The apartment we are staying at is on the 4th floor next to a small, but busy intersection; and I often step out and watch the traffic below.  Recently, the traffic lights had quit working which made for some interesting observations.  It may not be polite of me, but I kept hoping for an accident.  Even though nothing happened, it did remind me of an intersection in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that we had to cross twice a day.  There is a YouTube video some of you may have seen.  If you watch the video below, which is twice normal speed, you get an idea of what it was like.  Our intersection was the one at the top of the video, which was just as crazy.

I once asked one of the good Ethiopians I worked with why the traffic lights never work.  He said, one day a Contractor went to the City and said he would fix the lights for “X” amount of money.  It was a good deal, so the City Government accepted.  But when he started working, there was so much corruption in the Government, that he was always having to pay extra fees or bribes to do his job, so he just quit.

About once a week, a perfectly healthy character will kneel down next the street to beg.  I watched him several times and took a picture of him.  The next time, I will try to get a video of him.  He will hold out his hands asking for money, and slowly move down the line on his knees like he cannot walk, then when the traffic clears, he will stand up and move back to the front.  The lady in black had just handed him some money, and he slid it into his pockets and continued begging at the next series of cars that stopped at the light.

One of the things I kept here in Brazil is my sling shot and a bag of marbles.  I cannot fully express how tempting it is to send a marble down to the character just to watch him dance, but I refrained.  For now.

The drivers in Sao Paulo are very patient compared to the dangerous drivers in Turkey, but we often hear some idiot honking his horn because the driver in front did not immediately respond when the light turned green.  So, I decided I will keep my eyes open for paint balls the next time we go to the nearby mall.  Then we will see what happens with some idiot lays on his horn, or a perfectly healthy joker starts to beg, or any one of the many people out walking their dogs do not pick up after the animal.

Then, we will see who is the boss looking down on these people from above.

Makes you a little giddy, doesn’t it.

D.

Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo is a 1.7 mile stretch of city street, in the heart of Sao Paulo with touristy places to see and visit.  On Sundays it transforms into a stretch of vendors and booths.  We decided to be there at midnight on New Year’s Eve, which is something my inner self was not comfortable with, but was promised it would just be for a few hours.

Once we arrived, there were wall to wall people looking for the way to enter the street.  We eventually found an entrance that the police had opened up and we went in.  It was person to person and everywhere we went, we were walking like penguins.  Before going, I removed all important papers and credit/debit cards from my wallet, and slid it into one of my front pockets.  As we maneuvered our way into the foray, I kept my thumb on my wallet in my pocket.  My phone was in the other front pocket, and I slid a small flask into my back pocket.  If the flask disappeared, I would know I was pick-pocketed.

We were in the mass of people until midnight when all the eruption takes place.  There was 12 minutes of fireworks, and hooping, hollering and kissing.

On Wednesday morning, City Hall cleaning teams were still working to collect the garbage accumulated on the avenue. Balance showed that 66.5 tons of waste were removed from the site.  That amounts to 133,000 pounds of garbage.

According to the city, New Year’s Eve in Paulista moves tourism and brings more than $R600 million to the city (equal to $150 million US)  $R3 million were invested in the production and infrastructure of the event and employed 2,700 people.

The security of the event included 409 Metropolitan Civil Guard officers and 73 vehicles — cars, motorcycles and mobile community bases.  What really surprised me, was to find out there was an estimated 2 million people there.

Below is a few pictures of the Avenue the day before, as we went there to eat lunch.  Then the wall to wall people on New Year’s Eve. And a few of us after the stroke of 12. As far as I care, once was enough and I can say we been there, done that.  Below are a few pictures that I should have included in the post about the Marine Ball.  The first is a picture of some of our friends who sat with us. And then me and Dani: We will visit again later.  Until then, wrap your arms tight around the next adventure, and kick butt.

We are arrived back in Brazil on December 23rd and it took a few days to get settled into the apartment.  The next day, we had Dani’s family come over for food and drink.

