One week down

Just finished my first full week here in Bolivia!

Things with my host family are going well. I've successfully broken the ice with my host mom by means of several instances of miscommunication that she thought were hilarious. The first was when I finally asked, after five days of scalding showers, if there was a way to turn down the hot water heater in the third floor bathroom. Apparently there is a special pump for cold water that you have to turn on two floors below. The second occurred when I forgot my key when leaving to go to my organization's main building for dinner. After the meal, I called home to make sure that people were up so that I didn't get stranded in the street when I made it back. My mom picked up, asked who was calling, to which I responded "Cameron." This, however, was interpreted as me asking to speak with Cameron, resulting in a minute of me listening through the phone as my mom looked for me throughout house while calling out my name. It wasn't until she decided I wasn't anywhere to be found and got back on the phone to let me know that I wasn't in her house that we were able to sort the confusion out. She found both situations very entertaining, and has since been very interested every time I go to the other house and asks who I'm going to see since, as she says, "her son cannot be messing around with any ugly girls." I've taken it as sign she's taken ownership of me.

The best part of my new room is that it is covered in trophies. My host brother, who has since moved out and has started a family, is very good at something, though I'm not exactly sure what it is yet. Some of the trophies are from playing pool, but the rest are a little more vague as to what skill they're commending. I know they have something to do with cars, since some of them have little golden wheels on the top, and some say "audio-tuning." So, maybe he's gotten prizes for installing stereos really well, which apparently is something you can compete in. A lot of them also say he's part of "auto-tuning" in the "Hotwheel Club," which to me just means those little toy cars. I probably should just ask if I really want to know, but at this point I like the idea that his special skill to be installing stereos in toy race cars and so may just end up going with that.

From Bolivia Blog

From Bolivia Blog

My internship has been going well; I've just been researching what I'm supposed to be writing about and will start talking with the staff regarding how my article will be structured this coming week. Meanwhile, since I'm only working mornings, I have these wonderful lazy afternoons to kill. Thus far, I've been reading for pleasure, for what feels like the first time college started, and running on this bike track that goes around the outside of the city. It's really nice to avoid traffic, except I get chased by little dogs with some frequency. They will, however, usually leave you alone easily enough if you pretend you're throwing rocks at them, which I'm sure is an entertaining spectacle for passersby. There is also the unfortunate occurrence of people pooping on the bike track, which isn't very pleasant just because it's sad and super awkward to run by (which has already happened twice). We'll see if I end up preferring to run on the street if the dogs and the pooping become a little too much.

Espero que todos se encuentren bien,

Cameron

In Bolivia!

Greetings from Cochabamba, Bolivia! Hope everyone´s holidays were relaxing and spent with good company...

I´m just now wrapping up my first week in Bolivia, and things have been going really well. As of my last post, I was just finishing up my time in Brazil. Saying goodbye to everyone wasn´t very fun, but I thankfully had lots of distractions to keep me busy in the following weeks.

Visiting my host family in Panama was great, it was surreal going back to a place that I had spent such an emotional ten months four years ago. Thankfully, everyone there is doing well and it soon felt as if I had never left to begin with. My American family showed up five days after I did, and we spent a great two weeks traveling around Panama and Costa Rica. They had visited me when I was 17 as well, so it was cool returning to some of the same places we had already been to as well as exploring some new ones. It unfortunately never stopped raining while we were there, which got a little tiresome after 10 days of not ever feeling dry and having all of your clothes smell horrible. Saying goodbye to my two families was also sad, but again, I was soon preoccupied with getting myself to another country.

I spent New Year´s on my flight to Bolivia, getting in at four in the morning in Santa Cruz, in the eastern chunk of the country. I spent a couple of days hanging out there before getting on a bus to Cochabamba. I had heard that the trip was going to take twelve hours, so I bought a ticket for 7 pm. The ride was very hot, they didn´t turn on the AC, and ended up taking only nine hours. I ended up checking myself into a hotel at four in the morning for a couple of hours before meeting up with an employee of Sustainable Bolivia, the organization I´m volunteering at. This NGO matches up volunteers with Bolivian partner organizations in the city depending on experience and Spanish level; it´s been fun meeting the other interns, who are an interesting and very international group of people. There will be around 27 of us by the end of the month, either living in volunteer-only housing or with host families.

