SIP: Creating a Community

After a couple of cool damp days, the weather, like my cold improved, and I started to explore the city of Suzhou. After having just spent two weeks in Campeche Mexico's, historical city center, Suzhou could not be more different, for there is little history in Suzhou Industrial Park, where I am staying, instead there is lots of “new”. This area is really amazing in how the Chinese have created a  beautiful community to support the rapid expansion of the industrial sector. I am told that similar to Campeche, Suzhou also has a historical central section, and I look forward to exploring this part of the city later in my stay in China.

Unlike an “Industrial” park back home , where the emphasis is very definitely on the needs of the industries using the park, Suzhou Industrial Park has switched the emphasis to the people working in the park. The result is really much more “Park-like” than in Canada. I always wondered why it was called a “Park” when there are none of the usual features we look for in a park. Here in Suzhou they have done it right, combining the needs of industry with needs of the people working in the industries. There are apartments, schools, technical institutes, recreational facilities, restaurants, shopping malls, and acres and acres of actual parkland. The result seems to me to be good for everyone, providing a ready source of workers for the industries, and for the workers a comfortable convenient community close to their work. 

I am told that the Suzhou Industrial Park is so new that there was nothing here ten years ago, and then it was designed with a great deal of thought to create an effective community for everyone. Apartment complexes blend with industry and services to create a unified community serving everyone well. The newness of the area is particularly evident when walking through the actual parkland that is generously scattered through the Industrial Park. All of the gardens and trees are relatively young, and everywhere new trees are being planed and new gardens being developed. It isn't a matter of putting in these parks and then forgetting them either, for I see people every day working, maintaining and upgrading the parkland. I walked through one area where rows of new full sized trees were being planted al wrapped in natural rope to protect them as they settled into their new surroundings. 

 

All through the Industrial park are apartment complexes, providing lots of comfortable homes for people working in the park. Everywhere you look construction cranes can be seen erecting new, bigger and better buildings. These building are in no way stark dormitory style building designed to simply house workers when they are not building things in the factories. Each building is designed in it's own park like setting. The building are often amazing tall and thin, making the most of the valuable space, but each building is surrounded by gardens and green areas. Built into most complexes are small corner stores and small restaurants. The buildings themselves are unique and of interesting designs. Especially interesting are the tops of these building, which often look like separate little villages perched on top of the towering buildings. 

Scattered throughout the park are many schools, providing education for the thousands of children living in the apartments. I was surprised at the number of “Experimental” schools, often next door to a regular school, and with my background in education I couldn't help but wonder what went on behind these “Experimental” school walls? On one of my walks I noticed a huge Hitachi factory right next door to a large technical school – someone put this schools in the right place. The schools themselves are all large, open and inviting and are architecturally interesting on their own.

The real highlight of Suzhou Industrial Park has to be the actual Parkland designed into the area. Central to the Park is the larg Jing Ji Lake which has Parkland scattered around it. There are also many canal running through the entire area.  Every canal is lined with grass and trees, usually elegant willows. I was surprised that these canal usually are not readily accessible to people, and although you can see and enjoy them, they do not normally have paths along them as I have seen in many other cities.  Scattered through the park are many other areas of parkland, usually with wandering well maintained pathways, benches, manicured lawns, gardens and trees.  Some of these parks within the park were well used, but others I seemed to be enjoying by myself, of course that could simple be me as the crazy Canadian enjoying the 15C day instead of the -5C back home in Nova Scotia, where the local residents are waiting for the actual warmer weather to enjoy their parks. 

Suzhou certainly seems to have figured out how to build an Industrial Park to serve the Industries as well as the people working there.   

The Real Mexico

Gang warfare between powerful drug warlords, multiple murders, drunk drivers smashing into buses carrying tourists, Canadian tourists killed in their rooms in deluxe luxury resorts – the press reports about Mexico are not good, in fact some governments are warning their citizens to perhaps not travel to Mexico. My mother-in-laws sister called her when she heard we were going to Mexico to tell her to try to convince us not to go because it was too dangerous. Doesn't sound like an ideal location to visit does it?

Well, sixteen high school students have discovered that Mexico is way more than what you hear on the news, and they will be coming back to Canada with a completely different opinion of this country.

