I feel unsafe in Brazil.

Disclaimer: This is not an official Department of State website or blog, and the views and information presented are my own and do not represent the Fulbright Program of the U.S. Department of State.

 

Huge wall, razor wire, and an electric fence. No, this is not a prison. This is somebody’s home!

This post is not going to be funny.

Sorry.

But, my hope is that it will be significant enough to make you question things you might take for granted.  That something in particular is personal security.

It’s the feeling of waking up in the morning and more or less knowing that everything is going to be OK.  Back in my quiet suburban neighborhood in Pennsylvania, I never felt unsafe. I don’t think we ever had any violent crimes or thefts in our neighborhood; the most we ever had to worry about was neighborhood kids egging our house at night.  Yes, my life in Pennsylvania was very safe.

What my nice little neighborhood back home looks like. Oh, how I miss thee….

Brazil is a different story.  The first month in Brazil could have been smoother for the Fublright ETA’s (English Teaching Assistants) to say the least.  In only a month throughout their different cities in Brazil:

• 1 ETA hit by a car while his roommate was being mugged; he broke his femur and had to temporarily return to the US for recovery.
• 1 ETA was robbed inside his house by two armed men while he was entering the house.
• Last but certainly not least, 2 ETAs were robbed on an interstate bus by armed bandits at 3am returning to their host city.

Thankfully, the state of Acre where I’m living is not too dangerous by Brazil’s standards.  The incidence of crime here is far lower than in the larger cities like São Paulo, or more dangerous states in the Northeast.

But, the murder rate in Acre is still 4 times higher than that of my home state, Pennsylvania, and the murder rate in Brazil as a whole is 5 times higher than that in the U.S.  However, it’s not murder that has me worried.  Theft is a much more real possibility, and is regularly on the forefront of my mind.  These are some examples of things I’ve heard happen in Rio Branco:

• It seems that every other person I speak to has had their cell phone stolen in the past 6 months.

• A couple of months ago in Rio Branco (my city),  my friend was driving through bad neighborhood at night, when turned onto a street with men who had blockaded the road with trash and other objects to trap motorists and rob them.  Upon seeing this, my friend slammed on the brakes and put that sucker in reverse, narrowly escaping what would have made for a not-s0-fun experience.

• Last weekend three friends of mine were mugged at 7 PM by two men with gigantic knives.
• This is one is pretty rare even for Acre, but I thought I would mention it because of how shocking it was: I found out one of my friends was kidnapped back in Februrary by armed men with rifles.  They approached her with a group of her friends, and told them to get into their truck.  There was a pursuit by the police, many shots fired, and in the end the truck ran off the road and the criminals escaped. Thankfully, neither my friend nor any other of the hostages were injured. Like I said, this is very uncommon for Acre, and my friend said the criminals were most likely from São Paulo based on her kidnappers’ accents.

Only within the past week or two have I begun to realize how naive I was about personal security here, and how much I took my American safety for granted.  And how much you’re probably taking yours for granted too.

But let me give you an idea of what is normal home security by Brazilian standards:  Electric fences, razor wire, shards of glass jutting out on top of walls, and guard dogs are all extremely common here.  Even in the good neighborhoods. And I live in a “good” neighborhood.  When I tell Brazilians here that in the U.S. people don’t need houses with have fences, walls, and 200,000 volts of electricity to protect their houses, they are absolutely baffled.

 

Danger: Electric Fence. This is the outside of where I live, in my “good” neighborhood.

Coke, anyone? Older houses have broken glass cemented into the top of walls to prevent thieves from entering.

That being said, my feelings about safety haven’t tainted the overall experience of being here.  I didn’t come to Brazil to feel safe, just like I wouldn’t go to red lobster expecting fresh fish.  I am extremely happy here. I don’t feel as anxious or as pressured to always be doing something. My mental state is wonderful, and even my posture has improved since living here.

My depiction of a naive first-worlder walking around a developing country at night.

But this different environment means I’ve needed to adapt.  Instead of walking around fearful all of the time, I have become more alert, as you need to be in these types of areas.  When I walk around at night, I am extremely aware of my environment and anyone and everyone who approaches me (this helped me two weeks ago avoid a late night bicycle rider who was cruising very slowly and suspiciously down my street; when he was approaching me from the other end of the street, I walked on the other side of a car parked on the road, using the car as an obstacle between us).  I don’t tell strangers I’m American, I tell them I’m Colombian (which gives them far fewer lucrative fantasies of robbing you).  If I have to walk home at night, my cell phone doesn’t leave my pocket (btw, in Brazil the same cell phone would cost twice as much and would be an unnecessary addition to my credit card bill.)

I know this is hard to do, but my goal with this post is to make those back home take a step back from their current situation and appreciate the relative security they have.  This is one of the things I took for granted the most, and I miss it dearly now.  But, while I don’t really feel too safe here, I’m super thankful I wasn’t placed in Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo.  THOSE places are supposed to be much much worse…