Banco do Brasil’s messengers carry their missives in these yellow cotton bags marked with the bank’s black logo. When they get old and/or sufficiently dirty, the bank donates them to the women’s group O Grupo Brasilianas that uses recycled material to make bags. These yellow oddly sized bags provide the material for some of the chicest bags these women make. The bags are received every month and are first dismantled…
ginger tea
My family bought a lot of ginger for a meal I was making them 2 weeks ago (12 Sept). The only thing is, most of them can’t eat ginger for health reasons- for example it raises my host parents’ blood pressure. Is this something common to everyone though because I love my ginger? In any case, my Swahili-Coastal roots (implanted) refuse to be dissuaded. I have been having ginger tea…
they made the rocks…
They made the rocks burst with life, where there had been little before.
brasilândia- in verse
What is Brasilândia? A many layered thing- literally. A mix of textures, colours, sounds, “lá tudo nublado, aqui tudo colorido” as my host sister put it, The day she took me on a walk through her colourful neighbourhood. A slice of life all in one short street. Where the church and local pub vie for customers and airspace- and the tousle keeps you up on a Saturday night- It’s a…
hallo mexico city
I arrived in Mexico City about a week ago and I am still settling in. I am staying in an art studio that one of the founders of the place I will be working in: Centro de Artes y Oficios Escuelita Emiliano Zapata, graciously allowed me to stay in (and for free yay!) I am living alone however and not with a family as I did in São Paulo. That…
beginnings
A few people have asked me if I am keeping a blog to document and help process this journey I am on. Enough that I have finally taken the jump and began one. I will post a few things I wrote while I was in São Paulo (I am currently in Mexico City) and will interweave some other São Paulo things in with the Mexico City stuff in comparative or…