Rio de Janeiro Day One: Getting There

To the Airport

The alarm went off. I sprang out of bed and as my feet hit the floor I wondered why it had gone off. Then, as the fog of sleep cleared I realized that it was time to head to Rio de Janeiro. It was raining hard (even for Teresina). I wondered how wet we would get in the process of loading the car with our suitcases.

Nádya and I got around, then had breakfast while Kylie slept. While I got our bags downstairs and out to the car Nádya got Kylie. She must have realized this was very odd behavior for us, as she completely woke up, and remained awake until we were on the plane.

It is only about five minutes to the airport from our house by car. Maybe less. The rain had subsided by the time we got there, which made unpacking the bags from the car a little easier.

After checking in and waiting for a bit the screens at the airport started telling us that our flight was delayed. Not by much, but it was enough that they decided that we needed to get boarding passes for the next flight moved back to the following flight. Unfortunately they only decided this after we had passed the security checkpoint. So we had to go back to the desk, get our boarding passes, then go back through security.

To Fortaleza

While I have taken so many flights that I gave up keeping track years ago, for Nádya and Kylie this was flight number one. Nádya was a bit nervous, but after a few jitters she grew accustomed to it and even liked it. Kylie was going about the business of getting some more sleep.

We landed in Fortaleza and had to wait for a bit for our next plane. In the mean time a family visiting from Portugal came over and started visiting with us—well, to be honest, the came over to visit with Kylie. We just delude ourselves into thinking that people want to talk to us when all they want is to talk with Kylie.

Kylie had the time of her life (she loves to see other children, and actually has taken to jumping and kicking when she sees them). There are some more pictures in our album from the day.

To Rio de Janeiro

From Fortaleza we were headed to Rio de Janeiro. But somehow we had either missed the note that we were stopping in Salvador, or we were not told. Sitting on the ground in Salvador, our flights were all running late, and we were tired and bored. Ripe time for a distraction or two.

Next thing we know we saw Patrícia Werneck coming down the asile of our plane. She is an actress who recently played a rather large part in a novela (soap opera). I had watched bits and pieces of the novela, so I immediately recognized her.

I, however, had forgotten about the Kylie factor. I figured she was headed toward the back of the plane where we were seated for any host of reasons except to talk with us. I was wrong. She had heard Kylie laughing and screaming (not crying, the happy screams), and wanted to meet her.

She said that Kylie "Looks like a Johnson's baby!" Gerber is not as big in Brazil as Johnson & Johnson, so it is like someone saying that she looks like a Gerber baby.

Patrícia Werneck seemed like a delightful person, and even though Kylie was not to excited about interacting with her (it was nap time again) she obliged our request to get a photo of her.

She left, and after a few minutes we saw another person we recognized from the novelas:

Caio Blat ended up in the chair right behind us. He too was interested in Kylie, but by this time she was pretty grumpy. I overheard him telling the flight attendant that he was very tired and just wanted to sleep. That he did. The entire flight he was sacked out in the chairs behind us.

I guess the two actors had been in a presentation of the Passion of Christ in Floriano (?) where Caio Blat had played Pontius Pilate, and Patrícia Werneck had played Mary Magdalene.

Arrival in Rio de Janeiro

One of the things we did not know about our trip is where we would stay. We knew that trying to afford a hotel was out of the budget range (buying the plane tickets there was about two-month's worth of income while on sale for half-price).

We had a promise, though, from one of the leaders of the Baptist Convention that goes to our church that we would be able to find a place if we went to the same seminary where Patrick and Nyna stayed. "If not at the seminary, then someone will find you a place. I promise."

Of course, it was 11 o'clock Easter Sunday morning when we arrived at the seminary, and nobody who knew anything about our situation was around. There was a group there who were cooking lunch, though, and they helped us contact someone who would know what to do. They even fed us, and gave us water (the last real meal we had had was at home in Teresina).

Stay tuned to find out where we ended up staying.

