we had a terrific weekend enjoying the sites and the company, already planning our next travels together, be they in Brazil, in Canada, in Europe, or ???

Fun Pic of the Week

I took this photo on Friday while visiting a small preschool in the city of Abreu e Lima, part of the Greater Recife Metropolitan area. I had actually gone to Abreu e Lima to visit a whole lot of garbage, as I seem to do with some kind of frequency, so it was nice to have the bonus visit to the preschool and a daycare that the community is organizing and hoping to subsidise with a part of the money raised through their garbage recycling efforts. Aren't these little boys just too cute?