My situation is really cool here; I´m living with a host family that is within walking distance of the volunteer housing. My family is super nice. I have a mom and a dad, tree adult siblings, a brother in law and a two-month old nephew. There are many individuals in my house. My mom has already said she´ll help me find a Bolivian wife, which was a very sweet offer. I spend my mornings at a think tank that researches Bolivian and Latin American issues, and I´m working on a project that looks at the country´s legal system. As of 2009, Bolivia ratified a constitution that implemented two different, though supposedly equal, structures. One of these is the historically dominate, western model, while the other is the "community justice" model that comes from indigenous tradition. I´m researching the implications, practical and theoretical, on indigenous self-determination. It´s been a little overwhelming.

I went out for first time last night, which started out wonderfully. With a group of volunteers and Sustainable Bolivia staff, I traveled to a venue that holds a ceremony the first Friday of every month thanking Mother Earth for being awesome. There was some deal with throwing offerings into a fire, a little chanting, and lots of those Peter Pan flutes they use in the Andes. Also present was the traditional drink "chicha," made from fermented corn, which tastes like sour apple cider with an aftertaste reminiscent of vomit. They served this to us in big clay jars, with a single half-gourd used for drinking. A person, before drinking, makes eye contact with another in the group, who will then be served next by the current holder of the gourd. I have decided that it´s a community-building tradition despite it´s resemblance to a drinking game. The cultural novelty of it all, however, soon wore off. They warn travelers about the water here, it´s can be a little tough on gentle American tummies, and most of SB´s volunteers end up getting sick at some point during their stay. Until six pm today, my whole day has consisted in trying to sleep and worshipping the toilet instead of Mother Earth. I haven´t had a headache and am running a fever, so I´m not hung over, I just got a bad stomach bug that thankfully seems to be going away. Hopefully this is the only time that needs to happen.

Here are pictures from the balcony of my new house.

From Bolivia Blog

From Bolivia Blog

Hope all is well.

Abrazo,

Cam

And things end, on a weird note.

It's happening! I'm leaving here in just a matter of days! It's super sad to say goodbye to everyone here; at least I have lots of things to look forward to in the coming months. This will probably be my last blog post before I leave for Panama, where I'm not sure what my internet situation will be since I'm selling my computer to Felipe. In short, I may not be able to write again until after the new year, in which case, Happy Holidays!

As awesome as my time here has been, larger forces conspired last night to give me the weirdest send-off from my Brazil experience.

I am walking to my friend Carolyn's house around 8 o'clock, when I see two people on the sidewalk, one struggling to help the other up onto their feet. I run forward to help them, and find the strangest pairing of individuals I have ever seen. The man on the ground did not look good; he was dirty, wearing some tattered jump-suit, was missing teeth, smelled bad and had crazy hair. The person helping him was a short, chubby, Asian boy (I only mention this because he's literally the second Asian person I've seen in this city), who looked exactly like the kid from "Up." By running up to the scene, I feel pretty committed to help. So, me and the boy each grab one of the guy's arms, I'm handed the man's umbrella, and we finally manage to pull him to his feet.

"Is everything ok?" I ask. "What's going on?"

"I'm just coming from church, but now I'm going to my karate class," the boy says. Sure enough, he was wearing white pants and had a green cloth belt draped around his neck. "But, why do you have that weird accent?"

"I'm American, do you know this guy?"

"Kind of."

"What's going on then? What are you doing with this person?" Meanwhile, the man, who has not let go of our hands since he needs them to stay standing, let out a long string of slurred babble. I know enough Portuguese to tell when a person has actually used words, this man was not.

"He wants to go to karate with me," the boy said. At this point, I'm worried about this boy and the people he is inviting to his martial arts sessions, but whatever, it's his prerogative and I'm off to my friend's place. I try to figure out how I'm going to detach the man's death grip from my hand.

"Do you have time?" he asks, "I need help taking him there."

"Uhhhhh, where is your class?" I ask.