This entry is part of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. Don't want to miss out on the coming entries? Try the RSS feed, or getting updates via email.

Money In Brazil

This chart shows from mid-2004 when I first visited Brazil until today. The value of the United States Dollar has basically fallen off a cliff—at least when compared to the Brazilian Real—since then.

Unfortunately it has not seemed to make a huge difference in the way day-to-day life is lived. In fact, the price of a lot of things has gone up (groceries comes to mind).

I suppose the people this effects most are those who are paid in US Dollars. Foreign workers like missionaries, and people whose company has assigned them to Brazil, but still pay in Dollars.

An up-to-date, and interactive chart like the one above can be found at Google Finance.

Update: Here is another look at money in Brazil.

Kylie: Seven Months

Our little princess turned seven months old on Saturday, so we had the usual party. There were not as many in attendance because of various activities, but those who were there enjoyed it thoroughly.

It has been fun to see people's reactions to Kylie change over the last month, or so. When she was first born people would say things like, "Oh, she looks exactly like her dad!" That has been changing recently with more and more people saying she looks exactly like Nádya. She is growing and changing so much!

We took her to the doctor for her monthly checkup on Friday, and the doctor said everything looks fine. She will start teething soon (Well, she has already started chewing on nearly anything she can get her hands on.), and she gained 300 grams (0.7 pounds), and grew one centimeter (0.4 inch) since we were there three weeks ago.

Kylie had a great time getting her picture taken. Incidentally, she hardly ever automatically smiles for the camera—we usually have to coax that out of her, but it is not terribly hard to do. She actually loved the cake, and wanted to be close to it. In the picture above I am holding her back from diving in.

Singing? Clapping hands? Kylie loves them both. I think I have mentioned that she likes to dance, as well.

We sing the birthday song every month, and last night was no different, except that Kylie was kind of humming along. She is beginning to form words, and really recognizes when mom is talking to dad. She is even beginning to catch on to the concept of waving goodbye!

Of course, at the end of the night she is ready to go to bed. Saturday she tuckered out pretty early, so we were glad that we started the party a bit earlier than usual.

The following is just for a technical verification. You may ignore it. Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Video Of Kylie

The facebook page works great, but I discovered this morning that if you are not logged in, or do not want to start an account with them, you cannot see the video. So, I added it to YouTube, and placed it here for you to see a little more conveniently.

My apologies if you tried to view it, but could not because of these issues. Had I known, I would have just posted it here in the first place.

Kylie: Five Months

From Kylie's 5th Month

On the 16th we had another little party for Kylie turning another month older. At first I balked at the idea of having these every month, but now I have come to cherish them. They serve as a reminder of how quickly the time goes by—besides it is a good photo opportunity, and her Grandma and Grandpa (and other family) in the USA like to see the photos.

The party was fun. The cake was purchased this month, and nearly everyone was disappointed in the quality of the cake (the chocolate on top was real good...).

A couple of days later, we took Kylie to her monthly checkup. She is doing really well. She weighed 7.5 Kilograms, and is 65 centimeters long.* The doctor was impressed with some of the things she has been doing, and told us to keep up the good work.

Kylie is a joy. Even though I have no experience with other babies, I would call her an "easy baby." As long as she gets her food and sleep on time she is quite content. She laughs often, and is beginning to explore the world around her. She even had her first instant message conversation the other day!

[For many more pictures from the party—and some from after—click the link below the photo.]

*Oh, I suppose I have to translate that: 16.53467 pounds, and 25.590551 inches

Yluska's ABC Graduation

From Yluscka's ABC Graduation

The 8th of December we were invited to go to a graduation party for Yluscka. I was very much looking forward to it until I realized that I would be wearing a tie and slacks—at that point I was just looking forward to it.

Yluscka would be addressing her peers, teachers, family members, and others, so we thought it would be fun to go for that reason alone (There were others, such as food.). The party was going on smashingly, the appetizers were good, and the little ceremony was interesting. I was actually with Kylie inside part of the time because she was hungry and tired.

