Connections

Hello friends!

Sorry it’s taken a few days to finally find the time to sit and write, not to mention find readily available internet access (guess I guessed wrong… also, the connection speed is super slow at the university, so photos will have to wait until i find a faster one, unfortunately...). The last few of days have been exhausting. Of course there was the whole arriving thing, which involved four flights, Cedar Rapids-Cincinnati-Atlanta-São Paulo-Belo Horizonte. All told I arrived Tuesday almost exactly 24 hours after checking in at the Cedar Rapids airport. Since arriving, it’s been virtually nothing but non-stop rapid fire Portuguese, which right out of the gate was no easy task for a mind working on three hours of sleep that hasn’t regularly used the language in a couple of months. Picture a middle-aged white guy trying to dance samba at Carnaval—that’s what it’s been like trying to re-adapt to this song of a language….

Most of my time in the first two days was spent with my Rotary Host Counselor, Marco Antônio. Under normal circumstances, I would be very grateful that Marco is a type that likes to talk a lot, especially since virtually every word out of his mouth is dripping with juicy insight into the ways of Brazilian society, law, and history. With all the static crackling in my head, though, I was able to catch about half of his words, and retain an even smaller fraction of that. Tuesday, after a good ten-hour sleep, I felt I could keep up much better, and as this week has gone on I feel I’m improving even more.

Marco is one of the top judges in the state of Minas Gerais, the state of which Belo Horizonte is the capitol. He has made it no secret to me that he wields a lot of power, as he has pretty much the last word when it comes to laying down the law on a variety of cases. He openly admits (really it’s no secret inside Brazil or abroad) that there exists a great deal of corruption at all levels of Brazilian society, from the lowest ranking police officers to the most prominent politicians in the country. Thus, the power vested in him by the law indeed has the potential to be tested, though from what I’ve read of Marco as a person, he hasn’t been one to yield to such tests. For a glimpse into the culture of corruption in Brazil, check out the 2007 documentary Manda Bala, “Send a Bullet.” It’s awesome, though a bit graphic, especially for lovers of frogs!

Marco embodies one of the most important things you could learn about Brazil: to make it here, you have to have connections. That isn’t to say that good ol’ American “Protestant Work Ethic” doesn’t apply in Catholic Brazil; Marco himself came from what you might call a “middle class” family (though that term could encompass any number of virtually infinite strata in the “middle” of the class spectrum). To reach the point where he could consider himself a coveted connection, he had to study hard and get a bit lucky along the way. Marco, in fact, was awarded the same scholarship I did, which he used to study law for a year in Lisbon in the mid-80s. He has also traveled extensively to the U.S., South Africa, and other parts of Europe, a luxury in Brazil that I hypothesize must pay perpetual dividends. Marco got his law degree from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC, pronounced “pookie”) here in Belo Horizonte, the same school I will be starting at next week. He has climbed his way up a very steep hierarchical judicial system, in which he often had to compete with up to 2000 people for a job he eventually won. I’m sure as the weeks move along and my mind becomes more pliable to Portuguese, I’ll be able to garner more stories from Marco about the steps he had to take to get to where he is now (there’s only one office higher than his in the state). For now, I’ll leave you with this anecdote. On my first day here, just before leaving for home after he dropped me off at my hotel and my long-awaited ten-hour sleep, Marco gave me his card and told me that if I ever found myself in any kind of trouble with the law I should tell whatever authority I was with that I was under his care. He said they would get really scared and hand me over to him no questions asked. I really, really do not want to test this scenario out, though I admit it would be a sight to see!

This is about as substantive as I can get in this the first post since arriving. I know that as the days roll along I’ll be able to absorb little by little a greater understanding of this country, this city, and the little neighborhood—the Coração Eurarístico, Eucharistic Heart—I now call home. Until our next virtual meeting, be excellent everyone! Sejam excelentes todos!