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Kerry Grant
banana-boat-boy.com
Old enough to know better … but
It is a typical overcast Brazilian day (for this part of the country) pretending that it wants to rain but using the illusion to compound the humidity to at least double the usual. My body is responding accordingly – with rivulets of sweat dribbling down my forehead – stinging the eyes and wetting my lips with its salty drips as I cling to a ladder 3 metres above terra firma. The ladder’s casual placement probably adds to my elevated perspiration levels – as the ground placement would get a rash of complaints to the safety manager on any NZ building site and I would have been hauled down for a toolbox meeting hours ago.
It is the top placement that is most concerning though – perched against a branch barely as thick as the ladder’s leg itself. Yes, this is definitely butt-clenching territory but it is South America after all where they seem to do everything to varying degrees of different. My employer’s struggle with the complexity of my English Christian name is another example of this. He pronounces every letter in my name differently so has long since given up on trying to get it right and I now have the Brazilian English name of Harry. If the length of association is legally binding, I may have to change my name by deed poll to keep the federal police from finding cause to not renew my visa when I next visit them.
There is very little about my work conditions to cause me any real concern though. If I were to fall it would be onto a lush lawn and, to his credit, my workmate has been risking life and limb ahead of me. It actually is quite liberating and a lot less stressful not having to check over your shoulder for the safety police every five or so minutes. Of more concern is the nasty soldier ants who build their nests in the deadwood of these trees (of whom my task of removing said wood is causing a far from favourable response).
I am told by the locals that the bigger an insect is, the less pain or significant harm they can inflict. That is the general rule but I think they got it wrong with this particular one as the blood leaking from a bite on my hand is giving testimony to! For those of you who may be concerned about my health with regards to the Pandemic incidence in Brazil, it looks no different to New Zealand apart from people being required to wear masks when around public areas. I have only spoken to one person so far who knows of anyone who has died as a result of Covid and that was an 87-year-old relative. It appears to have been blown all out of proportion by the Global media for Brazil more so than elsewhere.
The real victims here are the children who have been missing out on an education since it first started. Their parents are putting them to work and this will not bode well for their future prospects. If there is an elitist agenda at work then nowhere else in the world is it succeeding more so than in the South American countries at present! It is also sad to see Brazil’s economy crumbling back into a bottomless hole like those of their neighbours after its steady increases of the past few years.
Under-educated and poor, welfare dependent populations appear to be every country’s future globally as a direct result of their leaders’ response to perceived Pandemic threats and their non-realized predictions. Ranting aside, life could be worse. I suppose I could sprain an ankle during my daily walks along the white sand beach on the shores of the Atlantic. It definitely beats my not so distant and harrowing memories of lockdown in Auckland.
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