Blogs from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, South America - page 10

First things first, as preminitioned by my last entry, my camera was stolen last night, which I was a little sore about, mainly at my own incompetence in allowing a pickpocket to snatch it away. Besides that... I went to a futbol game here in Belo Horizonte. There is nothing in the states that compares to the fanatical energy of soccer fans. On arrival, outside the stadium, we were calming walking about when all of a sudden, a few people start running from the direction we're headed. Following them are police, on horses, riding directly into us. So naturally, we start heading the other direction, as does everyone else, and we are much expedited when the Military police arrive - there's nothing like being pushed along with a wooden baton by a guy in fatigues and ... read more

I had the opportunity today to visit some of the neighborhoods where the "projects" are located. These two sites are administered by the people I'm staying with - one site is a previous "favela" (brazilian slum), the other is a neighborhood of originally 10 houses constructed through Habitat for Humanity which has now grown into a full size working class neighborhood. Brazil appears to have two seperate worlds, a middle class and a working class. Most of the area within the centers of the city are apartments of middle class people; the surrounding area are neighborhoods of the working class. These neighborhoods on first sight are probably what most people abroad would consider slums from the patchwork appearance (they aren't, the real slums of Brazil are squatters homes pieced together from scrap wood and metal and ... read more

Ulisses' brother Augusto works for Pfizer and implied that he could score me some Viagra. I learned this as he drove us around Pampulha, a really nice lake area that features its own church called São Francisco de Assis, but unlike the one in Ouro Preto, it wasn't painted up by a cripple. And to cap off an afternoon of looking at pretty things, we noticed Playboy Magazine being sold in a supermarket at child-eye level, which led to a discussion about Brazil's refreshingly laid back approach to sex, which in turn led to a discussion about the USA's irritatingly uptight approach to sex, subsequently leading into the USA's confusingly laid back approach to violence. (Specifically, I referred to a story I'd heard about the South Park movie: When the filmmakers submitted it to the ratings ... read more

hoo wee what a day. i've never had such a headache from trying to talk to people. we started the day out in the tiny little mountain town of lavras novas (if it isn't already up, there will be more about this town, erm, yesterday). the town is nearly deserted, it seems. even the people who live here don't seem to live here. and i'd call it a one-horse town, except there are a lot of horses. and chickens roaming the town square. and the local dogs seem to have taken a liking to me as though i'm the freakin pied piper. the other problem, incidentally, is that either i'm retarded *or* the accent here is very hard to understand. i mean REALLY hard. also, i keep asking people to repeat what they're saying more slowly, ... read more

A 6h+23h bus ride later - a mixture of waking and sleeping and feeling ill going to the putrid bus toilets (don´t worry, it stopped frequently) - and the woman beside me woke me from a violent dream to tell me we had arrived at Belo Horizonte, third largest city in Brazil. Marina came to meet me at the bus stop (she found me after much looking!) with her friend in his car. Back to her appartment she shares with her sister/s (and their boyfriends sometimes!) and brother. They are all ADORABLE, very welcoming, and great to teach me a little Portuguese (Ah, I have to learn now!!)... It´s so difficult to speak (not so much to understand) because it is so similar to Spanish... Ah, but I have a few more weeks here to practice! ... read more