It's been awhile...since I've posted anything...

The scene is July, a bitter cold has entered the Goiania area of Brazil. Its winter time below the equator and I woke up to a blistering 14 degrees Celsius (57 F).  At night we slept with the sheets on us and wore socks throughout the house this morning. The chill has made it impossible to use our newly installed AC we got yesterday, but this will save energy. There is always a positive side to everything!

Life is great with work being busy, kids are off school for winter vacation and most importantly we have a new arrival to the family. Born today a big baby boy, Rodrigo Queiroz Lima, 4,180 kg (9.215 lbs.), 52 cm (20.47 in.). I will patiently await to see him in the next few days. Looking forward to having some more excitement in the family. A baby brings the chaos of noise and messes that luckily I am not responsible for this time. Our children are self sustaining and rely on me to provide the bare necessities only...if only we could turn the clock back a few years.

We've been here in Brazil as a family (I arrived later) for 2.5 years. Its been a fun and frustrating time getting to where we are now. More fun than anything and I'm still very excited to see what the future will offer us in our new country. Not saying we are not still Americans, but to fully integrate we need to live like Brazilians. I love the culture here and how social everyone is. The country could be in disarray and Brazilian's would still have a party.

I will write more as I can and give some of the experiences we have all gone through.       

Electric power and the demise of an ancient electronic...

The electricity here in Brazil is odd at times. Not talking about the weird thing of having two different voltages throughout the country (110/220). My topic is the weird fact that the power will turn off at weird times for no reason and come back on just barely. Usually it happens once every two months and there isn't a cloud in the sky. It's the amperes part of the electricity. Yeah the lights will work but no appliances will.

For example, we had a very powerful tropical storm last Saturday that actually flooded the front part of our house, but luckily I was here to use this broom type thing to keep pushing the water out the front door. It was so intense that we had a roof leak in our livingroom and a bedroom. Our roof is a typical roof here, but not built to withstand a hard rain or for that matter a long steady rain. I consider it a very poor design. With this crazy storm the power went off a couple times, but always came back on with no problems at all.

So Sunday night I hear the noise that announces, hey the power just went off and came back on. It's our ancient printer for the computer. This printer turns on and does a test with every flicker of the electricity. You know the test of moving all its internal parts around and making the typical printer noises from the 1990's. Yes, that's it! It's very possible that this printer is actually older than our 9 year old son. The printer still works very well and I don't mind its ancient ways of sometimes only printing when it wants too or the fact it only works with an old laptop computer. Its temperamental at times I guess, but I don't have the heart to let it go.

Well this noise happened sometime early Sunday morning and it made me roll over in bed. Not a big deal and it's nice to actually get a heads up that the power is back on now. Usually when this happens I venture into my office and turn the printer back off. Well that morning the printer was off, but the lights in the house worked. I knew then there was a problem with the electricity. Went into the kitchen to find the refrigerator not working, well one light inside worked. Next, I turned on the coffee maker and the "on" light works just barely, but it not powerful enough to pump the water.

So unfortunately the printer couldn't handle the off and on of the past few days of power and has since gone to the electronics heaven. We are currently in the process of searching for a worthy replacement. Its sad times in our household...well for me it is. I think my wife could care less! I will sleep a little less assured now with this ancient electronic not warning me of potential problems.

I will make sure to disconnect the next printer when not in use. It was attached to a power strip with protection, but didn't work. Perhaps old age finally got this ancient relic. I think this is great advice to anyone living in Brazil. Disconnect any unused devices to prevent loss.                   

Pulled over by the police...

I had a wonderful morning as you can see by this picture. The police here do these roadblocks from time to time. The during the day ones are aimed at checking to see if you are legal to drive and taxes on car are paid. The roadblocks at night are the same, but really looking for drunk drivers too. I have been lucky and only been a passenger in a car for one of these stops. I wouldn't say it's too much of an inconvenience, the police are just doing their jobs.

