Back to Brasil, I remembered an experience that a friend from the US shared with me once.
Not long after he came to Brasília, he said that a woman offered to carry his backpack during a bus ride. She was sitting and he was standing, as there were no more vacant seats.
He kindly refused it - and I bet that the thought of 'how cheeky! How on Earth can someone [dare to] ask to rob you so gently' probably crossed his mind.
Fortunately, he glanced around and immediately noticed that almost everyone standing was handing their bags to the ones sitting, without fearing they would leave the bus empty-handed. Only then he realized it is a kind of habit over here. In the next bus ride he didn't think twice and handed the back as asked to.
The point is, he said, he never has seen that in the US or any other country where he lived.
I understand.
If I were a foreigner, I might have the same feeling. C'mon! This is Brasil! We are not reliable! We always find a way to profit from outsiders's naïvité.
After all, what's the point of pretending to help someone out with a possible heavy stuff when I'm in a better condition than him or her at the moment if my only possible actual, devil, hidden intention is to rob him or her with a straight face!
I only completely realized how difficult it is for many foreigners to see such attitude as an act of kindness after one and a half year living in Germany, where no one never ever bothered to wonder if my backpack was too big for my size and literally offer to give me a hand. No problem. It's a cultural issue.
But here in Brasil, if you take a public transportation, it is very likely that someone will offer to help you - especially where everyone knows how one needs to struggle to get a seat in a public transportation in Brasil. If you are old, pregnant, carrying a baby, or have some disability, people will (most of cases, not always!) stand up and offer you to sit down. Do not worry. Do not feel bad for it. They will insist. They are just trying to make it easy for you.
Stay cool and have a nice trip!
Stay cool and have a nice trip!
(and with two hands to hold tight. Bus drivers are out of their mind over here ;-)
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