Monday:
7-8:30 – Wake up. Drink Vitamina. Eat eggs. Watch Brazil news and marvel at the stories about violence, drug abuse, police shooting people, and traffic accidents.
8:30-9 – Fight traffic with moto. Listen to heavy metal at low volume to get pumped up. Glare at people who try to hit me with their cars. Make lots of noise with my muffler.
9-6 – Play corporate monkey. Sell things. Organize things. Write things. Wish I didn’t have a 80 year old back in a 27 year old body. Pump myself full of pain killers and muscle relaxants. Stare out window and wonder what life would be like if I had a boat and was sailing across sea. Ignore tired brain.
6:30 – 8 - Drive to Pituba. Park moto and watch for muggers. Drink coconut and eat Doritos. Give English class.
9 – Arrive in favela. Stare at people who want to rob me. Play friendly with people I want to kill. Walk through dark alley full of trash. Unlock six locks, enter home. Heat up beans and rice. Turn on t.v. and space out.
10-11- Listen to Garrison Keeler on a Praire Home Companion talk about a life far away from my own. Relax. Fall asleep.
Tuesday: Go to work. Go to gym. Stay up and work on my English lessons. Fall to sleep.
Wednesday: Go to work. Give English class after work. Go home. Eat beans and rice. Fall asleep.
Thursday: Go to work. Go to gym. Go to sleep.
Friday: Yeah! Go to work. Get out from work, drive to Vila Matos. See poor people that are nice and don’t want to rob me. Drink beer with bar friends. Drink beer until I can get a haircut. Pay 4 reis for a haircut and leave……………..interrupting post here. Just went up the hill to pick up V. Talked about how I was tired of the Vila as I descended. Told her that I was ready go off. Started passing 10 or 12 teenagers sitting on the hill. One started calling me gringo to antagonize me. I was not in the mood. I turned around and confronted him, asking if he had something to say to me. I turned around and all the little shits starting chanting gringo! I turned around and told them to go fuck themselves. Descended the hill with V pulling my arm.
Thinking now that I want out. Thinking I wish I could wipe these ignorant fucks from the face of the earth. Thinking I am over reacting and that I’m not a very good anthropologist. Thinking, jesus, it’s time I found a new apartment.
Saturday: Whatever
Sunday: Whatever
9 comments:
I love Prarie Home Companion! And Garrison Keillor!
I am also under the impression maybe it wouldn't hurt to just look and see what you can find in way of an apartment?
Whoosh! And a hello from way back in the cold
Wow, so, point 1:
You are not on vacation anymore, from the sound of it. Your back will hurt less when you are happier (this is medically proven), and when you have the time and money to do something besides just medicating it. Other factors that aggravate backs- motorcycles, crappy beds, stress, dehydration, lack of stretching. Any of these sound familiar?
Point 2
You are bitter. Paradise has failed to deliver in the long term. Happiness is ever elsewhere, etc. Putting down roots means eating fertilizer, it's just a question of making it palateable; not putting down roots means going hungry sometimes. Ultimately, happiness comes from learning to be happy, and not from an endless and surprising array of ice cream flavors (though ice cream is awesome, to be sure).
Point 3
Fighting with the world, while it often feels like the right thing to do, means you have lost and are about to lose further. Fighting with moleques in the favela is particularly ill-advised for the newbie anthro-tourist. I love you, and I don't want bad things to happen to you. Think capoeira- if your space is taken, give way; then take the space that they left to take yours. Roll with it, man. Breathe. The world doesn't have eyes to blacken, but it can surely blacken yours.
Wherever you go, there ye be. If it sucks, change something. If it still sucks, repeat the previous step.
Okay, that's probably enough fortune-cookie babble for now. Hang in there, meu irmão. Change is the only constant, and it will.
crap. more fortune cookie. :)
I'm fascinated to see how this all turns out. I know that "just moving" is harder than it sounds, so in the meantime, I'd avoid confrontation! Be careful!
Hey mate,
Just wanted to say thanks for writing, just spent about an hour reading back to the beginning of your journeys in Brazil.
Helped to knock out a few of those stereotypes I had about Brazil, whilst highlighting the good stuff.
Cheers,
Patrick
London, UK.
Point 1 - Agree
Point 2 - Well not bitter. Ok maybe a little. Well not unhappy. Ok maybe a little. Continue to try and realize the happiness within principle. Seems always easier to say than do. But I concur.
Point 3 - I like fighting. I seem to put myself in situations where I can do battle. But peace, yeah, is hardly overrated. Maybe I should try that route for awhile. ]
Fortune cookies + icecream. Anyone? Anyone?
P.S. Garrison Killa is my pimp daddy! And hello Patrick.
Dude that's so harsh! You are well on your way to thinking, as I do from time to time, that all my neighbors are human rodents. But the truth is it's only the rodents that you notice- fwiw the nice people blend into the background. Have you heard the expression 'engolir um sapo?' Unfortunately we have to do so all too often. The alternatives are worse. I have developed sophisticated ignoring skills.
'Prarire Home Companion' is one of those programs I sometimes find too alien to my personal experience to listen to... I suggest 'Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!' if you don't listen to it already- it is often my merriest hour of the week.
why do you want to live in Salvador
Bahia is so big and fill with small lay-back but safe costal towns... myself I'm trying to scape the miami superficial life and thinking on going to trancoso or something similar. why dont you get out the big city and a try a small town.
ruben from miami
In case you didn't get that hug on myspace, here it is again: *BIG HUG!!*
Well, don't move to Ondina. I just got mugged last night and today my friend saw literally large groups of late teen/early twenty guys come out of Calabar and mug like 5 people in the course of 30 minutes. I'm not kidding.
Welcome to the Christmas/Carnaval crime spree.
-Cheryl
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