As the ceremony was coming to a close—well, as soon as Yluscka had received her diploma—the first drops of rain began to attack the ground. I was inside at the time and heard much screaming, and the rush of running feet. For maybe ten seconds the rain came slowly, but then a full downpour was in progress. Then the lightning and thunder.

I watched as the workers rushed to get things under cover from this surprise. The tables and chairs that had been arranged outside were now needed inside (even if space was not sufficient).

Then the power went out.

If the 100 or so kids were scared before, this added to the fear and so screams abounded. I don't recall that the power came on again while we were there. The rain continued for an hour or more, then stopped.

Unfortunately, the rain and power-outage delayed dinner. On the upside it was romantic when it did come. Dinner by candlelight is great on a stormy night.

When the rain finally did stop, we still had to wait for about 45 minutes for the water in the street to go down.

From Yluska's ABC ...

For many more photos of this event, see links below the photos in this post.

Oh, and wearing a tie was not so terrible.

Brazilian Culture: Beer at the Mall

The very first time I came to Brazil one of the “fun” things we did was visit the mall. I was bowled over (to put it lightly) to see that restaurants were serving beer. One of the restaurants even has the name “Beer Store”—in English. It still seems strange when I see people drinking at the mall.

One can tell when there is a soccer football game on because there are lots of young ladies walking around the mall while their boyfriends or husbands sit and watch the game in the food court over a glass or two of beer.

While I see nothing wrong with beer and football, it (beer) just seems out of place at the mall. I am not real familiar with the laws governing alcohol from place to place in the US, but I know that there are some pretty strict regulations about where it can be sold. I don't know of any place where even beer could be sold and consumed at a mall. (I have heard of drive-through liquor stores in some state somewhere. That is a whole 'nother blog, though.)

All this to say that I found this “pitcher” of beer very interesting. I had never seen one before, so we took a picture of it. You might not be able to tell from the picture, but in the center of the beer storage area there is a cylinder where I presume that ice is kept to keep the beer cold.

Side note: this picture was taken on our recent trip to the mall for Dia das Crianças. Perfect way to celebrate...

[composed and posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Karl's Musings, Life In Brazil, Living Outside the US, beer

Kylie: Three Months

Time must fly even faster when one has kids. The past three months have rushed by like the waters over Iguaçu Falls. On the evening of the 16th we celebrated Kylie's third month since her arrival. As you may have figured out from the picture above, there was a chocolate cake involved; but before that there was a healthy dinner and plenty of conversation.

It is customary to celebrate each month up to the first birthday here in Brazil. These are usually just family. Then on the first birthday, there is a big celebration with many people invited.

Here are the photos from the event:

Kylie - Three Months

[composed and posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: kylie, Our Activities, Our Story

Dia das Crianças (Children's Day)

There was a day that I remember asking my mother, “Mom, why isn't there a children's day? I mean, there is a Mother's Day, and a Father's Day—so why not a children's day?” Her response did not satisfy me much; it was something along the lines of “Because kids have birthdays, Halloween, and Christmas.”

Here kids get their own day. This year it landed on the twelfth of October. It seems to usually involve presents (read: toys), and some sort of party, depending on the family. There are also activities put on by the city, and other companies. In fact, the place where Nádya works paid for games and lunch at the mall for their employees and their families.

Kylie was a bit small for the arcade games, bumper cars, and other rides that they have in the children's play area of the mall. So we spent a lot of time just hanging out and watching other people's kids have fun (which wasn't as boring as this sentence might make it sound). We then had lunch at McDonald's.

I suppose if you like McDonald's food in the States, then you would like it here. I am not a fan. But hey, it was free. So I can't complain to much!

Anyway, it was a fun day using the mall as a short respite from the 100˚F or more heat we have been having.

