Occasionally, the Consulate gets a demonstration outside its gates, usually due to something that we have no control of. A number of months ago, there was a demonstration of employees who were laid off unexpectedly by a company that is owned by a rich American. The law in Brazil states a company has to give so much notice before it can lay people off. Evidently, this rich American thought it didn’t apply to him. Don’t know what the outcome was but the Consulate General took the information and passed it on to the Commerce Department.
A few Saturdays ago, we had a demonstration to protest America’s sanctions on Cuba. They kept chanting Vivi la Castro! … the idiots.
Then a few days later, there was a sudden demonstration to protest US sanctions against Venezuela. These are from mostly young people that have no sense of reality.
A few weeks ago, my Brazilian buddy put together a beer crawl in which we went to six different places to drink beer and eat, than move on to the next one. It was slow moving and relaxing, but the tour was in the downtown area where there were ample exhibits of graffiti. Sao Paulo has it all over the place, but downtown was most interesting. Below are some of the art work. And the city has very old trees. Talking to the Facilities manager at the Consulate, he said the compound alone has over 900 trees. And I always notice the architecture of the city. As with any large city with populations in the millions, there are homeless everywhere. Driving through Sao Paulo, you will see hundreds of make-shift homes everywhere. Here is a rather successful homeless family that acquired a tent which is planted on the sidewalk. As I walked by, the father was relaxing and looked quite content. But on the cold nights that we have had recently, I wonder how they keep warm.There is a lot going on now, yet there isn’t. My replacement is here and it has been busy, but things are moving forward. I am now looking forward to retiring and finding a place to sit and relax at whim. Plus I want to start writing again.
Kick butt and keep looking for the next adventure. D.