Brinca na Rua

I have gotten quite a few concerned comments by those in the know about my walk to work. Perhaps I have exasperated this by posting pictures that make the walk seem perilous, with homes fortified for guerrilla warfare. It is actually a beautiful walk. It is spring here so the weather is warm and sunny every day - but not yet quite humid (which leads to a lot of locals complaining about the dry air). And I´m in love with the mailboxes here - there is all variety and colors and styles - all located safely within a fence or gate. (sidenote - the postal workers are on strike right now, hopefully not for long)

Besides the mailboxes what else is different about Brasil?:

- MASS! The elements of mass remain the same (liturgy of the word, liturgy of the eucharist, etc) and it is still clearly recongizable as a Catholic service but there are distinctive differences. Perhaps I notice it more since I understand so little of what is being said. During the Eucharistic prayer the assembly has SIX responses - in the US we have one. On Friday we didn´t do intentions, we went straight from the homily to preparation of the offering. But more then that the feeling of mass is different. There always seems to be an added Hail Mary here or there, the singing seems more fervent (though not necessarily better), and the assembly seems more eager to participate. But, as with all my observations, they are based on a few encounters in a few places.

- Mops. Here the mops looks like a windshield wiper with a much longer handle. On the rubber end they wrap an old dry rag and sweep and then with a wet rag wash and with a clean dry rag dry. All the rags are reusable so it seems more environmentally friendly.

- The standard of cleanliness. Most middle class families have a maid to clean and cook a few times a week. The more money you have the more laborers you hire - cook, maid, nanny, driver, etc. My aunt has one maid, Maria, that comes for about 6 hours a day 4 times a week. My bathroom is cleaned four times a week. Imagine! By my standard the two of us aren´t very dirty but Maria seems to have plenty to do to keep her busy. She cooks a few items for me - beans and rice - but I try to prepare the rest. I make my bed everyday, though Maria would do it. I try to straigten up my room but when I come home she has always rearranged it to her own organizational scheme. She does my laundry and irons my clothes. There is no dust in my aunt´s house. Really, in comparison, I am a filthy dirty person. Left to my own devices I can let the floor go unswept, the clothes unwashed, and the bathroom untended for quite a while. Maria just may be the reason my aunt and I get along so well. Teehee.

- Abundance of manual labor. People can afford maids beause labor is very cheap in a Brasil. There are (too) many people with little to no education that come to São Paulo for the hope of a better life. I don´t know if what they find here is better then elsewhere, and migration has diminished, but with almost 20 million people here and a relatively high unemployment rate (10-20%), there are a lot of people that are willing to work for very little.

Obviously there are more differences, language, culture, cuisine, etc. But those are big picture differences. In my time here I am trying to capture the daily moments that constitute an entire lifetime.

Today I work at Gotas de Flor - we have a grand festival - the "brinca na rua". It is basically a street fair where all the children and their families are invited to come and enjoy. There will be face painting, free hair cuts, maincures, etc. I´m definitely going to try and get some pictures.