I had the opportunity to accompany my wife on a educational expedition to Campeche Mexico for a Leadership Camp where sixteen students from Halifax and sixteen students from Campeche spent two weeks working together sharing languages, cultures and experiences all based around developing leadership skills. 

As the unpaid and overworked photographer/videographer, I spent the two weeks following these students around as they experienced Mexican culture, learned a new language, and found ways to make an impact in Mexico. They visited Mayan Ruins, explored the historical UNESCO World Heritage city of old Campeche, brought a bus load of material to an orphanage and a Mayan student shelter, visited a turtle sanctuary, and a nature preserve, and yes, they even got some time to enjoy the sunshine, hot temperatures and tropical beaches on Mexico. The biggest thing they did was see beyond the news stories, and the tourist resorts to discover the real Mexico.

Now it helped that this was an amazing group of young adults. I could tell that they were nice  as soon as I met them, but the clincher was as I got off the plane in Mexico City I was approached by a man and wife who recognized my T-shirt and asked if I was with the youth group. They told me they were on the plane first and were expecting the worst as sixteen teenagers settled in all around them. Expecting the “Plane ride from hell”, they said they were so surprised to find them a most pleasant group. They reported that they were pleasant, polite and friendly to all around them. Not one “inappropriate” word was spoken the entire flight. They were amazed how well they all got along, and completely enjoyed eavesdropping on their excited enthusiastic chat about what they were going to be doing. They said it was the first time they enjoyed being stuck on a plane for five hours surrounded by teenagers.

When these students were not busy with their leadership activities they went home not to a hotel, but home with their Mexican friends to live with a Mexican family. The slept in hammocks, ate strange food, rode in pickup trucks, and partied on Mexican beaches at night.

They did what their new Mexican friends did, which might have involved a lot of things they might not have done at home. There were no accidents, no drug wars, no murders – the worst thing that happened was a sprained ankle, and some upset digestive systems (You still  shouldn't drink the water in Mexico). What they did see was friendly people, ancient civilizations, a vibrant colourful culture , a beautiful city, a wonderful country, and a whole lot of great new friends that they will remember for a long time. 

These Canadian students are coming back home with a completely different picture of Mexico than most of us get from the news. They saw the real Mexico, and I know that the next time they hear warnings about how dangerous it is to visit Mexico they will speak up and tell everyone about the Mexico they experienced. Listen to them – they have been there; they know..

China - An Initial Impression

China was not a location I had dreamed of visiting, but when the opportunity arose to go over with all my expenses paid, it was something I couldn't turn down. Someone felt that my 30 years experience in the education system was worth funding my trip in order for me to provide some training for teachers learning to teach English to Chinese children.

This initial post will deal with my first impressions of the country and it's people. I was not going in completely blind, as my wife had visited the country on another educational excursion, and a friend had spent a month doing much the job I was doing. I'm afraid as well I was guilty of a bit of racial stereotyping of a very general nature, as I was expecting something similar to Japan where I had a very enjoyable trip last year. I shouldn't have done that, because all they really have in common is the Asian continent, but I still was basing my expectation on my Japanese experience.

My very first impressions of the Chinese people was on the plane from Toronto to Shanghai. The majority of the passengers were Chinese, and I have never been on a plane where so many people ignored the rules. Now to be fair, I couldn't really tell the native Chinese returning from a visit to Canada, and the Chinese-Canadians going on a trip to the homeland. They made announcements in English, French and Chinese about sitting down,  putting on your seat-belts, putting seat backs straight, and tray-tables up, but the crew had to make more than one trip up and down the aisle reminding people, yet even after flight crew were settled for landing, people were getting up and moving around. I also had one of the “Little Emperor”Children sitting beside me, who was never told to sit still, or behave. He wasn't bad, he just did whatever he wanted, which included trying to change my video monitor, and laying down with his feet on me – hard to get any sleep during the flight with him sitting next to me.

I arrived in Shanghai tired and starting to get get sick with a cold on a cold damp dreary afternoon – not exactly the best way to start a trip after just getting back from Mexico and sun and 30C every day. We drove from Shanghai on a crowded bus through fog (or is it the famous China smog), so I couldn't even see much. Needless to say, my initial impressions of China were not positive.

I hardly noticed the next day, waking from sleep on the hardest bed I have ever experienced, with a splitting headache, a definite head cold, and a fever. My flat mate was not home, but I found some bread, peanut butter and juice, had breakfast and went right back to bed to sleep most of the day. I seem to recall looking out to another dreary wet cold day.

