Oi! Brazil! Wake up, eh?!

"Today is the rainiest day we have had all year" -- the Mayor of Curitiba, opening plenary at IUHPE 2016.

Today, it rained. And rained. And rained....like monsoon level rain. However, I have such a short time here in Curitiba that I was desperate to go sight see a little bit before the conference opening plenary session this evening.

I'm gonna go ahead and say Sunday is not the greatest day in a very Catholic place to do any touristing. The apparently coolest part of the city looked like this on this incredibly wet and holy day:

Rua Sao Francisco

The deserted Praca General Osorio, Centro, Curitiba

What is it the country folk say? Shut up tigher'n a nun's butthole? Is that a thing? Lisa and I, who I met in Rio through a friend on facebook, braved the downpour and went to go check out the Feira Hippie (I think loosely translated as the "hippy market"?). Basically it is just a weekly huge Sunday market in the old part of the city. I'm wondering if Brazilians aren't awesome at pushing through inclement weather cause this apparently insanely busy market that according to the internet is supposed to look like this:

https://eyebrazil.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/adrianoantoine_pr_curitiba_019_005.jpg 

looked like this today:

Lisa and I found a place to have a highly affordable lunch:

That was about half the cost of a meal in Rio. And after walking around the old town center for awhile getting more and more soggy:

Catedral de Curitiba, Praca Tiradentes, Centro, Curitiba

Catedral de Curitiba, side view

The Art Museum, Curitiba, Centro, Curitiba

A strange horse fountain---not sure why they created it to look like it was vomiting water, but the craftsmanship was quite lovely.

Igereja do Rosario, Largo de Ordem, Curitiba

A small pride/LGBTQ event

After some aimless wandering, we gave up and found a little bar with microbrews. Yes, hipster microbrewing has made it's way to Curitiba:

Enjoying an Apricot Saison in the rain... same price as a Vancouver microbrew.

There was much visible homelessness here in the downtown area, coupled with the fact that Lisa kinda sticks out like a Scandinavian sore thumb, and we were approached often for money. Interestingly, in Rio, this never happened...and I don't mean just in Ipanema or Copacabana, I mean it never happened even once you entered the rougher parts of Rio, like the downtown core. However, this very much could be that the Rio police whisk all the homeless people away in vans to outer parts of the city... a practice that has been known to happen even in places like Edmonton in the recent past, if I do recall.

Lisa and I parted ways and I headed back to my apartment to change into my last remaining clean AND appropriate looking item of clothing which is basically a summer dress that was, at the same time, entirely inappropriate for the weather. The weather today was akin to a mild rainy winter day in Vancouver. I headed out to find a taxi to get me to the evening opening plenary of the conference. I ran around looking for a taxi in the rain, in a sundress and sandals, waving my arms like a maniac with not much luck until finally, I came across a taxi and driver who appeared to be parked and having a little snooze and pretty ambivalent as to whether he had a fare or not.

Opening plenary of the 22nd International Union of Health Promotion and Education, Health and Equity conference

I was pretty stoked for this opening plenary as I recognised some of the speakers, some big wigs in the public health and health promotion world followed by a reception with food that was to begin at 8 pm. However, it began with an hour of an adorable, prepubescent Brazilian glee club, followed by an intense rendition of the incredibly imperialistic-sounding Brazilian national anthem, followed by an hour of a politician parade from different levels of government giving impassioned speeches, alluding to the collapse of the system that is currently going on here, to rowdy cheers from the huge Brazilian contingent. It reminded me of the Canadian Public Health Association conference in the spring of 2015 in Vancouver prior to the Canadian election where Stephen Harper and his Conservatives were the butt of numerous jokes and political accusations of egregious sorts that were loudly applauded and cheered and 'shame'-ed throughout the three day conference. So...like, I get it.

This is my favourite quote/plea from one of the conference organisers during the opening plenary trying to urge Brazilians to get out of bed and be punctual:

"The shuttles to come to the convention center leave from your hotels at 7:45 and 8:15 am. I ask you, my fellow Brazilians, to show our foreign friends that we can wake up early and get started at 9 am sharp!"

FINALLY the actual plenary speakers began at 7:40 pm, Lisa and I were starving, having not eaten since lunch time,  and were eagerly awaiting the scheduled end of the talk so we could go get some reception food. But no... 8 pm rolled around, 8:05 rolled around, 8:15 rolled around, and we could no longer stand the hunger pangs. We left and headed to where the food was with the expectation that they had already started serving because the program said it was supposed to start at 8 pm. No dice. Hangry and tired, we were just about to leave to find a restaurant somewhere that might be open on a Sunday night in this sleepy city. FINALLY they opened the food up and we got first dibbs, grabbed our highly anticipated glasses of red wine, found a corner to set up camp, and shoved the food in our faces in classic north american style...no shame. Once the pangs of hunger ebbed, we happily took a sip of our red wine and discovered it was indeed not wine but grape juice, much to our severe disappointment. It was a juice-only reception. WTF Brazil? By the time we went for seconds (and thirds, in my case), the opening plenary had FINALLY ended and the remainder of the 1000 conference participants had descended on the food tables....evidently we hadn't been the only hungry ones. The "situation" quickly turned violent, like a pack of wolves descending on a carcass and the room became a torso-to-torso mob with many people from many countries with different beliefs about etiquette and decorum when it comes to line-ups and buffet tables. It was highly unpleasant for us non-aggressive (almost passive) Canadian gals who agree that one of the things we like most about Canada are orderly line-ups and taking turns, luxuries of a nation with low population density and abundance. We retreated as fast as possible in a taxi for an early night.