Day3 - Brazil- The adventure August 21, 2009
Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise, Seeing the World Through Astronomy , trackbackOn Days 3 & 4, the meeting was in full swing. We took the metro down in the morning. This was AFTER our amazing breakfast. The staff at the hotel must be used to business travelers and adults because they treated our kids like royalty. Every morning they got bon bons and treats. a special french toast or waffle was brought out everyday with maple syrup. None of this cheap crap, but real maple syrup.
We braved the metro on the way home for Day 2, so we decided it wasn’t as scary as the tour books said it was. I had made a plan after the problems of the day before, and the girls and I were going to a Museum of national history. First, I had posters to view. If you’ve never been to an astronomical conference, they work like this: talks talks talks with poster breaks. A poster is a 3ft by 4 ft presentation of recent work. Our posters were still in transit which was a mistake by both Jay and I. We have made plans to fix that. Fortunately, they arrived Tuesday afternoon. In the mornings, I would wander the poster room, grab a snack, get the girls a snack and read posters. One of the groups had a TV with an astronomical cartoon playing. Something about Super X Ray. It was the same episode in a loop. The girls didn’t care. They sat there for 3-4 times in a row every day. Made it much easier for me to go around and get some science done.
When the talks started up again, I would take the girls on an adventure. This day was the museum. We got on the metro and rode down town. Then I followed our maps to the museum. The roads were great until about 2 blocks from the museum. Then they suddenly became walkways instead of roads with a plethora of homeless. I tried to keep the girls close without scaring them. Finally I explained that they needed to stay away from anyone "scruffy" looking. We talked about how they might be sick (mentally) and this may be why they live on the street. I explained that not everybody who lives on the street is sick, but some might be, so it would be better if they stayed with me. This opened up a large discussion about homelessness. I think I surprised the girls by letting them know that this was NOT exclusive to Brazil. They never realized that people in the USA could be without homes.
We finally got to the museum. I got the kids a coke and a coffee for me and then discovered they wouldn’t take my R$50 bill because it was too big. i was able to scrounge up R$4.50 for a R$6 bill. They let me have it for that amount. We snacked and continued our conversation and visited the museum. Have I ever mentioned my kids are weird? They LOVED the museum. LOVED IT. I would have never thought that. We took photos (don’t ask..please?)* we watched movies, we learned about the sugar cane farming and the slaves and how the King of Portugal moved to Brazil when Napoleon took over, it was cool! We played with the fountain and I taught the girls about oxidation(the cannons were green and rust. I got to explain the oxidation process and how things changed color).
I was able to break my R$50 to get in the museum, so I took the change and we went back to the cafe. I got us a cake to split. I tried to pay them the money I owed them, but the owner wouldn’t let me. How wonderful. Then I screwed up. I took the wrong road back to the metro and ended up going down a street that had many homeless sleeping on the sidewalks. I then had to explain how it was safer for those men to sleep during the day than during the night. Very sad for me. Then we passed a port-a-potty that had overflowed and a shirt that was covered with…well you can imagine that! Soleil wanted to understand why there seemed to be more poor people in Brazil. We had a long discussion about socio-economic classes. In terms that a 5 & 7 year old could understand. The hardest part was trying to explain that people just don’t give their money out to other people. I mean we do donate things, but not to the point where everyone has a home and is healthy. Sigh…social injustice. How do you explain THAT?
To be honest, I was very proud of myself. Many people, including my MIL, were terrified that the kids would be injured, kidnapped or killed in Rio. We saw some pretty harsh stuff, mostly on this one day, but really? the people were amazing. They were caring and loving. Many people would pat the children on the head. So many people let me flounder with my bad Portuguese and explained what I needed in slow terms so I could almost understand it. There were only two times I didn’t feel safe in Rio. And this day was not one of those two times.
*SHUT UP! Jay has the photos on a USB stick and I keep forgetting to get them from him. I am an idiot
**$R is a real (pronounced HE-al with a hard H) This is the currency in Brazil and is about $0.50 American.
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