More than meets the eye
Last week I mentioned the kites are popping up everywhere. The teachers at São Gabriel had already mentioned to me that many kids play hooky and instead of going to the project go fly kites, but this week I learned of a new twist. For those who have read The Kite Runner, this will sound familiar, but I was quite shocked to find out they have the same game here, too. It turns out that some of the kids will glue crushed glass onto their kite's string with the aim of cutting the opponent's kite, just like the Afghanistani game in the aforementioned book. This became such a problem here with motorcyclists and others who were getting their throats sliced that the government outlawed it, but in a place where basic traffic laws are rarely enforced, there's no way you're going to get police out doing kite inspections. Ironically, I sliced my finger on a kite string that was not covered with glass last week when I was helping a child unravel the knotted string.
In the first week of the World Cup, many neighborhoods and establishments have been transformed into a riot of green, yellow and blue (the colors of the Brazilian flag). Tomorrow is Brazil's first game, and many businesses will be shutting down so everybody can go watch the game. There are even several large screens posted at plazas throughout the city for people to watch outdoors. This afternoon, we borrowed an antenna to watch the U.S. play the Czech Republic (and lose 3-0) at the community center. Before the game started, the Brazilian sports network was interviewing people on the street in New York city in awe that noone knew that the World Cup was going on, let alone that the U.S. was playing today. This past weekend, you could hear people throughout the city cheering against their least favorite neighbors, Argentina.
One thing that immediately caught my attention and continues to get on my nerves is the lack of brown people accurately represented in the media. Although Brazilians are constantly citing the fact that their country has the most people of African descent other than Nigeria, you'd never know it from looking at a newspaper, TV or magazine. I'll be the first to admit that the U.S. still has a problem with disproportionately representing Blacks and Latinos as criminals, etc. but this is really quite extreme. When I (try to) read the Estado do Minas newspaper or the Brazilian version of Time magazine to which my roommate subscribes, you'd never know that there were brown people living here other than criminals, abandoned children, entertainers and soccer players. Advertisements in all forms of the media are pretty much aimed toward Euro-Brazilian families. One noteable exception was the commercial I saw that was trying to convince maids/cooks that they needed to buy a certain brand of rice for the families that employ them. When the lay pastor who teaches music and Christian education at two of the projects was preparing a bulletin board display with pictures of families, I pointed out to her that none of the families looked like the kids in the project (i.e. brown). She spent the next hour looking unsuccesfully for a picture of a brown family in her magazines. All she could find was one picture of a father and daughter.
Hot water heaters are extremely rare here, so people have electrically heated shower heads that you can adjust to two or three different settings, and you can also regulate the temperature via the water flow. Above a minimum flow, a higher water pressure means a lower temperature. I still remember the my first experience with these shower heads during my first trip to Brazil, and I electrocuted myself trying to change the settings while the water was running.
Another interesting thing about "winter" here is that very few places have central heating (or air conditioning, for that matter). When buildings are built from concrete, they can get pretty cool, so if it's 55 F outside in the morning or evening, it can easily be 45 F inside the community center buildings. Thankfully, our apartment is much warmer.
The majority of people graduating from high school do not pass the entrance exam for the free, public univerisities, so if they want higher education, they often have to pay for it at the private universities. (Ironically, the private universities here are much lower in quality that the public ones.) That means they usually have to work full time and go to school at night. Many of the people I know here go to university from 7 PM to 10:30 PM or later, and the ones that live in faraway places such as Liberdade don't get home until 11:30 or later every weeknight. I don't know when they find time to study. Another interesting thing about these students is that nobody has hardcover books. People might have spiral-bound copies of books or, more frequently, photocopies or downloads of reading material. Book prices here seem to be at least double what they are in the U.S., so I can totally understand why students are not buying $300-500 books for their classes.
Finally, this is one flesh-eating people. There are about 20 different cuts of beef alone, and butcher shops and sections at the supermarket are quite popular. The middle and upper class seem to eat beef almost exclusively, with an occasional foray into chicken, fish or pork. The lower class have to stick much more to cuts of chicken and pork that are used more for flavoring. The middle and upper class have barbecues or go to barbecue restaurants ("churrascarias") almost every weekend. The barbecue restaurants are all-you-can-eat where they come around with different types of meat on a skewer and cut it directly onto your plate. It is beyond a doubt the best meat I have ever tasted.