Here is the album of photos we got from the day:

Dia das Crianças (Children's Day)

[composed and posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Dia das Crianças, Life In Brazil, Living Outside the US, Our Activities

Almost Three Months

Kylie is almost three months old, and besides, today is Children's Day here in Brazil. What is more, we are totally enthralled with this new addition to our family. Hence the slideshow above.

The photos are from her two-month party up to now (Unless you are reading this long after the posting date—then it may have been updated.).

[composed and posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Kylie

Family Outing: Romea's Birthday

We went to a pizza place to celebrate Romea's (She is Yluscka's mom.) birthday the other night. After the pizza we went to get some of the best ice cream in town at a place called Pura Fruta—which was conveniently one door down from the pizza restaurant.

Here are some pictures of the event:







There are a few more pictures in our Family Album.

[composed and posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: pura fruta, pizza place, pizza restaurant, Our Activities, family, mom, ice cream

English School Update

Written Tuesday February 24, 2007, 3:15 PM.

Join me as I look at the belly-button of amerInglês.

I would love to just say that the English business is going well, and all that. It is unstable. December was a good month. January was pretty bad, but bearable. And February has been pins and needles. We aren't starving or anything; we have food and are (so far) able to pay the bills.

The problem we ran into (some of this is deduction, and some is information from students) is sort of two pronged: Christmas came, and people had to pay bills in January. And, in late January, or early February is when all the other schools start their year.

While I don't have very many younger students, I have a lot of parents of younger students, who pay for school, books, and other supplies for their children. Some of them also have other things to do in life. One student is also studying for the college entrance exams, and no longer has time to come to class.

Many have complimented me on my teaching ability, so I am not considering that as one of the reasons they are leaving (though one or two may not have liked learning English very well...). The number of students per week has dropped to around 5.

A new class starts next Monday with 12 students (possibly more). That gives me hope, which I need at this point.

Technorati Tags: ameringls, education, english, job, Job, language, languages, Life, Life In Brazil, Living Outside the US, english school, school

Rainy Season

Written 10:30 AM on Monday the 12th of February.

The weather has taken a turn. It might be better, but I am not sure. It is cooler, but much more humid. Everything starts to mold that is wet, and if something has the ability to hold water it is at the very least damp. It has rained nearly every day the past week-and-a-half. With the first big rain of the season we got 40% of the month's normal rainfall overnight. The next day I saw a television show where a city official was interviewed. He was asked what could be done about a problem of people being swept down manholes, through the sewer, and into the river. His answer was essentially, "Blah blah blah, there is no problem. Blah blah blah." This after they played a clip of a man who barely escaped with his life.

Allan and Herika and Yluscka spent the weekend with us last weekend (starting the 2nd of Feb.). That was fun and exciting. We talked, ate, talked some more, cleaned house, ate some more. Oh, and I had classes, too. (Speaking of which, I should do an update on that soon...)

Yesterday, I had a little surprise. We went to Nadya's parents' house for lunch, which was not a surprise. After that we went to a couple of houses to look at dogs. So, we have a pooch now. It is a month-old female. It misses its mommy, and whines when I am not close by. No name yet... we are working on that.

Ironically, Nadya was the one that wanted this dog, and I said "no" for now (I had a list of reasons; one was money, but this dog was free.). Now that we have the dog, she is a bit jealous.

Here is a bit of "inspired" poetry by me, just for you:

Doggie do, doggie doo
What to do with doggie doo
It smells real bad on my shoe
At least it is not a doggie that goes moo

Technorati Tags: Brazil, Family, family, family and friends, family gatherings, family members, Life, Life In Brazil, Our Activities, Our Story, dog, puppy, weather

Away

Since you went to the trouble of visiting, I thought I would let you know why there are no new posts at the moment. We have moved to our own house (it is ours as long as we pay rent, anyway)!

