Eight Posting
Autor: Buster Hale | Publicado: 2011-05-28T16:29:00-04:00

Here is the latest drawing of the house on the farm. We have gone through several iterations and here is the final version. I still laugh every time I think about Roberto pretending to sit on the throne in the architect's office and explaining to her the need to increase the size of the bathrooms to accommodate more than one person at a time.


This picture shows how Brazilians cut down trees. It may be hard to see, but there is a small Brazilian up in the tree taking swings at big limbs. He is standing on two limbs and swinging at another. I left soon after the picture was taken for fear that I would be witness to a death on our farm and have to testify in court. He survived.


Bank. The bank situation is resolved. I went to the bank on Monday morning and politely gave the girl a water bill to prove that I have a fixed place of residence (comprovante de residência). She was very apologetic and we blamed it on Junior at the school, who came into the bank at the end of the application process and started talking to everyone. In all the confusion (confusão), she forgot to scan the document. I told her that Junior acts like a politician (político) and shakes hands with everyone.

Bolivian Consulate in Corumbá. I also had a bureaucratic encounter with another country, Bolivia, which was actually positive. Since 2007, Americans have been required to have a visa to enter Bolivia. However, on the border here in Corumbá, no one checks passports on the Bolivian or Brazilian side; the Brazilians do check for purchases made in Bolivia upon reentry into Brazil. But you need to show your passport with a visa to travel on a plane, train, or bus in Bolivia. In addition, the airport in Puerto Suarez is about 20 minutes from the border and I did not want to have any problem with the Bolivian police if I got stopped. So I went to the little Bolivian Consulate a few blocks from my apartment to ask for a visa. 

The consular official was very courteous. After looking through my passport and asking me some questions about my job here, he agreed to give me a tourist visa good for 90 days. He gave me an application form to make a copy to fill out and told me to make a copy of my Brazilian documents. After only one trip around the corner to make a copy of my yellow fever vaccination card, I paid the fee at a lottery place across the street and returned in the afternoon to pickup my passport. Everyone was very nice and helpful and no one mentioned Osama Bin Laden, Evo Morales (President of Bolivia), or President Obama (including me).

Brazilian Police. During my most recent trip to Bolivia (with my new visa), I got stopped by the Brazilian police (Polícia Militar) at the toll booth leaving Brazil. I have been expecting this and always carry the documents for the truck and my personal documents. A young policeman signaled for me to pull over and two heavily-armed policeman (two pistols and a bullet proof vest) approached the vehicle with their hands on their pistols; I think that he stopped me because I was wearing an Ole Miss baseball cap. The younger policeman asked me for the truck's documents and my driver's license; I noticed he was smoking a cigaret and I blew the smoke away when I lowered the window. He took the documents and then got on the radio in his jeep across the road. He returned in a few minutes and asked me for more identification. All this time he was very serious and still smoking the cigaret. I gave him my temporary identification card and he returned a few minutes later. He was no longer smoking and addressed me as Senhor ("Mister"). I do not know what caused the change of attitude but he politely told me that I could go. The truck and I passed our first encounter with the police on the streets!

Dengue and Yellow Fever. I also had to show my yellow fever vaccination card for the first time in nearly 20 years of coming to Brazil, actually twice in one week. The first time was at the Bolivian Consulate; the guy just looked at the cover and did not even look at the date of the last vaccination (2004—good for 10 years); he just wanted me to make a copy of the front page. The second time was at my apartment.

When I first moved in, I noticed a piece of paper in the laundry area that was used for dengue inspections. A few weeks later, I noticed that someone had filled in a line of the sheet and I had passed; dengue is a big problem here (my maid's husband had it recently) and they are looking for standing water where the dengue mosquitoes lay their eggs. This week a girl from the Health Department came by and said she was the dengue inspector. I showed her the piece of paper and she filled out another line and then asked me something in Portuguese. I wasn’t really paying attention because I thought she'd sign the paper and leave. I asked her to repeat the question and she was asking about my yellow fever vaccination (I found out later that yellow fever--always fatal-- is a big problem in Bolivia and recently there have been cases of it in Corumbá.) I showed my card to her with my vaccination at the Ole Miss Health Service (thanks Barbara Collier for implementing this program at UM) and then she asked me whether I was Brazilian. I laughed and said I was an American English teacher. Then we had a discussion about which language is more difficult to learn. Of course, Brazilians always think English is the most difficult language! Not!!

More on my adventures later.