Brazilian breakfast

Many, many folks here in Brazil declare that all they eat for breakfast is a toasted pãozinho (little French bread roll) with butter, plus a cup of coffee. Every so often they include a piece of fruit. That’s it.

As a so-called American I get curious questions from students all the time wondering why folks in the United States eat so much for breakfast: eggs, toast, bacon, hash browns, coffee and juice. They are incredulous. “No wonder you all are so fat! (I do point out that this is more stereotype than daily fare.)

I still get strange looks from my mother in law when I fill a bowl with Fiber One cereal and top it with sliced banana and yogurt. One cross-cultural breakfast success has been my banana pancakes. Whenever I make them for Luiz I cook off a few extra and then freeze them for future cravings. Ready-to-eat.

Let me blow a hole in this idea that Brazilians eat tiny breakfasts. This is certainly not true when they are on vacation. How many times have you heard about the fabulous breakfasts served at pousadas? Trust me, the Brazilian guests are not passing on all those cakes, pastries, fresh breads, fruits, cheese, ham, and maybe even fresh-cooked eggs.

Luiz and I just went on an excursion to São Lourenço and stayed at a nice hotel. The breakfast spread was ridiculous! So much for simple buttered toast and coffee!

Rio 2010 Homeless World Cup

This is a cross-post of sorts from Eloisa's terrific blog about Brazil: The Good Blood. If you are not already following her work, I highly reccomend it.

It seems fitting in this country of all-things-futebol that Rio will be the host of the 8th Homeless World Cup.  Between September 19 - 26 there will be teams from 64 nations competing on Copacabana Beach in a world-class, international futebol tournament.

According to the Homeless World Cup website, 30,000 homeless people from all over the world have been in training to find a spot on the team that will represent their country.  All that work comes to a head in just over a week.  I'm looking forward to checking it out.

A ball can change the world.  Are you in?

Nice Brazilian musical interlude - IYEXA

Check it out:

Brazil Independence Day

Our slow-paced life gets even slower on days like today. No students, no runs to the bank for Zozô, little traffic in the streets. We will likely go for a walk along the beach.

Today is the 188th anniversary of Brazil as an independent republic. On September 7th, 1822, Dom Pedro I, founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil, famously stood on the banks of the Ipiranga River in São Paulo, tore a Portuguese emblem from his uniform, drew his sword, and shouted: “By my blood, by my honor, and by God: I will make Brazil free.”

It actually took a little while to fulfill that promise but Brazil celebrates its independence from Portugal on September 7th all the same.

It’s been a bumpy ride, for sure. But as always, no excuse for a party is wasted. Today there are parades all over the country that feature military imagery, cultural celebrations and the proud parading of school children in honor of their beloved country.

Luiz has some pretty fun stories from when he was a smiling young boy wearing his formal school uniform and white gloves marching in step with the rest of his schoolmates down the main street in downtown Niterói in the Independence Day parade.

There is a parade today in Niterói as well. But we could not motivate to get to it. [Note remark above regarding today being slower than usual for us.]

Happy birthday Brazil. We will get our sandy feet wet in your honor.

Sports and social clubs

One common feature on the sports and social landscape here in Rio/Niterói is the prevalence of private clubs. They come in every style (read: class) and vary in focus from yacht clubs to tennis clubs to clubs associated with Schools of Samba. There is even a sports club near our house sponsored by the city (so the rest of us can enjoy a swimming pool and a maintained futebol field).

I’ll admit right up front that my working class bullshit detector goes off when I hear about or visit private clubs in Rio, Niterói or other places. I can’t help it. Maybe it’s me, but there is often an air of “we are better than those poor people (read: brown people) who go to the beach and swim in that nasty water.” Ok, maybe I’m being too harsh. I don’t think so.

Stopping short of a complete generalization I want to be clear that there are clubs for everyone, but they are definitely stratified by class. But alas, so much is so in Brazilian society. What’s the big deal? If class stratification were restricted to social clubs, then not much. But I fear the clubs are more an outgrowth of the gaping separation of the haves and have-nots in Brazil and that they reinforce and normalize this gap.

Sports and social clubs definitely have their perks and advantages and many, many are not only for the rich. They may bring swimming options to those living far from the beach. The grounds are safe for kids to wander and play on their own. Food and drink can be cheaper than on the street (since your monthly dues subsidize the environment). They are certainly a place to find tennis partners or to socialize with people self-selected as like you. They can be a quiet respite from the cacophony of the surrounding neighborhood.

That is all very reasonable. But at the end of the day, some of these places do not pass the smell test when it comes to self-selected class stratification – for whatever the reason. To suggest otherwise is to ignore reality.

Like I said, the hair goes up on the back of my neck. I flash on a memory of being the guest of a friend of mine in San Francisco for the annual LGBT physicians’ association dinner. We wandered the room meeting and greeting new colleagues and old. EVERYONE extended their hand to me first and introduced themselves. In turn I would introduce them to my host who had a PhD in psychiatry from Harvard, an African American man. We left early. Harold was worried that when it came time for people to leave they would be giving him their car keys and asking him to go fetch their BMWs.

On the other hand, I do enjoy going to some private clubs and having my class stereotypes contradicted by the openness and inclusivity shown by their members. And I have been to many clubs for us working class folk and they can put on one hell of a party.

Mosquitoes are not shy

I grew up just north of Detroit, in Michigan. It was an OK place to be at the time. Since then things have gone a bit south, but let’s stay positive.

One of the rituals of living in Mt. Clemens was at the end of the summer we would take the screens out of the windows, wash them thoroughly, and then store them safely in the garage until they were needed again in the spring.

Screens. Bugs outside – people inside. All the windows had custom-fit screens and the doors had sturdy screen doors as well. I never gave it a second thought.

Here in Brazil I have never seen a house with screens in the windows and I have certainly never seen a screen door (like on the sliding glass door out to a veranda, for example). Never. What’s up with that? There is positively no shortage of mosquitoes here. In fact, in Itaipú the bugs can be enough of a problem that we will close up the house at dusk (suffocating in the process) just to escape the nightly onslaught.

Now mind you, there may be houses with screens, but in my simple working and middle class orbit I have never come across them.

So we battle mosquitoes every night. Every night.

We have tried spraying the bedroom with bug spray (gross!), plugging in a little electrical bug-away thingy sold in the grocery store, burning citronella incense sticks (ugh!), and worst of all shutting us in behind a closed door and closed windows.

[racket getting recharged]

One ingenious gadget I love is the mosquito racket. This little electrically charged tennis racket does not keep the bugs out, but it zaps them dead if you can swing the racket and catch them in motion. ZAP! If the mosquito has already bitten you and is full of your blood: ZAP – ZAP – SIZZLE ZAP! (followed by the smell of fried mosquito and human blood).

So when I hear that annoying buzzzzzzz near my ear in the middle of the night I reach for the racket and wave it around until I am rewarded with a ZAP! Unfortunately this may happen 6 – 12 times a night and often it wakes Luiz from a sound sleep. But it beats getting bitten (again) – and I certainly feel better that I am fighting back!

Can we bury this controversy?

Ok - I know this is a blog about Luiz and my life in Brazil, but forgive me if I continue to feel the pinch of injustice against LGBT folks in my country of birth, especially in the state where we recently lived for the past 24 years.

Here is a great video that takes on the propoganda against gay marriage in California (and elsewhere).  Make no mistake, this battle has not been won.  Talk to your friends and family. Check it out.