Unfortunately that also means that the internet is not installed there yet. I have been writing posts, though, so there will be plenty to read when I get that data and an internet connection in the same place at the same time. I was going to do that today, but forgot the data at home.

It is really interesting how having the internet to communicate makes it so much easier to be far away from home...

Around The House

Written 11:50 AM on Tuesday the 31st of January, 2007.

We are settling into some sort of a routine in our new home. I am loving it. Of course, it is more work, as we are responsible for the entire house. But it is kind of fun to explore how we are going to meld our two cultures and lifestyles. And, while that exploration does lead to a conflict now and then, life has been pretty tranquil.

The house itself is around 7.6 meters wide (close to 25 feet) and 13.6 meters long (around 45 feet) (I counted tiles to get an estimate here.). I did not include the front porch/garage area in that measurement, but it is about 5.6 meters by 7.8 meters (18 by 25.5 feet). The lot is not much bigger than the house area. It is probably a 10 by 20 meter lot. It may be a little wider than that, but I am not sure.

The first room past the front door is the living room. Straight ahead is a hallway to the back of the house (Okay, not quite, but I will get to that in a moment.). On one side is the bathroom, and my office. On the other side is our bedroom. We think this used to be two separate rooms, but have no proof other than the shape of it. At the back of this hall is the kitchen and dining area. Just outside the back door is the "laundry room." It consists of a sink with built-in washboard, and a tiled floor.

The camera is on the way, so we will post some pictures of the house soon.

I am learning how to cook rice and beans for lunch, so that my wife does not have to do that at night when she gets home. I am also learning other things like how to wash clothes by hand, and how to keep the house clean.

...Gotta go, the beans are about to boil over.

Technorati Tags: Life, Life In Brazil, Our Activities, Our Story

...On A Lighter Note

After the last entry I felt the need to essentially say, “Not everything is lame for us right now.”

We recently purchased a refrigerator and a bed because we are planning on moving into a house. (I will post another time about the purchasing experience.) This is a huge thing for us. We have lived with her family the entire time we have been married.


We visited the house Christmas day. It has two bedrooms, a living room, and a dining/kitchen area. Perhaps best of all, it has a rather large front porch area that is covered. But then, it is in a quiet neighborhood. I am not sure what is the best part. It is all so exciting!
The only reason we have not already moved is that the owners are repainting the interior. We are hoping it is ready within the next week or two.

Also, remember when we posted pictures regularly? I loved having pictures to tell you about. My camera broke without explanation sometime after the 19th of February last year. It turns out that Minolta has recalled that model (the Dimage A-1) because of a faulty image sensor. Of course, since Minolta has since sold that part of their business to Sony, it is now Sony's responsibility to fix it.

So, my camera is somewhere at the Sony Service Center in Texas getting fixed now, and will soon be back in operation. I wonder if the recall will cover shipping to Brazil? I doubt it. At any rate, I am very much looking forward to having my digital camera again.

[Photo credit: flickr user Sister 72]

[composed and posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: digital camera, photo credit, lame, refrigerator, flickr, any rate, porch area, essentially, quiet neighborhood, image sensor, front porch, minolta, kitchen area, christmas day, sony service center, Our Activities, Our Story, photo, Photography, Pictures

Our Big Goal For 2007

I have never been the type of person to like filling out forms. At all.

No, really, if there is a way to avoid filling out a form I will do it. I suppose this goes back to my kindergarten experience. My teacher was strict, old, and grumpy. Actually, the way I remember it, grumpy does not quite do justice.

I don't remember a lot from that year, but I do remember that my teacher made us write our names ten times per day. It was supposed to be an exercise to learn our alphabet and how to write, but with my name it was just torture. My last name alone is eleven letters long. Put that with my first and middle names (which we were required to write out as well), and the grand total is 19 letters.

I remember one day in particular, all the other students had finished their work and were playing (this turned into a common pattern in my early school days). I was about half way done with writing my name ten times, and seeing all the other students playing was making me very anxious to join them. I decided to go bargain with my teacher. She yelled at me that I needed to finish writing my name or I would never get to play.

