Breakfast was better than expected. There were eggs, cold ham and cheese, yogurt, fruit and cereal. The coffee was extremely strong and tasteful. Our first activity as I mentioned was the Suape port. On the way to Suape I learned so much from one of the Brazilian graduate students Bruno. We talked about politics, crime, soccer, gangs, poverty, health care, education, sugar cane and the environment. Here is some of what I learned from him.
Politics- President da Silva of Brazil is from the state of Pernambuco (which I am in). We talked about U.S policy towards Cuba (which as some of you know I dislike). Government corruption in Brazil, influenced by money. Cops can be paid off as well as government officials and judges.
Crime- Bruno and another of our guides Lucas have been both robbed about five times each. They both have had guns pointed at them.
Soccer- We talked about the goalie from Brazil that plays for a popular team called Flamengo. He is responsible for murdering his girlfriend and having her body fed to rottweilers. Very sick and sad occurrence.
Gangs- The gangs are actually organized in Recife by soccer teams. These hooligans fight, steal, deal drugs and rob. In fact Bruno had his car broken into at a soccer match last week.
Education- There is a minimum wage for teachers in Brazil. It is 1,000 real a month (real is the money used). This is not enough money to survive, many work 2 or 3 more jobs. What happens then is that the teachers have little motivation, little time and no incentive. This of course trickles down to the students. Brazilian taxes pay for colleges but not public schools. Therefore people must pay an additonal cost for their children to attend school. The education system is different in every state.
Health care- Most Brazilians do not have health care. Professionals have their health care provided for. Bruno also said that the quality of the care is poor and that the issue is one that is obviously a problem.
Environment- The Amazon is still being cut down at an alarming rate. We talked about the devastating effects this could have and has had. Loss of habitat for native peoples and animals, decrease in oxygen supply, pollution due to lumber companies and oil companies.
So as you can see I had very interesting conversations with Bruno. I have learned so much from him.
We arrived at the Suape port around 9:30 a.m. I was thiniking oh no, not another port. We visited a port in Ecuador at Guayaquil and that experience was not very enlightening. However this experience was very informative and professionally well done. In fact we sat in the same board room and chairs that the Brazilian President and his ministers sat in several weeks ago. Suape's port is the third largest port in Brazil behind only Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In fact the port is expanding as we speak. With the assistance of Venezuela they have built oil refineries. The goal for Brazil is to hopefully someday soon become energy independent. They also had a large amount of wind turbines getting ready to be sent who knows where. Just another example of the increasing popularity of wind energy. 45% of the area owned by the port is protected as an ecological area and protected from development. With the increased need to develop more of the port it should be interesting to see if land bought in the future still remains protected at the same rate. I have my doubts.
We had a wonderful presentation from a well educated Brazilian woman probably my age. Her English was quite good and Antonio (Brazilian guide) helped translate whenever needed. They were very gracious hosts at the port providing cookies, sweet coffee, and some amazing fruit juces.
Around 20,000 workers are employed at the port. Transportation for workers is an issue of difficulty. Many workers live in Recife, which is an hour away. They will begin construction of a light railway which should of course help transport workers to their jobs at the port. One company in particular has over 100 buses a day make the trip from Recife to the port and back. Suape Port was the first deepwater port in the northeast of Brazil. The port also trains workers to be able to find work in the port. A relatively new concept in Brazil is a technical and vocational school which is at the port. Even today once a student finishes high schook it is either college or find a job. There is no option for vocational school for high school students. And there are no community colleges in Brazil. As I mentioned there are around 20,000 workers at the port. 10,000 to 15,000 work at the shipyards. The port itself is 30 years old. As you can see I really learned a good deal from the presentation. After the presentation was complete the blinds were lifted in the boardroom and we had a wonderful panoranmic view of Suape Port.
After the presentation we headed to the resort town of Porto de Galinhas. Porto de Galinhas translates to Port of Chickens.Doesn't make much sense does it! It turns out that the name of the town is symbolic of an event from Brazilian history. Back in the 1800's the port had many ships enter with chickens for the purpose of consumption and to raise them. However, many of these chicken ships actually had another purpose. Underneath in the storage compartment of the ship were illegally obtained Africans from Nigeria and other areas of Africa. For the slave trade was abolished or outlawed in the 1850's. Slavery itself eventually was abolished in 1888. So the port was a popular unloading point for illegally obtained African slaves. Very interesting tidbit of history.
When we first arrived at Porto de Galinhas we went to a very fancy, ritzy resort. We had lunch at this resort and it cost 40 reals. The meal was quite expensive for Brazilian standards, however it was really good. It was certainly not a traditional meal by any means. The meal took a long time and that ended up meaning less time at the beach and the pool. I should've asked how much it cost to stay there per night. I will ask tomorrow because I am very curious right now. After luch we went to the beach. I walked into the ocean and attempted to walk further in the ocean. However, the reefs were so sharp and slippy I scratched my foot. Judgement was the better part of valor in this case. I decided before I get hurt I better turn around. Mike (another participant) and I decided we better hit the pool instead. So we swam there instead. We only had 45 minutes so it was a rather short swim.
We then visited the old fishing village of Porto de Galinhas. It has completely changed in the last fifteen years we were told from Antonio. It is now a very touristy area with many shops full of trinkets. I walked around with Chris and the three graduate students from Recife. We mainly walked around the beach, not the shops. I decided that I would rather buy things later on in the trip rather than now so I wouldn't have to carry it around for the remainder of the trip. Plus it is always more expensive to buy things in tourist areas.
The port of Suape. Third largest in Brazil.
That was lunch, quite scrumptous.
How do you like my new VGA shirt? In the village of Porto de Galinhas
Security system, Brazil style.
My new friends. These guys have been excellent, very informative.
Here is an example of a reef. It is safe to swim here because the reef blocks the sharks from entering.
Seriously, advertisements on sails. It has come to this. I can't blame the sailors in return for advertising a product they receive a free sail courtesy of the company.
Tomorrow it is off to a sugar cane plantation. Sugar was the big money maker for the Portuguese when they colonized what is now Brazil.
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