I think that's probably enough for this week. I still need to figure out our plans for watching the first Brazilian game tomorrow because we have an American guest staying with us for a few days to visit my bosses and some of the local children's projects. Later this week, I'm headed back to Rio to meet another work team that's arriving from Georgia. This should be a big test since I will be the only translator. Stay tuned for next week's update.
In the first week of the World Cup, many neighborhoods and establishments have been transformed into a riot of green, yellow and blue (the colors of the Brazilian flag). Tomorrow is Brazil's first game, and many businesses will be shutting down so everybody can go watch the game. There are even several large screens posted at plazas throughout the city for people to watch outdoors. This afternoon, we borrowed an antenna to watch the U.S. play the Czech Republic (and lose 3-0) at the community center. Before the game started, the Brazilian sports network was interviewing people on the street in New York city in awe that noone knew that the World Cup was going on, let alone that the U.S. was playing today. This past weekend, you could hear people throughout the city cheering against their least favorite neighbors, Argentina.
One thing that immediately caught my attention and continues to get on my nerves is the lack of brown people accurately represented in the media. Although Brazilians are constantly citing the fact that their country has the most people of African descent other than Nigeria, you'd never know it from looking at a newspaper, TV or magazine. I'll be the first to admit that the U.S. still has a problem with disproportionately representing Blacks and Latinos as criminals, etc. but this is really quite extreme. When I (try to) read the Estado do Minas newspaper or the Brazilian version of Time magazine to which my roommate subscribes, you'd never know that there were brown people living here other than criminals, abandoned children, entertainers and soccer players. Advertisements in all forms of the media are pretty much aimed toward Euro-Brazilian families. One noteable exception was the commercial I saw that was trying to convince maids/cooks that they needed to buy a certain brand of rice for the families that employ them. When the lay pastor who teaches music and Christian education at two of the projects was preparing a bulletin board display with pictures of families, I pointed out to her that none of the families looked like the kids in the project (i.e. brown). She spent the next hour looking unsuccesfully for a picture of a brown family in her magazines. All she could find was one picture of a father and daughter.
Hot water heaters are extremely rare here, so people have electrically heated shower heads that you can adjust to two or three different settings, and you can also regulate the temperature via the water flow. Above a minimum flow, a higher water pressure means a lower temperature. I still remember the my first experience with these shower heads during my first trip to Brazil, and I electrocuted myself trying to change the settings while the water was running.
Another interesting thing about "winter" here is that very few places have central heating (or air conditioning, for that matter). When buildings are built from concrete, they can get pretty cool, so if it's 55 F outside in the morning or evening, it can easily be 45 F inside the community center buildings. Thankfully, our apartment is much warmer.
The majority of people graduating from high school do not pass the entrance exam for the free, public univerisities, so if they want higher education, they often have to pay for it at the private universities. (Ironically, the private universities here are much lower in quality that the public ones.) That means they usually have to work full time and go to school at night. Many of the people I know here go to university from 7 PM to 10:30 PM or later, and the ones that live in faraway places such as Liberdade don't get home until 11:30 or later every weeknight. I don't know when they find time to study. Another interesting thing about these students is that nobody has hardcover books. People might have spiral-bound copies of books or, more frequently, photocopies or downloads of reading material. Book prices here seem to be at least double what they are in the U.S., so I can totally understand why students are not buying $300-500 books for their classes.
Finally, this is one flesh-eating people. There are about 20 different cuts of beef alone, and butcher shops and sections at the supermarket are quite popular. The middle and upper class seem to eat beef almost exclusively, with an occasional foray into chicken, fish or pork. The lower class have to stick much more to cuts of chicken and pork that are used more for flavoring. The middle and upper class have barbecues or go to barbecue restaurants ("churrascarias") almost every weekend. The barbecue restaurants are all-you-can-eat where they come around with different types of meat on a skewer and cut it directly onto your plate. It is beyond a doubt the best meat I have ever tasted.
I think that's probably enough for this week. I still need to figure out our plans for watching the first Brazilian game tomorrow because we have an American guest staying with us for a few days to visit my bosses and some of the local children's projects. Later this week, I'm headed back to Rio to meet another work team that's arriving from Georgia. This should be a big test since I will be the only translator. Stay tuned for next week's update.
posted by Christine Piggee at
4:50 PM
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