Archive for month: March, 2008

By Carol Prentiss
March 18, 2008

Living in Brazil means having to make adjustments. Adjusting attitude, ways of doing things, and lifestyle. I certainly didn’t come here to be the ugly American”. But I can tell you that learning to be Brazilian is no easy project. My friend Ana, who is Brazilian, even finds it difficult at times. Dealing with the government and government services can be very frustrating. I suppose a lot has to do with still being new at the democratic process. Being part of the evolutionary process is certainly a new thing for me. I don’t know if you think about it, but I was born into a fairly completed process. Right now, I have to admit, the USA is at some kind of cross roads and even the ones “in the know” are having a hard time predicting which way the country is going to go. Most everyone seems to think it all hinges on this coming presidential election. From my chair I don’t necessarily see that as the deciding factor. The deciding factor will be that elusive “silent majority”. A silent majority that needs to enter the debate. However, American politics is another story for another day. Coming here from a country where “Fast” is the operative word to a country that is much more relaxed means an attitude adjustment. This is what I consider “relaxed”. Local business men at a Kiosk on the beach promenade on a break for an afternoon cappuccino. Lunch breaks are usually two hours long, from noon until 2 pm. The Post Office on the promenade is closed from 11am to 2pm. Most Brazilians eat their main meal at noon. Two hour lunch breaks then make sense. There are many kiosks on the beach which are open from 9 or 10 until midnight or longer and some of them have live music during the afternoon.

There are other slight adjustments I had to make. For instance, entering the shower for the first time I was confronted with a cord leading from the shower head and plugged into an electrical outlet! Are you kidding me? Intelligent people have to know that electricity and water together is not a good thing. I stepped back out of the shower, put my clothes back on and found my friends in the kitchen. Uh, is there another shower that I can use? The obvious question in unison, “Why?”. I explained my aversion to having my shower “plugged in”. Ana assured me that all showers are plugged in. Well, that may be, but not where I come from! I tried sponge baths for a day or two, I was determined I was not going to set foot in a shower with electricity in it. But, as you can imagine hot humid sweat producing weather overpowered a simple little sponge bath. It was time to face that shower. I admit the whole time I was undressing in front of that shower, God was hearing my pleas for safekeeping. Well, obviously I survived. I rarely take a shower using even warm water here in Fortaleza. I’m not sure there is such a thing as cold Water here. The best description is “Tepid”. There are only 3 apartments on each floor of our building, which I really like. The hallway from the elevator to our apartment is actually a balcony. We rarely close our door, nor do our neighbors. Our apartment is just to the left of the painting standing against the wall. Haven’t figured our how to hang it yet, since we can’t put a nail in the wall. Gosh, how does one live without nails in the wall to hang things on?

With all it’s charm and beauty there is, of course, the poverty side of life here in Brasil. There are those unfortunate who beg for money, or the cigarette you are smoking or the rest of an ice cream cone you are eating. We sometimes do give money. But more often, we’ll take a kid to a kiosk and buy him a hamburger and fries and a drink. Sometimes on the way from the beach we stop at McDonalds for cheeseburgers and fries. We usually save the fries for the kid up the street to our building, who washes cars by the curb from a small bucket, having to carry water from a distance. He is so appreciative and every so often we’ll add a cheeseburger for him. It’s not uncommon to step over a person sleeping on a piece of cardboard if we go to the supermarket later in the evening. As the cities in Brasil grow and becomes more metropolitan it is my prayer that more will be offered for the poor, especially a school system which does not discriminate against the poor because it is so costly to send a child to school.

Carol lives in Fortaleza and is a watercolor artist. She writes about life in Brazil at her blog, http://carolprentiss.blogspot.com/, which also features paintings and selected photos of her “little corner”.