Eddy in Brazil

It´s post time!

I think I´ve already mentioned how I have come to perceive Brazil as a country of "extreme extremes". This perception became even greater when I visited Curitíba (koo-ree-chee-bah), the capital of the state of Paraná. For those of you use Google Earth, I uploaded the following placemark which will give you an indication of where it is located (Brazil´s south). Just looking at the Wikipedia entry for Curitíba, and it gives a very nice overview as well. I won´t give you a day-by-day account, but rather a brief summary along with my impressions and plenty of photos and for the first time on EddyinBrazil some videos!


Click on the thumbnail for a slideshow; read the post to understand the photos!

Destination: Curitíba, Paraná, Brazil
Reason for travel: Church and family business
Duration: 8 days (17th until the 25th of May)
Mode of travel: Aeroplane

Let´s take-off!



We managed heavily discounted tickets through "Varig Brasil" and so Uziel, Daiane and I flew to Curitíba´s João Alfonso´s airport after passing through both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, with some delays.

Curitíba, located significantly further from the equator, has a very different climate than that of Vila Velha. Here in Vila Velha, there is barely any seasonal difference, and right now the temperature still hangs around 27 degrees celcius. At the same time, Curitíba´s will get below 10 degrees at night, and during the day, maybe a top of 20 degrees. So to say the least, it was a cold change!

The south of Brazil, was subject to much immigration from Europe, from countries like Germany, Italy, Poland, and therefore it has a strong European feel. The south, compared to the rest of Brazil, is considered first-world. And having personally experienced the city, I can now confirm that the difference certainly exists. The city´s public services are all of a high standard, and much of the city was re-planned and altered such as the roads and public transport. Curitíba has many parks, a botanic garden, musea, an opera theatre; facilities you would not find in a city like Vitória or Vila Velha. Crime, is significantly lower, and aside from locks on doors, it is almost not an issue (as I have been used to my entire life). In Vila Velha, you are forced to take several precautions, such as avoiding to go out at night, and carrying a minimal amount of valuable items. In the south, as I witnessed in an amazing personal experience, the police is not afraid to take action, even against considerably small crimes. Another example is that around the city, you find divided recycle bins for up to five different types of rubbish, and the city streets are noticeably cleaner; European standards. Transport is well organised, with large connection highways and buslanes in throughout the city. There are buses of three-times the normal length, that run on natural gas, and the bus stops are the iconic "tubes"; large glass tubes with ramps that are used to save time by avoiding buying tickets on the bus and they provide great shelter and easy access. Below is a quick clip of Parque Tanguá, one of many parks in Curitíba. Once an old, unused stone-groove, Curitíba´s ex-mayor Jaime Lerner had a vision and turned it into a beautiful park connected to a lake below through a large waterfall (not the waterfall seen here). Uziel is talking in the background.




Uziel (my host father) is originally from Paraná, and was born not far from Curitíba. His family, therefore, nearly all live in and around the city. So in the time I was there, I met Uziel´s parents, siblings, cousins and other in-some-way-related family members. Uziel´s family is bigger than I thought, and quite spread out. Let´s hope I get this right: Uziel is the youngest (29) of six siblings with 3 brothers and 2 sisters. His parents live in Palmeira (about an hour´s drive from Curitíba). Uziel´s father, Pastor Adolar Lagos is 82 years old, and has already worked for the ministry for 51 years. He has set up many churches, and is still completing the construction of a brand new church next to his house.

One part of my stay in Curitíba, and who would have guessed, was Marcha para Jesus, that´s right, Eddy went on a Jesus march! Roughly ten thousand people marched through the city center, uniting christians from all types of churches. Our church (World Revival Church) was there, with custom t-shirts and a large banner, which I helped carry for the majority of the time. A big trio-eletríco (big truck with a band on top and lots of speakers) led the way. It was interesting to observe a congregation like this. From what I could tell, there were mainly people of a low social class, hippies and there was a underlying political drive to the march as well, as the march´s destination was the governor´s house, and both he and the mayor of Curitíba held speeches. Although this is totally not my thing, it was fun being in the midst of it, and it gave a lot of people a spiritual lift. Plus we got to advertise the church!

I must say, I am getting value for money on this exchange... Let me tell you what happened on our second day in Curitíba. Driving home at roughly ten o´clock we were descending towards are big crossing when all of a sudden, we could hear shots being fired, really rapidly, and all I could see was a police car stationed in the middle of the crossing with several officers taking cover and firing their weapons. Uziel, who was driving at the time, immediately spun our car around, and headed in the opposite the direction. Catching our breath, we turned onto the road running alongside the main road where the shots were fired. It turned out there was a stolen vehicle being chased, and the car thiefs were firing at police, who in turn returned fire. As we later turned back onto the main road, we could see police lights flashing in the distance. As we approached we saw a blue car with its back, completely smashed as well as a white truck whose front had narrowly missed. On the other side of the crossing was the red vectra, which tried to run a red light, but crashed and consequently stopped working. The thiefs ran, and one got shot dead trying to climb a fence, while the other fled. We arrived only seconds after it happened. Swat style military police streamed in from all directions. I´ve never seen such an awesome police reaction in my life. These so called HONS police were all heavily armed, with submachine guns and literally shot the vectra (plus the thief) to bits. I made a small movie clip of the scene. The red vectra, and behind it the scene of where it crashed.



We stayed with Uziel´s nephew, Helder also known as Thor. He lived in the US for 15 years, and had his three children there, before moving back to Brazil. Just outside of Curitíba, he has a large retreat/holiday house, known as chacará. Complete with a small soccer field, pool, trampoline, large churrasco, numerous animals and plenty of spare land. On Saturday, he invited a whole group of friend and the men had a game of six-a-side, after which an entire lamb (pre-cut) was barbequed and consumed. Apart from this amazing meat, I also tried a new food item, which is orginally from the south of Brazil (Rio Grando do Sul) called Chimarrão (pronounced shee-mah-howng). It´s a tea-type drink, prepared in a cuia - a special container made from a pumpkin-like fruit of the calabash tree (crescentia cujete). In the foto, the cuia is made from horn. Uziel´s father has an impressive collection of near a hundred cuias, of all different shapes and sizes imaginable. Hot, but not boiling water is added to special ervas or herbs and drunk in turns through a metal straw called a bomba. Read the wikipedia entry for Chimarrão more info. It very cool, and hot on a cold day... you get what I mean. So if you are ever in Brazil, near the south, to fit right in just say the following: Vamos tomar um chimarrão! (Let´s go drink a chimarrão!).

So all in all, a very nice chance to visit another part of Brazil. My vision keep broadening, my language keeps expanding and there seems to be no end in sight. I´m loving it here.

Valeu galera!