Oxente! (Pronounced ‘Ohsh-ente,’ sometimes shortened to just ‘Ohsh’- in typical a Northeast Brazilian expression meaning ‘O gente’ or ‘O people’, or simply ‘Wow!’)
Sorry I’ve been offline and out of touch for a little while. I’ve been in Carnival recovery. But life on Planet Brazil is finally normalizing again. This morning I awoke at 5 am to the typical feijoada (bean stew) of sounds - the rooster crowing into one ear from the south side of the apartment, and ‘plastic forro’ music blasting into the other ear from a keroke bar on the north side of the apartment. (Carnival may be over, but the Saturday night parties still continue well into Sunday morning here.)
Ah, the romance ofPlanet Brazil. These sounds remind me of an old record I used to listen to as a child, again and again, until I wore out the grooves, and Mom had to tape a nickle to the arm of the record player to keep the needle on track. Side A was sounds of the city – honking horns and scream sirens, police whistles and the banging and hammering of construc
tion; Side B was sounds of the country - pigs and cows and chickens. I remembered preferring the excitement the city to the serenity of the farm. But here, on Planet Brazil, living Edificio Carise, in the Centro, I get it all.
Checkout the view from my apartment onto the lake, with the Pau Brazil trees in full bloom; and on the other side, morning on Rua President Getulio Vargas (ex-dictator). The scenes are beautiful and peaceful from up on the 10th floor. But my lens sometimes conveniently crops out the chaos and sadness of life down below – the trash, the noise, the traffic of horse carts and buses, poor people fishing for food on the lake, the smell of urine as you walk through the park, the poor pregnant mothers everywhere you go, street kids selling their pathetic wears, the 7-year-old shoeshine boy, with his little box over his shoulder, in search of some work, in a place where everyone wears flipflops and sandles. You get it all here on Planet Brazil.
More about the 'faces' of Brazil…when I return from a trip further north to Fortaleza and the beaches of Ceara.
Sorry I’ve been offline and out of touch for a little while. I’ve been in Carnival recovery. But life on Planet Brazil is finally normalizing again. This morning I awoke at 5 am to the typical feijoada (bean stew) of sounds - the rooster crowing into one ear from the south side of the apartment, and ‘plastic forro’ music blasting into the other ear from a keroke bar on the north side of the apartment. (Carnival may be over, but the Saturday night parties still continue well into Sunday morning here.)Ah, the romance ofPlanet Brazil. These sounds remind me of an old record I used to listen to as a child, again and again, until I wore out the grooves, and Mom had to tape a nickle to the arm of the record player to keep the needle on track. Side A was sounds of the city – honking horns and scream sirens, police whistles and the banging and hammering of construc
tion; Side B was sounds of the country - pigs and cows and chickens. I remembered preferring the excitement the city to the serenity of the farm. But here, on Planet Brazil, living Edificio Carise, in the Centro, I get it all.Checkout the view from my apartment onto the lake, with the Pau Brazil trees in full bloom; and on the other side, morning on Rua President Getulio Vargas (ex-dictator). The scenes are beautiful and peaceful from up on the 10th floor. But my lens sometimes conveniently crops out the chaos and sadness of life down below – the trash, the noise, the traffic of horse carts and buses, poor people fishing for food on the lake, the smell of urine as you walk through the park, the poor pregnant mothers everywhere you go, street kids selling their pathetic wears, the 7-year-old shoeshine boy, with his little box over his shoulder, in search of some work, in a place where everyone wears flipflops and sandles. You get it all here on Planet Brazil.
More about the 'faces' of Brazil…when I return from a trip further north to Fortaleza and the beaches of Ceara.
posted by Anneseye at
6:22 PM
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