Brazil's good luck charms

Attracting good luck, and thus more money, is pretty much a common-wisdom charm practice by lots of folks here.

For example, we have a ceramic penguin that sits atop our refrigerator (note: not on a shelf, not on a table, not on a window sill – on top of the refrigerator). S/he is supposed to bring us more money. We wait anxiously for these results.

Luiz’s aunt gave us a couple of bay leaves a while back. We are to keep them in our wallet. They will bring us money. We have compromised – they are pinned to the bulletin board in our kitchen. (No money just yet, as far as we can tell. But maybe we have broken the charm by not keeping them in our wallets.)

Last year a good friend surrendered his good luck (money) charm to us. It is a tiny glass bottle filled with salt and draped with tiny ribbons holding various charms (bought in the North East of the country). Apparently it was not working for him, so he gave it to us. We have it sitting on a shelf in the kitchen. No money yet. But we are hopeful.

There are an endless number of “simpatias” and charms that are meant to bring about desired results. I only wish they worked. Our apartment has an inordinate number of these jingo-lingoes. And yet we wait…