"On the other side of this hill," he says, "it's kind of far."

We're interrupted by the man, who has resumed his chatter. He manages to say, "I know a Brazilian woman," and the single word "panorama." The boy keeps asking him what he is trying to say, before the man turns to me and says, "Explain this to him." I have literally no idea what I'm supposed to be explaining to the boy who is a native Portuguese speaker. We are all still holding hands while getting passed by many people, all of whom give us weird looks. I'm ready for this situation to be over.

"Ok fine," I say, "Let's go."

We start walking at a painfully slow pace, this man is simply in no state to be walking, much less up a steep hill. We stop, and the man starts shaking his arms and groaning. Then, he looks straight forward and starts huffing. "Oh God, he's going to vomit," I think. I then push the button to open umbrella I was given earlier, trying to shield myself from what's going to happen. This umbrella ends up being huge, so I'm able to protect a lot of my body. However, the man does not throw up, and we start shuffling along again. I can't collapse the umbrella, however, since I'm still holding hands with some stranger. We now take up the literally entire sidewalk and people have to walk into the street to pass us.

"How do you know this man?" I ask.

"I've met him once or twice." This boy really needs to be taught about inviting strangers to his extracurricular activities. The man stops walking and starts shaking again.

"This man is not well, I really think he needs help!"

The boy looks at the man, "Are you ok? You're worse than you normally are." He looks at me, "Do you think he's sick?"

"I have no idea." Maybe we can take him home, I think. "Where do you live?" I ask slowly.

The man groans, "Guarani," he finally manages.

Great, he lives in another town. This does not help me. "Do you know where he lives?" I ask the boy.

"I think he lives on the sidewalk, but I usually see him a couple of blocks down the street. I don't know what he's doing over here." Awesome, now I really feel like an asshole, I can't just return this man to the street. I don't know what to do.

The boy looks at me, "Your accent is just soooo funny!" REALLY LITTLE BOY?!?!? Is that the weirdest thing about this situation? My accent?

We keep walking, displacing people, and I still have an open umbrella. The boy thinks I'm the strangest thing that has ever happened, and asks me a bunch of questions about where I'm from and what I'm doing, apparently oblivious to the individual between us. I find out that he's from São Paulo, which has one of the largest Japanese populations outside of Japan. Well, at least I solved the Asian mystery.

We stop in the middle of a thru-street, and the man says he wants to walk "normally." "Thank you Jesus!" I think, I'll get my hand back and can let these two do their thing. The man, however, lifts his elbow up over my arm and tucks my forearm hard into his armpit. We are still holding hands, though I'm now losing circulation in mine by how hard I'm being squeezed in his pit. I really start to notice how bad this guy smells.

"I think we should call the police," I say, "This man really needs help."

"But he really wants to go to my karate class!"

People start lighting off fireworks a couple of blocks away, which just upsets this guy and he starts saying "I'm scared, I'm scared", over and over again. People keep passing us, staring at the chubby Asian boy, homeless man, and foreigner with an open umbrella. "You know it's not raining, right?" the boy says, "you really don't need that."

Forty-five minutes later, we make it to karate. We arrive at the door, and the whole class just stares at the craziest trio that has ever existed. I finally detach myself from the man, but see that my arm and hand are covered in dirt. I really want to wash this off, but I don't want to admit that in front of all these people. Instead, I say I need to go to the bathroom and walk through this class into the back of the building while the boy asks his teacher if the guy can stay and watch their session. I find some kitchenette thing, scrub my arms with soap, then start walking out. I pass the boy and the man, they are now literally in the middle of this karate class, and the boy says that the man wants to go to the bathroom also.

"Where's the bathroom?" he asks.

"I don't know, I didn't up going." I'm really not keen on saying I just wanted to wash my hands.

"But, you said you were going!"

"Yeah I know, I just didn't end up going. I'm going to leave now." I figure there are enough Portuguese-speaking adults around that I can leave the man without feeling too guilty.

"You are just so weird," the boy says.

This is how the story ends, with the three of us in the middle of a karate class, and me managing to come across weirdest part of the whole situation. Perfect.

