Brazil's First Saint

A few weeks ago I wrote about St. Anthony and how young ladies here in Brazil bury images of him upside down in order to get a husband. This week I learned of something else that honestly seems stranger than that.

Brazil is getting it's first official saint, São Galvão. Antônio Galvão de França born in 1739, in Guaratinguetá, in the interior of the state of São Paulo. In 1774 he founded the Monastery of Light and worked the next 28 years as its pricipal architect and builder. He died in 1822 and was buried in the monastery's chapel.

Now for the strange part of the story. For some reason, many years ago nuns at the Monastery of Light began to print small pictures of São Galvão on tiny pieces of paper. On the back is printed a short prayer that is attributed to the new saint.

These tiny "prayer cards" are then neatly folded and placed into capsules. These capsules are then swallowed by the faithful who believe they have healing power. There have been two claims of miraculous healing after taking the capsules those were enough to get Galvão his sainthood.

The nuns normally produce 90,000 capsules a day but are now doubling production to meet the demand now that Galvão is being canonized.

I find it difficult to understand how people can honestly believe this but somebody is swalling 100k pills.

Please understand that I am not catholic bashing, just sharing some interesting cultural things that sound strange to me. I have many wonderful friends and family members who are Roman Catholic and love the Lord but this is just beyond comprehension to me.

I will be posting about some ridiculous things that evangelicals are doing here as well (you probably won't believe me).

Somewhere out there is probably somebody selling Billy Graham's used napkins.

The End Of Summer

Saturday night we turned our clocks back an hour as our Daylights Savings Time period has come to an end. Officials say that the country saves 4% electricity due to the time change but I honestly don't see how since almost no one has air conditioning.

The best news for us is that the tourists are leaving the city. While they bring a lot of money, they also bring a lot of traffic. We are looking forward to things getting back to normal.

Buses have been rolling out of here around the clock, heading to Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. During the last couple of months it was easier to find someone speaking Spanish than Portuguese.

They'll be back in a few weeks for Easter vacation but that only lasts for a week. Until then I am looking forward to a 2 mile drive not taking 45 minutes.

A Stroll In The Park

This is Barigüi Park in the city of Curitiba, Parnana, which is about three hours from where we live. This public park, whose indigenous name means "river of thorny fruit", located near the center of this ultra-modern metropolis, was established in 1972 to give curitibanos (residents of Curitiba) a place of beauty, nature and wildlife to enjoy. Many families spend afternoons and weekends taking walks, bike riding, picnicking and watching nature. This week the Lopes family saw more than they expected.

On Tuesday of this week, Marcos Lopes (37) and his two young daughters, Gabriela (8) and Amanda (5), were bike riding through the park. A small stray dog began running alongside of them and then ran into the edge of the water. Suddenly a caiman crocodile sprang from the water and grabbed the helpless dog and within moments consumed it.

City officials admit that there are three caiman (called jacaré) living in the waters of the park, although locals claim that there are at least two others, but they admit they know little about them including what sex they are.

Paulinho Dalmaz, superintendent of Works and Services for the Secretary of the Environment of Curtiba (how do you fit that on a business card?), says that there is nothing to worry about as these caiman are harmless. When asked about what they were feeding the reptiles, Dalmaz responded that they were being left to their own devices. He says there are plenty of fish, birds and small animals for them to feed on.

Nothing to worry about? What if a small child strays from its family and moves towards the water. There are no barriers in the park to keep this from happening. What bureaucratic genius thought it would be a good idea to allow live crocodiles in the middle of a public park.

I have come into close contact with caiman and they are not friendly. The above picture is one I took back in August during a visit to the Pantanal. These are amazing animals and should be seen by the public but in zoos or better yet in wildlife habitats.

While caiman are not near as scary as some of the things I have seen come out of Shelby Park, I have a tremendous respect for them. They are fast, huge and fierce hunters. The city officials of Curitiba need to remove them and relocate them to a more suitable environment before there is tragedy.

