Somebody must like me

Somebody must like me because I had another perfect last day in Bahia. My other last day in Bahia (the 13th...when I left Salvador for Minas Gerais) was wonderful because I met about 8 people on the street and had wonderful banter...something I couldn't have managed 3 months before. Today, to my surprise and glee, I realized I had 4 hours back in the Salvador airport before my next flight (the flight pattern doesn't make sense...Belo Horizonte to Salvador to Rio to Charlotte, but hey) and so I'm taking advantage.

I checked in my bags, got my ticket and strapped on my fanny pack (imagine losing my documents just because I felt like I needed one more adventure. Plus, it's a general rule of thumb that bad things happen on the last day because you let your guard down or do a hail mary or something). I grabbed a bus, pulled the notification string where I saw a place that looked like a place for real Bahianas like me and got off. I then spent my last remaining 50 reais on 2 dresses a blouse, and two items of great importance (and the ONLY things I would want, as I had acai last night, to say goodbye to Brazil): Caldo de Cana (sugar cane juice) and agua de côco (coconut water). I made friends with some ladies who wanted my orkut (like facebook....but not nearly as high-tec...and yes, I have one) and then appreciated as the last Bahians called me "querida" and "mel" (love and honey) and the last people asked me "where are you from?" and prepared mentally to start hearing english soon.



Now it's worth mentioning that I walked 3 minutes from the street where a lady made me a cup of sugar cane juice by feeding sugar cane through a grinding machine to a high class mall where security men and ladies are riding around on scooters. This is also where I'm using the wifi (next to the Burger King...yup) to make this post. So, this country is not developing....it's developed...it's just super lopsided. (Funny to explain that the US is lopsided too...generally the preception is that we're all white, fat kind of people from 3 car, 2 dog, 2 children kind of families and that there doesn't exist poverty nor hunger)

And here I am, saying goodbye...and I can't be sad...because I'm about to go see meu povo (my people): Meggie, Becky and Mikey.