And here comes March
One thing I realized today is that I really enjoy just sitting and talking with the kids in the projects, but there isn't a whole lot of time to do that because they have their project "workshops," their snack, and then they leave. I'll have to see if maybe I can arrange a few extra minutes just to chat. They are very curious and have lots of questions. There are quite a few new kids at both of the projects, and it's funny to watch the returning kids who've already been in the projects explain authoritatively to the newbies, as though I were part of show-and-tell: "She speaks ENGLISH! She's not from here. She's from the United States."
It's quite amusing to watch myself gradually become what I would normally call a "hippie." I just finished reading a book about changing the world (you know, something light). The book wasn't that great, but at least it got me thinking about changing my mentality and how to work toward a sustainable world where everybody has enough. A few of my friends have already been moving in that direction for some time, now (and I used to think that they were just "hippies" of sorts--now I'm thinking they're pretty smart). I'd already realized from an environmental project I'd worked on at my last job that the climate is in much more trouble than I, even as a former scientist, realized. The final report was just launched--if you're interested, see www.confrontingclimatechange.org for more info. The book talked about a mentality of enough for all versus a mentality of scarcity, where more for you means less for me. I would say the majority of people I encounter here have the scarcity mentality.
The first time I officially thought about this duality was when my sister mentioned her husband's observation that some people think that the "pie" is limited and therefore whatever you get limits the size of their piece, and other people have a vision of unlimited pie. It's devastating to see the effects of scarcity mentality, but it's really cool to see what can happen when you come at people with an abundance mentality, making them re-think their assumptions. The book also mentioned that at least rich people know that money won't solve their problems, but poor people still dream that it will. I definitely have a hard time convincing poor folks here that having a lot more money and possessions is not the answer, but having enough is.
I still struggle with people seeing me as a bank or source of interesting (and cheap) imported goods. I enjoy sharing what I have and receive with my colleagues (toiletries and gum from a recent care package, for example) but feel conflicted when people start to request or even demand more.
I forgot to mention last week that should there be any doubt about the influence of the American media here, the Academy Awards were broadcast (live, I believe) on the major non-cable television network here. Can you imagine NBC, CBS or ABC broadcasting an awards program from Europe or Japan?
I was startled when my upstairs neighbor came and told me somebody had called her apartment looking to leave a message for me to call her back. Then I remembered that the phone book here is listed by name but also address, so you can see all of the people living on a particular street and their addresses, if they have a regular phone. It's actually very useful to have the businesses listed that way, especially when the phone book also lists the address of each cross-street. It turned out to be the secretary from the insurance agent where I'd called to update my address, but she found out I had to update it myself directly with my health plan.
On Friday, I went downtown for another occurrence of the monthly meeting for foreigners that I've been trying to organize. Not only was I not the only one to show up (bonus!), but there were two new long-termers from Australia whose husbands work for a mining company plus a Texan who'd shown up before. We had a good chat, and I was excited to learn of a store where I could supposedly buy imported American peanut butter and taco shells. I'd already heard a little bit about this store (kind of like a Whole Foods), so I took the bus on Saturday afternoon to check it out. They were actually out of American peanut butter, but I brought the Brazilian kind (which I'd never seen in other stores). Brazilian peanut butter, as it turns out, tastes like peanut butter cookie dough lacking flour.
In that store it was quite intriguing to see gadgets imported from the U.S. and other countries. Gadgets in Brazil are pretty rudimentary (e.g. can-openers), and while I recognized gadgets from the U.S., I saw things I never knew existed, especially from Japan and Germany. I realized that the level of a country's economy determines how many fancy products you have to design and convince people that they "need" for their "convenience."
Saturday I had also planned to go downtown in the morning to a large crafts store to try to get more knitting needles and yarn for the classes I'll be teaching at the projects. On my way to the bus stop, I actually found a little neighborhood variety store that was going out of business, so I got a really good deal on all of the needles and most of the yarn that the guy had.
You know how people often will mentally label you when they meet you, and then regurgitate all data or anecdotes they have stored in their brain regarding that label? Normally when I meet people here, they will label me as "American" and will instantly mention anyone they know who has lived or is living in the U.S., if they've traveled there, etc. For the first time a few weeks ago, I met a Brazilian who labeled me as "Black American" and began to download all of his anecdotes regarding Black Americans, including a warm reception that his delegation received in a Black church in the U.S. "even though we were White." It was strange because color isn't as prominent here as it is in the U.S. By the way, I didn't have the heart to tell him that in the U.S., he's not considered White.
There seems to be quite a prominent double-standard here regarding beauty. Women are expected to spend inordinate amounts of time and money on their physical appearance--even moreso than in the U.S.--and as far as I can tell the men don't do a whole heck of a lot. Some guys might go to the gym and maybe dye their hair, but women do all kinds of waxing, dyeing, tanning, special hairstyles, manicures/pedicures, dieting and surgery. You see the same thing that you see in the U.S. where a woman will be in a nice dress and heels, and her companion will be in tennis shoes, jeans and a t-shirt.
There are several variety-type TV shows with various acts singing, dancing, etc. and most or all of them have a squad of cheerleader-type women who are scantily dressed and doing some choreographed dance routine. I was trying to figure out why I disliked those dance routines so much and why they appeared so awkward to me, and I finally realized it was because they are dressed like prostitutes (always with super-high heels), and it seems so out of place to me. I was joking about it with some friends yesterday, and the men admitted that having those women dancing in the background gets them to watch something they normally wouldn't. I don't get it because men here watch the soap operas, which occasionally have a scantily clad or semi-nude woman, but not entire squadrons of them gyrating around. I'd noticed similar dancing girls on the Spanish-language variety programs that are broadcast in the U.S.
