Day 2-Deep Hanging Out

Dispatch 2 from Sao Paulo

It's funny, when I arrived I thought "Great, there's only an hour time difference from the East coast, so I'm not jet lagged!". Only thing I didn't realize is that it gets dark here at 5:30 because it's winter in the Southern hemisphere! I don't know if I've ever experienced a "day light change" like this before, but it's quite strange, because the time hasn't really changed (like it does when you arrive in India thinking it's breakfast when in fact it's dinner) but my body feels confused (yes, more than normal) because I left the states with it getting dark around 9. Ok, enough cursing the oscillations of the sun and its effects on our wonderful little planet.

Today I took care of some more logistics related to my research. Unfortunately, this involved what we in the field of anthropology refer to as "deep hanging out". As you can see from the photos below, taken at the unbelievable Parque Ibapuera (the equivalent of central park on steroids for Sao Paolo), deep hanging out can be very tough...




What this green oasis doesn't show is that I was forced to battle plants, yes, that's right, wild plants, such as this strangler fig!



Which for those of you aren't familiar with Latin American botany, was a harrowing experience that I barely escaped from...

Aside from battling strangler figs with my mandolin, which might be all it's good for, I've been working on setting up the framework for a collaborative research protocol. What this means, is that unlike our anthropological forefathers, who went and observed the "natives" taking their "data" back to the "first world" (ok, enough quotation marks) I'm interested in having my research be more ethically guided, and thus collaborative with the organization that I am interested in working with and studying. For those of you not familiar with the field of "deep hanging out", this move towards collaborative ethnography (ethnography being the methodological bread and butter, or steak if you will, of the discipline. What this entails is a longer process than most research/researchers would take in terms of laying the groundwork and working to determine in collaboration with one's traditional research "subjects" what the goals of the research should be, from each entities perspective, what benefits as well as potential threats could arise from it (no, no lobotomies scheduled yet), and how data will be used, repatriated, etc. All of which requires some very deep hanging out......

Saudações do Brazil!

Greetings all!

Hard to believe it's been going on two years since this blog has been updated. Much has changed, and much has stayed the same. Following on my last entry (from 2007), I'm down in the big south, no, not Atlanta this time, but Sao Paulo, Brazil. For those of you who don't know, I'm here for the summer doing pilot research for my anthropology doctorate at UGA. For my research, I'm studying the role of education within a social movement known as the Landless Workers' Movement. That's the one sentence cocktail party version. I'll try to figure out how to upload a document where those interested can get a clearer understanding of what in the world I'm doing traipsing around the Amazon.

First impressions: wow! Sao Paulo is a BIG city. Ok, that's an understatement, it's apparently the biggest city in the Western hemisphere, and I can believe it. Between flying over the waves of skyscrapers to taking an hour and a half public transport voyage involving buses and various metro lines (beat that ATL!), and then walking to the hostel, I've realized that Sao Paulo is a city of superlatives. The hostel I'm staying at is absolutely perfect. I will take some photos, but it's in a quiet neighborhood, near a huge park (my goal for this afternoon), it has an amazing breakfast of fruit and assorted goodies, wifi, friendly service, and all for about $16 USD (so not too bad)...did I mention that there's always a carafe of coffee full? And, no, we're not talking nescafe here.

What additionally was really nice about the trip, was that Sao Paulo is only 1 hour ahead of the east coast, so even though I've had an insane few days of traveling to get here, from driving from ATL to DE, running around, then flying down here etc etc. I'm not in that surreal state of exhaustion that hangs over me for a week when I go to India. In terms of what everyone at home was asking me b4 I left, the Portuguese is going....tudo bem! I feel like my mind is like a sieve (although sometimes it feels like as much is leaving as entering); taking the public transport to the hostel I was reading all the posters and signs, asking directions, and I made it without getting lost (partially due to the detailed instructions I had gotten in English from the hostel prior to traveling!) So, yeah, the trip is off to a great start. I brought my mandolin and was sitting here serenading the unfortunate passerbys earlier as I drank my coffee, after this I'm going to get to "work" translating some questions courtesy of google translate (the most amazing app I've run into recently) and then (fingers crossed) I'm going to call the headquarters of the Landless Workers Movement and try to schedule a meeting for tomorrow (meeting with these people is why I'm in Sao Paulo to begin with, and they don't "do" email, so I wasn't able to organize it from the states). This meeting is a pretty big deal in terms of my research, and so I'll be really happy if I can actually orchestrate it, and get a few questions that I'll have translated answered. Aside from that.....it's time for some "deep hanging out"
Ate logo!
David

when in the south...

do as the southerners do.

no, that doesn't mean eating grits and bacon, no not marrying your cousing either, but getting religion. Well, sort of. Feeling like i've been completely mired in the quagmire of phdom, i found an escape-the first existentialist church of atlanta. I kid you not. Yes, it is the first (and only) existentialist church in the world. And it's two blocks from our apartment. So this last sunday i donned my bicycle helmet and went in search of some good ol being and nothingness.

what did i find?

the First existentialist church is somehow tangentially related to the unitarian church. Big Surprise! The service was very much the same, although with even less framework, hard to believe i know. There were about twenty people in attendance. At every seat there was some sort of musical instrument, if tambourines and rattles count as musical instruments. The 'minister' was barefoot and the choir book was old hippie songs and bluegrass melodies.....

a very special sunday indeed.

For jota jota

Updated for your click click obsessive pleasure

Rats........X 2

Same song, many more fun verses. Well, Jo and I are almost all moved in, but luckily we are not for want of something to do as we have several infestations we are dealing with. The first are cockroaches (or woodroaches or 'palmetto bugs'). We discovered a few on our first night. However, it was when i started uncontrollably itching that i became aware something else was up. Now Jo hasn't gotten any special bites, but I have enough for both of us. So it's time for everybody's favorite game- that's right, name that skin disorder. Two points to whoever can identify whatever critter is leaving its mark on my ankles.

X 2

procrastination at its best.