Being an eternal optimist I'm hopefull things will improve soon!

Skating on the Rideau

I have achieved another retirement goal. The first year our son Ryan moved to Ottawa for university we came up to see how he was doing over March Break, and there was still ice on the Rideau Canal, and people were skating on it. Ryan told us about the annual Ottawa Winterlude festival, and about how skating on the Rideau was a big part of the event. I decided then that it was something I wanted to do, but we were busy that year, I forgot my skates the next year, and the next the ice was gone by March even though I had my skates. By this time, retirement was just around the corner, and so I declared that skating on the Rideau would be one of my “Retirement Goals” - I would come to Ottawa during Winterlude, visit Ryan and skate on the Canal.

The Rideau Canal is part of the Rideau Waterway system, and extends 202 Km from Ottawa to Kingston. The canal is part of the 19 km of manmade waterways that connect the lakes and rivers on this UNESCO World Heritage Site completed in 1832, and still operating much as it did when opened. In the winter, Ottawa maintains about 7 km of the canal as the world's largest skating rink. The nice thing about this is that it is right in the heart of Ottawa, and is accessible by thousands of people from January to March.

When I retired in June last year, I set about proving to everyone that I didn't need to find work to be active, and I started doing all the things I had always wanted to do. Some of my goals were difficult – take up painting, write the novels I had been planning for 15 years, or renovate the house (Well, that;s my wife's goal really), but Skating on the Rideau was pretty easy; go to Ottawa, put on skates and go skating. Ryan said I could come stay with he and Arran, Airfares were reasonable, and I had nothing else planned for February.

When I started telling peole I was planning a trip to Ottawa, my dad and his wife said that they would like to come as well. Now the last time I was skating with my dad, I fell and dislocated my shoulder, so he, me & skating are not an automatic mix, but he is 80 now so I thought I might be able to keep up with him. With three of us travelling it became more logical to drive, and having no schedule to work around I simply kept an eye on Weathenetwork.ca, and choose a day with sunshine from Halifax to Ottawa. Then Dad's mother-in-law heard about the trip, and said that since we had room for another in the car could she come as well. So long as they were willing to travel my way, in my car I had no problem, and we had a lovely pleasant safe drive to Canada's capital.

Arriving in Ottawa Thursday evening, we met Friday to try out the ice. The Rideau Canal starts at the Ottawa River below Parliament Hill, and the city of Ottawa promotes skating on the canal as a major attraction during the winter. The city maintains the ice, puts special stairways to get to the surface, and benches to change into skates, places information about the canal , and installs a series of change houses, washrooms, and concession stands at strategic places along the canal. All in all, the city does an excellent job with this attraction.

The first day we skated 3 km down the canal, took a break with Back Bacon sandwiches, Beaver Tail treats, and hot chocolate, and then skated back to where we started. I knew that Ottawa “Maintained” the skating surface, so I had visions of teams of Zambonie drivers grooming the ice under cover of darkness every night, and discovered that this certainly wasn't the case, and the ice is well-used outdoor ice, with cracks, bumps, and rough patches, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable skate, even for me who had not been on skates since that afore mentioned dislocated shoulder incident. I went back on the canal on Sunday to experience the crowds during the first weekend of Winterlude, this time walking to the 3 km marker and skating to the beginning. Then on Monday, I waked down to the Byward Market to do some shopping , and then skated in the other direction, from the start all the way to the 4 km mark before getting off and walking back.

Now that this Retirement goal has been achieved, I will try to do it again next year. Ottawa is a lovely city to visit, and I have enjoyed seeing it in the winter this year as well as in the summer when it is all dolled up as Canada's capital city. Maybe next year I'll do the whole 7 km.

Going Back To Montreal

I enjoyed my trip to Montreal.

Now it wasn't always like that; in fact, I used to see the city of Montreal as a nuisance that I had to rush through as quickly as possible while driving from Atlantic Canada to some other place in central Canada. For years Montreal was – Highway 20 to the Tunnel under the St. Lawrence, highway 40 to the 417 or the 401, and into Ontario.

I first went to Montreal in 1967 to see Expo 67 with my family. We camped on a farm, and spent every day at Expo. I was 16 years old, and loved everything about the trip; the city was so big it was amazing, but I only got to see it through the Expo site, and longed to see more of it.