In Brazil, it is customary to have a dinner right after midnight on Christmas Eve, then her family stayed the night and left on Christmas.  This was a surprise to me, but perfectly acceptable.  So, here are a few pics of the dinner. This my pretty little friend after eating a plate full of grapes.  Brazilian love fruits and the country produces a great amount of all fruits and vegetables.This is my pretty friend after staying up late and eating midnight dinner.  She stayed there until mamma put pajamas on her and placed her in bed.Other that this it was a quiet, pleasant holiday; but before I go, I want to show you a short video we took in Oklahoma when we visited my brother and his lovely wife.  This was at a church which had put up about 400 million lights.  (or at least it seemed that many)

On the day before we flew out, I hosted a massive BBQ and invited everyone in the Consulate.  No one was excluded.  If the Ambassador was there, I would have even let him come.

I paid for all the meat, which included some Picanha (sirloin cap), ribs, sausages and a whole pig to roast, minus the insides.  The Facilities guys collected money to buy everything else which included kegs of cervaja (beer) and addition foods.  Below is the pig before roasting, then following the progression.These may not be pretty pictures, but the taste was amazing!  The man who cooked it is a Master and I tip my hat to him.  And below are pictures of another BBQ Master and his culinary perfections. Below are some of the people who attended my event. And my Good Boss decided to honor me with a show of the Security Office’s appreciation. I really didn’t know he was that short until I saw these pictures.  And here is me saying some words of sort …I will discuss New Year’s Eve next.

It has been awhile, but we will pick up where I left off.

We finished preparing for the pack-out, doing our best for the time we had which is never enough.  No matter how thorough we are, there will always be hitches. The packers came and did their thing as shown below:Then the following day, they hauled it all off.All in all, it was a relief to have it completed.  The only problem I had, they packed away a power charger for my little travel laptop.  No problem, I thought, I will just get online and order another to arrive in Texas.  It was not that easy.  I ordered three different chargers and no matter how they said it would fit my little laptop, they did not.  To this day, I still have not found a replacement.

Yes, I will eventually get it back, but it will be late next year.  But I cannot fathom how the packer did it, since it was plugged in under a table at the time.

But from that time on, all we had to do was relax and enjoy the short week before we flew out to Texas.  That waiting period also included the Marine Ball and the Feast of the Fatted Pig.

The Marine Ball.

My respect for these good people is high.  I took the opportunity to buy tickets for about a half dozen people who had never been to a Marine Ball before, or was unable to go, due to the expense. At every Marine Ball, they always honor the youngest and the oldest Marine present.  This year’s oldest Marine is the good man below in white hair.During the noisy music and dancing part, when most everyone is out jiggling and wobbling on the dance floor, he and his loving wife stood in a close embrace and just gently rocked back and forth.  I found it to be most beautiful, and when they finished and walked back to their table with his wife supporting him, I gave him a “thumbs up”.  I wish I could have personally thanked him for his service, but my emotions would not let me.

Here are pictures of the birthday cake, and the table that is always set aside for the Marines who never returned home.Give me a few days and I will post pictures from the Feast of the Fatted Pig.

Until then, smile and kick butt.  D.

As the clock ticks away, I am headed for retirement whether I want it or not.  This includes reams of paperwork, for not just retirement, but packing out of the apartment, transferring back to the States and dealing with Green Card paperwork.

Right now I am waiting for paperwork so I can schedule my apartment to be packed up and sent back to the States.  Without it, I can not move on plans.  The paperwork is two weeks late, and I don’t know whether I will get it in time to make it to Texas before Thanksgiving.

But I have been able to start the process of sorting out the apartment.  I am a collector of things that I will throw away someday, so it has been a slow process.  But it has begun and here is the first evidence of it. * Update.  Just today, I received the notice that I will pack out on Monday & Tuesday. It will be a stressful next few days.

BUT … this weekend is the Marine Ball, and although I am not a party person, it will be good to have a distraction.  I will post what pics I take.