Hello, brazilian people!

Maybe some of you have already seen or know about this, but I laughed my butt off when I read to this article in Época magazine about a Cell Phone Keeper that stays placed outside Brazilian Consulate in Rio de Janeiro. Read the article below, from May 1st, 2006 edition:

Oportunidade
Estacionamento de celulares

"Tirar visto para visitas os Estados Unidos é um processo difícil, e os controles estão ainda mais rígidos desde os atentados terroristas de 11 de Setembro de 2001. Mas o que é um aborrecimento para uns torna-se oportunidade de negócio para outros. Aproveitando a decisão do Departamento de Estado de proibir, por motivos de segurança, a entrada de pessoas com celulares em suas embaixadas, o camelô carioca Edson Ferreira teve uma idéia genial. Ele monta um posto em frente ao consulado dos Estados Unidos do Rio de Janeiro e oferece, às dezenas de brasileiros que se acotovelam para tirar um visto, um porta-volumes para celulares, bolsas e mochilas. Quando as pessoas chegam ao consulado e são informadas de que não podem entrar com o celular, deparam com o cartaz oferecendo o "estacionamento" de aparelhos. Ferreira cobra R$ 5 para tomar conta de um celular e R$ 10 para um notebook. Tem até fila."

Yeah... Brazilian people are too smart! We are really ALL THAT! Congratulations to Edson, ele é o cara!

I saw him there!!! But I had the info earlier and (of course) didnt bring my cell phone with me... R$5 to take care of a phone??? Give me a break!!!

But Edson is making money, for sure!!!

Carol

Sure! And although it seems completely weird, we must admit that his "service" is very useful... That's why he's making money, just like that woman that spread sun lotion on people in the beach.... She could buy her house and support herself by doing that! I admire this kind of attitude.... Think they're really inteligent!

gente, é o jeitinho brasileiro. A gente (brasileiros) faz o que pode pra ganhar uns trocados. Estou errada? Achei a idéia do cara brilhante. Aqui é assim, ou vc nasce rico, lindo, jogador de futebol, ou voce roba, ou voce usa o jeitinho brasileiro pra conseguir ganhar o pao de cada dia.

No comprende

Yeah that guy is great!

Did you see all the pictures he has with famous people from Brasil?!



tchau

I said and i quote

it's the ''brazilian way''. We (brazilians) do whatever we can to make money. Am I wrong? I think the guy's idea is brilliant. here is like this, either u're born rich, gorgeous, a soccer player, or you steal or you use your ''brazilian way'' to buy every day's bread.

Although absurd in a way the service works, the Embassy should have storage for cellphones though.

I must remember not to bring mine.

lol well i don't have to worry, i don't have cell phones, i just hate them lil things.

When I was there 2 weeks ago, I was amazed at the amount of business he had. Of course, when everyone was there a few days later to pick up their visa's, everyone had learned there lesson and didn't bring there phones.

Well... R$ 5,00 is not much... I think I'm letting my cell phone with him!

my fiance brought his backpack and had to leave it with him. He only charged him R$3. Renato said he wa sveyr nice and told him he didnt have to pay...but Renato gave him the money anyway

nice. but still with all the phone cloning stuff i'd just leave it at the hotel.

Oh my gosh... I was interviewed about that guy when I was in Rio at the consulate! I went into the little booth and there were TV cameras (this was I think last August) and the TV newspeople were looking at me and saying "oh she must be a gringa, obviously look at her" (and yeah, it's pretty obvious, I admit it) and they were like "yeah she probably doesn't know Portuguese" (this was also true, I'm pretty bad now, but last August I was even worse) but of course being American I was like "oh so you guys are doing an interview?" and then they asked me what I thought about the cell phone guy... I have no memory of what I said...

One of the weirder moments of my life! I hope my segment never made it to TV or at least had subtitles!

HUAAUAHUAHAUAHAUAHAUAHUAHAUAHA ó Brasil

the Cell phone guy is a very nice guy. I think Val brought her phone the first day (by accident-we knwe not to, as it was always hectic ) and yeah, he only charged us like 3 r. In fact, all the people including the guards were all very nice and courteous.