In 1971, after graduating high school and getting a job and a little 1970 Austin Mini, I decided to go back and see all of Montreal I missed travelling with my parents in 1967. I rounded up two friends, we bought a tent, packed the car and headed out on our first “Road Trip” adventure. We arrived in Montreal excited and ready for adventure. What we got was FRENCH; no one could (or would) speak English to us, and when they would, they were downright nasty. We went to the famous “Place de Boneventure” underground shopping centre, and couldn't even buy anything because everything was in French, and everyone would only speak French. One of my friends was a drummer and wanted to buy a particular bit for his drum set, but even when we found the Music shop, the owner wouldn't let us in. He wanted to know what we were going to buy, and “looking” was not an option. We were all so disgusted with how we were treated that we got in the car and turned south, spending the rest of our vacation down in New England, meeting friendly people and having a wonderful time.

I probably shouldn't have held this grudge against Montreal so long, but for over 30 years I refused to go back, and spent many vacations in the US. I had a serious prejudice against the province of Quebec and especially the city of Montreal.

This year, I went back to Montreal. My new status as “retired” allows me to tag along with my wife on her business trips, so for the price of an airline flight I get to visit places pretty cheaply, and this year she was attending a conference in Montreal. I had five days to reacquaint myself with Montreal, and I have definitely changed my opinion of this city.

Our Flight landed at Pierre Eliott Trudeau Airport at 7:30, so the cab ride to the hotel was through rush hour, but the driver was pleasant and although I'm sure he was swearing in French at the other drivers he was battling for positions on the roads, he spoke cheerful English to us, and was almost as good as a tour guide with his commentary about the city. He answered his phone at one point, and after a conversation in French, we were told that it was him mother who he claimed didn't realize he was 45 years old, and she was telling him to wear his scarf in the cold. The doorman at the hotel immediately switched to English when his “bonjour” was answered with a “Hello”, and the rest of the hotel staff were equally cheerful and helpful.

I spent five days exploring downtown Montreal, and all of the trip was totally enjoyable. I found friendly store clerks, helpful and cheerful waiters, and generally happy welcoming people. It was Grey Cup weekend, so the city was very busy, and I expect that it must have at times been annoying to wait on and serve some of these football fans with their outfits supporting their favourite team (Who incidentally beat the Montreal home team), but everyone I met was very pleasant. Menu's always had English translations, and stores had signs in English. Everyone I met immediately switched to English once I said “Hello” rather than “Bonjour”. I wish I could speak French half as well as most of the Montreal residents I met spoke English.

There are probably still radical French-only separatists in Quebec, but it seems they are losing the battle. As a unilingual English speaking visitor, I felt welcomed in Montreal, and where I used to say “Fine, let them separate – we don't want them!”, I now would much rather keep this wonderful province as part of Canada so I can go back and visit again.

We had one waitress in a restaurant in Old Montreal who perhaps had a bit of trouble with us four English patrons. I'm not sure she completely understood my request for Lactose free options. I suspect that the subtleties between “lactose intolerant” and “allergic to milk” didn't quite translate properly, and she took my request very seriously, so when I ordered the Creme Brule desert, after making sure I realized it contained milk, she was very worried, and came back to check that I was okay a couple of times.

This latest visit to Montreal has completely changed my opinion of the city. I had a wonderful time, and I will be back to explore this city at the next opportunity. I had a chance to see a lot of the area around St. Catherine's Street, but I know that there is a lot more of Montreal to see and I look forward to visiting again.

Working for a Living

When I retired from my position as school principal of a little elementary school, I told everyone that I would not be working once I retired, and I really meant that. I had visions of doing all the things I didn't have time to do while I was working. I wanted to paint (watercolour), write the novels I've been working on in my head for years, and finally finish all the woodworking projects I've been putting off. . . . . . . . . . Then what am I doing sitting behind a desk again, with a phone with multiple lines, two computers, and file folders and papers spread everywhere?

