Christmas spirit

I'm not using this blog for work, but it is good to recount that some things that the people I work with were hoping for apparently is coming to happen - and with it the rains stopped after two weeks and the place 'lit up' literally and figuratively.

On the spur of the moment, since I was back doing things in the office after an enforced absence, I went out and bought Christmas presents for the staff, these presents to add to the ones everyone had bought everyone else as a 'Santa gift'. I've not seen this custom before: everyone buys one gift for one other colleague then, gathered in a circle, each gives the gift to the other after first making a short speech of appreciation.

By evening it was back to dark storm clouds again, keeping me inside the apartment until a break allowed me to escape and go to the supermarket to buy something. That was not to be, as a generator had blown and the place was closed down.

So I went to the local sushi bar, selected a sushi/sashimi mix which, with a small flask of warm sake, made the end of the day very comfortable.

Everything is bleak

Everything is bleak - work, play and the environment. Rains are washing down off the buildings in torrents; what there is of a skyline in Belo is blotted out by mists and squalls.

Thanks to a series of events I'm working from the apartment these last few days, so in spare time I've been doing things like setting up a couple of other blogs (which seems a better place to put these things than on Facebook), figuring out how to do things in FileMaker (it's not bad once you get used to it) and downloading copies of books from the 17th through 18th centuries about voyages to the East Indies from two sites: Gutenberg, which I know from before but have 'discovered' the HTML versions are better than the .txt versions; and Google books, which are both PDF and text (at least before you download them).

That's fun.

Staying in Belo

Haven't done much this week. Had planned to go to Iguazu over the long weekend but that isn't going to be possible: I have to count the pennies in case things go sour.

It's lousy weather anyway, so I doubt any trip would alleviate the general gloom at present.

Escape by Internet

There's really not much to say about the passing of November. Its been mostly work and definitely no social life. Where I am in this apartment the sun doesn't strike directly, so there's no 'wild sunbathing'. Anyway the climate is quite variable and the nights are surprisingly cool.

The angle of the windows and the bristle of high rises around me cuts me off from seeing dawns that are worthy of being recorded. So the only shots I have are really of sunsets and storms from the office windows.

I have no urge to 'document' this place - like most places in Brazil the city is too ugly to be an inspiration for a foto essay. Down-out-people I can find anywhere in the world, and I've really never liked taking 'negative' shots. And, contrary to stereotype, most Brazilians are chubby to fat; that limits me when it comes to street scenes.

I've walked three times around the center of Belo, which is entirely foregettable. Not very interested in doing it again. No redeeming feature other than the park in the center, and that's saying a lot.

So I stay in the apartment, connect to the Internet, and fly away from here.

Back to work in Belo

Well during this week I've managed to get some papers sorted out for the project I'm engaged on, including renting an apartment. My client wanted two bedroomed place, so for the budget that meant unfurnished. I've chosen a location which is convenient, on Rua Curitiba, only a few blocks to a supermarket, laundry, restaurants, hotels and a mall. Taxis pass by frequently so transport isn't a problem.

So that means I have to find some inexpensive furniture in Brasil, which is by no means easy, as I recall. Until I do, I'm in the hotel.

Below the hotel itself and just in front of the municipal park, on Sundays there is a street market. They tell me its like the famous Hippy market in Ipanema, but with lots of local handcrafts and commerce.

I wandered around it and noticed that much of the stuff is the same as that in Rio, Salvador and also in Fortaleza, but of something local that stands out distinct from those cities, well, nothing in particular. With the exception of some be covers, which are very pretty quilts, I didn't see anything I couldn't find better in the other places - and as to variety Belo is much more limited.

Its strange, but I always get this sensation that the street art of Brazil is stuck in the 1970s and early 80s. Other than the naive 'folklore' stuff, all art is that popularized at that time - the semi-polished semi-precious stones in white metal settings, the air brush paintings, the metallized figurines, the wooden sculptures and, above all, the colored glass vases and wind chimes.

Nice stuff, don't get me wrong, and more 'innocnet' than the world-branded plastic accessories that most people seem happy buying today.

