First week in Sao Paulo

Still in Sao Paulo and no international incidents to report so life is good. It is strange trying to communicate with people where you do not speak the native language and hardly anyone speaks English. I get by with lots of pointing, shrugging, grunting and shaking my head. Actually, once again, just like being at home in Austin.


The last time I was here I took the taxi to and from where I worked. Sometimes, it was 15 Reales and sometimes it was 20 Reales. Taxi fees are very dependent on the driver because the cabs waiting outside the hotel do not use meters. Best I can figure, some companies have contracts or agreements with the hotel. If I caught a taxi out on the street it would be metered. The bank where I am working is about two miles from the hotel. It really bugged me to pay that much for going around the corner so I threw all my work stuff in a backpack, donned a windbreaker and started walking to/from work. It takes me about 30 minutes each way.  After a week, I am comfortable with it but it was a bit nerve racking the first few times. I mapped out a route that kept me off the main roads but I still had to cross several busy roads. I learned a neat secret though. I would wait till a large group of people gathered at a crosswalk and they sort of have a mob mentality and just take over the road, and cross it. I would blend in with them and get across unscathed. I feel like one of those little sucker fish who attaches itself to a shark.

One the way I pass up a couple of residential areas, aka : subdivisions. These are walled in communities with seriously high fences that surround them. The front entrance looks like a toll plaza. There are multiple entries for residents, guests and workers to go through. Each has their own specific entry. There are armed guards at the gates. These do not look like the rent-a-cop security guard you see in Austin. These guys look like they would really hurt you, with or without the guns they carry. Fact is, they look a lot fitter and capable than some of the Travis County Deputies I have seen.

I am working at a business office where all the IT workers are for the bank. Here , most of the knowledge workers are union so they have specific hours that they work. Each night at 5, we are done. They can work over but they have to get specific approval. It is nice that we can call it a day at a specific time. It is also nice that they have a end of the day time. The thing that is nice is that everyone leaves about the same time. The people here are very warm and friendly, when they leave work there is a lot of genuine affection shown as they leave. It really is wonderful to see how people interact with each other. As Americans, we tend to wander into work and wander out without much regard for each other. Here , they shake hands, pat each other on the back and hug without regard. It is great!! Even in the middle of the day, as people come back from lunch they regard each other with the same welcoming warmth.

Everyday around 9AM and 2Pm, the “coffee ladies” come by with snacks and drinks (FREE!!!). They go by each desk and hand out coffee (really good coffee), hot cocoa, and a bread roll. Sometimes they have yogurt, guava juice. The bread roll will have some kind of spread, cheese or meat in it. And it is FREE!! I like the “coffee ladies”.

When we leave work, there is a real hustle around the compound where we work. There are at least 30 buses lined up for the workers to board. The company furnishes busses from various parts of the city to the office. These are private buses, when you get outside the compound, there are more transit buses waiting for people. It is incredible to see how it all works. One of the things that makes it all work is the traffic cops. These are uniformed guys whose only responsibility is traffic. They do not have guns that I can see but they have these really cool uniforms. They are gray jumpsuits with neon two green stripes on the arms and legs. And they have these black knee pads and elbow pads as part of the jumpsuit. And here is the fashion highpoint, black calf-high boots that are worn on the outside of the jumpsuit. And they ride what look like moto-cross motorcycles. These guy’s besides looking really cool, go from traffic jam to traffic jam straightening out the messes. You can see them darting in and out of traffic as they make their way around.

One of the things that I am trying to figure out is the “mystery of the rock”. I noticed this on the second day of walking to work. On the sidewalk, there was a rock. The only thing that struck me as odd about this was that it was a rock, not a piece of concrete, a real chunk of rock. It is about like a bowling ball size, maybe a little smaller. Being on the sidewalk and in the middle of a urban area it caught my attention. The mystery part is that the rock is moving. Along the half mile stretch where I first saw the rock, I have spotted it in 4 different locations. Someone is moving it, for some reason. It has me stumped. Maybe I need to occupy myself some other way on my walks to work?