Oh Brazil

To clarify, I am in Brazil for business, but this is a log of the little things that go on.  The adventures within the adventures, the knee jerk impressions, moments worth logging.

Day 1: This was essentially a travel day flying from Arkansas to Dallas to São Paulo Brazil.  The main highlight here is the concept of business class.  I've never been on such a pleasant 10 hour flight.  It was like I had my own private little space pod with movies, water, books, blanket, pillow, head phones, ear plugs, eye mask and a seat that went flat.  This is the life!  Not to mention the ice cream sundae and beer I had during my pre-sleep movie.  It was almost like being at home.  

Day 2: We have arrived in Brazil.  I am with my tall, black, very Yankee, Chicago work companion. That explains the "we".  I was browsing a magazine on the plane when I looked out the window. Where it had previously been endless, beautiful forest, suddenly the city came into view.  I couldn't believe it.  São Paulo essentially sits in a valley that butts up to the wilderness.  It is vast and dense with varying structures spread over the city.  As usually catches me off guard when traveling, the poverty is stark.  Favellas (essentially a ghetto of sorts) are lawless, cobbled together housing areas. Think Columbiana. It's not that I didn't believe it was out there, it is more that I didn't think it would be so front and center.

Traffic: holy todelo.  Motorcycles are a dominant force here.  They zip in and around traffic.  If I don't see a motorcycle accident while I'm here, I'll be quite surprised.  There are oodles of Mini Coopers.  They appear to fairly new.  In an interesting twist, there are a lot of Fiats and they are considerably larger than those in the states.

The Consulate: I fully expected strong, young, handsome Marines to be guarding the gates. Apparently we contract out that security to Brazilians.  The property is 14 acres of gated and walled ground.  I knew we were on home soil when we finally saw the handsome Marines and sat down to watch the USA v Canada Olympic bout before the meeting.  Interesting place and a somewhat concerning security briefing.  We aren't in Kansas anymore.

Evening Walk: When I travel, I like to get out and walk.  Rolling out about sunset (genius right?) I decided to walk down to the little shopping center.  I quickly realized I have no idea how to even say "hello" in Portuguese, much less, "I don't speak Portuguese."  Having entered a service oriented retail environment, I realized how much people talk to customers....I was fairly unsuccessful in any communications so I decided to go to the grocery store.  No one talks to you in a grocery store.  Luck would have it that the first one I went to had a live band playing.  Score!  They were even playing Pink Panther on my way out.  So I wandered about, enjoyed it immensely and will likely make it back there for groceries tomorrow evening.  The second grocery store was called "Mambo." So, per my friend's recommendation that I "Baile en la calle" I just went to a store named after a dance.  The exciting thing was crossing the street with the aforementioned traffic.  It was trecherous and I was thrilled to have not died.  Once inside I got the quality meal you see below.  It was classic European fare: cheese, bread, fruit, yogurt and nuts.  I was needing some calm food and it was pretty delightful.  The Brazil nuts were not as divine as I had anticipated...

 

I guess surviving walking at night with groceries is success number 1.  Get excited!

Day3:  Today we did our advance work which essentially means checking out all the places we are going to go with our principals when they get on the ground.  So we went to the Brazil Home Office, our stores and lots of competition stores.  I am a Carrefour fan (don't tell the company).  It was interesting to see different retail environments and just different parts of this huge city.  The most fascinating thing is the amount of walls.  All parking lots are gated and fenced/walled.  Every neighborhood, apartment building, etc.  The walls are made of metal, concrete, wood, you name it.  The fences are just as diverse in construction.  We even drove past a biological preserve, but it wasn't accessible.  Strange, but given the crime, not surprising.

Evening walk notes: Tonight I wanted to get out and shake my head after dinner.  I donned my raincoat, and decided to go to the big mall.  The walk was a bit creepy.  It was the typical dark and stormy night, but folks were out.  There was actually a huge protest on the news that was happening downtown.  This is very far away, but folks in Brazil are not deterred by rain.  Lessons learned:

•     There are crosswalks with lights for pedestrians.
•      Don't step on the orange flowers on the sidewalk when wet.  They will cause you to do the   full body, nearly fall on your behind spasm that creates a free show for everyone at the bus stop....
•      Don't be afraid to use sign language to communicate.  The people at the soccer (futbol) store know what you are talking about.  :)
•      BIGGEST LESSON: Once you find yourself in a country where Spanish is not spoken, you will remember every word you ever learned and fight to lock it in with portuguese.  They simply aren't close enough for verbal communication.  I've learned my words for meats.  I consider this a success. 

