The Sound Of The Rains

This Sunday it was raining in Brasília for the first time since mid May. Everyone have been waiting and asking for the rains to come, as it has been very dry, some days the humidity even went down below 10% which is extreme, less than in the desert. And the rains are supposed to come now, even though maybe only in October, people say September is early and it was only a rather short rain, one night.
But nevertheless you can tell the difference. Nature has only been waiting for the rains and it was so ready.
One thing that has changed too is also the sounds. The birds are even more lively and loud in the mornings. But the main new sound is something that I don't really know what it is yet. I would guess it is some kind of cricket, but it sounds different from the ones in Europe. It snarts with a little hesitant knacking sound but then increases to something absolutely not hesitant. It has a very lound, constant and long tone. You can here it from very far and you hear many at the same time. Very interesting, and a little annoying. But aparently it is a sure sign for more rain, people say.

Minas Gerais

Last weekend I went to Minas Gerais to visit the famous colonial towns there. We flew into Belo Horizonte and from there drove in a rented car to Ouro Preto where we spent the first night. The Saturday was spent just walking around in Ouro Preto and enjoying this beautiful town. It is really nice!



Ouro Preto

Coming and leaving

My time in Brazil is quickly coming to an end now. On Friday I am doing my last day at work here and then I will have a weekend in Brasília before I go travelling on Tuesday for a couple of weeks and then go back to Sweden.
It has been a great time here. Although Brasília is strange place and it for sure took some time to get into it and I still think it is probably one of the worst places in the world to come to as a single expatriate over the age of 35, I still kind of like it.
I have worked a lot but still I have invested a lot of energy in getting to know people and creating some kind of social base. After six months it is starting to pay off, but then it is time to leave. And for sure you notice that people are not as keen on investing time in you, as they know you are soon leaving. I can understand that, it is completely rational behaviour, but it makes me a little sad. I have met so many lovely people here and I would have loved to stay here longer, but it is time to leave.
Somehow one comfort is, that I seem to meet lovely people whereever I go. Which means there are a lot of lovely people out there and there will be many more lovely people to meet whereever I go. At the same time I am really bad at saying goodbye and leaving. And it is for sure not getting any easier with time.
Therefore it is a strange combination I have. I am restless and love to go to new places and I get very easily settled anywhere and can build myself a social base anywhere, but still I hate to say farewell and leave. It is a bad combination. At least in the sense that I am making it very hard for myself.
I must admit, I am a bit sad now. At the same time it feels good to be back. At least for a start. There are a lot of things that I have missed, but at the same time I know it wont take long before I am bored to death with life back home in Stockholm... but I will try not to think about that now. You never know what life has waiting for you!

Travels but not blogging

I have to admit I have done quite some travelling that I haven't been writing about or posted pictures from. Partly because some of it was work related and hence very busy, and partly because I have worked so much and been very busy I didn't have much energy to write even when I had time. And when time has passed it feels less relevant to write about it.
Work took me to lovely Rio again, but no time on my own there. Then to Sao Paulo, where I actually took some time off this time, very enjoyable. Nice city!! I think I could like it there too.

Then time for some nature and wildlife in Pantanal. Very nice and relaxing! I took a lot of pictures and maybe mostely of birds, but unfortunately we did not see very many other animals. Nice anyway.

I would have liked to post picture but got the message that I have used my quote of pictures and could not be bothered doing anything about it now. Maybe later

A Weekend at the Cerrado

This weekend I went with a friend to the national park of Chapada dos Veadeiros some hours north of Brasilia. It could have started better as the car we thought we should be driving there was not quite fit we had to rent a car, then my friend was chaught up in something which made us leave 3-4 hours later than planned which in turn we had to drive most of the way and all the part of the unpaved road in the dark. On top of that I had a very stressful week so it took a while before I could relax and stop being irritable. But what can be better for relaxing and getting out of stress than a weekend of hiking and swimming in beautiful nature with nice company?


Immediately on arrival at the pousada in the small village of São Jorge I realised this will be fine. A very laid back loungy atmosphere and beautifully decorated place under a lovely starry sky.

On Saturday we went for a hike in the park. The cerrado is a fascinating place. It is not in any way ingratiating, on first sight it might even look rather ugly and unfriendly in all its dry vastness, but if you scratch ever so little on the rough surface you find a wealth of beauty and fascination. There is a richnes in flora and eventhough animals and birds are difficult to spot in the hottes day hours the landscape and vegetation makes up for it.



And the water! Because amidst all dryeness there are plenty of rivers and creeks everywhere. Eventhough it is all a plateu there are big differents in hights and a lot of canyons and valleys that make room for a lot of waterfalls. Waterfalls with clear cool water that you can drink right from the creek and swim in. Lovely!!

