In the neighborhood

This week, I thought I'd mention a few of the people who seem to be permanent fixtures in my neighborhood. First there's the chess/fake-CD-DVD man, who sets up a table on the sidewalk outside the supermarket and right across the street from the real video rental store. He always has a chess board and is either selling his wares, playing chess or studying chess moves in a book. Diagonally across from him (also outside the supermarket, which has a cafe selling snacks) is the kabob man. He has a gas grill that he sets up most evenings and even provides plastic stools for people to sit and eat their kabobs. Neither the kabob man nor the chess man work on Sundays, but most other nights, they seem to show up. There's a hot dog lady who stations her cart outside the internet/videogame cafe at night. It's also right across the street from a bar where they sell snacks. There are two things about these vendors that puzzle me. The first thing is their proximity to the competition. They all are located right next to their competitors. In my thinking, I would try for an "unsaturated market." The second thing is how any single one of them can make enough money to survive. There are so many people in Brazil that sell things for a living, especially "ambulatory" salespeople, and I have no idea how they survive with the amount of competition out there. I previously mentioned the large number of bars in my neighborhood, but now I've also noticed the plethora of beauty salons. Even though the majority of Brazilian women seem to make regular visits to the beauty salon, I still don't see how any of the smaller salons in my neighborhood makes enough money to survive. One last neighborhood thing--I keep meaning to mention the amusing name of one of the bars on my daily route to the bus stop: the Jaguar's Bad Breath Bar.

They are starting experiments here with full-time public school. Previously, all public (and most private) schools would offer 4-hour sessions for three different groups of kids--one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one at night (usually teenagers). What they are doing to fill the extra time is adding in extra-curricular things that previously kids did not experience at school. It will be interesting to see if the idea of all-day public school takes off or not. Some of the kids who were participating in Shade and Fresh Water programs are now going to school all day, but there are always plenty more kids on the waiting list to take their places.

Yesterday afternoon was the final match in the Minas Gerais state soccer championship between the biggest rivals in Belo Horizonte. The blue team had to beat the black and white team by at least 4-0, so even though they won the game 2-0, the blue team lost the championship. I was so fortunate as to be in transit immediately after the game and subjected to the war-like atmosphere of loud fireworks going off at every corner, people honking and screaming, etc. One thing that's different here is that fireworks are largely used to make celebratory noise, not necessarily for the visual display. Many people use them at all hours throughout the day, when they're barely visible.

I'm noticing that MP3 players and earphones are becoming more common in public here, and especially on public transportation. The other morning when I was leaving my apartment building, I heard two women speaking loudly a while before I saw them, and it turned out that the mother and daughter were getting their exercise walking together, but both had on earphones while they were conversing. I hope that the earphone popularity doesn't negatively affect the public friendliness and warmth that I find so refreshing here.

On the holiday on Tuesday, I went with a family from church to the zoo. It turns out that admission is the most expensive on holidays. I was surprised at first at the huge number of families who were sitting on the grass on picnic blankets, but then I realized that grassy areas are not that common here, so it's probably a special treat.

For the first time, somebody I know has contracted dengue. A young woman from church was feeling quite ill last Sunday, and when she went to the clinic on Monday, the diagnosis was dengue. Apparently you have a high fever and a lot of pain. It's caused by a mosquito bite (a type of mosquito that only bites during the day, I think). A few weeks ago, I noticed when I was waiting in the morning for the metro that I got a couple of mosquito bites. Because that happened during the day, I was sure I would come down with dengue, but thank God, that was not the case.

Even though the Liberdade neighborhood isn't by any means the fashion center of Belo Horizonte, the kids have no problem criticizing my wardrobe. One day, they asked if my close-toed shoes with buckles were men's shoes. Last week, one of them poked me in the stomach when he was joking around, hesitated, and then poked me again for confirmation before remarking on his surprise that my jeans came up to my waist. Then several of the kids started to say how "country folk" wear their pants that high and do imitations. Is this just payback for how mercilessly we used to ridicule our father about the level of his waistband? :) When I had to leave Liberdade early on Friday, I said my goodbyes and started to head for the bus stop when the cook came after me. She realized that I was leaving early and was worried that I was fleeing from exasperation. I assured her that I had an appointment and everything was fine, but it felt good to know that somebody was looking out for me.

One of my colleagues asked me about holidays in the U.S., so I thought I'd draw a comparison of the federal holidays in Brazil and the U.S. The dates in parentheses are the dates on which the holiday falls in 2007.

U.S.
New Year's Day (January 1)
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15)
Washington’s Birthday (February 19)
Memorial Day (May 28)
Independence Day (July 4)
Labor Day (September 3)
Columbus Day (October 8)
Veterans Day (November 12)
Thanksgiving Day (November 22)
Christmas Day (December 25)

Brazil
New Year's Day/World Peace Day (January 1)
Carnaval (February 19-20)
Ash Wednesday (February 21)
Good Friday (April 6)
Tiradentes Day (April 21)
Work Day (May 1)
Corpus Christi (June 7)
Independence Day (September 7)
Nossa Senhora Aparecida (October 12)
Day of the Dead (November 2)
Proclamation of the Republic (November 15)
Christmas (December 25)

Then the Brazilian states throw in some additional holidays for patron saints, etc.

One last thing about bank accounts. I didn't really want to bother with a Brazilian bank account, but it turns out that I'm not even qualified to open one. To open a bank account here, you have to show proof of your salary, not a minimum deposit.

Time to go see the chess man and the kabob man as I'll stop at the supermarket on the way home.