So, I'm on the way to the grocery store and I see a traffic jam. No big deal, I am not in that much of a hurry. Then I see it's a roadblock and decide well I will just turn and avoid it. As I look to turn I see a police officer watching the line of cars...can't avoid it. They are really good at putting these roadblocks in places where you have no choice but to go through it. I then proceed ahead and as I go through where the police randomly choose people I get motioned to go down this side street where I am met by a small squadron of police officers. A lot of them! I pull into the spot where I am directed and wait.

A police officer comes up to the car and asked for my documents. Mind you I haven't gotten a driver's licence here yet and my American one is only good for 6 months. As a permanent resident of Brazil I am definitely in the wrong. I hand him my Brazilian ID card and car documents. I then explain that my Portuguese is horrible and please be patient with me. I'm like damn it I should of got the licence months ago. Now I am screwed! This police officer looks at my documents and tells me I am in trouble in Portuguese and walks away.

I am now sweating bullets, because I have watched too many locked up abroad TV shows and know that Brazilian prison can't be that good. Then I'm thinking what happens since I am not legal to drive here. Do they deport me...impound the car...see a judge...what is going to happen. My next thought is, glad my kids are not with me, my wife is going to kill me and I didn't wear underwear today so the strip search is going to be interesting during the booking process at the police station. I take a deep breath and wait.

The police officers are now gathered up and talking behind the car and I'm like damn I need a picture to send my wife. After I took it I realized that it was a bad idea to send her a photo of police behind my car. As I'm about to text her I am in trouble a police officer walks up and tells me in English "sir you have a big problem." Thank god a police office who speaks some English and can really tell me whats going on. In Portuguese I would of got some of it, but not all the details.

He tells me I am overdue on paying taxes on the car. Wow, a huge relief at first, because of the not having a driver's licence. Which never comes up and he never mentions it. The police officer then asks for me to call my wife and I attempt to call with no luck. I then explain that my phone provider is "Oi" and its horrible service. The next call went through and I quickly tell my wife I am in trouble with the police and they want to talk to you. I was expecting the yeah whatever, but I think she could tell by my voice it was for real.

I then sit back and listened to the police officer explain the situation over the phone to my wife. Most of the one sided conversation I understood and knew we had to pay the taxes by noon or they take the car. No big deal, tell us how much and we will pay. The police officer never mentioned the driver's licence to her either. I am now relieved and know they don't know or just don't care...awesome!

The police officer gives me my phone back and he walks away. My wife fills in the details of what I missed in the conversation. Awesome, pay the taxes and be on my way. He then returns with the bill and I about lose my mind. How the hell is it that much! I photograph it and send it to my wife with a message of let me go to jail. It's like highway robbery! The amount was close to R$2800 ($873 USD). This has to be a joke, really! She responds I will pay it and send back the confirmation that the bill is paid. It takes about 5 minutes and I have the proof that she paid it by bank transfer.

I show the police officer the proof and he takes me over to a small tent to validate the transaction. I am then provided a receipt and told they will mail the actual registration card to us at our home address. The police officer starts some small talk with me, tells me he lived in Georgia for a year and also welcomes me to Brazil by telling me "welcome home." Really nice guy and I am glad he was there to make the process a little smoother.

Then he sends me on my way with a small ticket to give to the police officer blocking the road at the end of the street. They are very thorough with security and making sure no one gets away. I can also see now that I am out of the car walking around that they are preparing a bunch of motorcycles for confiscation and that there is a very powerful sports bike with an officer on it prepared to chase anyone that runs. This process of catching bad people seems legit...the other side of it with providing a system that bills you is not that simple.

The amount we paid was the taxes, late penalties and traffic violation fines. You may ask why we didn't pay, well I had no idea it was due and we have owned the car less than a year. The bill never came in the mail and yes they have our correct billing address. The taxes are due on the anniversary of the plates on the car from the original owner. There is no sticker on the licence plates here that tells you when it expires. It's on the card in the glove box that no one ever looks at unless you are pulled over and providing proof to the police officer.

