Adventures of a Gringa

Welcome to Adventures of a Gringa! I'm a 24 year-old New Yorker who recently returned home after living in Brazil for about two years. To find out more about me and how I wound up in Brazil, see here. To find out how to contact me, see here. I like to make Top Ten lists; you find them under the Pages column on the right. And feel free to sign the guestbook! You can also find me on Facebook, Orkut, and Twitter.  Please make sure to read about my cause. 

Around the interwebs

As a reminder, here's where you can find me around the interwebs when there's not a post up here, or to connect with other readers and/or Brazilians and Brazilophiles:

• Orkut group
• Facebook group
• Twitter
• Portuguese Blog
• Dooce Community
• NaNoWrimo
• Good Reads

You can also check for guest posts on these blogs, though I will usually post or link to them here or on Twitter:

• LatAmThought
• Amo Muito

Out of my mind

Awhile back, when I went to Floripa on my first totally solo vacation, an idea came to me for a fiction book. It wasn't much, but I started forming some concepts as I sat alone on the beach. For some reason, I didn't do anything with them, even as more ideas came along after I went home and as they festered at the back of my mind ever since. It's not that I didn't have time; I didn't really have the desire to do anything about it. (Plus, the Internet is eternally distracting.) Also, being that I work best on deadlines and put existing commitments above personal projects, it never made it to the top of my to-do list.

But then, by way of Brazen Careerist, I came across a little event called National Novel Writing Month, run by a small non-profit in San Francisco. The idea is to write a 50,000 word noel in a month. As the website describes:

"Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly."

Now this is not at all my style - I'm a perfectionist - but I was also notorious in high school and college for writing obscenely long papers, sometimes longer than necessary. So in theory, it's doable, though I have no realistic expectations of finishing, nor of coming out with a decent end result.

In any event, I'm going to give it a try, for nothing more than to force myself to at least give it a shot and see what I come up with. Being that I now have a part-time job, freelance work, job hunting, and a possible second part-time job, I won't have much time. But I figure that if I force myself to join a huge group of people doing the same thing (peer pressure always works), then I will at least start. You can track my progress here, and I would gladly welcome any friends to join and try this ridiculous feat with me.

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I've kept in touch with the Ballet de Santa Teresa, where I was a volunteer while I lived in Rio. They send me updates and keep former volunteers in the loop, which is nice to be able to see how things are going. But last night I received really bad news. 

The staff sent out a series of images to the listserv, and this was the first one:

See where the blue table is? There used to be a wall and a hill back there. Apparently, the wall completely fell apart and there was a landslide, bringing down so much debris that the school had to be closed.

Classes are temporarily being held at a local cultural center, but they're hoping to find a facility to move to until they figure out what will happen to the wrecked school. Since as usual, funds are extremely low, they are currently looking for help, so the kids still have somewhere to go.

If you know of a potential facility that the ballet could use (ideally in the vicinity of Santa Teresa or Centro), or advice about how they should proceed, please email balletdesantateresa at hotmail dot com. I'm sure they'd welcome donations, too. Now more than ever, they are in desperate need of help.

Top Ten Reasons Gringos Should Pay Attention to Brazil

Though journalists, international affairs professionals, travel lovers, and international businessmen are already well aware that Brazil is the country to watch, there are still many gringos who aren't tuned in to Brazil's ascent or don't quite understand the country's importance. This list is for those gringos.

10. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's cultural capital (but not the national capital - that's Brasilia) is an excellent urban case study when learning about the developing world. It shares certain characteristics with other developing cities that provides many important lessons and a useful perspective on urban conflicts, like inequality, violent crime, and drug trafficking, as well as positive changes like a growing middle class, increased purchasing power of the average consumer and social movements.

9. It's a quickly growing tourism mecca with 5.2 million international visitors in 2008, and it's hoping to attract travelers away from Mexico and the Caribbean to its world-class beaches, Carnival, and nightlife.

8. It's part of BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China), a term created by Goldman Sachs expected to have the largest economies in the world by 2050. Brazil, which already weathered the global economic crisis than most of the world, already has the largest economy in South America and the sixth-largest economy in the world. It has some of the highest-earning companies in the world, and rapidly growing industries across the board, from technology services to agriculture.

