kentfoster.com -- Around the World 2008-2009 -- Brazil, Part 2

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Brazil - Part 2
Alagoas and Sergipe

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      I was very impressed by Brazilian people. The only Brazilians I knew before coming here were Fabio, Nancy, Nick and Cibelly, so how could I have known? (Just kidding!) For much of my trip I found myself making mental comparisons between Brazil and my country on a variety of things.
      Quick story: I am in the back of a supermarket at the deli counter waiting to be attended to. Near me is a little girl of about 10 years on her own. (That by itself is remarkable.) The girl drifts away and when it is her turn I call out to her to get her attention: "Moca (Young woman)!"
      She came back to the counter and started to order but then stopped and turned to me and with a serious look gave me a thumbs up as a thanks before turning back to the deli guy. I was blown away. So thoughtful and composed for a kid! Where did that come from?
      The common thumbs up gesture is a curiosity. My reaction went from "They're mocking me", to "They think I'm retarded", to "It's because I'm a foreigner", to the correct, "They do it all the time to anyone". I've grown to like its finality and disambiguity--if that's a word.

Maceio is capital of Alagoas state. It is the setting for a very good book, A Death in Brazil. Brazilians seem to freak out about the crime possibilities in Recife and especially Maceio, but I didn't feel it. That said, when I was in Maceio an overnight bus heading for there from Salvador was robbed in the middle of the night and everyone was robbed of everything.
To the right is something that I intensely dislike, the loud blasting of electioneering. This looks as loud as it is. I was told that there are laws against this, but are ignored.

      The following eight photos are from the Aracaju market. Aracaju is the capital of Sergipe state, the smallest state in Brazil and a totally forgotten place. Very few tourists go there. I did because I wanted to see an untouristy place and I luckily met Raphael and Daisy, two great people who showed and taught me a lot without them realizing it.
      I had to laugh when Raphael, a Brazilian who has never left his country, was telling me about California bands I had never heard. I am still very thankful for the obscure music from the 1970's he put on my MP3 player.
      Compared to Daisy I am a fraud of a traveler. She's hardcore, riding the rails across the American West, dumpster diving, and living off the fat of the land. You would think a girl like that would show lots of miles, but she is as cute as a button, young, has long blonde hair and is unmarried. I am prepared to auction off her email address.

Market hall

This is caju fruit, one of the few I am not a fan of. The nut on top is the cashew nut, but it needs to be roasted.

This is how I like to see my piranhas

Hanging with the meat

This is called moqueca, a fish cooked with coconut milk with accompanying sauces and whatnot.
Something I read about Brazil but refused to believe it until I saw it over and over was that Brazilians may be relaxed about many things, but table manners is not one of them. They don't like eating with their hands, and what seemed most extreme to me, they eat ice cream cones with a spoon. I felt like a savage if I ate without utensils. There are lots of cool, old-fashioned diners and lunch counters of the kind that are disappearing rapidly in America.

Pickled stuff

Tapioca comes in many forms

These are used for medicinal purposes. In the upper left you can see jatoba. When I was a younger punk, for a while I helped build wood decks in California with Brazilian hardwood, usually jatoba and ipe. When I tell Brazilians this they are usually horrified that we took their precious trees to make decks. The wood is no longer exportable. It may have not been legally then either. In those days I could have returned home on a boat from Belem to Galveston with a shipment.

Bird flu waiting to happen. Notice the peacocks on top.

Tapioca in Maceio. When you heat it, the grated tapioca congeals and makes a nice base for which to put in cheese or ham or whatever.

Racist deep fried pastries

A post office in a gas station! Maceio


This is one of my favorite beaches in Brazil, Praia do Gunga, south of Maceio. The sun was devilishly intense. I was the only one not playing soccer on this day and therefore the only one who didn't look like a lobster afterward.

If I was thinking, I should have stood on the left side of this sign. It means "danger".

Kind of an un-PC toilet

I visited two very kind Couchsurfing hosts in Maceio, Lenny and Sergio, and Lenny brought me to her two schools to watch her teach. I thought I would be an observer, but I was often part of the action. Her second school was a Christian school and when one of the kids asked me what religion I was, I thought I was giving a diplomatic answer when I said I was an agnostic, but Lenny was nearly apoplectic, "You can't say that!"


Daisy might kill me for including a photo of her fridge here. These roller derby girls are pretty common in Aracaju's larger supermarkets. It is easier to get around.