"Third Place"

I had a discussion today with a friend of mine who was brought up by a strict catholic family about her current spiritual meanderings. It went like this:


Me: so why are you interested in voodoo?
Her: Well, it allows me to break away from the parts of catholicism that I don't like, but without having to break away from the symbols I can't seem to let go of.
Me: so what's keeping you from practicing?
Her: having no idea what I'm doing, being too white to ask someone who does, not knowing what to do about the whole chicken sacrifice thing...
Me: So why not just fall into idolatrous worship of the saints?
Her: That's basically my plan. I'm ordering a set of like 200 saint-prayer things form the internet (because I need them anyway) and seeing if any of them mesh with me.


So my brain did this thing where it took that conversation and put it next to this one I had with another friend of mine:


Me: So why Celtic?
Other Friend: because that's where my family is from. I'm an Irish-Italian American, like 2nd or third generation, but still. I'm a really big believer that you should try to keep to the traditions in your blood.
Me: My blood is Brazilian. Like, not even European Brazilian or African-Brazilian. I'm an honest-to-god Brazilian Mutt. My dad's some weird mix of white people, Iberian peninsula, and like an African man thrown in the mix a couple generations back. My mother's father is straight up european from Holland and things. My grandmother has some indiginous brazilian in her somewhere... it's like, pure Brazilian Mutt. So, Candomble?
Other Friend: That's the syncretic religion down there, right?
Me: yep.
Other Friend: I guess so, then.
Me: Yeah, but then I have to worry about having a divination for my Orixa, and the terreiro, and I'm really not tan enough or Brazilian-cultured enough to just walk up to a terreiro and be all like, "Yo! Show me how to feel the divine presence in the way of my little old ancestors!" because there'll be staring n' things. And I know they'll give me one of the mother-goddess orixas, and that's a whole new can of worms right there. (even the female orixa who patrons the arts is a mother-goddess figure)


Which is a bunch of legitimate questions and concerns for me. Should I ask a preist/priestess for a jogo de buzios to divine the orixa I would work with? Can I be all like, "Hey, I have brought for the gods a live chicken as sacrifice, let's dance?" There are gonna be like... rules and things...

I dunno. It's just something to think about.

Caetano

So, the other day I was sitting on a bus with Rachel, and I saw her pull out a set of lyrics from her portuguese class. It was a song by Caetano Veloso. I go, "Hey! we should listen to it together." She pulls out her iphone; I pull out my splitter. Away we go. I'm expecting something cute based on the lyrics. However! Once the song starts to play, a sudden realization hits me.

I have heard this song a million times already and just never bothered to learn the words.

O Leaozihno. XD I think half of Pittsburgh thinks I'm crazy now from how often I just start giggling to myself on busses. eh.

Also, Rachel wants to know if there's a magazine she can subscribe to in the US that is in Portuguese and pertains to her interests. Think Cosmo.

just news

Realmente a familia está pelo mundo. Agora temos mais um membro na África. Calma ...... não é em Angola. O nobre membro, Walter Paschoal, está em Camarões participando de um programa de incentivo do governo brasileiro aos paises africanos.
Ele está ministrando treinamento sobre cultivo de mudas da lavoura cacaueira. Chic não é?
Estou muito feliz com isso.
Boa sorte Tinho. Todos estão torcendo por você !!!!!!

"Boy que eh boy nao come mel, chupa abelha!

Isso eh o que fala meu marido Oscar que voltou a vida de playboy: comprou uma motocicleta aos 60 hahahahaha! Victor acha o maior barato que o pai agora anda de moto.

Diz ele que vai praticar para ir ate Pittsburgh ver Tarsis. Agora a vizinhanca tem que tomar cuidado duplo, Luiz com a moto e Victor com carteira de motorista.

Tarsis: This is news?

So I have a three day weekend! Monday is Labor day, a national holiday. On top of that, my english teacher will be out of town on friday, so I'll only have one class! :D This gives me more time to work on my paper.

So my english teacher is irritating. We read short stories about girls being dragged out of their homes and murdered, about conditions in rural Peru, about what happens to you when you're the maid's daughter, etc. Then she goes off on long diatribes about how the world is a horrible place. "It's horrible," she says, "and we don't realize it because we live in such a nice country." I admit that it's important that people know how horrible a place the world can be. I admit that ultimately her point is to make us feel more grateful about our education and hopeful about our prospects in life and that this is a good point to be making.

However, I have two issues with this. First, she's distracting the class from the actual study of English. She spends so long making her point about how the world is a Bad Place that we don't talk about the art of writing. Metaphor, simile, allegory, tone: we don't talk about any of these things. On top of that, I think she's intimidating my classmates, making it even less likely for them to start talking in class. She doesn't keep her eyes open for students raising their hands to talk about the piece, so if you wanted to comment on one point the teacher made, you have to wait until she's made four or five more. By the time you want to comment on how the author purposefully left out women in his story (and why), she's talking about how horrible it is that Muslim women end up covered head to toe. The story took place in Argentina.

Second, I already know all of this. I've seen houses made out of plywood, tarp, and garbage bags. I already knew that some people will maim children to make them more effective beggars. I know that when China had a huge drought in the last century, people were down to eating dirt. Literally, they were eating dirt. I've had to deal with my guilt about being arbitrarily given a chance to make something of myself. It's in the past.

The worst part is that there isn't much I can do that won't get me kicked out of class. At least, I haven't thought of anything short of calling her out on it, and I can't think of a nice way to word, "You need to stop talking about the issues and start talking about English."

But hey, I don't have to see her again until Wednesday, and then it'll be two days of presentations by my classmates! So no lecture from her for over a week! :D

beginning

Oi gente


Como veem estou bem no incio deste novo processo. Na verdade eu adorei esta historia de blog familiar, é uma ótima forma de estarmos sempre atualizados sobre nossa familia, de saber o que cada um anda fazendo pq muitas vezes por telefone é mieo difícil.
Bom, isto me remete a este pedaço de fim do mundo onde vivo. Se não fosse a internet eu estava ilhada . O telefone está cada vez pior, não consigo fazer qualquer ligação .Tenho ligado pelo skype mas isto só funciona uma parte do dia. Mas vai -se levando.
Acabei de voltar do Brasil, mesmo após 7 anos , ainda preciso de uma semana ou mais para me readaptar. Estou com muita saudade dos meninos.
Beijos