The most important characteristic crucial to loving and living in Brazil is a constant battle between flexibility and patience.  For me, the biggest cultural difference between living here and living in the States is the lack of stability . . . for anything.  It can be infuriating and drive one to the point of madness, but it also has its benefits.

"Strike at UESC"

The most obvious example of this is life at the university.  Classes/professors/schedules are in constant flux and I don't know how anyone keeps track of anything; it's perilous to assume.  Just like it's common for students not to show up to class, it's also very habitual for professors not to arrive either.  Both of these are considered very normal behaviors and are accepted and tolerated by everyone.

The current drama at school is the possible upcoming "greve" or "strike."  The government hasn't met the demands of the professors concerning contracts and salaries so the faculty is prepared to strike (this happens quite a bit here).  On Monday we had a normal work day, Tuesday was a "paralização" which is kind of a mini-strike meant to send a strong message to the leaders.  The mini-strike meant that all classes were cancelled and that the university was effectively closed.  Since Thursday and Friday are holidays here, it's kind of assumed that nobody will go to class on Wednesday so classes were unofficially cancelled then too. If the strike actually happens, the university will close on June 4 and could remain closed for months. 

The French exchange students who live above us and Loni and I are taking advantage of the time off to throw a "Festa na casa dos Estrangeiros" - a foreigners' party - tonight.  Everyone is invited and we are cooking up some of our favorite native treats.  Do I have any real idea of who is coming/when people will show up/when people will leave? Not at all.  But I'm not going to assume anything and in the meantime am putting forth all of the patience and flexibility that I can muster.

"How I feel at UESC when I find out that we don't have class"

Lest my posts be too rosy, here is a blog on one of the most negative aspects of living in Brazil: the violence and crime.  Although I live in one of the safer neighborhoods of the city, it's still considered to be a little dangerous.  I don't like walking by myself at night and I wouldn't even consider being out after dark with my laptop/ipod/camera in my backpack or with more than twenty bucks in my pocket.  Every single one of my students who I have asked have been robbed at least once in their lives, and most of them have had more than one incident occur.

Most of the crime in Ilhéus and in Brazil in general doesn't make headlines because it isn't violent; the most common situation is a mugging involving a gun or a knife and nobody gets hurt if the victim easily surrenders the money, phone etc.  These types of events are so commonplace here that they have risen to an odd level of acceptance and tolerance within the community.  For example, most people I've talked to who have had their phones stolen told me that while they were being robbed they asked the thief if they could at least have their chip back (the card inside the phone with all of their contacts and information).  Most of the time, the thieves are reasonable and give up the chips without a problem.  What a deal.

The other common type of crime here is hijacking buses, particularly buses going to and from the university as people correctly assume that students are traveling loaded down with electronic gadgets.  In this situation, two or three people with guns rush at a bus at an isolated stop and force all passengers to give up their money and valuables at gun point.  This happened just last week on a city bus headed to UESC.  One of my students was on it and lost his laptop and phone.

This is not to say that Bahians live in constant fear of being victims of crime.  Instead, they dress down, don't carry anything valuable and travel in groups.  For me, the violence and crime has added another factor of risk analysis to my daily life.  Do I take money out of the ATM at school and carry it with me on the long commute home or do I walk the few blocks in the early evening to the ATM in my neighborhood?  Do I hitch home not knowing the driver or do I wait at a bus stop alone in the dark for a bus that might be hijacked?  Holland, Michigan, sometimes I miss you.

One thing that Brazil as a whole is lacking, and the city of Ilhéus in particular, is safe, affordable and reliable transport.  City buses are few and far between, expensive and can never be counted on.  I take the UESC professor bus in the mornings to get to work, but some of my classes end at awkward times between school-sponsored buses home.  This means that I have to tackle the daily challenge of getting home as if I were a student: hitchhike or wait for a bus that might never come.

At first, I was completely against hitchiking for all of the same reasons why it's illegal in the U.S.  Howevever, I quickly realized that it's a huge and common part of the culture here.  Most students hitchike to and from UESC not only to save money but also because it's faster (and quite possibly safer - more on that in a later post) and way more comfortable.


The phrase "to hitchhike" in Portuguese is "pedir corona" and is handled in the traditional way; students stand along the side of the road and hold their thumbs out.  Because the university is on the only main road between the two cities of Itabuna and Ilhéus, the hopeful students have a lot of chances.  Most get picked up in a matter of minutes.

I have hitchhiked quite a few times already but I only ever go with a group of other students; nobody ever hitches alone.  It has always been interesting to talk with the drivers; most of them are commuters who always pick up students needing a ride.  The safest bet is to hitch with a professor from UESC, most of whom are very sympathetic to the transport struggles of the students.  Depending on the time and personality of the driver I've been dropped off in the center of Ilhéus in which I still have to take one more bus to get home but I've also been dropped off at my doorstep.

Though I wasn't a big fan of hitchhiking at first, after waiting hours for too many nonexistent buses and watching crowds of students beat me home, I've joined the ranks of those sticking out thumbs.  When in Rome . . .

