I’ve been back home for the past few months, and between applying for school, looking for a job, managing family pressures and expectations, as well as finding ways to share all I have learnt with the world, I have had to learn patience. A friend from IHP used to quote me a line from the poem below by Antonio Machado whenever I got too anxious about the future: ‘se hace…
Author: Wangũi
waste watching in são paulo
In front of the Museo do Afrobrasil in Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo, there is a five tier coloured recycling receptacle with a choice of glass (green), paper (blue), metals (yellow), plastics (red), and organics (brown) bins. The letters of some of the labels have peeled off due to age or wear leaving users to their own imagination, or the guidance of the drawings that are part of the label. The…
at a swap fair in granja viana
Read the version in Portuguese here Issa lives in Granja Viana and is one of the representatives of Transition Granja Viana, an initiative of the worldwide Transition Town movement. According to her, the Swap Fair, also known as the Ecofair, is the biggest success of the Transition GV Group. She told me this while we were driving to her house one Saturday afternoon so we could catch a potluck supper…
writing, identities, agency
“No need to heed your voice when I can talk about you better than you can speak about yourself. No need to hear your voice. […] Re-writing you I rewrite myself anew. I am still author, authority. I am still coloniser, the speaking subject, and you are now the centre of my tale.”[i] During my first comparative educational experience while on IHP we were tasked with writing reflections at the…
a feira de troca em granja viana
Read the English version here A Issa mora em Granja Viana e é uma das representantes do Transition Granja Viana. Ela acha que a feira de troca é o mais grande sucesso do grupo Transition. Ela me contou isso quando estávamos dirigindo pra casa dela num sábado para aproveitar este evento, nomeado Eco Feira, bem cedo na amanhã do domingo. Granja Viana faz parte do metropolitano de São Paulo na…
bartering for sustainability
“But bartering has been around, even if only on a micro-level for a while too. In my travels on a fellowship studying forms of engagement with environmental issues in low-income urban areas, I encountered this sharing- what I call a ‘culture of exchange’- in various forms. It was in the swap fairs and eco-fairs in various transition movements in São Paulo for example. On a Saturday or Sunday every month…