The late penalties, I can see penalizing someone who knows they owe and is avoiding paying the bill. Even though my wife explained that we never got a bill, they didn't care. I think it's horrible that the government here charges an outrageous amount in taxes and fees, but doesn't have an accurate system that bills people in a timely manner. We would of gladly paid the taxes months ago when it was due.

Lastly was the traffic violations, yes I probably got a couple. One was from 2013 when we didn't even own the car...again great system of tracking who has what penalties. The next was failure to transfer car into our name immediately once buying it...bad on us. The last two were driving on the freeway without headlights on (yes headlights on day or night here but not required on city streets) and stopping past the pedestrian line at a redlight. Mind you, we were never notified of these violations or provided proof that these were actually committed. Here you are guilty and have to pay no matter what. You can dispute later and try to get reimbursed. Also the cameras that catch you in the act of committing a violation don't flash or show any sign that they just caught you doing something wrong.

The only thing I can say about this whole ordeal is "It's Brazil" and there is nothing I can do about it. I absolutely love living here and will continue to live here for the unforeseen future, but it does have its drawbacks. Each month here it seems I experience a crisis of here is another surprise bill. It could be from the kids school, taxes, fees from where we live or another water leak at the house. I am truly hoping I can rein in this dramatic "oh shit" we have to pay this new thing now. I am actually at a loss of words at this time of how to explain the processes here. After being in the military for over 20 years and experiencing their messed up processes, I now know they were not that messed up. It's on a whole new level here!

Well I hope you enjoyed my pain and suffering! It was a little scary at the time, but now my goal is to set up an appointment in my phone to remind me to pay a bill later this year. I have no confidence that I will get a bill sent to me or that I will ever get proof I broke the law for those 2 traffic violations I may have committed. My wife contacted the dealership to see if they will reimburse us for the one violation we definitely didn't commit...to be continued.

Thanks for reading!               

Vacation to Bahia!

Right after the New Year we embarked on a 2 day drive to Guarajuba, Bahia. This wonderful beach destination is not far from Salvador which is the capital of Bahia. The state of Bahia is so diverse and actually can be compared to California because of its huge difference in landscape across the state. It has a desert region, farming areas and of course the wonderful beaches (the water is significantly warmer here compared to the Pacific Ocean). I was amazed at how much change there was in one state.

Although it was a 20 plus hour drive to our destination over a 2 days period, it was very pleasant and really not that terrible. There was many little towns we went through on the way and some were very poor areas. There was the typical kids and vendors in each town trying to sell anything they could by standing in the street trying to get you to roll down your window. The roads were not that bad either, only in a few areas did I really think it was a little rough. My cell phone only worked a few times along the way, it was nice to disconnect from the outside world. I would say finding WiFi along the way would be almost impossible. The hotel we stayed in and any gas station or restaurant we stopped at definitely didn't have it. I would say most of Bahia is very poor and most of the money is in the capital or along the coast.

As a family we rented a huge house not far from the beach. A short 2 minute walk to standing in the powerful surf. We had everything we needed in this beautiful rental house; swimming pool, BBQ, AC in the bedrooms, large yard for the kids, TV, etc... It would of been nice to have WiFi, but we all managed to do without. For the 9 days we spent at this house we only ventured out 2 times to visit the capital and another beach not far away to do some shopping. Other than that just trips to the grocery store.

We all woke up when we wanted to and were usually on the beach at 9 or 10. A few hours of soaking in the sun, well for me it was cover my white skin and lather up with SPF 50. It was wonderful to have the family altogether and really enjoy the beach. No arranging meeting times or who was going to drive us there. We just walked to the beach when we wanted to and if we forgot something a quick walk back to retrieve the item was not an inconvenience. Then we all sporadically left for the house around lunch time to rinse off and swim in the pool while lunch was being prepared. We hired a lady to clean and prepare lunch each day, very affordable split accross the family. This was a true vacation where we had to do almost nothing.