Far from being relaxing, weekends are usually filled with lots of invitations varying from participating in/speaking at events at the university to getting together with professors and hanging out with students.  There's always something going on and I think Brazil remains one of the countries in which it's most impossible to be lonely or bored.

 
Last weekend Loni and I were invited to lunch with the director of our department, Samuel, along with a few other professors.  Samuel was going to teach us how to make shrimp moqueca, a famous African-influenced local dish that we had wanted to know how to make for a long time.  Moqueca is fairly easy to make and requires tomatoes, onions, peppers, shrimp, coconut milk and palm oil. 



After chopping everything up and mixing everything together, the ingredients are boiled in a special pot for about half and hour.  Moqueca is usually served with rice and farofa (toasted manioc flour) and should be preceded by a shot of the official Brazilian drink, cachaça. 



It was fun to watch our director cook and the results were spectacular.  My list of meals that I can't wait to try for family and friends at home is growing by the week; I hope you all are hungry for a taste of Bahia!

Potent artesenal cachaça

The plate ready to eat with rice, moqueca and farofa

I've written before about how Wednesdays are my favorite days of the week because it's a bit of a break in the routine of going to UESC.  I teach at the handicraft market in the morning and then I usually spend the afternoon enjoying some activity in Ilhéus.  One of my favorite things to do is visit the Praia do Cristo/Christ Beach where there is a place to rent sailboats, kayaks, canoes and stand up paddle boards.



Badaka, the man who owns the rental business, lives right on the beach in a little cabana on stilts and is quite a character.  He's thin and impressively tanned with a huge white beard.  He looks like the skinny beach bum version of a Brazilian Santa Claus.  The physical effect is maximized by the fact that he always wears a tiny Speedo and nothing else. 

Last week Badaka taught me how to stand up paddle with an added incentive of the fact that if I stayed in a certain area I wouldn't have to pay because I would be free advertising.  Stand up paddling was a little harder than I thought it was going to be mainly because of the wind and waves in the bay.  When I was in shallow water it was relatively easy, but when I was out on open water I fell quite a few times.



Every week Badaka repeats his offer of marriage.  "Marry me," he says.  "We could live in this little house on the beach for the rest of our lives and paddle out on the bay during the light of the full moons."  He always adds, "Do you want to see inside of the house?" I tell him that I'll think about it and that I'll probably see him next Wednesday.  This is daily life in Bahia.

Sometimes the smallest things about a different culture are the most interesting.  Take wearing rings in Brazil, for example.  Both a man and a woman wear rings to show that they are engaged, but they both wear rings on their right hands.  When they get married, they switch the rings to their left hands.  My students thought that rings worked the same way in the States and were surprised to find out that it's common in engaged couples for only the woman to wear a ring and that it's a diamond instead of a simple band.

Here in Brazil, if your significant other passes away, it's tradition for the other spouse to wear the ring of the deceased in addition to their own ring.  They wear both rings on the same hand to show that they are a widow or widower.  I took the opportunity to talk about the tradition in my town of "pearling" which is basically when a guy gives a girl a pearl ring and they are essentially "engaged to be engaged."  I've even heard of guys going one step further and giving an opal before a pearl to really seal the deal, but that's just getting a little out of hand. 

Every month, Loni and I have to give a university-wide cultural event that shares some aspect of U.S. culture and compares it to life in Brazil.  Last month we had a packed auditorium because we talked and demonstrated our way through an interactive presentation of music and dance.  Last week our event was called: U.S. Politics: Where do you Stand? and was held in a style of an interactive debate.

Though I like learning and talking about politics, it's not usually my first choice for presentations abroad as things can get heated fast.  My coordinator is a political fanatic, however, and specifically requested this topic for our second presentation.  I was doubtful that the students would be willing to give up their Friday evening to listen to Republican and Democratic rants but we agreed to give it a try.



Loni and I spent the last few weeks researching our topics (abortion, gun control, health care system, taxes and government spending, gay marriage) and defined different Republican, Democrat and Brazilian opinions on each issue.  The week before the event we visited classes to encourage attendance and advertised our presentation by hanging up flyers everywhere.  Loni is a staunch Democrat and thus it fell to me to be the Republican for the event (a difficult character to represent abroad, especially in the department of international relations at UESC).  I was more than a little nervous to be the Republican under fire for two hours in the mock courtroom of the law department, an intimidating setting for anyone.

I was very nervous about how the presentation would go because we were counting on participation from students and other professors. I was worried about the interest in the event along with communication problems as we were presenting in English. I was also concerned about offending people or making inaccurate comparisons with my limited knowledge of Brazilian history and politics.  Overall, things went fine but we didn't have nearly the amount of students come as those who came for the music and dance presentation (not a surprise).  My coordinator was disappointed about this and at the conclusion asked the students what the next topic should be in order to guarantee a better turnout.  One student suggested "How to Road Trip Across the U.S."  Now that's something I'm looking forward to talking about!