Things I Will and Won't Miss

Given that I will be leaving the Bay of All Saints in two days, I thought I'd briefly resumir my last 16 months of existence back in my homeland:

THINGS I WILL NOT MISS ABOUT LIVING IN BAHIA:
1) Congestion (of mind, streets, public services, you name it);
2) Bureaucracy, inefficiency, [insert name of roadblock to getting anything done here];
3) Laziness, tardiness, impunctuality, zero notion of customer service, the application of the jeito (the Brazilian way of being crafty to get around obstacles in order to achieve desired result) and/or over-reliance on social safety net when one really just does not want to work;
4) People speaking in hyberbole and expressing they know everything about the way the world works, when in fact they know not a thing;
5) A sun so hot that in the summer months you could fry an egg on the sidewalk at 6 am;
6) Watching the Brazilian elite get richer while education and infrastructure are sorely neglected;
7) Ridiculously high costs for things of bullocks quality. So. Sick. Of. Being. Ripped. Off;
8) Continuously being aware that Brazil's Northeast is not progressing at the rate of the rest of the country, and continues to fall behind;
9) How freaking dirty Salvador has become, and the fact that the mayor is nothing more than a babbling puppet;
10) Protests.

THINGS I ABSOLUTELY WILL MISS ABOUT LIVING IN BAHIA:
1) The stunning beauty, style, fashion, swag (however corny) of my people;
2) The passion and dexterity with which my people dance;
3) Proudly watching our team represent the Green and Yellow, applying the same skill from above to play the gorgeous game the way God envisioned it should be played;
4) The fact that my neighborhood is a fishing village, favela, and high-class beach resort rolled into one;
5) That bass in the trunk;
6) Hearing my people laugh, giggle, crack up hysterically at nothing, just like I have been accustomed to do since time immemorial;
7) Waking up at the crack of dawn to see people cross-training and playing futebol on the beach, and the man with the potbelly and the sunga running backwards in the sand;
8) Remembering and then re-remembering that everywhere in the world, members of the African Diaspora have similar traditions;
9) My daily bounty of fresh tropical fruits; beans, rice, and barbecue. 'Nuff said;
10) Protests.

Thanks for accompanying me through this up-and-down path, friends. As I digest, stay tuned for more posts coming soon!