Wednesday 2019_01_23

Well, today has been interesting and positive! This post is called ‘stinky’ because today was very hot.

statue in a metro station

In the morning, Hugo, Leandro and I met with Júlia Carvalho, Lays Morimoto and Thays Esaú of Fast Food da Política. They work to explain and hence increase participation in Brazilian politics via games. I got to see two of these.

• The first invites players to arrange trapezoidal cards stating the roles (and associated buildings) of the federal-, state- and city-level executives, legislatives and judiciaries into a contiguous whole. (This isn’t easy if you don’t speak Portuguese!) On the the reverse of each card is an example of relevant powers and duties. Júlia, Lays and Thays said this game is their way of tackling wide-ranging ignorance of how Brazil’s democratic system works.
• The second invites players to put into chronological order when Brazil enacted various human rights laws. To make things more challenging, and to spur thought, some law-cards show laws that aren’t (yet) made but might be considered ‘missing in action’. I can’t recall whether these are existing or ‘MIA’ laws but I was horrified by two cards:
  • a law against considering women who have had sex before marriage to be dishonourable
  • a law permitting women to have bank accounts even if their husbands are against this.

Outside the meeting, I was struck by the large number of shops selling material and textiles in this area. Renato’s explanation is that between them, such shops sell a massive range of similar products. So if anyone wants to buy such products, he or she will come here, so each shop is likely to make some sales. If they each existed in a separate hinterland to minimise competition or try for a monopoly, people might be less likely to visit. I realise also that to encourage visits, isolated shops would need to stock everything, thus adding to their cost of sales.

Leandro, Thays, some stage-crashing old bugger, Júlia, Lays and Hugo

 Afterwards, Renato picked up me, Leandro and Hugo, and drove us to USP Leste to meet with Professor Úrsula Dias Peres and some of her colleagues and students. Again, there was a free-flowing conversation, swapping ideas and learning. I’ve not yet written up my notes from this meeting so there is little I can say just now about it. However, I believe I’ve flown the flag for Napier – one of Profa Úrsula’s students asked me about studying for an MSc at Napier!

Renato drove us back to Faria Lima so Hugo and Leandro could get home via the metro. I have to admit I crashed out for a while – it had been a full-on day after too little sleep. Once I’d resurfaced, I spent a couple of hours on Napier and LeithChooses work, then realised I was hungry. I didn’t want to eat at the hotel’s bar again. While they are nice, I’m a little bored with my hotel’s rice and beans.

Google Maps found me POP, a vegan pizzeria a few stops up the yellow metro line. I’m slightly amused that it’s just off Rua Haddock Lobo, which appears to mean ‘street of the fish-woIf’.

Anyway, I heartily recommend POP, especially their a la carte option which allows you to have up to three types of pizza (two slices of each flavour, making up a thick and tasty 18″ gut-buster!

I needed food sooner than I needed a photo.

I had

• Jardineira (Fresh tomato sauce, Catupop, seasoned tomato, cherry tomatoes, chopped heart of palm, fried garlic, oregano and black olives);
• Quatro Queijos (Fresh Tomato Sauce, Tomato Plates, Catupop, Vegapop, NoMoo Chestnut Mozzarella Cheese, Peanut Parmesan, Oregano, and Black Olive);
• Portuguesa (Fresh tomato sauce, sliced smoked vegetable ham, caramelized onion, peas, Vegapop, oregano and black olives)

They were all fab, but the Portuguesa was the best, in my opinion. By the time the huge amount of pizza had defeated me, it was well after 11pm, so I swayed back to my hotel via the metro. Gently revolving nighty-night!