But where is the exuberance of Mexico, brilliance of color in India, the fine detail from Indonesia, or the sparkle of Malaysia? OK I know, you are all probably fed up with my constant critique of Brazil compared to other places. I agree - maybe because I know that 'new worlds' lack something that 'old worlds' do - and it isn't because of the folk art.

Something else is missing I think - a culture that supports and appreciates a strong artisan tradition as part of its sense of identity. In Brasil that doesn't exist, except in verbal 'homage'. People came here to grab the quick opportunity, an easy slice of the pie, something better than the misery of impoverished lives elsewhere. They brought no intrinsic wealth with them, unlike the Spanish in the other regions of Latin America.

This always disappoints me. Brasil could have been so much more.

A photographic challenge

Dawn breaks over Belo Horizonte, which from this hotel overlooking the municipal park, it quite impressive (dawn, that is).

So frequently the only impressive thing about Brazil is its natural setting and its nature. Check the photos on Flickr - so few are of what the Brazilians and their immigrant forebears have actually done to the place these last 50 years. I promise I will try to find something in the life of the country worth recording other than what the place can happily do every day without human presence. Now there's a photographic challenge!

Off to Belo Horizonte

Today I have to fly to Brazil to carry on with the project there. Dawn flight from Nice to Lisbon, then connect to Belo Horizonte.

Coming in over Lisbon I could see the Torre de Belem and the Monument to the Navigators that I once tramped around many years ago with Marcia. The wait in Lisbon Airport was the usual stagger from over-priced boutique to over-priced cafe to over-priced bookstore. All in a setting that, if I didn't know better, was deliberately retro 1970s. It wasn't retro, it was the original.

Total confusion at the gate for embarking; hardly surprising given general style of the place. The second attempt to get on board the transfer bus (the first attempt having failed for confusion over destination and a 'technical' problem with the plane - the crew hadn't turned up) and we did a total tour of the airport perimeter before deciding that, yes, this was our plane.

We're on, nothing happens untoward, I land in Brazil. This airport is woefully equipped to handle international traffic. Two people to check passports (one for Brazilians, one for everyone else). The baggage retrieval system was a farce. Too small to carry anything but the baggage of passengers from a Cessna, this was attempting to disgorge an avalanche of accumulated essentials and souvenirs from an Airbus 320. That there was no-one from the airport even aware of the fact that the bags were jammed up like the elephants in Walt Disney's Jungle Book, well you can imagine the scene. Passengers were scrambling over bags, conveyor belts and each other in a scramble to grab their bags before they disappeared into a tunnel or were crushed by the en suite of others' bags. Women screamed 'that one! that one!' then elbowed their way to one side of the belt so their men could to do the heavy lifting. Children twirled, men leapt to the challenge, officials determined this wasn't part of their duties. And so on for a good hour. Don't fly to Belo Horizonte direct unless you have hand baggage only. Unless, of course, you like a good show.

Back in Brasil

After days at home waiting to know the next business posting from my existing client, I spoke to some other people and soon found myself back in Brasil.

It took a while, since I was held over one day in Newark thanks to bad weather.

Anyway, I'm here in Belo Horizonte, working and fixing problems as is my wont. I've walked around the center of the city a couple of times; there's little of consequence here so it will be some time before I pick up my camera.

Work is too intense, my brain is too tired - and anyway its too risky to go out on the streets in Brasil with anything of value.

Belo Horizonte

This was just a quick jump to Belo Horizonte, Brasil’s third largest city. The weather is bright and clean and clear. The city is built up in a valleyed plain with higher mountains around its rim. Infinitely more ‘breathable’ than Sao Paulo.

I’ve been here before – when I lived in Brasil I came here a couple of times on business and once during a long weekend holiday. It looks like the place has grown significantly since then – its no longer a large city with one main street of no consequence; now it a larger city with several main streets and many shopping malls.

The people are more mixed here; simpler than in Sao Paulo but just as alive and, maybe, a little more confident. It certainly doesn’t suffer the sense of pressure Sao Paulo has, or the unchanging laid-back attitude of Rio.

If ever I come back to Brasil again, this is the place where I would see the most of in the future. Who knows …