I should’ve stayed at home today

So, I went to my dentist appointment this morning already feeling that I should have rescheduled the thing for yesterday… On Monday my students told me that they wouldn’t be at the company on Tuesday because they’d be attending the unveiling of a new factory in Sao Paulo, so I was able to postpone our class to Thursday. I thought about calling my dentist to see if she could see me on Tuesday, but decided not to, I ended up doing some other things.

So, on Wednesday I woke up to a rainy day, something that I despise, and had to muster my courage to go and have part of the dental treatment done. I suffered for 1 hour and 30 minutes on that chair. On my way back, with half of my face paralysed because of the anesthetic, I stopped at the supermarket near the bus stop to buy some soup because I couldn’t even have lunch. The supermarket isn’t the one I usually go; I actually don’t like to shop there, but it was raining and it was relatively closer to my house. I left the place and started to walk back home. I see from a distance this part of the pavement that is made of tiles, like kitchen tiles, not regular concrete or cement. I think “Is it slippery?” “Am I going to fall?” But then the owner of the house where the pavement is in front of, an elderly woman, is opening up the gate to enter. I proceeded to take a step with my right foot only to immediately fall flat on the ground, with umbrella, groceries and my half-paralysed face.

You see, in my city the owners of the houses, flats or stores on the street are supposed to maintain and fix the pavement in front of their buildings, but apparently there is no regulation as to what kind of material should be used — if there is, people aren’t respecting and City Hall isn’t checking. — There is this simplified manual about it —  It is very dangerous when people decide to have tiles for cement on the street because when it rains, for sure somebody will fall. This time it was me and I wasn’t the only one! The doorman in the next-door building saw the incident and said that another woman had fallen in the morning, and she was actually in worse shape than me. The old woman owner of the house tried to give me the “I’m just an old woman” treatment, every time I said something like “You have to change these tiles,” “Somebody will sue you for this,” she was all “oh, okay, oh my God…” The problem is that I couldn’t even SPEAK properly because I couldn’t move half of my face!

Feeling disgruntled, I took the 15-minute walk home, even though I would kill for a taxi (but I’m not sure the driver would let me in with my pants soaked in water), carrying the groceries, the umbrella, with a now messy hair and still no movement on the left side of my face.

But I am not leaving it at that… I will get the number of her house and call City Hall about it. I can’t believe a person is allowed to use that sort of flooring outdoors, subject to the elements, rain, leaves, hail, etc. What makes me feel really frustrated is that I’m not sure it will have any effect; I’m not sure that I can even sue. And even if I can, the woman might die before I see any compensation. Thanks, Brazilian (in)justice system!

The first phrase of the last paragraph reads: “Pavements should have an anti-slippery surface…” (roughly translated)

The hateful three

“Hi! My name is T7 and I’m a bus line in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Unlike other lines, I don’t believe in timetables and don’t care if a person has a schedule to follow. Wouldn’t it be great if all the world didn’t have specific times for various activities such as work or classes? I’m trying to start a movement, a new way of thinking by leaving the garage whenever I want. Won’t you join me in this journey?

“Until you do, I will ride with my companion, another T7. Yes, that’s right, I ride the streets of Porto Alegre in pairs and leave people waiting for me for 20, 25 minutes as opposed to passing by the bus stop every 5-7 minutes. I don’t like riding alone, you see, so I wait until my other T7 buddies are ready to leave and together we collect people at bus stops. When one of us is full, the other doesn’t stop for people to get on. We feel that in modern society people tend to grow apart, so why not keep them as close to each other as possible? We are so fun… Well, I hope to see you any time soon!”

“Hey everyone! My name is T1 and I’m also a bus line in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Did you know that the letter “T” stands for something? Yes, it means “transversal” (transverse) and we connect different parts of the city without people having to go to the city centre. I believe you’ve met my cousin T7 and we are 11 lines in total. We were created to make people’s lives much better, but we went rogue and now we cause them to become furious.

“I connect people between two big shopping malls, actually the very first shopping malls in the city, and along the way there is the biggest private university in the state, so you can imagine the number of people I carry along! Classes start at 7pm, so from 5:30pm on if you need to be some place other than the university, I suggest you find an alternative or don’t even bother leaving your home because you’re not going to get on board until at least 7:20pm. I am an early bird, so instead of having some help with me during the rush hour, I let my peers go the garage early, after all they’ve worked so hard…”

“Hello! I’m 177-Menino Deus and I’m a bus line. Am I the most hateful of all? Perhaps… Unlike my “T” friends, I take people to and from the city centre, but T7 and I are alike in one aspect: I also like to ride with my fellow 177s. You know what happened today? This person I know finished a class at 7:30pm and was hoping to be at home by 8pm. All I needed to do was to pick her up at the bus stop 5 minutes after she got there. But then I thought, ‘wouldn’t she have the best time standing there for 2o minutes, waiting for me to pass?’ And not only that, why not send seven of my fellow 177s to the garage during those 20 minutes? She’ll have a blast!”

(Unison) “So that’s it, folks! We’re The Hateful Three and we are part of this wonderful thing called public transportation in Porto Alegre!”