A quite fascinating feature is that the ground here to quite a big extent is made of pure crystal and quarts. Therefore you will walk on paths all covered in white and pink quarts stone and in some places you can see completely clear crystals, sometimes leftovers from miners of old days.



This crystal has gatherd a lot of new age people, hippies and spritualists to the area and apparently it has certain energies, I was told you sometimes can see flashes shooting up from the ground, like flashes from thunder, but coming from the ground. I didn't see it and it sounds weird, but... That should also be one of the reasons for some of the many fires in the cerrado this time of the year, we saw several during the weekend, but those are also caused by self-igniting plants. We were told about the Candombá plant that has a self combustible oil that makes it ignite, but at the same time have features that protects itself from the fire. Very smart plant, setting everything on fire, but self be safe! As I said; the cerrado is a fascinating place.

Brazilian Stress

One thing that totally freaks us out here, and by "us" I mean internationals, non Brazilians and maybe specifically Scandinavians, is the queues at the counter in the supermarket. I have never in my life seen anything so unneccessarily ineffecient and frustrating. First of all, the area around the counter is really small and crowded and even if there is just two persons in front of you in the line, it takes for ever and you feel squeezed from all sides. The band where you are supposed to put your things is very short, and even if it is movable they never move it until they have finished with one customer. Instead they keep stretching and bending to reach all the stuff and you have to wait until you can unload your cart. And they will proabably all have their necks and sholders destroyed way before retirement age. (The Swedish unions would never have accepted these working conditions!)
Not even considering that all the moves are very very slow, there are so many moments that the poor cashiers have to do, so I can in a away understand they don't hurry to get the next customer. Enven before they start reading the bar codes of the goods there are at least three questions they have to ask every EVERY customer: "Cliente mais?", "CPF na nota?" "Nota fiscal?" In my case the answer is no to all three of them, but in case the customer before you says yes then it will take even longer time. Then the cashier has to register a lot of numbers before starting to registre the purchases and sometimes the customer has difficulties remembering their CPF or the cashier, doesn't hear or enters the wrong number it can take for ever.

Then, finally efter ages, the things are registerd, the sum is calculated and the payment done, which of course also takes for ever, as the customer needs to dubble check the bill and always need to discuss some matter, but then the cashier doesn't start with the next customer. No, instead he or she starts packing the purshases into one million minuscular plastic bags, which of course the client didn't start doing while waiting for the registration to be finished.

And often the clients just leave their shopping cart in the small gate betweein the counters for the one after to remove before you can even get close to the counter.
This is such a frustrating stress moment that I just can not get used to. Every time I need to remind myself to relax, breathe deeply and not start shouting or hitting at anyone. But this is definetly one of the moments I feel the cultural difference the most. No Brazilians seem to get stressed about this at all!!

To make a small comparison I sometimes think that if they would speed up processes in lines in supermarkets, banks, bakeries etc etc, they would have so much more time and would not have to stress so in traffic. Cause there all patience seems to have vanished completely all of a sudden...

And somehow, I still believe casualties are still higher in traffic than in the supermarket, so slowing down in traffic and speeding up in the supermarket would for sure have a double positive effect.

Burn Baby Burn

This time of year it is really dry in the central parts of Brazil, around Brasilia. That means wildfires are rather common. It is a natural part of the cerrado ecosystem and hence no one seems to care that much about it. It often seems they start spontanously and as it seems most of the time they also die by themselves after a while. From Brasilia you often see smoke rising towards the sky in the distance and flying back from João Pessoa to Brasilia on Sunday evening I saw quite a few fires on the cerrado, one quite big one and many smaller, some even very close to the city or even in the city. This is something that is very unusual to me; that you can have fires going on within the city and no one cares! No fire brigade is there to put the fire out! Sometimes there is a normal car from the Bombeiros, not a fire truck looking at the fire, but not putting it out.

Ice Surprise in perfect size.

Found the perfect concept for an ice cream parlour; self service and pay by weight! I normally always get irritated because I get too much ice cream only because I want to try many flavours. It seems to be some kind of sport to make the scoops as big as possible. Now I could try as many flavours as I wanted and only very small scoops. Perfect! Then I could try all those I had no idea what is was. Avocado ice was quite good. I don't know why I never give up on acai but manga-caja and pequi was ok, even though I have no idea what it is. The name of the place is Sabores de cerrado so I guess there are a lots of strange fruits from the savannah. Have to go back tomorrow and try some more. :-)

Sitting on a plane again. This time going to Joao Pessoa for the weekend. I realise that I more and more appreciate the time of transport just being time when I get to sit still and not doing anything and noone asking me questioons.

