In this article, I will be reflecting on my summer internship with Transition Brasilândia and Oficina da Sustentabilidade in São Paulo, Brazil and thinking about how Transition Brasilândia functions as a community development model. I wrote a personal reflection piece on working in the different groups and projects of Transition here while this one employs an analytical lens to frame the aspects of Transition Brasilândia that make it a successful…
Author: Wangũi
true questions
(conversation) “E a onde você mora?” “…não sei” “Não sabe? Como não sabe?” On the drive from the airport to the hostel my friend and I were staying in in Salvador, the driver asked me one of the truest questions anyone ever has, and I gave him an answer that even I surprised myself with. He asked, so where do you live? Now most people who have been outside of…
4 phrases I will miss from brasil
(written on the flight to Mexico City from São Paulo) I am reminded as the flight attendant attempts to offer me a choice of scrambled eggs or omelettes (huevos revueltos o omelette) that I will soon have to retrain my brain to speak Spanish as opposed to Portuguese. It took about 4 attempts for me to piece together that it was scrambled eggs she was talking about, and that I…
policing the city
I mostly like police** [written in 2013, update 2019, now in the times of deep corporate capture of the state, and increased militarism to protect state-corporate interests, I am wary of them] – perhaps that might be because I have never found myself on opposing ends with any one of them. And too because I tend to trust in people until they prove otherwise, if they do; and I understand…
goodbye poem
São Paulo by morning- when I last left you, já era noite. But in this morning light I see your predios, tall, multi-floor- um pedaço do ceu pra cada um, housing your workers- some of them. And in between, a glimpse of Baiano brick- It’s not all street and concrete. The jacaranda tree we passed- was that your gift to me as I say goodbye? Graffiti here and there, and…
I actually like…
I actually like this place that coffee and money made up.