Lunch was us all crammed around this wooden table outside near the pool. Like most meals in Brazil everyone is talking over each other and reaching over each other to get that prized piece of meat they see out of the corner of their eye. A fun and entertaining time to sit back and enjoy the fun we are all having. The time at the beach really wore us all out and most days the prepared dishes were completely devoured. Fortunately, we found a great cook and most of her dishes were absolutely amazing.

After lunch most took naps or did their own thing. Very relaxing time and there was no pressure to really do anything. slowly everyone started to emerge late afternoon for another round of beach time for a few hours until the sunset. This time of the day was usually less intense with the power of the sun being significantly less. I am very proud to say none of us got sunburned on this trip. This is a first for me at the beach...I always burn and peel, but not this time. My wife was very helpful and I also was a little more responsible with applying the sunscreen very regularly. Once again, when the sunset we all headed back to the house to rinse off and swim in the pool.

For dinner we usually had a BBQ or finished off any leftovers we had. Only went out to a local restaurant once as a family. It was great to eat at the house most of the time and not have to pay a bunch of money at restaurants. I will say though that the food at the grocery store was way more expensive than at home. For example Picanha, a must have at all Brazilian BBQ's was at a price I couldn't stomach. Usually R$40-50 at home and here it was R$100. Way too expensive for a slab of meat! I did however get introduced to other cuts of meat that were just as wonderful and I will include a few of them into my future BBQ's at home.

Most nights we were all in or around the pool listening to music and drinking our favorite beverages. Our kids were absolutely wore out each day and could be found watching cartoons inside or sometimes they feel asleep watching a movie on their I-pads. Most nights we all stayed up late and had a ton of fun. It was beyond a wonderful time!

One day we took a trip to Salvador the capital to experience the old town. A well preserved area with many shops, museums, restaurants, churches and statues. I absolutely loved it and really want to return to explore the city more in the near future. The city streets were not the typical square block type like other huge cities, but the winding road that was well planned out for the hill landscape this city was built on. Old town was cobblestone roads of the old days with very limited traffic. Mostly small delivery trucks and a few taxi's that were mainly used for handicapped and elderly. It was perfect to walk around and enjoy the sights. We had a wonderful lunch of seafood and did some extensive shopping (stuff is much cheaper here compared to the beach we are staying at). After a late lunch we all heading back to the beach house to enjoy the beach before the sunset. You can see where our priorities lay with this vacation.

Sadly we left after a very fast 9 days and returned the way we came. Nothing significantly different on the return trip. A different hotel and different restaurants. I will say I was relieved when we ate at a Pizza place in Correntina, Bahia and it was very cheap for a great meal and a few drinks. We were back in the affordable part of Brazil.

Although I said that I could of just stayed living at the beach, I missed our home in Goiania. Sure we don't have the beach, but we have many other things that are absolutely wonderful. Family and very close destinations for weekend trips. Some of these close destinations are Caldas Novas, Pirenopolis, Brasilia and friends little farms or lake houses. Plus, the landscape of lush green vegetation throughout our state of Goias is so beautiful this time of the year.

Plans are already in the works to return to Guarajuba, Bahia for New Years this year! Well thanks for reading!

        

                       

A helping hand

On Christmas Eve day we took all those toys that were given to us on my birthday to donate to children for Christmas. It was an enlightened experience to say the least. We traveled to Trindade, Brazil early that morning and arrived at this very nice spiritual center that my wife was recommended to help. A very organized event that this center has been doing for the local community for the past 15 years. The first hour or so was spent listening to music, praying and a briefing on what to expect in the neighborhoods we would be going to. A simple do's and don'ts in the neighborhood and how much time we would stay at each house.

There was a lot of hustle and bustle among all the organizers finishing up last minute preparations for the kids arrival at the center. A requirement for the help they receive from the center is to attend events and I believe there is also some education involved. I don't think its too much to ask from these people and it seems that religion is not a huge part of it. Mainly getting these families out of the neighborhoods and providing a safe place they can go to. Each of these children wrote a letter asking for specific items. These items ranged from a bicycle to a toy car. All the normal things a boy and girl would ask for on their birthday and Christmas. The family also receives a huge bag of food. Items include: rice, chicken, cooking oil, snacks, etc. A great deal of food that will last them a few days.

