A young Brazilian man yelled frantically, "how much do you cost for the day?"  in Portuguese. My eyes darted about searching for the source of the sounds. I studied my periphery. My feet began to move faster, hoping to escape the insufferable noise. I sensed the cries were directed toward me, and...

When I left the States for Brazil in January, I packed lightly. Maybe a bit too lightly. I brought with me exactly two books: my Portuguese- English dictionary, and "A Concise History of Brazil" by Boris Fausto. Though I use both quite frequently, nuzzling up to the 'E' section of my dictionary after...