The never-ending festival
I'm a little late with this posting because of traveling to visit my friends followed by a full schedule of celebrations for the family of my roommate when I returned to Belo Horizonte.
Here's a family portrait of my friends in São Carlos:
It was interesting because this visit was the first time we've communicated mostly in Portuguese. I'm slowly becoming more used to the long (6-12 hour) bus rides to get to other regions. I'm still not able to get a lot of sleep on the buses, but at least I don't feel like I need to "be productive" and read or knit while I'm not sleeping.
As far as the never-ending family festival, my roommate comes from a large family (originally 10 children), most of whom live in this area. Her oldest brother was turning 70, so folks gathered from near and far (a sizeable contingent even took the bus from Brasilia, the nation's capital) to celebrate his birthday in addition to the 40th wedding anniversary of one of her sisters and some other birthdays. As someone who grew up without much of an extended family, and especially not in the same town, it blows my mind that in the total of five months that I've lived here, I've already met all eight of my roommate's surviving siblings in addition to a multitude of nephews, nieces, cousins, etc.
Another cool thing is that many of the people who have gotten divorced are still on friendly terms with their ex-spouses, and the ex-spouses still participate in the family events. What that means for me is trying to learn the names of a bazillion people, but with a family that is so open and welcoming (they've invited me to every one of their gatherings since I've lived here), it's a nice problem to have. It's amazing to me how intergenerational their gatherings are and how close people are. For example, can you imagine an American adolescent male willingly going to a family gathering rather than hanging out with his friends? And then on top of that, walking around and hugging people, talking to everybody, and volunteering to play games with the "fun" aunt? I couldn't believe how many of the kids immediately came up to me, hugging me and talking to me.
So far, they had activities on Friday (when I was traveling back from São Carlos), all day Saturday, all day Sunday, lunch and dinner yesterday (Monday), and some folks are coming to our house tonight for dinner. I also went to my first serenade when a small, intergenerational group of the family went to one young woman's apartment at midnight to sing songs to her for her birthday. I noticed that everybody already knew where this particular family lived and nobody needed to ask for directions, etc. Maybe people in the U.S. that have large families and have lived in the same place for decades experience the same thing, but this is definitely new for me.
Many members of this family are amateur musicians, so their gatherings are filled with guitar-accompanied sing-alongs. Even though I'm pretty familiar with Brazilian Popular Music (MPB), I was hearing a lot of songs I'd never heard because this state is known for its fondness of country-style music. They even have a country version of the birthday song. Normally, Brazilians use the same "Happy Birthday to You" tune that we use with Portuguese words, but this tune was more Brazilian. It's funny that that last night when we were waiting for the pizza to arrive for dinner, it felt empty to me with just 10-12 people there.
And now for more of my gratuitous observations about Brazilian society...
One thing different here is that most phone numbers are eight digits long instead of seven. I wonder if we'll need to go to that soon in the U.S. Even though most everybody has cell phones (irrespective of age or income), hardly anybody uses answering machines, call waiting, etc.
I'm not sure when it was, but at some point, there was a very effective dental hygiene campaign here because people (again, of all ages and income levels) are fanatical about brushing and flossing their teeth. I even remember seeing the dental hygiene station for the children at one of the day care centers in a local slum. Now if the same people who did that campaign could do something to combat littering, that would be great.
I'm constantly amazed at what people accomplish here with the most rudimentary of tools. I suppose that I'm spoiled by the resources that we have in the U.S. such as a specific tool for everything, but it's really odd for me to see people cleaning leaves and spent flowers off of grassy areas with brooms rather than rakes. Another place where I notice a different level of tools being used is in the major road construction project in our neighborhood. I can't believe how quickly they are building a ramp, new sidewalks, etc. with the most basic (mostly non-power) tools. I can't imagine what they could accomplish if they had the same equipment that a typical construction crew in the U.S. is using.
That's enough for now. Time to double-check the Methodist Foundation's web site, which I finally finished updating. See http://www.fundacaometodista.org.br for more information about the Foundation and its projects.
