Oi from Brazil!

9-7-08
After our pre-port lecture Saturday night where we were told about safety, foods, cultural differences and sights to see we were ready to enter Salvador, Brazil! With a few key phrases under my belt such as oi (hello) and obrigado/a (thank you) I couldn’t wait to get off the boat and into the city! We woke up bright and early Sunday morning because we were told they could call our names at any time to obtain our passports. There were Brazilian authorities on the boat who supposedly had to match our passport photos with our faces. We had mixed messages all morning about if they were taking us in groups, calling us individually, what time it would be at, etc. But one of the first things they told us when we embarked on this voyage was that we would always need to be FLEXIBLE! So we were, and we eventually got off the boat around 10:30 am.

The dock was very isolated, just had brick buildings all along it and definitely was not a good place to people watch...since there were no people! We had to walk down a ways and then out into the city through a small building where we could exchange currency, buy postcards and have a taxi set up for us. When we finally walked out the doors into Salvador my first impression of it was the streets smelled horribly of urine. Not long after I saw a man peeing on the side of the building as if it was an everyday ritual.

I was with a group of probably about 12 people. I’m sure we screamed tourists with our cameras, sunglasses, hats and large group of mostly Caucasian students, despite all the warnings they gave to us about trying not to look like foreigners. But I felt safer in a large group. Our goal was to walk into the upper city, where you take the “elevator” to get up into the main square and city area. So we ventured over to the elevator (it literally was just a building with a huge elevator) to make our way towards the excitement. To take the elevator it cost us each about 5 cents. The Brazilian currency is in reals, and the exchange rate was about 1.6. So something that was 10 reals was about 6 or 7 dollars. Once we got off the elevator we immediately saw a couple large buildings with beautiful architectural designs. As we continued to walk down the street there were walls full of painting and graffiti, some of it was actually quite artistic. It was amazing to see the mixing of the old and the new. There were normal cars driving around and then all the sudden we see 6 or 7 horses being ridden down the side of the road with dogs chasing after them. In one of the restaurants I saw a Red Bull machine, while they were also selling authentic brazilian foods.

We walked down one of the main streets and as a few members of our group started to walk down a side street a little kid probably around 8 years old ran up to us and said “no, no, favelas!” Favelas are where the poorer people live and some areas of them can be full of drugs, violence and are very unsafe especially for tourists। We thanked him and he kept walking alongside us and started to ask us questions in English. I said “ahh you speak English?” He said “a little bit”. He asked us what our names were and where we were from. It was hard not to be skeptical and think that he was going to scam us or steal something from us. That’s what many of the street children in this area are known for, so I tried not to blatantly tell them we were from America or that we had any valuables on us. He ended up being harmless. We saw another boy later on who was absolutely beautiful it was so heartbreaking to see him full of dirt and torn up clothes begging for money. He would beg and show us his sad face and after we turned him down a few times then he began to give us little smirks. It was as if he knew that we knew he was putting on an act. He’d do his sad face then he’d talk in Portuguese and give us a big smile. Too bad I couldn’t take him to Hollywood, he was a great little actor.


People with jewelry and food and paintings would come up to us to sell us things but if we did not want it, semester at sea just advised us to say “no, obrigado”. After about an hour into our adventure we walked up to another SAS group who informed us one of their friends was just tackled to the ground while she was taking a picture and they stole her camera. Very scary-from then on we were gripping our bags and watching our backs with every step we took! I didn’t even take my camera out after that! My international management teacher (who has lived in 89 countries and been to 123) warned us that this would probably be the most dangerous port. He did a whole presentation on safety and not looking American before we left. Yet I still heard numerous stories about girls getting necklaces ripped from their necks, cameras stolen, wallets pick-pocketed and even met a guy who had a gun pulled on him. Not to scare you all-I was totally fine and safe it was just so important to be cautious. It made me really appreciate the fact that I can walk down the street in most places in the U.S. without having to grip my bag or constantly be looking over my shoulder to see who is near me. I had to be on alert at all times and it was a little scary.

In the afternoon we went on an architectural tour by bus। It was fun to see the city on a larger scale instead of just the one central square. The views were beautiful and it was such a beach town. We passed through several streets where they said one should never get out on this street, because there is prostitution and sketchy people. One of the most unique sights to see was the vast expanses of Favelas. They start out by people without homes just living on a piece of land and building little shacks. Eventually more and more people join in and it becomes a community of its own. The government often times will either relocate them or recognize it as a Favela neighborhood and give them water and electricity. We saw entire hillsides filled with these colorful multi-storied homes. Different generations just build on top of each other. So when a child gets married, the parents can just add another floor onto their home for the newlyweds to live in. It was also fascinating to see all the modern advertisements on the sides of run-down buildings. In my sociology class we discussed the racial inequality that still goes on and how there was an afro-brazilian movement having to do with the rights of those with racially mixed backgrounds. At least 50% of Brazilians come from a mixed background, meaning that they were probably descendents of slaves brought over from Africa. So most of the billboards and ads I saw had models who had very light skin...I didn’t happen to see any with darker skin.


That night we went to a welcome reception। As we walked in there were women with bright colored outfits and head-wear on. They tied ribbons around our wrists (which people did during the day in the city too) and knotted them three times meaning we had three wishes. There were some Brazilian students there but for the most part it was just more mingling with SAS students. They had an amazing show to put on for us! They did their traditional Brazilian dance called Capoeira. It’s actually a mix of martial arts and dance where two people play/dance with each other. We also heard some traditional music and drumming and dancing. Eventually we got to join in the dancing as we ate some Brazilian goodies and they made sure our glasses of beer were never-ending.

Be watching for the Brazil rain forest update coming soon!