Sao Joao (festival of Saint John the Baptiste) is over, but I still have a few photos to post! Here is Lela and her friends at a party, and one of Grayson, too.
A folk band in a park:
http://www.jeff-snyder.com/100_7532.mov
And a preacher going down our street preaching from the top of a truck and a parade of worshippers/followers. It's always "muita interessante" here!
Here is Eden in the backseat with her Guarana in a bag - at the coxinha kiosk, where we get chickenballs - uh, no not chicken "balls" but balls of chicken, they give you soda in a baggie with a straw. Eden gets a kick out of it. Guarana is a fruit soda that she loves.
Here is a monkey over by the Catholic School. Eden and I pretty much freak out and get excited every time we see monkeys here - now I get how cool Amelia thought squirrels were in Virginia. Monkeys are to Brazilians what squirrels are to us - everywhere, a little pesty but kind of cute...
I love taking photos of graffiti - anywhere - there's a bunch around here that I still need to take, but here are a few. The skateboard guy is saying something like "what do the colors represent" and the blue guy is saying something like "they are the colors of Alagoas" (the state I am in in Brazil).
This one is even more political. It says something like don't vote because elections are full of crap...and long live the revolution...
A frog at Amelia's house in Barra Nova - he is just sitting on the mirror. SO tiny...and like normal to see. I remember the last time that I stayed there, I would be in the bathroom and there would be like a random frog in my shower...
I love watching these two people when I go to Nanda's house in the evening. The people on her street sit outside and talk and people-watch, go walking, ride bikes, stand around and watch the traffic go by. I love this "old lady" who stands at her gate and checks out the goings-on and this mellow guy who plays his guitar on the fence during the evening - sometimes during the day, too. Muita bom!
Finally, I love looking for the close blends of traditional and modern in the city. From an academic standpoint, I am trying to see examples of how rapid development and modernization in Maceio, in particular, has left the poor behind or if poorer populations can still find a role in post-modern Brazil. There are pedicarts rushing along side of taxis and horse-drawn carriages in line in traffic. Families sit on the sidewalks shucking corn and separating beans for sale on the medians while consumers breeze in and out of grocery stores.
Cell phones, modems, computers and other electronics are all the rage, typically purchased on payment plans (a favorite especially among Brazilians ages 20-35) start everyone out on some level of credit card debt. Advertising is everywhere to reel in consumers to the credit-deal...salespersons wear t-shirts advertising their easy credit and prices marked on products mention the credit price in huge lettering with the "pay all at once" price in small font. Flat Screen TV! 30x $90...or $2500 something similar, but 30x is in tiny letters, $90 is huge and the full price is small....it makes you look and considering the long lines in the stores, people are buying. Store credit card kiosks are always full and couriers run across town on foot to deliver DVD players and microwaves.
People walk their donkeys and horses in the medians to graze, and farmers peddle their fruits and vegetables in makeshift markets to make a few dollars. Kids are on every city corner, asking to wash windows or offering bags of beans or oranges for a few cents...children the age of Gracie, running in and out of traffic tapping on windows, asking for money. Everywhere you park, there are guys offering to clean your car or keep an eye on it while you shop, party, eat for the equivalent of about 50 cents to a dollar, and occasionally a disgruntled person will yell foreign profanity when you say "nao obrigada" or no thanks. Here is a guy stopped behind us in traffic - on his horse. We have also been in some traffic jams with some! Oh, and a stop sign means nothing here...it means start honking as you drive 70 miles an hour straight through it.
Mostly, it's peaceful, but poverty is everywhere. The wrought-iron gates on every window, the metal spikes and electric fences on the walls surrounding every house and apartment building are a reminder that many in this country are desperate - to survive, to eat. When we can, we give a few reals or even a bag of food, but it's overwhelming. Today in the shanties, I stood with children overlooking a gorgeous view of a valley, with a small river and rows and rows of palm trees. The sky was a perfect blue and the breeze was refreshing. You almost forget that you are standing with 14 children who rarely have enough to eat and even more rare, a chance to achieve or succeed beyond their community. I think every American needs to take a trip like this so they can understand the opportunities we are given in our country far surpass what we often deserve if we don't stop and consider the obstacles of others.