7. It has a growing middle class, one of the largest in Latin America, that has not only expanded in numbers but in salary level and purchasing power, making Brazil a much sought-after consumer base, for everything from deli meats to movies to Macs. Hundreds, if not thousands of international businesses have opened stores and websites in Brazil to attract customers, from European sports car companies to fast food chains (if you so chose, you can have a Big Mac in Manaus, shop at Armani in Rio, or get yourself a Lamborghini in São Paulo).

6. President Lula Inácio da Silva has become one of the world's most popular politicians, and though he's likely to run for a third term in 2014, 2010 is an election year with a variety of very different candidates who could change or continue Brazil's trajectory. Brazil's election will be the election to watch in Latin America next year.

5. Brazil discovered new offshore oil fields in 2007 which have been touted as a potential billion dollar industry. Though the country is already a major oil producer, and its state-run petroleum company, Petrobras, is one of the highest-grossing companies in the Americas and the world, the discovery could propel Brazil into OPEC and make it a major oil power. Since the oil is so deep under the ocean floor, it is still hard to tell how much oil will be accessible, so it's important to stay tuned to find out. Meanwhile, Brazil is also the world's second- largest ethanol producer and the world's largest ethanol exporter, and is on the forefront of alternative fuels.

4. Though it's common knowledge that Brazil will host the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2014 World Cup, Brazil has become host to a large number of international events, conferences, and meetings in recent years, from academic conferences to important diplomatic meetings to major business events. Chances are that if you work in a globally-connected industry, there's a chance you may have to travel to Brazil within the next few years.

3. Brazil has the largest population in Latin America with nearly 199 million people, and Brazilian tourists are flocking to the U.S. more than ever because of rising salaries, a cheap dollar, and better prices on consumer goods. They are also coming in large numbers as students and businesspeople. That means that the chances of meeting a Brazilian in the U.S., no matter where you live, is higher than before. And it seems to me, at least, that there are a growing number of Brazilian-American couples.

2. Because of so much increased contact with the developed world, many transnational issues have become much more important and more will arise in the next few years, from drug smuggling to immigration, from terrible tragedies like the tragic murder of Jean Charles de Menezes and the kidnapping of Sean Goldman, to wonderful partnerships, non-profits, and cultural exchange.

1. There is much, much more to Brazil than the international media would have you believe, beyond the most commonly exported images of the country . There's much more to it than Carnival, soccer, narcos, and scantily-clad beachgoers. And you can discover all there really is to know about Brazil right there.

Unthinkable

Two incidents involving sexual harassment and assault took place in Brazil and the U.S. this week, shocking each nation. Though both were seemingly isolated incidents, part of what made them so horrifying was the thought that these terrible events could somehow reflect on the people of the respective countries. I'd like to think that they were, in fact, isolated incidents, but the events are undoubtedly telling.

In Brazil, a female college student at a respected university was chased by a mob shouting and cursing at her and threatening to rape her, supposedly because she was wearing a very short skirt to class. She barricaded herself inside a classroom and was escorted off the campus by military police. Several videos of the incident were floating around the Internet this week, though most have been removed (this one seems to be working). It seems as if a few reactions to the woman's attire sparked a mob, consisting of both men and women accusing the woman of being a whore. The incident provoked outrage all over the country, with many shaking their heads at what was perceived as evidence of a machista society. [From an outsider perspective, the irony of this terrible incident is that it debunks the gringo myth that Brazilians love nudity and approve of wearing little clothing in everyday life, as opposed to just at the beach].

I take your mob and I raise you something infinitely worse.

In California, a fifteen year-old high school student left a high school dance intending to go home, and instead went to drink in an alley behind the school. She wound up getting drunk, and was attacked by around ten male students who gang raped her for nearly three hours, while allegedly around a dozen other people stood around watching and did nothing. Several of the attackers have been arrested (they are being tried as adults even though they're minors), though police are still looking for more suspects, including those who watched and failed to call the police or alert authorities. The girl was found later in critical condition, and only was released from the hospital three days later. All over the U.S., people expressed outrage and disbelief that such a large group of people could watch such a brutal crime and refuse to stop it.