You can see other wildlife photos I took during my most recent trip to the Pantanal at this link

http://flickr.com/photos/westnashvillegringo/sets/72157594481782901/

One Man's Quest

I wrote several weeks ago about Martin Strel, the man who has swam just about every major river in the world. He is now attempting the Amazon. He started out three weeks ago in Atalaya Peru and today entered Brazil in the city of Tabatinga, some 2200 km (1375 miles) into his 5430 km (3400 miles) trek.





Because of severe 2nd degree burns caused by exposure to the sun, he has had to start wearing a pillowcase as a mask to protect his face and neck. He was using sunblock but it was getting into his eyes and causing him discomfort.



He is averaging over 85 km (53 miles) per day. I can't begin imagine that. A couple of laps around the pool and I'm exhausted.



The entire trip will take 70 days to complete. He will enter Columbia today for a short distance and then reenter Brazil. He hopes to finish at the mouth of the Amazon in Belém Brazil on April 11th.



You can follow the action live at

http://www.amazonswim.com



And you can find out more about Martin Strel at his website

http://www.martinstrel.com/main.php?L=2

Carnaval 2007 - Nothing To Celebrate

It's Carnaval time in Brazil once again. Today is the last day of the the four-day celebration. Actually today is the only day that is an actual holiday but all government offices, banks, post offices and many businesses were closed yesterday as well giving most Brazilians a 4-day weekend.

Most of the larger cities in Brazil have constructed permanent stadiums called Sambodromos that are used exclusively for the four days of festivities. Many of these cities, such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador have spent millions on constructing these arenas yet they also have some of the greatest levels of poverty.

The Samba (dance) clubs spend the entire year in preparation for the event, developing floats, storylines and costume concepts. While there is much that is visually beautiful, there is a greater dark side to this event.

Part of the problem is that most of the people participating in Carnaval are from the poorest class. They save during the entire year in order to purchase the materials needed for their lavish costumes. In recent years there have been many reports of drug trafficking and theft in order to finance their costumes.

Each year there are numerous reports of murder and rape with extremely high estimates of others not reported. Muggings and assaults are common as many of the participants are intoxicated and become easy targets.

Our TV networks broadcast the events from the Sambodromos round the clock while many of the participants are semi or completely nude. Add to that the rampant immorality that takes place and you begin to see that for many of us in Brazil, Carnaval is no reason to celebrate.

Heavy Metal

My good friend Kerry Woo, better known as Wonderdawg, blogged these days about Chinese New Years. Where I live, we don't have many Chinese people and the Chinese food is pretty terrible but it has to be better than this

This guy is celebrating the new year by ripping a pan lid in half with his teeth. His teeth don't look that good to begin with so I can only imagine what they look like now.


As I saw this picture I was whisked back in time to one of my most glorious moments when I appeared on The Ralph Emery Show performing as "The Human Can Opener" during a stupid human tricks contest. I made my family proud as I bit an empty Dr. Pepper can in half on the air. Dan McDaniels was left speechless.

I didn't win anything but for several days afterward I was recognized on the street. It was my true 15 minutes of fame.

I gave up biting cans in half a few years ago, though occasionally I do it just to prove to someone that I can. After seeing this photo I realize that I am sadly a rank amateur in comparison to this guy.

Bigger Is Better

A couple of weeks ago I snapped these shots. This is a pizza box from Big Pizza. They serve the biggest pizza I have ever seen. Just so you can get an idea, the box is sitting on a six-eye stove. Here's a shot of the pizza.

Big pizza comes with four different toppings. Essentially they are four medium pizzas made on the same crust. It's a lot of pizza.

This one had calabreza (a Brazilian sausage similar to peperoni), margarita (cheese, tomatoes & oregano - no tequila), gaúcho (seasoned steak) and corn. Yes, corn. Brazilians love corn on everything. Years ago every pizza and hamburger was served with corn. I can't figure it out.

For most part pizza here is pretty nasty but the Big Pizza is about the best we've had. There are some Pizza Huts and Dominos in Brazil but none near us. After 10 years we finally live near a Subway. I'm not complaining.