Sunsets are Girls Colors!

At times, we have pretty deep and interesting conversations in our house. My 3 and half boy has been asking me why he is not a girl, and when he will be one. I have tried to explain to him that he is what he is, yet he comes back regularly with the question. When I ask him why, he tells me it is because he wants to wear skirt and dresses. These are pretty, he says.
So after repeated pleas, mommy went out and procured him the simplest, straightest, frilly-less one. He obviously insisted on wearing it to school the next day. I cringed but decided to let him have his own learning experiences. And I also assumed that his little classmates could not really be too mean towards his difference.
Later that week, my boy's teacher took on to help him understand what is socially acceptable, afraid he would eventually get bullied. She conducted activities in class talking about what is appropriate for each sex, in terms of clothing.
I am not yet convinced it was the way to go - ingraining him with a very "sexist" and binary view of what is right or wrong, of what is acceptable - and not embracing his desire to dress as he pleased, not embracing who he is. In any cases, he is no longer talking about dresses and skirts. And the other day, when me and his brother we were talking about the colors of the sunset - yellow, purple, pink - he plainly said: "these are girl colors!"

An Invitation to Collaborate

I felt very grateful when I was invited to meet some local architects. The friend who invited thought as a Canadian architect, I could contribute to an international design competition. A multidisciplinary team is designing an entry for a new modular lab for the Brazilian Antarctica station. In 2012, the Ferrante site burnt down. Today Brazil intends to rebuilt the station entirely, with some environmental requirements, as it would be expected for such location. The competition is sponsored by the the Brazilian navy and the Institute of Brazilian Architects.
Quite an interesting program indeed. Modularity. Cold climate. Extreme conditions. All things that are interesting to me.

The group was really welcoming, it was very nice to attend a few meetings all held in Portuguesse. Just that feels like some kind of accomplishment for me. I'll write more about the language later. 
It was nice to be back at the designing table, and to experience again the joy of doodling and discussing ideas. The group is composed of mostly young professionals, and headed by a couple and the wife's dad. He and his son-in-law own a small firm in Lago Sul. And they have put together a team of energetic young professionals motivated to win this competition. Here is an image of the final entry.

In the end, they were doing what most architects do when working on a competition: working at night and over the weekends. On a schedule that is just not compatible with my own. So I just could not really integrate the team. But it was nice for a few meetings to exchange ideas over a sketch paper.
In the end, another team won the competition (here is the winning entry). What is interesting is that we tried something similar to this form...

Seder

Juggling this religion multiplicity in a multicultural family and environment is a balancing act. And at times there are friends or organizations who are able to provide a lifeline, making the exercise one that is meaningful and fun.

Here it is where we celebrated the best Seder with another mixed faith family. The selections of songs came from a american kids book, and we measured our success when my boys were caught signing the songs in the car the next day! My big boy also loved the fast track approach, making the entire meal a rather pleasant one. 

A special lunch

I invited my girlfriends around this afternoon to surprise and celebrate together the birthday of one of us. It is always a good excuse to cook, eat loads and to drink wine before dinner time.
It was specially nice that what started as a lunch ended up transforming itself into a gathering where friends fluctuated in and out, returning after an errand, or with their kids just released from school. A vibration of happiness radiating in our home.

I guess it is not mine

Here in Brazil, there are things I cannot hold.  Time is a commodity that is elastic, ever-expanding and without limits. It is really hard to imagine something like this when we are outside Brazil. Even for us who lived in places supposedly "less hectic " or more "laid back" such as Africa. That, combined to a real love for useless administrative procedures and paperwork, you are well served.
What does it means in practical terms?

• It means that a person who tells you that he will come at your place (to fix something, to deliver something) might show up 3 hours late. Or 2 days later. Even 3 weeks later. Yes it happened to me. 
• It means that if you call to inquire about their delay, people tell you they are coming, and still never show up.
• It means that, at the grocery, in the Express line, you are bound to take longer than the other lines. I mean, other normal lines in other countries. If there would be such things as cashier speed competitions.
• It means that the cashier might stop in the middle of your transaction to discuss holidays or other important issues with her supervisor.
• It means that while you wait at the cashier of the hyper/super/normal market you can make friends with your fellow consumers waiting with you.
• It means that if you stand in line at the cashier, the person in front of you might as well go back to her car pick up her wallet she forgot while the cashier (and you) patiently keep waiting for her to return to complete the transaction.
• It means that the person in front of you in line might not become your friend after all.
• It means that if you go take an appointment to the dentist, and need to see the hygienist, the secretary will offer you two different times on two different days, with no understanding of what you are trying to ask for when you say you want to see them at the same time - meaning the same day.
• It means that if you ask your staff to do something, it might get done, but certainly not right away.
• It means that if you buy something and you need to return it, you might have to go through a loop of a few counters, papers and wait before being able to retrieve your money. If.
• It means that if buy things that need to be picked up in the store room, you are bound to wait for a few minutes. And that if the person at the counter is also the one fetching things for you, you are bound for an even longer wait.
• It means that when it is a national holiday it is a really bad occasion to do what all Brazilian are doing, whether it is going to the beach, take the plane or rent a car. The later two specially as they involve waiting in line.
• It means that if you go to a show, you might see it the next day. I swear, it happened to us last nigth! (see below).
• It means that if you imagine completing a number of errants in the morning, you are bound for failure, either because they are out of the specifics (how can a city be out of red onions?), because you wait at the cash (read above), or because you can't find parking (always). Combine the three in various order of importance and multiply by the number of errants = FAIL.
• It means banks only open at 11 and close at 4. And that after 3 there are a number of transactions that cannot be done anymore. 
• It means that if you go to the bank you might half of their opening hours to complete all your transactions. (I will write a full post on banking very soon). 
• It means that if you are invited to a party (specially a birthday party) and you arrive 30 minutes late, you might be the first one.
• It means that if you invite people home, if they are Brazilian, they might come with more than one hour late. They might also come with other unannounced friends.
• It means that if you invite expat guests they might come one time, a bit late or very late, and it is impossible to know. The same when you are invited to an expat dinner. How late should we come to not be the firsts ones to arrive?