Here's a family portrait of my friends in São Carlos:
It was interesting because this visit was the first time we've communicated mostly in Portuguese. I'm slowly becoming more used to the long (6-12 hour) bus rides to get to other regions. I'm still not able to get a lot of sleep on the buses, but at least I don't feel like I need to "be productive" and read or knit while I'm not sleeping.
As far as the never-ending family festival, my roommate comes from a large family (originally 10 children), most of whom live in this area. Her oldest brother was turning 70, so folks gathered from near and far (a sizeable contingent even took the bus from Brasilia, the nation's capital) to celebrate his birthday in addition to the 40th wedding anniversary of one of her sisters and some other birthdays. As someone who grew up without much of an extended family, and especially not in the same town, it blows my mind that in the total of five months that I've lived here, I've already met all eight of my roommate's surviving siblings in addition to a multitude of nephews, nieces, cousins, etc.
Another cool thing is that many of the people who have gotten divorced are still on friendly terms with their ex-spouses, and the ex-spouses still participate in the family events. What that means for me is trying to learn the names of a bazillion people, but with a family that is so open and welcoming (they've invited me to every one of their gatherings since I've lived here), it's a nice problem to have. It's amazing to me how intergenerational their gatherings are and how close people are. For example, can you imagine an American adolescent male willingly going to a family gathering rather than hanging out with his friends? And then on top of that, walking around and hugging people, talking to everybody, and volunteering to play games with the "fun" aunt? I couldn't believe how many of the kids immediately came up to me, hugging me and talking to me.
So far, they had activities on Friday (when I was traveling back from São Carlos), all day Saturday, all day Sunday, lunch and dinner yesterday (Monday), and some folks are coming to our house tonight for dinner. I also went to my first serenade when a small, intergenerational group of the family went to one young woman's apartment at midnight to sing songs to her for her birthday. I noticed that everybody already knew where this particular family lived and nobody needed to ask for directions, etc. Maybe people in the U.S. that have large families and have lived in the same place for decades experience the same thing, but this is definitely new for me.
Many members of this family are amateur musicians, so their gatherings are filled with guitar-accompanied sing-alongs. Even though I'm pretty familiar with Brazilian Popular Music (MPB), I was hearing a lot of songs I'd never heard because this state is known for its fondness of country-style music. They even have a country version of the birthday song. Normally, Brazilians use the same "Happy Birthday to You" tune that we use with Portuguese words, but this tune was more Brazilian. It's funny that that last night when we were waiting for the pizza to arrive for dinner, it felt empty to me with just 10-12 people there.
And now for more of my gratuitous observations about Brazilian society...
One thing different here is that most phone numbers are eight digits long instead of seven. I wonder if we'll need to go to that soon in the U.S. Even though most everybody has cell phones (irrespective of age or income), hardly anybody uses answering machines, call waiting, etc.
I'm not sure when it was, but at some point, there was a very effective dental hygiene campaign here because people (again, of all ages and income levels) are fanatical about brushing and flossing their teeth. I even remember seeing the dental hygiene station for the children at one of the day care centers in a local slum. Now if the same people who did that campaign could do something to combat littering, that would be great.
I'm constantly amazed at what people accomplish here with the most rudimentary of tools. I suppose that I'm spoiled by the resources that we have in the U.S. such as a specific tool for everything, but it's really odd for me to see people cleaning leaves and spent flowers off of grassy areas with brooms rather than rakes. Another place where I notice a different level of tools being used is in the major road construction project in our neighborhood. I can't believe how quickly they are building a ramp, new sidewalks, etc. with the most basic (mostly non-power) tools. I can't imagine what they could accomplish if they had the same equipment that a typical construction crew in the U.S. is using.
That's enough for now. Time to double-check the Methodist Foundation's web site, which I finally finished updating. See http://www.fundacaometodista.org.br for more information about the Foundation and its projects.
posted by Christine Piggee at
2:33 PM
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