Lesson Six: How to Shock & Awww

September 11, 2008 16:55 Salvador, Brasil
Boa Noite, friends and family!
We are on our way to Walvis Bay. That rhymes and is therefore even more awesome. That also means you get a nice, long (and I mean long, this literary journey that you are about to embark on is formidable) blog post. I’ve sectioned it up for your comfort and convenience.
SALVADOR
Unfortunately, I can say with absolute certainty that I am happy to be leaving Salvador. I think it was a “good” experience for me in terms of containing realizations about the rest of the world, but by this afternoon, I was tired of being solicited for cash, food, “presentes” that of course cost money, and being tapped on the shoulder and called “beautiful lady” by EVERYONE. Salvador is a dangerous city, comprised mostly of a public square rampant with people and animals, a small business district, and mass outcroppings of favelas (comunidades is the proper local term, favelas is to comunidades as “third world” is to “developing country”). People had cameras stolen, attempted muggings, were threatened with razor blades by an 8-year old, and cheated by ATMs and bartenders alike.
What’s truly upsetting to me is not that it is dangerous, as every city is if you are not careful, and especially if you are outwardly touristy, but that people HAVE to do things like that because that is their livelihood. That eight-year old kid has no home, no money and no food, and is possibly addicted to drugs. The vast dichotomy of wealth and poverty in Brazil in general and ESPECIALLY Salvador makes it impossible for that kid to change his situation, because there are literally a million other kids (and adults) like him across the city.
*Sidenote: Carrie & Marcella are my closest friends here on the ship; they’re right across the hall and we hang out all the time. So I’ll just use their names instead of always saying “my friends this” and “my friends that”.*
So Carrie and I were talking about how everyone hates America. It is really apparent here. Carrie said, and I paraphrase, that she expected to be looked at like she was weird as a white, blonde, tourist, but that the looks she received were worse than weird. People stare at you as if they already hate you, and then they aggressively try to sell you things. When, finally, we were just tired of being gawked and hawked at, Marcella said “No! Go away!” to the trillionth guy who was following us out of the Mercado (market) trying to sell us lame jewelry and he starts yelling “Go! Go back to America!” Rather than making me angry, it makes me embarrassed. I am embarrassed that the current administration’s foreign policy is so heinously craptastic that EVERY OTHER COUNTRY hates us. Okay, it’s an exaggeration to say hates us, but many do, and most if not all have at least a few large, marrow-filled bones to pick with us. I feel embarrassed that instead of reflecting my personal values, which differ greatly from George W. Bush, I am looked at as an extension of him, as a citizen of “his” country, and therefore a huge douche.
BIZNASS (<3>
Now, after that long post, I’ve decided this about my blog in general, and how it is most likely going to progress. I have WAY too many journals. I have journals for psych, a personal journal, two online journals and a journal where I keep track of money. TOO MANY JOURNALS. So, I am journically (it’s a word now) delegating. I like this blog because I can talk about grown up things without calling you pirates or adventurers. I like the kids’ blog because I can talk about cute little animals and plants and leave out the parts about their razor-blade-weilding, crack-addicted peers (too soon? Is that a too-soon joke?) So here’s the deal, faithful adult-or-nearly-there-or-very-much-there-because-you’re-old-just-kidding readers: If you want educational, awesome details about the Amazon, safaris and general adventures, READ THE KIDS BLOG. The meat and potatoes of what I want to say is still there; if you’re not a reader then there will be no big words so as to avoid obfuscation (get it? I used a big word for confusing to illustrate my point, OH SNAP). This plan could change as of, oh say, any time the whim strikes me. But that’s how it’s gonna be for now. Check the “juicy reads” sidebar and click on “High Seas Adventure”.
THE AMAZON
That business aside, the Amazon kicked ass. Compared to the other groups we sort of got the shaft in terms of not holding anacondas or sloths, not climbing trees, and not receiving snack, but on its own the trip was cool. Only complaint: We waited around for freakin’ EVER. Without explanation as to why we were sitting in a non-moving riverboat for 1.5 hours. On several separate occasions. Someone once called the Amazon “green hell”, and I generally agree with that statement. The Amazon is HOT AS ANYTHING. Super humid, super toasty, and of course you have to wear long pants because getting bitten by fire ants and dengue-fever-carrying mosquitoes can really put a damper on your jungle trek. The shower I took at about 4:30pm today was the GREATEST SHOWER OF MY LIFE. Except for the super kick-ass natural rainforest shower I took when it started raining in the rainforest and I put on my bathing suit and shampooed my hair in the rain. Nature’s shower is the best (not to mention cleanest) shower. Excepting that quasi-shower, my compatriots and I were one big sweaty, DEET-y, Banana Boat SPF 30-y, hammock fuzzy (god could those hammocks fuzz on you, if only there were natural plant lint rollers in the Amazon) MESS. For an explanation and list of sweet medicinal plants and super adorable animals that I wish I could show you pictures of (thanks, superslow, upload-limited internet), read the kidlet blog. Seriously we saw some AWESOME stuff. CUTEST FROGS EVER.
Really I just have way too much to tell you all in terms of what happened, awesome things I did, saw and ate, and hilarious things my friends say, so I’m bound to miss something and that kills me. So email me if you have questions because it makes me feel better about missing all the stuff that’s going on in your lives! I’ll probably post more in the next couple days, I feel like if you’ve gotten this far you must be a bit overloaded. Tchau!