Jesus Christ Superstar

Carol and I buy a fair amount of handmade jewelry and homemade goodies when we are out of the beach or the streets. We like to engage with the local vendors and to contribute to the culture, and we appreciate the art. This perspective began to develop the hard way. The first time we were in Rio, our Airbnb host warned us against flashing our cash. We took the warning to Copacabana beach where I tied, but failed, to take a picture of a Jesus Christ Superstar sand sculpture. I had barely put my phone away when someone started yelling at me in Portuguese. I stuttered and stammered and he switched to English. "You speak, English" he said, and he was right. "You took a picture, you have to pay" he explained, pissed. I said I didn't have any money. "You have money" he said, and was right again.  I had bunch of $100s in my purse (equal to a bunch of US 20s) but didn't want to pull out the wad. "My wife is pregnant" he said.  "I need money" he said, "and you took a picture of my art." I didn't know what to do. I hadn't actually taken the picture, but I felt like that was beside the point, Carol didn't have any cash and I wasn't going to pull out my roll. "I'm really sorry" I said and we walked away. He yelled after me, very clearly and in perfect English, "Fuck you!"  Carol and I talked during dinner and agreed, we did have money and it was his art. Later, we found the guy near his sculpture. I handed him a twenty and all was forgiven. He called me friend and insisted that I take another picture and offered to pose in it. It wasn't a very good picture but it was a very good lesson.