Soccer follow-up

So, a couple of months ago I wrote a post about starting to participate in indoor soccer. I've been playing periodically since, usually on Wednesdays and Saturdays when I'm in Juiz de Fora and not traveling. Despite the disparity in skill, playing futesal has been a positive experience largely because of the social aspect. Soccer is definitely an important way for guys to hang out with each other here, so it's been fun meeting new people and hanging out with an entertaining group of people. Male bonding, love it.

I guess I've probably got a little better since starting, though any such improvements would be hard to notice since literally every other person is playing on a entirely different level; like a, "I've been playing my whole life in freakin' Brazil", sort of level. Hanging with this crowd, it's pretty apparent I don't know what I'm doing.

It's one thing to write about how weak my soccer is, it's another to demonstrate. So, here's a video of me playing the other day, which I'm really not sure why I'm putting on the internet. Before you watch, read my viewing guide so you know what highlights to look for. In case you can't pick me out, I'm wearing a blue t-shirt and spend my time running around directionlessly.

-The guy who blasts the ball from one end of the court to the other: People do this all the time, and it's the reason that being the goalie is the scariest/worst job ever.

-The ball that is thrown to me: The goalie throws a ball to me, not too hard, and I just let it drift right out of bounds. I indicate my indifference with an only mildly effeminate hang gesture.

-The pass I interrupt: Some guy tries to pass the ball to someone behind me, but just kicks it at my feet. You'll see how surprised I am that I just stole the ball by the fact that I almost fall over backwards.

-Probably the most spastic thing you've seen today: So then, I supposed to pass the ball, because I'm sure as hell not going to dribble it anywhere, but the guy passes it back to me. I'm unclear as to what it is I do after that, I just know that someone decides that they've had enough and just kicks the ball out of bounds when I try to rid myself of it again.

-Corner kick: I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing during the corner kick, so I just hop around a little.




The next video is from our Thanksgiving that we made, and by "we" I mean Carolyn and Athena. The spread involved two chickens, green beans, yams, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, mac 'n cheese and four kinds of desserts. Carolyn's American mom brought down a lot of things when she visited which made the dinner super authentic. We invited over our teacher who gave us Portuguese lessons our first two weeks here, Felipe and his mom, Carolyn's roommate, our Brazilian friend Lucas, and our Argentine friends Paloma, Macarena, Florencia and Jaime. One of my favorite moments thus far in Brazil was watching everyone from this international group go around the table saying the things for which they are thankful. The video is for our exchange program that wanted all their students to make a video from their countries communicating some sort of seasons' greetings in the language. We thought it best to include as many native speakers as possible in ours. This is the result, we're saying "Feliz dia de ação de graças, do Brasil", which means "Happy Thanksgiving from Brazil." Our timing was a little weird, and we were also taking other self-timed pictures during the video, so ACM will probably need to do a little bit of editing on our contribution to the holiday video.





Abraço,

Cam

Let's clarify

Happy Thanksgiving!

The 25th was doubly significant since it also marks the four month mark of my trip, meaning I have a little over two weeks left in Brazil before I leave for Panama. It's been a very positive experience, and I'm going to miss it a lot.

This last week was my finals week, I only have a three-page poetic analysis left to do for Portuguese before I'm done with classes, and I think everything worked out fine in terms of school. I'll spend the rest of my time hanging out with people and finishing up the presentation I'll give on the sixth of December showing what I've found for my project in the economics lab. I will also being trying to figure out what exactly I did find during this period.

One of the difficult things about being abroad is knowing that there is a part of your personality that gets trapped in the cultural/language barrier present in the relationships between people of different countries. Learning to express oneself better and becoming more familiar with the foreigner's culture do a lot to diminish this effect; improved speaking abilities allow those who like to entertain to tell jokes and stories, or strange aspects that people just assumed to be individual peculiarities are discovered to be larger cultural characteristics. Nearing the end of my time here, the process of learning how to show people who I am has been one of the best, though challenging, parts of my experience. Yet despite the progress that has been made in this department, there are still some things that are stuck in that cultural "filter." The following are three points of confusion about me I think could use some explanation.