Since my bargaining skills proved less than adequate, I ended up (begrudgingly) writing out my name the rest of the ten times, just in time for playtime to be over (which I think was deftly coordinated by the teacher).

Fast forward to today. I married a foreigner, and to get her home I have to fill out forms. Not only this, but I am also responsible for making sure that we fill out the right forms, and that they are submitted to the right place... blah blah blah.


Yes, we have begun looking into getting Nádya's visa again. I spent all day yesterday reading web-pages, emailing lawyers (they want money I can only dream of having), and trying to get some coherent idea of what needs to be done. I can't say I got much of anywhere.

The combination of needing to fill out forms—read: “I sense my doom is near at hand.”—and not knowing what direction to pursue... Lets just say that I am ready to throw in the towel. I am not planning on doing that, but I feel the desire.

All that to say that, yes, one of our goals for 2007 is to move to the US. The three of us are aiming for September. ;)

[composed and posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: blah blah blah, alphabet, playtime, emailing, i can only dream, i decided, i do remember, reading web, grumpy, Living Outside the US, coherent idea, fast forward, filling out forms, foreigner, kindergarten experience, Our Activities, Our Story, doom, first and middle names

Police Response

[Note: The following description is by no means complete. That is on purpose because I still only understand about 60% of what was said. My own stress, and that of those around me made it very difficult to understand Portuguese last night. It also may include some hyperbole and understatement.]

Most of the time living in Brazil has become such a "normal" thing to me that I don't really think about it. Last night, however, was a glaring reminder that I live in an entirely different part of planet Earth.

There is a bar next door to our house. They play loud music. At all hours. No. I mean really loud music. It has at times, started at noon, and gone past two. Yesterday it started at about 10 o'clock AM, and we had no respite from it most of the day.

The heat here has a big effect on the architecture, more stuff takes place outside. Also, windows are there for two reasons, security and to keep the rain out. The majority of the time they are open. A great many bars are outside, including this one. Let's make this in to a mathematical formula*:

Heat + Bar {Success of said bar ≈ amount of noise created by said bar.} = Noise outside

Tempers stew. Words exchanged. We have another formula:

Heat + Temper + Time + Bar Next Door + Words = Brewing Storm

If we take the results of the previous two formulas and put them together, we have:

Noise outside + Brewing Storm = Need For Police

Here is where a major diversion form how the formulas would work in most developed countries. The formula would look like this where I grew up:

Need For Police + Call 911 = (Police Sent + Firemen Sent + Ambulance Sent) Total Response Time ≤ 5 Minutes

After arriving on the scene, the police would determine what needed to be done. Reports written... etc. Here is what the formula looks like here in Teresina Piauí, Brazil:

Need For Police + Call (x and/or y and/or y and/or z) = "Police are on the way." + (14 intense minutes + Call (x and/or y and/or y and/or z) again + 21 more intense minutes + Police car drives by twice)

[Where x, y, and z = different police departments]

And here is the finger of accusation: The police here (which are plentiful) do not seem to work very hard. I am sure that some are open to bribes, too, though I don't know that for a fact. When a situation of the gravity of last night's encounter is not responded to for over half an hour there is a problem—no, a number of problems.

The general consensus here (from what I have heard) is that the police would rather clean up a mess after the storm has passed by, than intervene. What is the point? It is my understanding that death threats were traded last night (Second-hand, I did not understand much of what happened last night.), this would surely result in some action by the police at "home"(though I am not sure what).

I have heard locals accuse police of not going into areas where criminals are "because it's to dangerous!" I guess they lacked foresight while choosing a career.

Why am I coming down so hard on this issue? Because I love these people. I want to see the situation improve. Nobody was hurt last night. While words were exchanged, the situation was resolved eventually. However, there was a time when I felt that it was going to end in a scuffle at the very least.

