Funland at the Beach

Yeah, I've been slacking off, I know I know.

Anyway, I guess my big news is ISP-related. I now have a very concrete question (though I'm not sure it's quite at the problem phase yet – I need to refine it slightly more). From my topic of EMAÚS, I've moved to the network of social groups in Recife which EMAÚS is among the most major of, which has a pretty fascinating structure. The key point for me is that these organisations are put together around philosophical frameworks, rather than a simple “this is what we do”. Instead, they take an organic approach to organisational development, using applied philosophy as a primary element of their strategy. This is very interesting to me, since I've been to move beyond the practically useless irresolvable arguments of epistemology and determinism and so on which fill most philosophy classes and this helps me both apply philosophy in a constructive way and think of useful strategies for what I feel is important. This way, when I get back, I'll hopefully have learned enough about how to work on social change to do more than just be an angry young man, but we'll see about that. Regardless, I'm very happy with my topic, and it seems like our professor for this current FSS segment, Eduardo Oliveira, is likely to be my supervisor, which is great news. Eduardo is this incredible educator, philosopher, capoerista, anthropologist, radical, and more. He's one of the three people (along with Gilano, who I mentioned before, and Zé, who I'm still writing about) we've met so far that I just feel like I'd like to either be or be an adherent to. So yeah, I'm happy with the way my ISP is shaping up.

The biggest other thing that's happened recently is significantly less academic. This weekend, fellow program participant Mike and I went to his parents' (my aunt and uncle) house at Taíba, a beach town about 70 km outside of Fortaleza. We arrived there at night, which certainly changed my first impression. We passed by the town and into the outskirts with without me seeing much, so the first thing I really saw was an unpaved road through an almost completely empty field of sandy soil, with incredibly high winds and a few donkeys and dogs roaming the streets we passed through. It seemed pretty off the beaten track. The house was nice enough, and walking down to the water (maybe five minutes) with Mike, Cleyton, and his girlfriend Priscilla was quite beautiful.

We didn't swim that night – not in the ocean, at least, since it's a little rough and we didn't want to risk anything at night. Instead we hung around the house and took a very short swim in the freshwater pool at the house, which is mainly used for washing off salt and sand. The swim was short because the windchill was unbeleivable. It honestly felt at least 10 degrees colder there than in the city, even though the actual temperature is about the same. So in order not to freeze, we only swam for a few minutes – but long enough for me to hang my swimsuit up since it was wet. However, I hung it on a hook outside, and when I woke up (from my very comfortable hammock) it was gone – and I didn't manage to find it. That's how intense the wind was. Regardless, I borrowed some athletic shorts from Cleyton, and went swimming for real. It was very nice – the Atlantic is very warm there, and has smallish waves that are a lot of fun. After a while on the beach, we decided to walk a while to Taíba proper. What I saw surprised me. Rather than the remote, impoverished fishing town I imagined from the wasteland around the house, it was almost a picture of stereotypical tropical, cultureless tourism. Palm trees, fancy beachside cafes and little hotels, inflated prices, Italians and Portuguese everywhere – it was a bit surreal. I don't know if it's that Brazilian beach towns are the prototype for that kind of tourism or it was totally transformed, but it really felt like a centre of cultural subordination, and it gave me the creeps. Sure, it was pretty and we walked around a while, but I was just as glad to head back to the wasteland myself.

The afternoon was pretty chill – eat lunch, hang around, swim a little, get a drink in a local place, head back. It was a good ending to an enjoyable, but ultimately quite strange, day and change.

Coming up, I'm going to be visiting the MST (landless peasants' movement) for a few days. It'll be fascinating, but I'll lack net access. Oh well, you'll just have to wait longer.