Both incidents forced both countries to reflect on issues people neither want to think about nor acknowledge. In the case of Brazil, some claimed that the victim "asked for it" because she provoked her fellow students with her "lewd" clothing. In the U.S., there's likely a minority who blame the incident on immigrants, since the arrested suspects are Latinos. But fundamentally, the large majority in each country tried to reconcile how something so unthinkable could happen in civilized places in this day and age, how as a part of a crowd, seemingly normal individuals could become monsters. 

Ensuring a Powerful Legacy for Rio's Favelas

When CNN broadcasted the 2016 Olympics announcement, an American friend pointed out that there was a single black person in the entire Brazilian delegation, which she thought was odd considering Brazil has the largest population of African descendants outside of Africa, not to mention many black athletes. I explained that this reflected the overall status quo in Brazil, and that black Brazilians, especially lower class blacks, don't have a strong voice or political power. But it doesn't have to stay that way.

I featured CatComm's project proposal two weeks ago, and thanks in part to my readers, they made it to the final round of the Idea Blob contest, and are up against seven other non-profits in competition to win $10,000. CatComm has worked with marginalized communities in Rio for a decade, and hopes to create a project to prevent favelas from being razed to make way for Olympic stadiums. The project would empower community leaders to make sure the world knows what's going on in Rio and to prevent human rights abuses from taking place. The communities in danger of being destroyed are some of the few in Rio with no drug trafficking, militia, or violence that have created their own social projects and their own infrastructure. They are essentially model communities that have achieved rare success on their own, and are at risk of being leveled to make room for a stadium.

That said, please take out a minute to vote for CatComm. The final day for voting is Saturday, and it only takes a minute to do!

Also, CatComm filmed some interesting videos about the project, including messages from community residents and an explanation (in English) about the project. Take it away, Theresa!

The Incredible Tale of Zé Peixe

Sometimes, the Brazilian media likes to romanticize poverty under the pretext of "living more simply," which I find irritating, but I couldn't resist the incredibly charming tale of Zé Peixe, known by the gringos as Joe Fish.

Zé Peixe, age 82, was born as José Martins Ribeiro Nunes in Aracaju, Sergipe. He learned how to swim very young, and soon gained the nickname Zé Peixe for his swimming skills. At 17, he became a harbor pilot in his seaside city, helping guide ships in and out of port. He is now one of the most famous harbor pilots in Brazil and even in the world.

At 5'2, 116 pounds, Zé Peixe has stayed fit by never drinking or smoking and swimming every day. He eats very little; just a roll and coffee for breakfast and fruit for the rest of the day. You can't swim well on a full stomach, according to Zé. He rarely drinks water; only a few mouthfuls of salt water when he's swimming now and again. He hasn't taken a shower since he was a kid, and only gets clean by swimming in the river or the ocean (and does so without soap, a fact that probably makes most Brazilians squirm). He rarely wears shoes and usually walks around in a bathing suit, and only gets dressed up with shoes for church and special occasions.

He lives in one of the oldest houses in Aracaju, where he was born and where he and his family have lived for three generations. He's been a widow for two decades and never had children, but has a large extended family. Even though he's been technically retired since the 90s, he has kept working because he enjoys his job so much.

Zé gets on the ship to navigate it safely out of port, and once he's done, he leaps from a height of a five-story building, and sometimes as much as 130 feet high into the water below, and then swims back to shore, which takes between 2 and 4 hours, an average of over 6 miles a day. He learned to swim in a way where he kicks very little, as not to attract sharks. Before diving, he tucks his paperwork and money into a plastic bag that he sticks in his shorts. Back in the day, he used to swim out to the boats on a boogie board, and wait between jobs by floating on a buoy.

He's also known for his heroism. In 1941, bodies of sailors from a ship bombed by the Germans washed up on the shore of Aracaju, and ever since then, no one has drowned when he's been nearby. One of his greatest feats was helping rescue an entire crew from a burning ship on its way back from an oil platform.

For a gorgeous black and white photo archive with English descriptions, see here. Check out the videos below to find out more (Portuguese only) and to watch Zé's trademark breathtaking dive.