A friend from high school operates a small company that manufactures transit cases to protect almost anything you might need to move about the world. I have followed his business from the time he and his wife started, and have always admired their hard work and dedication through hard times and empty refrigerators to a thriving successful business. There was a time in their lives when they hadn't taken a vacation of even a weekend in years, so I was pleased when they started taking time off to travel. I have kept in touch with them and we get together quite regularily, so I was not surprised to see get a phone call from him. His question did however come as a surprise. . . “How'd I like to have a job?” . . . . . . they needed someone to help out watching the office while they went on a cruise. He caught me off guard, and I hesitated long enough that I let him get in an explanation, and I was suddenly willing to think about this. I really did not think something would come along to get me back to work, but this I actually thought about, and finally said yes.

It was only for 8 days, and all I had to do was answer the phone, man the front office, pick up the mail, and look after any things that couldn't be put off till they returned. This was something completely different than anything I had ever done, so I thought I'd enjoy it, and I had always been interested in their company, so this would let me better understand what they did. There were three employees in the shop who actually built the cases, but they had plenty of work to cover the 8 days, and knew what to do and needed no real supervision from me. How hard could this be?

I went out a day early to get instructions and right away I saw a problem. I spent years running a school office, but this was completely different. I had a pretty good idea of how they divided up the management of the company from their discussions during times we got together for card games or conversations. He did the design work, the PR, and the negotiations, he organized the shop, he could even build the cases, but she actually ran the office, she paid the bills, she made sure that everything worked and went out on time to customers, so when I went to find out what I was supposed to do, it was her I went to see and find out what was expected.

I should have foreseen the problem. She has been running this office for over 20 years, it works well for her. She knows exactly how things are done and exactly how she wants things done. After all, there is no one else here to ask an opinion, she doesn't have to check with anyone, and how she does things doesn't affect anyone else. There is no one to ask “Why do you do it this way?” or “Why not try this?”. There is no instruction manual, or no guidebook, it is all in her head. This is fine for her, but it makes it difficult to get instructions for 8 days. It's all second nature to her, and it is easy to forget the little things that become important when the only expert is not here. I tried to ask as many questions as I could think of and figured I could rely on my years of being able to always find an answer to whatever the students, teachers, parents or school board officials could throw at me, to come up with something that would work in an emergency. If all else failed, they promised to stay in contact via e-mail if I needed advice on anything I couldn't figure out.

I arrived the first day, was greeted cordially by the guys working out back, but I should have listened between the lines as there was a little hint of scarcest behind the friendly welcomes. They knew something I didn't. They had been through this before – there had been quite a few other “fill-in” front-office substitutes, and they didn't seem to wonder why another new guy was here.

Ok, lets get going, turn on the computer . . . . . . . no off/on switch . . . . . . I spent years assembling repairing, working with, and selling computers – surely I could get this thing turned on. This was to be the story of the job. She didn't think she had to tell me how to turn on the computer, she knew exactly how to do it, and it didn't even think it was a problem, but I had never seen this computer before, and the way it was mounted under the desk made it very hard to examine closely. After about 10 minutes crawling around under the desk I did find a switch, and lights started coming on, the screen flickered to life and it asked for a password . . . . . . she didn't mention a password . . . Fortunately this she thought of, and I found a little hand written “sticky” with a password on it. This was the theme of the first morning. I knew what I was supposed to do, and I had a general idea of what to do, but I was missing a lot of those things she forgot to tell me because they are so second nature to someone who does it every day. I forward the phone when I'm not here, and I know how to retrieve those messages, but what about when someone calls when I'm on the other line . . . . where does it go if they left a message? The fish get fed twice a day with food from the freezer, but there are four kinds of food in there; does it matter what I feed them? Etc. . . .Etc. . . . . . everything I had to do seemed to have a couple of questions attached once I tried to do it.

And then the boredom set in . . . . . I had to answer the phone, and it rang maybe four or five times a day. I tried to sound professional and tried to help, but obviously most customers were more than happy to wait ant talk to someone who actually knew this business, so mostly I was politely taking messages for when they returned. I drove down and got the mail, sorted it and checked for anything important, and read the Princess Auto Catalogue front to back, but most just got left for their return. I check e-mail, but only found two items that I could do anything with. So . . . . . I tidied up her office, I cleaned the lunch room, I straightened up the front room, (even after being warned “they won't like this . . .”) I cooked lunch for the guys in the shop. . . . . . .

