The Adam Boy

CHAPTER 6 -THE PLACE

As I said, I live in the city of Burma. I didn't like that place. I still only went home because my family lived with me, and because we were unable to move at that time. I had nothing against the place, it was just far from the capital, making me lose almost four hours every day just to come and go. I did not work or study in Burma, so I had nothing to arrest me there. Nothing held me there, except who lived there and who wouldn't leave the city anytime soon. But even with that, I knew I wouldn't be able to live there any longer.

But this year I spent a lot of time in Burma. I say this because, last year, and when I was 17, I spent most of my time in São Paulo. The capital of São Paulo was my favorite place. Its busy streets, its traffic, its imposing buildings, people with various styles, race, humor, taste, made me feel very good.

But it felt like work and college had tired me a little. I woke up, went to work and from there to college, and back home. I always thought that when I got a job from Monday to Friday, the weekend would enjoy it like never before. Well, I got the job done, but on weekends the only thing I wanted was to rest.

In this city there is something that scares; the longer you stay in Burma, the more it gets you down. It is as if the city is leading you into a deep depression and hellish discouragement. I know we have to talk well about the place we live, and I really wanted this city to grow more and more, but unfortunately this is the harsh reality. The weekends here seem like the municipality turns into a ghost town. All the commerce in the center closes its doors, the streets are with people coming and going, but people who, just looking at their faces, despair, because people walk with a sadness, when it is not like that, it is with cell phones with sound from any height listening, or funk, or rap, or forró. There is no playground, circus, Mcdonald (thank God), Shopping, a sports or leisure center, or cinema, and when you have plays, in an area that is under the care of the city, the play is bad or the public is scarce because there is no disclosure of cultural itineraries. Also on weekends, buses, which belong to a private company, in which everyone says it is a monopoly, but I say it has already become a public transport dictatorship, take several minutes to pass. We have to keep waiting a long time to get on a bus that charges us to walk just 15 minutes to the center, or from the center to the neighborhood.

In terms of crime, the rates have dropped. It seems like an exaggeration of mine, but before I was murdered every day, they even made money to see who was the next lucky person to be chosen for the death, or which neighborhood was going to be awarded. The assault was low. It seems that even the burglars saw that they would not have much income here and decided to steal elsewhere, just coming to sleep in the city after a long day at work.

One thing that was growing a lot was the street commerce. There were stalls and stalls of the most varied types of merchandise and very different vendors, each with its own way of selling. What is interesting are their promotions: there were ten peanut candy for $ 1.00, four DVDs for $ 10.00, one CD for $ 2.00 and three for $ 5.00, three pairs of socks for $ 10.00, and were socks from Adidas, Nike, Rednose and others, sunglasses for $ 10.00 (I already thought this was expensive). In the horticulture section there were bananas and more bananas for $ 1.00 or $ 2.00, two coriander feet for $ 2.00, a mango for a few cents. In clothing, there was a street that was the most famous in the business. It was known as Rua da Burma Fashion Week. Small shops and stalls of all kinds of clothes shared the space that was full of people every day. Once in a while we see the girls parade with their pieces that cost from $ 5.00 to $ 15.00 or $ 20.00. What is also successful are the football team t-shirts, the $ 10.00 caps, the shorts, the children's clothes. In the underwear stalls we see women, taking a pair of panties, asking their friend (why can women only buy clothes in pairs or groups?) To hold and she pulls the bottom of the garment saying that it is good, to return it in the end and not take the piece of $ 3.00.