Joys
#1 The rainy season seems to be over!
#2 I went to the Federal Police this morning and found out that, indeed, I can renew my visa here in Belo Horizonte and don't need to do it from the U.S.
I'm thinking that's enough for now. Until next time...
It's quite amusing to watch myself gradually become what I would normally call a "hippie." I just finished reading a book about changing the world (you know, something light). The book wasn't that great, but at least it got me thinking about changing my mentality and how to work toward a sustainable world where everybody has enough. A few of my friends have already been moving in that direction for some time, now (and I used to think that they were just "hippies" of sorts--now I'm thinking they're pretty smart). I'd already realized from an environmental project I'd worked on at my last job that the climate is in much more trouble than I, even as a former scientist, realized. The final report was just launched--if you're interested, see www.confrontingclimatechange.org for more info. The book talked about a mentality of enough for all versus a mentality of scarcity, where more for you means less for me. I would say the majority of people I encounter here have the scarcity mentality.
The first time I officially thought about this duality was when my sister mentioned her husband's observation that some people think that the "pie" is limited and therefore whatever you get limits the size of their piece, and other people have a vision of unlimited pie. It's devastating to see the effects of scarcity mentality, but it's really cool to see what can happen when you come at people with an abundance mentality, making them re-think their assumptions. The book also mentioned that at least rich people know that money won't solve their problems, but poor people still dream that it will. I definitely have a hard time convincing poor folks here that having a lot more money and possessions is not the answer, but having enough is.
I still struggle with people seeing me as a bank or source of interesting (and cheap) imported goods. I enjoy sharing what I have and receive with my colleagues (toiletries and gum from a recent care package, for example) but feel conflicted when people start to request or even demand more.
I forgot to mention last week that should there be any doubt about the influence of the American media here, the Academy Awards were broadcast (live, I believe) on the major non-cable television network here. Can you imagine NBC, CBS or ABC broadcasting an awards program from Europe or Japan?
I was startled when my upstairs neighbor came and told me somebody had called her apartment looking to leave a message for me to call her back. Then I remembered that the phone book here is listed by name but also address, so you can see all of the people living on a particular street and their addresses, if they have a regular phone. It's actually very useful to have the businesses listed that way, especially when the phone book also lists the address of each cross-street. It turned out to be the secretary from the insurance agent where I'd called to update my address, but she found out I had to update it myself directly with my health plan.
On Friday, I went downtown for another occurrence of the monthly meeting for foreigners that I've been trying to organize. Not only was I not the only one to show up (bonus!), but there were two new long-termers from Australia whose husbands work for a mining company plus a Texan who'd shown up before. We had a good chat, and I was excited to learn of a store where I could supposedly buy imported American peanut butter and taco shells. I'd already heard a little bit about this store (kind of like a Whole Foods), so I took the bus on Saturday afternoon to check it out. They were actually out of American peanut butter, but I brought the Brazilian kind (which I'd never seen in other stores). Brazilian peanut butter, as it turns out, tastes like peanut butter cookie dough lacking flour.
In that store it was quite intriguing to see gadgets imported from the U.S. and other countries. Gadgets in Brazil are pretty rudimentary (e.g. can-openers), and while I recognized gadgets from the U.S., I saw things I never knew existed, especially from Japan and Germany. I realized that the level of a country's economy determines how many fancy products you have to design and convince people that they "need" for their "convenience."
Saturday I had also planned to go downtown in the morning to a large crafts store to try to get more knitting needles and yarn for the classes I'll be teaching at the projects. On my way to the bus stop, I actually found a little neighborhood variety store that was going out of business, so I got a really good deal on all of the needles and most of the yarn that the guy had.
You know how people often will mentally label you when they meet you, and then regurgitate all data or anecdotes they have stored in their brain regarding that label? Normally when I meet people here, they will label me as "American" and will instantly mention anyone they know who has lived or is living in the U.S., if they've traveled there, etc. For the first time a few weeks ago, I met a Brazilian who labeled me as "Black American" and began to download all of his anecdotes regarding Black Americans, including a warm reception that his delegation received in a Black church in the U.S. "even though we were White." It was strange because color isn't as prominent here as it is in the U.S. By the way, I didn't have the heart to tell him that in the U.S., he's not considered White.
There seems to be quite a prominent double-standard here regarding beauty. Women are expected to spend inordinate amounts of time and money on their physical appearance--even moreso than in the U.S.--and as far as I can tell the men don't do a whole heck of a lot. Some guys might go to the gym and maybe dye their hair, but women do all kinds of waxing, dyeing, tanning, special hairstyles, manicures/pedicures, dieting and surgery. You see the same thing that you see in the U.S. where a woman will be in a nice dress and heels, and her companion will be in tennis shoes, jeans and a t-shirt.
There are several variety-type TV shows with various acts singing, dancing, etc. and most or all of them have a squad of cheerleader-type women who are scantily dressed and doing some choreographed dance routine. I was trying to figure out why I disliked those dance routines so much and why they appeared so awkward to me, and I finally realized it was because they are dressed like prostitutes (always with super-high heels), and it seems so out of place to me. I was joking about it with some friends yesterday, and the men admitted that having those women dancing in the background gets them to watch something they normally wouldn't. I don't get it because men here watch the soap operas, which occasionally have a scantily clad or semi-nude woman, but not entire squadrons of them gyrating around. I'd noticed similar dancing girls on the Spanish-language variety programs that are broadcast in the U.S.
Joys
#1 The rainy season seems to be over!
#2 I went to the Federal Police this morning and found out that, indeed, I can renew my visa here in Belo Horizonte and don't need to do it from the U.S.
I'm thinking that's enough for now. Until next time...
posted by Christine Piggee at
3:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home