Point of Confusion: You were told that I was told that you live in the jungle.

Background: I mentioned a couple of months ago the rumor that Americans are taught that Brazil doesn't actually include the Amazon territory. Apparently, many people here have been told that we are taught that Brazilians literally live in the jungle, play with monkeys, and swing from vines. As a result, the American students are frequently asked if this is what we thought before coming here. I can understand the worry if this is what you've been told people from the United States think, though it does get a little tiresome on my end being asked a question that presupposes I didn't know anything about the country where I decided to spend a semester. Assuming that it were true, it would have been quite the surprise when I thought I was going to be going to school in a treehouse and live with rainforest animals but ended up living in a city with half a million people.

Clarification: I can't remember ever thinking that all Brazilians lived in the jungle.




Point of Confusion: You find my underwear flamboyant.

Background: Clothes dryers are a very American thing; and though I do miss the convenience of our appliances, airing drying clothes really isn't a big deal. One aspect of this system, however, is that you are frequently put up your entire wardrobe for everyone to appreciate. While this isn't weird for all the clothes that people see anyways, it can be a little awkward for the items people don't usually get to examine. I was never self conscious about my underwear until coming here, when my roommate's friend came over to the house and commented that my brightly colored collection of patterned boxers looked like "clown underwear." I had never thought about it before, but in the US men's underwear usually also has at least some sort of colorful pattern if not some other loud assortment of pictures or words. From what I can tell, I haven't asked to see my male friends' underwear while here, "clown underwear" is not as big of a deal here as it is in the States.

Clarification: My underwear is weird, but so is my compatriots'.




Point of Confusion: You think I look like Macaulay Culkin.

Background: This unfortunate association has been going on since my first night in Brazil. While crossing a street in Rio, we passed a group of about ten police men just hanging out and talking. After saying, "good evening" as we passed, one of the men pointed at my face and yelled "Macaulay Culkin!" We all then had a "conversation," which basically involved me standing there and a group of cops laughing and saying "Macaulay Culkin" over and over again. Another time, I was talking to some friends outside of the university restaurant, when someone said, "You really look like the guy from 'They Forgot Me.'" I had no idea what that meant, so then everyone clapped their hands to their face repeating, "They forgot me! They forgot me! They forgot me!"

Side note: "Esqueceram de mim" (They forgot me), is the Brazilian title for "Home Alone." When they translate movie titles here, they just end up coming up with a whole new title. I just looked up "Home Alone" on wikipedia in Portuguese, and in Portugal they say "Sozinho em casa" (Alone in home), so it's just a really weird Brazilian thing. Other weird examples of them doing this is for "The Hangover," which, despite having a word for hangover in Portuguese is called, "Se você beber, não case" (If you drink, don't get married) which just sounds like weird relationship advice. Even weirder, "Charlie's Angels" is called "As panteras" (the panthers), which makes literally no sense. It becomes really annoying when someone asks you if you've seen some movie, and despite understanding the title, you have no idea what they're referring to.

Anyway, I ended up finding out what "they forgot me" meant, and have been told this same thing since on several occasions since.

Clarification: You are mistaken.


Hope everyone had a great Turkey Day. We're having a dinner for our close Brazilian friends and relatives tonight to thank them for making our experience so great.

Feliz dia de ação de graças,

Cam

Brand names in foreign languages = risky

While picking the perfect brand name, foreign languages often present a viable option for marketers looking for an exotic touch. Though despite the potential advantages of marketing in another language, such a strategy presents considerable risks; namely, not knowing exactly what you're calling your product. The following are five of my favorite english-inspired brands that I've run into in Brazil whose names are just a little off, especially for an American with a very immature sense of humor. Photo credits go to Google Images, with a special shout-out to Athena who has spent countless hours in supermarkets with me during this trip laughing at this sort of thing.

1. Name: Splat. Product: Yogurt.



Naming food after the sounds they make is not uncommon, just look all the cereals with "crunch" in the name. However, I just don't think onomatopoeia is the best strategy for naming yogurt.