One of the workers directed us to a room where they had all the toys organized by family. A lot of work went into getting these items and having them ready for when the kids arrived to give them. The bus finally pulled up and all the happy kids departed the bus. They were greeted with singing and hugs from the organizers. What an experience for these kids! The kids were fed breakfast and were playing in the courtyard until it was time to go. The gifts were arranged in big bags and the kids were to open them at home. Us volunteers were sent out to wait by our cars to transport the kids home. I believe there was about 36 cars involved in this mass transit. As the kids walked out into the parking lot, they were yelling to their friends "Did you get what you wanted?" and "Yes, did you?" The excitement was wonderful and these kids were having a blast.

We ended up being the extra car transporting one of the center's organizers, extra food and the massive amount of toys that we brought with us. Since the kids had already asked for specific stuff, our toys were backup and we donated the rest after we were done. The line of cars driving to this neighborhood on the outskirts of town was impressive. Once in the neighborhood we split up into groups and started going door to door.

The first house was a small boy and girl who got a toy truck and bicycle. A very simple little home and the mother was pressure cooking beans. They smelled delicious. Each house was small talk, praising the kids on their new toys and a quick prayer. We also gave that huge bag of food to them. The next house was a little different with a small boy and a pregnant teenager. Very nice people and our children got to see a chicken lay an egg. There was two chickens tied together and you could tell that this was going to be their dinner that night. The next place we visited was the center's small outreach house in the neighborhood. Its a place for the kids to come and play. We then went back to the center to pick up more toys and returned to deliver 3 bicycles to three kids. What an amazing experience!

The work this center does is amazing! It was sad to see the families in the neighborhood that didn't receive anything, but they were not willing to do their part by attending the spiritual center. One neighbor actually called my wife over and asked for a bag of food. The rules were clear on who got the food, but my kind hearted wife gave one of our toys to a very small child in that house. You can't help them all and these people have the same opportunity to start attending the spiritual center. This is a very poor community and there is definitely drugs in the neighborhood. I can also assume that there is also some very bad people that live here too.

In this whole experience I have realized that I am very grateful for what I have. The experience my kids got from doing this is also a great thing. Letting them see how good they have it and to see that not everyone lives like we do. A lot of parents shelter their children from the bad parts of life and I think it's better to expose them to it. Let them know that their is people suffering out there and to help when able. Not entirely a handout but a helping hand.



            

Gifts for kids

When my wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year, I told her to have my guest bring a gift for a needy child. I had been to a birthday party earlier this year for my wife’s uncle and he did the same thing. It’s a great way to give back and make the children feel special this time of the year. There is a lot of poverty here and it’s not the child’s fault. They were born into poverty, so sad. It’s also a great way for our children to see how great their lives are and we should be very thankful. My mother in-law also did the same thing and added to my huge pile of gifts that we are going to donate.

So keep this in mind for your next birthday and give it a shot!    

A father of boys

Our boys are young and definitely not interested in girls yet. Which is a good thing, they will have plenty of time when they get older. I like to joke with them at times and will yell out "look at that pretty lady over there." I usually get the Dad, I don't like her, mommy is better, stop saying that, etc...

It's hilarious, but on one occasion it took a turn I did not see coming. This is the conversation that occurred while driving through our neighborhood.

Dad - Boys look at that pretty lady right there.
Son #2 - I don't like her.
Dad - Why?
Son #2 - She is too white for me, I like dark girls.
Dad - (I'm in shock) Uh uh, oh.
Son #2 - Yeah, dark is better.

This is from a 5 year old! Looking back now I'm still laughing at him saying this. It is true that kids will say the darnedest things. You never know what you will get when talking to them.

Son #1 ignored me and didn't say a word...my tricks are getting outdated for this 9 year old.

I guess I better step it up and start the embarrassing part of being his father. I think its time for a fanny pack.