• It means that you might see the repair guy that you waited for all morning arriving when you are just getting out to fetch the kids from school, and that you can tell him to wait just a few 15-20 minutes. And that when you return 40 minutes later, he is still there waiting for you. That is when I love Brazil.

This is us patiently waiting for Seu Jorge's show to start. The artist, scheduled for 10 PM did not show up until 1:45 AM. By that time we were leaving to release our babysitter.

The Veadeiros

So we headed with some friends to one of the best natural attraction near Brasilia, the Chapada (plateau) dos Veadeiros. There is a national park listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 2001, with a huge number of waterfalls, natural basins and  pools. An even greater number are accessible from private properties.
We landed in the Vale da Lua, a valley with strange rock formation.
With us, two other couples and their kids, and Antoine, our photographer friend. We stayed in this very interesting house, a circular house with a round oculus... Roof out of dried palm, rammed earth walls, open loft for sleeping all the kids. A lush garden. And the hosts were very creative in their cooking. (Amazingly they would travel a mere 220 km to Brasilia weekly to do some of their errants).  And very relax place to be.


With Antoine I was supposed to do a small photo training. Here are a few shots of my most photogenic subject of the weekend. Unfortunately a portion of my inspiration and energies were sapped by a very intense allergic reaction to this superb house. Slowly. And to wake up like a complete rag the last morning and beg for forgiveness as we headed back half a day early...

Getting out of Brasilia

We drove out of Brasilia into the state of Goias. I am posting these pictures gathered on our way to our weekend destination, and back. I love these landscapes with these amazing clouds - they make me feel like I want to paint them. And I just want to roll myself in the wheat. Or the soja.

A Few Facades

I really like taking photos of the facades of the housing blocs here. Maybe one day if I have time I will make a compilation. Not sure why I find so inspiring - in fact they are repetitive, grey, damaged, and certainly lacking a certain expression of intimacy housing should provide... In any cases, I guess the lover of straight lines, of order and simplicity in me still finds some kind of beauty in these.

The Feiria

There are some things that we take for granted. For example, our phones. Aren't they some kind of magic tool, able to tell us where we are, give us indication of where to go, translate, record, memorize, play mind games (or craft), appease the monster next to us, connect us with friends via email, facebook and texts, beyond just the plain phone call?  So when they brake we are in trouble.
Over the last week, my ipad screen broke, Paul's cell phone screen cracked, my own cell phone stop hearing what I said. And my old iphone (a.k.a Emmanuel's own play device) appeared completely dead. So we were in deep trouble.
In China, I was fond of all those geek markets, where I could find free advice and fun technical gizmos for my apple gear. I could bargain my phone repairs and get things done over a bowl of noodle, and it was really not too far from home. These typically were huge, sometimes as much as 4 floors of computer and electronic devices only, plus all sorts of related services.
Here there is the Feiria dos Importados. It used to be known as the Mercado do Paraguay, but maybe because it is flooded with Chinese stuff it was renamed at some point. It is sitting at the extreme south of the Plano Piloto, and from our house, with the proper highway it takes about 20 to 25 min to reach.
The Feiria is a group of small stalls under some gigantic roof. All stalls are grouped in blocs of four back to one another, and a large number of them are grouped in 4 "quadras" or neighborhoods (to take the name from Brasilia city planning). The numbering system of these stall is far from being orderly, A345 sitting next to A215.
And the Feiria here is not only for the computer geek in you. It is a mismatch similar to Beijing's markets: clothing, sport gear, shoes, fishing and pet food, kitchen ware. And repair shops of all kinds, and electronics too. Anything you can imagine in fact. But with no specific order. And with real Brazilian prices.

After unsuccessfully attempting to get my devices serviced in a stall or two, I found him at the end of the maze of stalls, in a tiny booth of probably 2 square meters. I discovered Rogerio. The magician. He is the kind of guy that can fix anything. Anything. The simplest problems - broken screens or stucked buttons - are repaired rather quickly - maybe 20 to 30 minutes. He is also excellent with more complicated things.  My old iphone needed a few fixes that nobody else wanted to do, but upon opening it he just didn't hesitated and explained what needed to be done.

So at first, I took a slip and assumed that the date given would mean work done. Neihg. Nope, Not. The winning combination between "Brazil laidback mode" + "His stall filled with phones waiting to be repaired". When I was back I realized there was at least 3 other men waiting for him to do the work. But I had to rush, and was promised another date. Twice.
In the end, I dragged my kids there and just waited in front of his booth. It was the only way to get the work completed.
In the process, my kids befriended about anyone around Rogerio's stall. I assume that waiting for 4 hours is enough time to meet someone!

By the way, with his little business, the guy is able to support a family of 8 kids...