2. Name: Batmilk. Product: Yogurt.



This one is just a little confusing. I know everyone here knows what "bat" means, because people are talking about "the Batman" all the time, and "milk" is also not an obscure word, especially not for someone in the dairy industry. Unless this product comes from bats, I don't know how this could happen.





3. Name: Superballs. Product: Cereal.



My advice to all Brazilians in marketing, be very careful with the words "balls" and "nuts." Just read on...






4. Name: Sweet Nut Cream. Product: Cream made of nuts that is sweet.



I feel like there is a story behind this one. The lable on the container is in Spanish, so it has an international market, and I'm wondering if this has been given this name intentionally. In any case, I can't imagine sitting at the table with my family for breakfast, and asking my mother for some sweet nut cream since my toast is a little dry.





5. Name: Blowtex. Product: Condom.



I feel like most of the time, products that have to do with sex are given names that are suggestive without being explicit about their purpose. This would not be one of those cases.



Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. This is a busy week for me, I have a couple presentations these next few days and four of my five finals next week. It's hard to believe that things are wrapping up so soon, especially since I don't leave here for another month!

Abraços,

Cam

Things that almost makes sense....

I hope everyone had a great Halloween, I was missing it down here! Brazil only celebrates the "Day of the Deceased," which sounds like it could be similiar but is decidedly less cool. As described by my roommate, this holiday involves "people going to church while it rains." Apparently the weather always cooperates with this second piece. Interesting? Yes. A little creepy? Certainly. Fun as dressing up in costumes? Questionable. It meant that we got time off from school though, so I got over its shortcomings pretty quickly.

People often talk about elements of languages that are untranslatable. The most famous example in Portuguese is the word saudade, usually approximated with English's longing, yearning or nostalgia. Yet despite it's weight, this word is used all the time. For example, you wouldn't usually say that you miss someone, but rather that you long for that person. It's very fun and dramatic, and Portuguese speakers take pride in this word which constitutes an important part of poetry and song and is emblematic of an unique passion of this language. I just like hearing it when someone says they yearn for my presence.

Personally, however, what I find most entertaining are words are phrases that almost translate. For example, the informal way of saying "hello" in Portuguese is oi. I always just figured you could substitute it for "hey," and would use it to get people's attention even if we'd been spending time together beforehand. Oi, however, really is just an informal "hello," and is therefore only used when greeting someone. So, instead of saying things like, "Hey Felipe, can you pass me the rice?" I spent weeks saying, "Hello, Felipe. Can you pass me the rice?", even though we had already been eating lunch for twenty minutes. The following are a couple of my other favorite "almost-translatable's".

Mais louco que o Batman (Crazier than the Batman, usually in reference to a drunk person)

I'm not sure why, but in Brazil Batman is singled out as the standard for crazy. I looked this up on "Informal Dictionary," the Portuguese equivalent to our "Urban Dictionary," to figure out if there was a reason why this particular superhero was chosen for this type of comparison. The description read, "He's a millionaire who fell down a well and became afraid of bats but then decided to dress up as one and fight crime. That's pretty crazy." I guess I agree, though Spiderman's story is like ten times crazier than Batman's and Bruce Wayne always struck me as a pretty level-headed guy.

A gente (The people)

In informal speech, instead of saying "us," you can also say "the people." So, saying "we are really hungry," and "the people are really hungry," literally mean the same thing. It sounds hilarious in English, and thus has become the American's new favorite joke when speaking to each other to substitute "the people" when talking about ourselves.

Porra (Semen)

This is one of the most common vulgar words here and, like the f-bomb, is used so often that it's actual meaning isn't even considered when spoken. Que porra é essa, for example, would be translated to "what the hell is that," though it really means, "what semen is that." Another example would be, essa mulher não esquece de porra nenhuma, which means, "that woman doesn't forget a damn thing," but reads, "that woman doesn't forget any sperm." Not that our swear words make much sense, but it's funny for people learning this language to think about what's actually being said in such circumstances.

This last weekend I went to a national park in the state of Rio de Janeiro. It was super fun hiking and we spent the night in a cabin near the summit of a mountain with some awesome views. I've put up pictures on Picasa and included two here.

From Blog pictures

From Blog pictures

Beijos,

Cam