Birds of Brazil

Brazil has one of the richest bird diversities in the world. The avifauna of Brazil includes a total of 1832 species, of which 234 are endemic. This is enough for someone like me, who normally maintains that there are only three kinds of birds; big bird, small bird and duck, to admit that this might not be a sufficient classification anymore. And a little reluctantly I have started to find some interest in watching the birds and trying to learn the names of the different kinds. And here the birds are interesting, they come in all colours, forms and shapes, some rather funny-looking.

This morning however I felt like getting a gun and shoot some of them. Or at least one. At about five o'clock this morning I woke up by something that sounded like a very loud alarm. Several high, strong tones after each other at a regular interval, then silence only to be repeated again after some seconds, and then repeated and repeated and repeated and.... I thought first it was my alarm clock, but then rememberd it sounds completely different. Then I thougt "my godness, it must be the fire alarm", but then again no, it came from outside. Then I started to think about what kind of alarms we might have at the compound or what might actually be going on outside. It took me quite a while to realise the noise came from a bird!! And the bastard just wouldn't stop.

I had to get up and get some ear plugs to be able to go back to sleep. When you say you wake up to the sound of birds one would normally believe it to be a nice experience. This was very far from nice. This was actually the second time I was woken up by some bird, the first time it wasn't this one but some other very repetitive bird that just wouldn't stop. I hope this is not a new habit of our featherd friends.

Where Do You Come From?

I haven’t been writing for a while, partly because I was travelling and partly because I moved and it took a while before I got internet working in my new house. But now I will try to write more regularly again.

One thing I was asked several times when I was back in Europe was whether there is racism in Brazil. I found that question a little hard to answer, once because I have not been here long enough to know and twice because it is a question of how you define racism. My impression is that most Brazilians are actually proud of their ethnic mix in the country and this is really one part of being Brazilian. But there is no denying that there are more black people that are poor, that black people are less educated and overrepresented in crime, both as perpetrators and victims, overrepresented in jails and underrepresented in the government, parliament and business etc. To what extent this is because of “racism” or “social factors” I can not tell.

One thing that has struck me though and that is very different from where I come from, and that one could say is connected to the notion of “race” is the Brazilian obsession of heritage, ancestry and where “you come from”. And then I don’t mean where I as a foreigner come from, but from where in Brazil other Brazilians come from. I have noted that among the Brazilian friends that I have it is very common to immediately ask a person you meet for the first time where they come from, be it a friend of a friend, the waiter at the restaurant or the guy filling up your car at the gas station. Maybe this is because Brazil is such a huge country. Maybe it is because in Brasilia almost everyone comes from somewhere else or maybe it is because of this ethnical mix. It can be based on the accent the person has or the way the person looks or acts or or the name, but it seems to be some kind of sport to first guess where a person comes from and then ask. It is not only a matter of where the person comes from geographically, because the next question is often “what’s your ancestry? Italian, Polish, German?” For me these questions feel a little awkward and uncomfortable as this is not very politically correct to ask like that in Sweden. But here everyone seems completely ok with it and even proud to tell where they come from and where their forefathers came from.

The funny thing though is that since it in most cases was a long time ago since these forefathers came to Brazil and everyone now is Brazilian you could think it would be less important. Whereas in Sweden the most people with some other background than ethnically Swedish came during the last 50 years or even less. Maybe this is exactly the reason. In Sweden the integration in still ongoing, or actually it is exactly a matter of “integration” into something that you obviously do not automatically belong to, and therefore it is important to not be anything else than “Swedish”. Brazil on the other hand was formed by immigrants (one way or the other) and the “Brazilianess” hence never questioned. Or maybe we Swedish are just being arrogant, thinking people would be offended if you ask them where they come from if the answer will be something else than some other part of Sweden? Well, even if it would be another part of Sweden people could be offended. Many persons moving in to the City from the countryside work so hard to blend in, loosing their accent and doing there best to be at least seventh generation city-breed, that any question bringing this in doubt would be a severe offence.

Brazilian Airports

Since I arrived in Brazil I have heard and read a lot about the worries that the Brazilian airports are not fit for the big upcoming international events (world cup 2014 and Olympics in Rio 2016). This is something both the international community talks about as well as the Brazilians themselves. The government is also worried and therefore recently decided to not abide by the normal tendering rules. If that will work I don't know. Some say it will only increase risk of corruption, which most likely is already high. I can not make any judgement about airport security but after spending some time at some airports I can admit that the impression is that they are small, old fashioned and inefficient. It is hard to imagine them handling a far greater number of travellers. Let's see if the new rules will get the physical infrastructure on track, but I wonder what they will do about the human capital. Some are just incredibly slow and inefficient and the level of knowledge of other languages very low even at international airports. I think that might be a problem too.