So, to sum up our mathematical equation from earlier, here is pretty much what happened yesterday:

Heat + Bar {Success of said bar ≈ amount of noise created by said bar.} + Temper + Time + Bar Next Door + Words = Need For Police + Call (x and/or y and/or y and/or z) = "Police are on the way." + (14 intense minutes + Call (x and/or y and/or y and/or z) again + 21 more intense minutes + Police car drives by twice)

[Where x, y, and z = different police departments]

*I am not any good at math, so just ignore any mistakes I make, and try to get the general idea. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: accusation, brewing storm, play loud, police call, bar, police car, police departments, bribes, car drives, loud music, developed countries, response time, firemen, i don t know, planet earth, brazil, Brazil, Life In Brazil, Living Outside the US, News, Our Activities, Our Story

Ultrasound Number One

I have read many blogs where the excited parents post pictures of their yet-unborn baby. This seemed odd to me until now—now I have a clue. Not that I was put off by the pictures, I just didn't understand what a significantly cool thing this is.



This was an amazing experience. We both cried when we saw the baby. I am still in awe.

Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Nyna!

[Edit: I forgot to mention that this is at 7 weeks. Also, this morning I have been able to sort out my video "woes" and have have changed the post to reflect that above. The video format is Quicktime (.mov).
I added music, but it fades out when there is something important going on. Yes, that's me playing guitar.]

Technorati Tags: Baby, Interesting, Life In Brazil, Living Outside the US, Our Activities, Our Story, overjoyed, Ultrasound

Safely In Brazil

Patrick's comment on this post brought to mind some things I have thought about, but not really said in this venue. Here is part of his comment:

When I was in Brazil, I found it refreshing to see how free Brazil is from much of the 'safety consciousness' that you find in the U.S.

There is more to his comment, but this is what I want to focus on. First off, I would like to say that I am not criticizing his thoughts by anything I say in this post. Instead I want to expand on them from my perspective.

I thought much the same way for several weeks after first arriving. One of the things I saw, though, that changed my view a bit was a photograph of a power company employee on the front page of the local newspaper. He was in his hard-hat, had a safety harness on. It was a pretty normal photograph, except that he was suspended by the safety harness above a metal ladder. He had been electrocuted to death.

Impressed that this image was even printed, let alone front and center on the front page of the paper, I began to think about the things I had seen since arriving in Teresina.

I do not remember the entire story behind this image—my Portuguese was not as good then—but it seems that he was working on the power lines, and they came on while he was working. At any rate, the image is burned into my mind.

Road construction is probably the most interesting contrast with the US I have seen. If you are ever driving in Teresina, and see a tree sticking out of the middle of the road that was not there yesterday, it probably means that there is a sizable hole at the location of the tree. No reflective markers, no flashing lights. Nope. Just a tree, and a mound of dirt.

Sometimes there is no warning at all. The other night I was driving my father-in-law's taxi (but not as a taxi operator), and only missed a three-foot wide by two-foot deep hole only because I had seen them working on it earlier in the day.

There are sometimes a couple of saw-horse type metal markers. They are painted yellow, but not reflective.

I have told some stories about the bus drivers here, too. For every one I have told, there are a couple more that have turned my knuckles white.

Maybe its my "over-active" imagination, but something else that really has come to make me sick (and I see it almost every day) is a man on his motorcycle with his wife—usually wearing helmets, but not always. In-between, behind—however they fit—kids. I have seen up to five or six people on a motorcycle in traffic. This kind of irresponsibility makes me angry.
Motorcycles are also commonly used to carry doors, bicycles, computers (motorist with a CPU case resting on the gas-tank comes to mind). Oh, and my favorite: The motorcycle with three propane tanks hitched to a metal bracket on the back—I recommend not hitting him.

What I am really saying here is that, yeah, the freedoms are sometimes... freeing. But sometimes I would really rather see a few more rules, or more enforcement of the ones that already exist.

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