Now I would have liked to have more actual “work” to do, but I really did enjoy my time at OceanCase. By the third or fourth day I actually felt I knew what I was doing. I knew much more about what goes on in the office, and I even felt pretty comfortable with what the guys in the shop were doing. This was so completely different from what I was so used to doing for 30 years that it was a new challenge, something new to learn, and I enjoyed it, but most of all I appreciated the opportunity to learn so much more about this business that I have been following and admiring for so many years.
The next time we got together and start talking about what they have been up to with their business, I might have a better understanding of exactly what they do out there.

Sunset In Santos

One of the real advantages to retirement is that I am able to travel whenever I want to instead of just during the summer, Christmas and Spring Break. My wife is still working and part of her job with Halifax Regional School Board is to travel to distant countries to promote Nova Scotia as an educational destination for international students. In September, she was asked to travel to Brazil, and would be visiting cities all over the country, but was to spend five days in Sao Paulo. This was too good an opportunity to pass up. She had her own Hotel room, and there was no extra cost for another person, so I booked a cheap flight to Sao Paulo to see what I could in five days.

Most of my time was spent exploring Sao Paulo, which is an amazing city, but I did get a chance to follow her off on a short side rip to Santos, a city about 80 km outside Sao Paulo. She was in meetings all day and evening, so I had lots of time to explore this interesting city. Santos is actually an island, that has become permanently attached to the mainland. One side of island is a huge container port – I am told the biggest in Brazil, and there was a steady stream of container ships coming in and out of the port, but the other side of the island is a beautiful resort and retirement area with a beautiful beach and over four kilometres of hotels and apartments.

Although I did manage to tag along on a short tour of the rest of the city, the majority of my time was spent wandering the beach, and the areas around the beach. I arrived at about 10:00 am, and had to entertain myself until about 9:00 p.m., so I got to see a lot of this area. There are four kilometres of beach, and the beach is wide and flat. This was the biggest beach I have ever walked on. The distance from the water to the roads was so wide that a group of local youth, set up a full sized soccer game in the middle of the beach, and walking above or below them didn't even bring you close to the game. The beach is an excellent place to walk, and the and is hard and flat, so you are able to walk comfortably all over the beach. In addition, there were bright floodlights spaced along the length of the beach, illuminating the evening soccer game and making it an attractive walk evening after dark.

Although the temperature was around 28 C when I was there, it was winter in Brazil, so the beach was not crowded. The people I shared the beach with were mostly locals I'd say, and primarily walking, running or exercising. There were very few sunbathers are swimmers, even it the hottest part of the afternoon. This was still Brazil however, and the beachwear was definitely the speedo or bikini. Now remember, Santos is a retirement destination, so I was surprised to find that it mattered not the size, shape or age of the individuals, the style remained bikini or speedo.

Santos is built around a series of seven canals that run completely across the island. The majority of the city is built on muddy sandy land, and the many of the older buildings were not built with the best foundations, and many have developed substantial tilts over the years. The canals now attempt to drain the land making it much more stable and the modern buildings are much more stable. It was interesting to look back at these tall apartment building leaning into each other. I'm not sure I'd want to be living in one of the older buildings.

Between the beach and the street, Santos maintains a beautiful park-like walking and biking area. There is a nice sidewalk along the street, but there is also a meandering network of walkways gardens and kiosks between the beach and the street. These walkways were well maintained and extremely clean. I even watched maintenance people dusting off the palm trees. There were gardens, fountains and monuments spaced along this area, with lots of benches and seats. There were people walking and running all day and evening along the beach and the walkways. There was also a bike path most of the way along the beach. This was a serious hazard. Although the walkways crossed the bike path in many places, and signs warned bike riders to yield to pedestrians, they were universally ignored, and you had to be almost as careful crossing the bike path as you did crossing the road. The bike riders refused to even slow down for you.

The highlight of my visit to Santos came as I returned to the beach following a meal at one of Brazil's wonderful Barbecue restaurants. As I wandered the beach for the third time, the sun started going down over the hills at one end of the beach. My digital camera came out and I took close to twenty shots of the sun setting. By then most people had left the beach, and although I was warned to be careful walking after dark, the wonderful sunset was worth it. By then, having spent close to 12 hours walking around Santos, I was tired, so I bought a couple of the delicious Brazilian oranges, and a can of mystery soda (I have no idea what it was made of, but it was cold and refreshing), and spent my final hour in Santos relaxing on a bench watching the sky darken and the people walking and running by.