Brazilian-European tour

Now I am off for a Brazilian-European tour. Leaving Brasilia for Rio now. Then to Madrid, having one day there before going to Ibiza, to attend a wedding Saturday. Monday to Stockholm, from there on to my mother's place for a couple of days. Then midsummer with friends in the Stockholm archipelago before going back to Brasilia via Madrid and Rio. I was considering going to Milano too for a while, where there is a birthday party next saturday, but that might just have been a little too much, considering I will only be away for a week.

Salvador de Bahia

Cidade Baixa



Farrol de Barra






Barra

View of Brasilia

Maybe I am starting to get a picture of how the Brazilians (that is the ones not living in Brasilia) see their capital. For the first time since I came here I am out of the town and talk to people not connected through work. When I say I live in Brasilia there is always an "ahhh, you work for the government." Not regarding the comic side of I that someone speaking as little Portuguese as I should work for the government I think it shows very clearly how they look upon their capital as nothing more than the site of government and find it hard to see any other reason to live there. It is so different from any other capital I have been living in. I have to ask my new Australian friend if that it is the same reaction if she meets someone from Canberra.

Home is where I lay my hat.

It is funny how the perception of "home" changes while you travel. Right now when I am on holiday in Bahia and think about "going home" it is Brasilia, I place I had never seen two months ago. Stockholm feels very far away and almost exotic when I read my friends' status updates on facebook. Funny.
How much of a cliche it might be, home really is where I lay my hat.

Cultural Adaptation and Cultural Adoptees

There is this thing that I have never understood and that is this total fascination and absorbtion of another culture that I have mostly seen happening to some europeans getting in touch with Latin American or African culture. What generally happens is that they get completely in to this culture and everyting connected to it; the language, the music, dance, food, sports and religion and specifically only are attracted to persons from that specific culture. Often they can go to quite some extent in defending why this culture is so much better, so much purer and more "real" than others.
I have never understood this and I have also never understood this faiblesse for these cultures. Partly I have explained this with the fact that I don't speak the language and hence is not able to understand this. I willingly admit that I still don't understand Portuguese very well, but I still think I would never be one of those committed culturalists. Not that there is anything wrong with the Brazilian culture, it has many positive and fascinating features, like most other cultures. And maybe here is my problem with these people. They tend to over romanticise the culture they have fallen in love with and start to despise and reject their own native culture without sometimes even knowing it very well.
This I don't understand and most of all I don't see the need for this reaction. I have a theory however and that is that these people are somehow seekers that are somewhat unhappy and unsatisfied in their life and with the culture they grew up with and find an easy fix in adopting another culture. What they tend to miss in the process is how much they are formed by their own culture anyway, like it or not. And also that all cultures have their advantages and shortcomings. Now I will want to interpret my scepticism toward this as a sign of good diplomat material. I like different cultures and like to know more and understand more about them, including my own, but feel no need to get over enthusiastic about one before the other.

On Morro de São Paulo

Lounging in a hammock on my balcony with a view over the ocean is quite nice. We arrive to Morro de São Paulo yesterday after a coat ride that became mostly a bus ride because of the rough sea. We still haven't seen much of the sun however, which is a pity because the island is really beautiful and everything looks even better with sun. It might be clearing up now however. Let's hope.

In Salvador

Right now I am on holiday in Salvador de Bahia. It is very nice. Above all it is very nice just to be in a normal city, where you can take a walk in the streets and where you see people in the streets and can find something to eat or drink where ever you are. And where the streets have names! Today I managed to find my way all on my own even without a map after having jumped off the bus a bit randomly. This is a city with normal logic. And it is by the ocean. Oh how I love the scent of the ocean. There is however another smell that I could do without. Obviously Brazilian men have one bad habit in common with Swedish men and that is peeing in the streets. My goodness how it stinks at times.
Unfortunately my camera decided it was a good time to stop function just when I arrived at the Pelurinho, the main tourist attraction today. Very bad timing. But my mobile makes pretty good pictures as well. Will post some later.

Niemeyermania

Saturday I took the time to go down to Brasília's heart of power, the Praca Três Poderes, the Three Power's Square, with my camera. Until now I have only passed by car or visited the places on business meetings when taking pictures was not a good idea.
This is not only where the legislative, executive and judiciary powers meet, this is also the heart of Oscar Nimeyer land.

I am aware of that it might look very empty, strange and eerie on the pictures, but on site I must say it has a very special atmosphere and the builidings are actually quite beautiful.




The Congress. The sphere for the Senate and the bowl for the Chamber.









Ministry of Justice






The presidential palace









The Supreme Court






Ministry of Foreign Affairs