Protection Lessons of the day:

•      Eat whenever you can.
•      Sleep whenever you can.
•      Take a bathroom break, whenever you can!

Day 4: We flew to Recife this morning.  It definitely has a different feel.  Not sure how to explain it, but I'm not wild about it.  There is a tension of sorts.  Like a draw between a friendly beach community and a poor wild underground.  I took a 3.5 mile walk down the beach.  I was drawing towards some music playing assuming it was a beachside bar/restaurant.  It was a beachside favella, the sound thumping out of a car parked in the middle of the crowd.  Detouring from that potential experience, I began walking down the street that lines the beach, Boa Viagem.  Low and behold was a Sunday night Carnaval for kids.  There was a live band, streamers, confetti, people dancing, kids in costumes and a lot of energy.  All and all pretty neat.  The sidewalk by the beach was a mass of activity with people running, biking, dog walking, old men playing dominos, and many people drinking coconut water from the food stands.  The most interesting moment was watching a man who had collected numerous cans using a coconut to crush them.  It wasn't like I was watching despiration, but rather just a fact of the matter survival playing out.  There is an edge to this town.  Not sure what it is, but my flags are up.

Day 5: We basically did store visits all day, but the morning started bright.  I got to watch a pick up soccer match on the beach.  It was fairly heated and done barefoot.  Tough guys!  Otherwise the day was fairly uneventful.  I walked to the grocery store for some bread, butter and yogurt.  I guess this was  a craving for something simple, familiar.  It was fairly wonderful to be at the crosswalk, surrounded by locals, doing normal things like going to the grocery store after work.  Maybe I was craving normalcy too.  

Day 6: Today was essentially another day of driving routes and seeing stores.  We went to the Consulate in Recife.  It definitely wasn't as nice at the one is São Paulo.  We did go on a quest for a soccer ball for my work companion.  This wasn't just any soccerball, it was an official 2014 World Cup soccer ball.  We went to a modern, new, local mall and mission accomplished.  It was kind of the highlight of the day.  Afterwards there was a mini adventure into the local mixed drink.  It is one of those that you better just have one of because it goes down too easy.  This, in combination with a brief walk in the surf before sunset, was a great end to advance work.  The funny thing that we went to a very good restaurant right across from the beach that has great food and ambiance.  Had I not been with a coworker, it was a recipe for a romantic night! Tomorrow we hit the ground running at 5:00 AM (That's 2am at home!)  Holy toledo...

Day 7: Today the principal was on the ground.  For those of you new to protection speak, the principal is the primary protectee.  Things were delayed, as is the business, but we still started the day at 0200 Central Standard Time.  Whoop whoop....  We did our store visits with little adieu, and then the best part of the day happened: my first flight on a G650 Gulfstream jet.  I was like an excited 10 year old for a few moments.  We even had a plate with trail mix, cheese, fresh fruit, cake and crackers.  Life is so good.

 

Best story of the day: My coworker was telling us this over breakfast.  Essentially he went in to take a leak before the plane landed.  We were in a bit of a hurry and apparently the early morning hour caused some clothing malfunctions....He had his underpants on backwards and thus was unable to find the appropriate flap of fabric needed for that operation.  This was much more hilarious of a story told live, but it had never occurred to me that this could be a hazard for a man.  First world problems. 

Day 8:  This day was going spectacularly boring (i.e. mostly sat in an office all day) until this evening.  Most of the traveling party scattered, but I was asked to accompany an individual to supper.  She is one of the most powerful women in international retail, but tonight we were just two women in a foreign country needing a solid meal after a long day.  The best part was the continued discussion about how accident prone she was followed by a full fall up, yes up, the stairs of the restaurant we found.  It is remarkable that she is so accident prone and so graceful all at the same time.  It was absolutely fabulous to find the Brazilian version of a buffet, talk about everything and anything but work and just wind down after a very busy week.  Life is so very wonderful and unexpected.  

Here are a few more images that defined the trip: