Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Visas, RNE cards, expiration dates

Brazil requires foreign residents and visitors to acquire Visas prior to entry. There are about five different types of Visas, depending on the travelers individual situation. I have been here in Brazil on a Temporary Visa - V, which is a two year visa permitting the holder to work while in the country. The Visa is pasted right into the holder's passport and adorned with fancy stamps and illegible signatures. To acquire this type of Visa, a company or entity in Brazil must sponsor and assume responsibility for any potential holder. The American school sponsors my Visa and Sierra is granted one due to her being my dependent.

Once you enter the country with this type of Visa--or any Visa for that matter--you are required to register with the Federal Police within 30 days of entry. On the day you register, they take your fingerprints, file several passport sized photos, and document your entry. It is Brazil's way of keeping track of the foreigner population. You also receive what is called a protocolo once you have registered. The protocolo is essentially a strip of paper about an inch wide and four inches long with your passport picture adhered to one end of the strip. This paper serves as the foreigners legal identification in the country while waiting for the RNE, or Brazilian Identification card to be printed. The time between the protocolo and the RNE is supposed to be less than 180 days. When it surpasses the 180 days, the protocolo needs to be sent back to the Federal Police to be stamped for another 180 days. Mine and Sierra's protocolos have been stamped and re-stamped for 180 days 5 times!!

However, yesterday, we were finally scheduled to pick up our RNE cards (the permanent, plastic version of the protocolo) at the Federal Police in a little town outside of Rio called Nova Iguacu. We were on the road by 8:15, in Nova Iguacu by 10:30, and standing in front of the agent at the Federal Police by 10:35 to be handed these:

Our permanent Brazilian ID cards. I know you can't really make out the writing on the card, and that is not important. Actually it's probably better that it is not possible to read them since there is a lot of personal information on them. But, in the top card, I have drawn a black arrow at the section of the card that reads "Validade". (Validade in Portuguese means Valid until or validity--for clarification.) The date below Validade on both of our cards is 27-07-2008. (mo.-date-yr.)!

The cards expired the DAY BEFORE we actually picked them up from the Brazilian Federal Police. And of course they did, they were processed with my first temporary working Visa, two years ago. At the time of filing, the Federal Police had no way of knowing that I would still be here after the initial two year Visa. How could they?

In the meantime, my working Visa has been officially extended another two years. Sierra and I will need to go to the Federal Police to register again, in the the next 25 days or so, be fingerprinted and photographed, and most likely receive ANOTHER protocolo to wait for a valid identification card.

The good news: In the two years I have been here, I only needed to show my protocolo when entering and exiting the country and one time when riding and interstate bus to Paraty, a small beach town between Rio and Sao Paolo. At least the ID isn't something that a person needs to produce regularly. AHHH, politics, government bureaucracy, red tape. I think no matter where you are these things don't function in the way any of the civilians using the services would like.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Some last days' pictures from our holiday in MN

The final days of vacation are always insanely busy! When you first begin a 6 week holiday, it feels like you have all the time in the world. It never fails though, the last day sneaks up on you before you know it, and you have failed to cross off all the "want to do" items on the list.

Nonetheless, we were able to spend a lot time with and visit many friends and family in MN while on vacation, and we were fortunate enough to make a trip to VA Beach to spend time with my sister and her family. Many things to be thankful for.

In the final days, Sierra and I tried to squeeze everything that was forgotten and spend the days with Gramma and Pappa too. Long mornings spent drinking several cups of coffee while sitting on the patio were cherished. Now my morning coffee doesn't taste the same without Mom and Dad's company or the sound of the birds chirping in the trees around us. Sierra and Gramma feverishly finished and painted several more leaf molds. We were lucky enough to fit two of them in our suitcases, wrapped in bubble wrap. They now decorate our veranda in Rio.Sierra took the time to give Gramma a lovely beauty makeover (notice the blue eyeliner--earlier used by me and Colette for our 80's party, now Sierra's play make-up), and Pappa was pretty shocked when he walked in the porch and saw the two of them all "done up". I believe he is contemplating laughter or tears here.
We endulged in a night of broasted chicken in Grandy at the "world famous Brass Rail".The good thing is that with modern technology we can talk to each other on the phone anytime we want, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Mom and Dad can pick up their phone and dial our number here as a local call. It sure makes it easier to be so far away knowing that I can hear their voices regularly. That certainly wasn't the case in 1995 when I first came to Brazil. And it made it easy/possible to call this afternoon while laughing my butt off because I found this in my kitchen cabinet:

Let me tell you the story of "Mario". I bought a People magazine the first week I was in MN. I buy several People magazines while I'm in the states because I really like People--except now because Brangelina is all over them--but anyway. This particular People magazine happened to have a bunch of pictures of Mario Lopez in several different apparently famous poses like the one shown here, which was originally Burt Reynolds in like 1970 something. Well, Mom and I had a riot with this magazine. She and I decided we would unstaple this shot of Mario and tape it to the inside of her kitchen cupboard where the coffee grinder is stored in hopes that someone, namely my brother, father or Aunt Jo, would open it to grind coffee and find the shockingly revealing picture. So amidst giggles, she and I taped it to the cupboard one night when no one was looking. Unfortunately, no body was ever actually surprised by the picture. It seems that the coffee grinder and filters have been stored in this cupboard for so long that no one really looks when they open the door. They simply unconsciously open the door, reach up, grab what is needed, and close the door again--without EVER LOOKING! So we ended up having to point it out to everyone--mostly threw hysterics because Mom and I found it quite amusing.

The funniest thing now is that somehow, in my mother's infinite wisdom, she managed to convince my daughter, secretly, to bring this picture back with her to Rio and tape it inside MY coffee cupboard! I had NO CLUE! I don't even know when Sierra accomplished the task. It wasn't there yesterday. She went to bed before me last night and woke after me this morning! Somehow that little trickster, with the coaching of her Gramma, pulled it off! And I just left a message for my mother on her answering machine that she will probably not understand because I couldn't stop laughing long enough to speak!


Sierra meets Baby Oliver
Our friends Julie and Gustavo welcomed their second child, Oliver, to their family shortly before we left Rio for the US for holiday. With all the end of the year hoopla, Sierra and I never had the chance to get by to visit and meet the new baby. It was the first thing we did once we returned.

Here is Sierra holding the now 2 month old Oliver Simpson Soares. He is a super gentle (giant) baby with a full head of dark hair, which you can't see too well in this photo. His big sister Camila is adjusting well and so far seems to be enjoying being the big sister.

Congratulations Julie and Gustavo on your new blessing!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Back in Rio, safe and sound, almost entirely unpacked and settling back in after a wonderful U.S. holiday!!
Off to the shower...

Monday, July 21, 2008

It's all about making memories!
I can't do this in Rio! I'm a country girl at heart, and I have grown up with guns and gun safety. I'm a pretty good shot too, so when one man at my dad's cowboy shoot offered a stage for some target practice, I jumped on the chance. And Mom was there to make sure we had photos of the fun. After shooting at the range that day, I was determined to learn how to shoot a pistol with only my left hand, so a few days later Dad and I took his guns out behind the house to try. Uh, not so easy. I definitely need both hands to steady the revolver enough to hit the target.
So after being in the Wild Wild West, I jumped several decades to the 80's!!

Vicks, Auntie Burnsie, Me, Colette--80's style

Vicki and Chad threw an 80's party last weekend. I learned two very important things: #1 My hair can still be ratted beyond the allowable height, and #2 No matter the year, big hair and blue eyeshadow makes you want to party like a rock star!

It's all about making memories!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Beach BABY!
Does it get any better than this?

Or this?

Or maybe this?

It is GREAT to have had such beautiful weather for so many great outside, summer fun times with family and friends!!

Wild Wild West
My dad is a country boy at heart. He grew up in the country, farming mostly. The home he and my mother have lived in for the past 39 years is in the country, although not a farm. He is a hunter through and through. In retirement, he has taken up a rather interesting hobby, and I was able to watch him last Sunday at a real Cowboy Shoot!
There is a national organization called Single Action Shooters Society, to which Dad belongs. There are local chapters or other local organizations that are similar who hold monthly shoots at ranges designed specifically for Wild Wild West reinactment. He had a shoot last Sunday, and I was able to check out what it's all about. It was a beautiful, cloudless Sunday afternoon, watching Dad participate and enjoy this hobby. Here are some pictures from the day.

As you can see from this picture, he dresses in costume for the day. He crafted the cart next to him from scrap wood he had laying around the garage. It is used to carry your guns and ammo from stage to stage throughout the day. The stages sometimes require the use of a rifle, a shotgun, and two pistols or any combination of the three firearms. The shot here at Piona's Pleasure Palace required all three.The instructions of this stage were to sit on the bed, ask the time keeper, who was playing the school marm, for a big wet kiss, then stand up and start the shooting. From inside this structure, he had to shoot the rifle 10 times at various targets out to the right in the picture, then each pistol from the same position five times at other targets, come out of the "building", grab the rifle sitting in the middle of the staging area, and shoot that 4 or so times. The directions at each staging area were actually quite elaborate. Several times during the day, my mom commented on how many steps to each scenario and how could they remember what to do, especially Dad who has a hard time remembering what she tells him to do at home. I think her appearance at Sunday's shoot called his bluff on the whole poor memory thing. Hmmmm...

I was overall impressed with the safety precautions taken throughout the shoot. These guys are using REAL bullets and there are approximately 125 shooters there with 4 guns each; that's a lot of possibility for accident; however, there are very specific guidelines for how to approach each stage and how to handle the guns all day. There is a loading table, where there is always someone there to help count live bullets going into the guns, there is an unloading table after each participant takes his/her turn where there is also a second set of eyes making sure no live bullets leave the stage, and at all times while carting guns around or carrying guns back to their respective gun carts, the chambers are open. It is a well run competition. And these guys and gals are INTO IT!

There is one man, who goes by Jack Pine Bill, who insisted that I have a little turn at some target practice when the groups broke for lunch. Being my father's daughter, I was happy to comply. I went to one of the ranges and shot two pistols and a rifle at some targets in an order prescribed by Jack Pine. When I was finished, having missed only 1 of 40 shots, Jack Pine was ready to sign me up for next month's shoot. In all honesty, I think I would consider joining my dad in this activity if I lived closer. Until then, I'll have to live vicariously through his cowboy boots!

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Fun with cousins!
Sierra and I are having a wonderful visit, catching up with family and friends. Here are a few shots of her with others from the last week or so.
Sierra with Veronique and Buttercup (the chick).

Sierra and cousin Taylor.Sierra and cousin Bailey.Sierra and cousin Emily.

Summer in the states is always relaxing, refreshing, and enjoyable!