Hello All!!!
It was weird, not writing a blog last week, giving control over to Becky, I wasn't sure that I liked someone else having control of my blog, but seeing as I received so many positive complements about Beckys blog, perhaps I should just let her write it from now on... Well we all know that's not going to happen, but I thought I would just say it anyway. Thank you for letting me know that you enjoy reading the blog, it helps with the writing of it late on a Sunday night.
This week was a really relaxed week. There was a day off in the middle, and it really worked to break up the week, and gave us some resting time. I had several long afternoon naps, that usually found me grumpier after I woke up then was completely necessary. The midday heat in Recife doesn't make for great naps, or peaceful dreams. Because of the easiness of this past week, workwise, I have not much to tell you about the project. It feels a little stagnant, but at the same time, every day that I go in, another wall has been painted, and another lot of trash has been moved and little things like that brighten up my day no end.
Because of the lack of specific exciting events to tell you about, I thought that I would maybe share thoughts about the city with you. Recife is so much like every other city that you might have been in, but at the same time it's very different to any of the ones that I've seen. Because of the diverse population and amazingly fluctuating social classes there are pockets of poverty and pockets of richness and you really are never sure where you are or how you are meant to react to anything, which is in fact really very helpful for keeping you open to all sorts of things. For example, the main shopping mall, called, inventively; Shopping Recife, is full of shops where the clothes that you can buy are more expensive than getting them in the UK, but shopping Recife is surrounded by a Favela with extreme poverty. It feels like walking through a timeportal or something similarly scifi when going between the two.
Everywhere in Recife there are half built buildings or buildings in repair, buildings that are falling to pieces, buildings that cannot be inhabitable, but are none the less inhabited, and if you look at it in a certain light it can feel a little much, a little too, post apocalyptic. The poor areas make you want to leave really quickly, but stepping into the rich areas makes you want to throw up a little and slap all the people that appear overly smug in their wealth. But it's all really a question of relativity. The rich are considered lucky, and consider themselves so, and the poor are considered unlucky (not lazy or good for nothing, just unlucky) and they also treat themselves as such. The thing is, that when the sun sets over Recife, it all turns into something beautiful. Something really quite alive. I love loooking over the markets in either Afogados or Cavaleiro just as the sun is setting, and seeing all the amazing fruit and veg, hearing all the music and watching everyone enjoying themselves, because that's what people have seemed to learn here, how to enjoy themselves.
Or, on a sunny cloudless day, when the heat hasn't driven everyone inside, you can walk around out neighbourhood, and notice how the sun lights up all the houses that have been painted in all shades of the rainbow, the things that seem tatty and worn out on a cloudy day all of a sudden feel more alive and more lived in and more precious when people are sat outside their houses gossiping, or the kids are flying their kites (how they can even see where those kites are, I have no idea, foreign concept to me, the whole kite flying business), or the old men making music on washboards and glassbottles, it all seems a little like you are in a dream world where everything is always going to be ok, forever. It's a nice feeling.
Well, hopefully that wasn't too flowery for the general population. I am beginning to see the beauty of the city around me more and more these days, I think it must mean that I have a little crush on Recife.
The next couple of months (until mid-august really) are going to be rather busy, so I'm sure that by next week I'll have something or other work related to rant about. So if you've missed that, don't worry, it's-a-coming.
On a very personal note, I would just like to mention that I currently do not have enough support to last me two years out here, and now that I have fallen for my project, for the city and for our children, I would very much like to be able to stay out here for that amount of time, and if you have the ability I would like to ask that you support me with whatever you can, prayerfully primarily but financial support is needed as well. Especially those who are able to donate monthly, but one off donations support the same cause. If this is something that you feel you are able to do, please do get in contact with me, or visit my justgiving site.
emma.hietanen@gmail.com
I got goosebumps reading about your love for a city that you have only been in a few months...thats a great way to be. Make sure you continue to take in everything and take nothing for granted as you might only see it once! Keep blogging, its my monday delight.
ReplyDeleteCaroline xx