Macaiba again
I spent the day out in Macaiba today. It was a lot better this time. I guess I had a little case of culture shock before. But I spent most the day with them and things were great. I found out that they all have cell phones though.
It’s kind of amazing how Brazil is. They really fail at a lot of things in their cities. Their education is messed up, the infrastructure of their cities is of very poor quality, and the classes are separating rapidly, rich getting richer, and poor getting poorer, but they’ve got all the tech toys that every American family has. TV’s, DVD players, the works. I kind of wonder if it has something to do with the relationship between Brazil and Japan. There are a lot of Japanese living in Brazil, and the two countries seem to have a good relationship.
I still have trouble communicating. I think it’s because now I’m more apt to talk to them about regular things, and I’m missing the vocabulary for it. It was great though, tomorrow I’ll spend some time on the beach, and then I’m headed home on Saturday.
November 10th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Sounds like Chile. People have cell phones there because it really is cheaper and, in many cases more reliable than a land line. You are right about the tech too. All but the poorest of the poor seem to have at least a decent TV and a stereo system better than anything I ever had, or at least more flashy. I don’t think it is necessarily any connection to Japan, because Chile has none. Just must be cultural. People love their entertainment, and in Chile music is huge, it is all about dancing at the parties there, hense the stereos. I think it might be that we are just used to big, fancy houses. It seems to me that Chileans don’t care quite as much about having a terribly big, or nice house, but they do like their tech toys, as you say. Enjoy, try not to think of the differences. Just remember how you felt about the country and its people when you were there as a missionary. I hope you spend a lot of time at the beach, you seem to really like it.