Hi Everybody! I wanted to post before but it was a hectic week for me. Anyway, last time I told you a little about Brazil’s culture in terms of staying at your parents’ home until you get married and I mentioned the traffic.

Oh well, if you have been to Brazil, specially, Sao Paulo or perhaps any big city in that country, you know what I’m talking about.

When people tell me they were in a horrible traffic in San Diego I laugh. That’s because the traffic in San Diego doesn’t exist compared to the traffic in Sao Paulo. Come on San Diegans, please!

Seriously, in Sao Paulo, sometimes you stuck in traffic for hours. If a route would take you 30 minutes from a point to another, with the traffic that could take you 2 or 2 ½ hour to do the same route. Now, that’s traffic.

Before, this used to happen only during the pick hours, but now there is no such a thing. Seems to me that all the cars in the entire city of Sao Paulo are on the road at that exact moment you are.

Besides that, there are the so called “motoboys” ! Ah, you would love them! There are millions of motorcycle riders working for delivery companies. They are like busy bees, delivering documents all day long. They go from one company to another, or to banks, you name it. They are everywhere and I’m not kidding when I tell you that you cannot transfer from one lane to another because they are all over the place and if you are not paying attention and don’t see them in your mirrors when you try to change lanes, you will get hit by one or two of them. Your car will no longer have mirror because they will kick it. So watch out! It is crazy. The same guys that delivers documents during the day, delivers pizza at night, but at night it is not so bad with the motoboys.

Every day hundreds of them lose their lives in the traffic of Sao Paulo. They make money by hour, so the fast they go, more money they get and of course more risk they take.

Anyway, so you are stuck in traffic and you have no air conditioning in your car and you can’t open the windows because you can be robbed.  Just kidding, most cars have air conditioning but some don’t. The very basic ones, categorized as 1.0 type.

Now seriously, you have to pay attention to everything specially, if you are in downtown Sao Paulo, or every main big city in Brazil. Please, keep the windows in your car closed, with or without air conditioning.  You can leave it cracked open, but at the traffic light, just close it. Don’t take chances. There are many kids, young adults and adults near the traffic light. They sell snacks, soft drinks, beer, water, etc., or they have these spray bottles with water and soap (I think) and they will try to clean your windshield and expect you to give them money. Just gesture nicely that you don’t want them to clean your window. Don’t engage in argument with them. Some of them or maybe most of them are probably honest people that don’t have a job and are just trying to make some money but some of them, you know, are there just to try to do their job, which is still from you. They can have a gun, a knife or a piece of glass so they will use to intimidate you, and boy, that work.

I don’t want to scare you and have you all concerned about going to Brazil, because it’s really not that bad as long as you pay attention to your surroundings, just like you would certainly do in any place you go to, even here in the United States, that you don’t feel totally safe, a place you have never been to before. Just use common sense and don’t show off you jewelry. Watch your mirrors and drive safe. If it is possible, if you are not in the middle of a total jammed parking lot type of traffic, stop the car with a good distance from the car ahead of you. A way to know how distance would be good is to look at the car ahead of you. You should be able to see its rear tires.

I just wanted to talk about traffic and ended up talking about thieves. I guess all is connected. But I don't want to discourage you to visit that beautiful country. You will fall in love with it, despite it's problems. People there are really warm and fun and the food... it is to dye for! This is something I miss a lot living here.

That’s it for today. It’s been a long week.

Have a great weekend! 

Hi everybody!

Today I'm going to talk a little about some differences in our culture.

Families in Brazil are very close. So close that the kids leave home only when they get married. Never mind de age, really. It doesn’t matter if you are 20, 30 or 40 years old.

Sure, some people leave earlier, but usually after college, when they can support themselves financially as they have good jobs with good salaries and can afford a rent or buy their own place, or when the parents are rich and can send their kids to study abroad after they complete high school (very few). Or when they have no choice, like when they find a job that is too far from home, sometimes in another city and it is not worth the time spent in traffic, by the way, this is another hot topic that I will talk about later.

There are many reasons for it and the economy certainly has a share on this. But I believe it is cultural too. I was shocked when I found out way back that kids here in the United States leave their home when they are off to college and mainly because they choose to go to a school in another city or even state.

Another thing is that families take care of their parents when they get old and can’t take care of themselves anymore. Here they go to a retirement home or such. In Brazil that happens too but usually they care for their parents at home, unless there is something that would prevent that to happen, like their job, again, here is the economy talking. If they have money and can afford, they hire a home care companion or in some cases, they send them to nursing homes, which most people would feel guilty about it.

There are many cases when the adult place their parents to a nursing homes maintained by the government because they can’t afford to pay or because they are not emotionally able to take care of them. And there are some cases where they abandon their parents in these places. We call these places “Asilo”. The conditions in these places are as dignified as they can be, as they depend government assistant and many of them rely on donations. It is very sad to see an abandoned elderly in these places, but sometimes, they are better off in a place like this because at least they have other people to talk to, to receive some love and affection from the  employees, visitor and volunteers.

Many companies nowadays, are involved in volunteer programs and at least once a year they gather some employees and they go visit these places and bring food, drinks and clothes and most important, give the elderly there some attention that most need. You can see happiness, sadness, wisdom and all kinds of mixed feelings in their eyes. It is wonderful to be able to participate in such events.

Well, that’s all for today. I hope you will enjoy reading this post.

Have a great day!  :-)

I’m back. I went to Brazil recently and I wanted to post something earlier but I didn’t have time.

Anyway… this  is one of the things I really don’t like when I go to Sao Paulo or any other  city in Brazil: The homeless’ dogs on the streets.

I wish people will  understand that they can’t have dogs and let them run loose on the streets and make more puppies… then they abandon them all… leaving them in boxes and sometimes they even throw the little “babies” on water drains on streets.

This is horrible and I hate that I can’t do anything about this. This should be everybody’s business. Every single human being should do their part to prevent and end this situation, wherever it happens.

Education is probably the main issue and to blame.

I'm back... it's been a while. I went to Brazil last December
and I wanted to post something earlier but I didn't have time.

Anyway... this  is one of the things I really don't like when I go to Sao Paulo or any other  city in Brazil: The homeless’ dogs on the streets.

I wish people will  understand that they can't have dogs and let them run loose on the streets and  make more puppies... then they abandon them all... leaving them in boxes and sometimes they even throw the little "babies" on water drains on streets.

This is horrible and I hate that I can't do anything about this. This should be everybody's business. Every single human being should do their part to prevent and end this situation, wherever it happens.

Education is probably the main issue and to blame.

This map will give you a great view of all the states of Brazil and where they are located when I talk about each one of them you can come back to the map and locate the state in the map.