Global Girl

In college, I wrote my senior paper on favela tourism (see my post about it here.) For the paper, I read a lot of articles by Bianca Freire-Medeiros, the principal scholar on the subject. Last summer, when I was in Rio, I just so happened to meet her and her research team. They were great and inspiring people.

At the time, they were researching voluntourism, which I participated in with Iko Poran in the summer of 2007. So, I did an interview for them at Fundação Getúlio Vargas’ CPDOC. Also, Bianca gave me a signed copy of her recent book on favela tourism!

This all happened months ago, back when life seemed so much more footloose and fancy free without graduate school weighing me down. (I say this in the utmost respect for school, however, at this current point in the semester I just want it to be done!)  Today, I got an email that just made my day! It was from Bianca Freire-Medeiros. She spent the last few months doing post-doctoral research in Lancaster with John Urry. Before she returned to Rio, the University of Bristol invited her to give a talk about favela tourism. She wrote to me to tell me that the piece that they gave their students to read in preparation for her lecture was my blog post about favela tourism! It’s a small world.

It goes to show that writing a little blog about things that we care about can make little differences and reach surprising audiences around the world.

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With Rio de Janeiro winning the 2016 Olympics, many are becoming more curious about the city, which includes the (in)famous favelas. However, it is incredibly hard to get accurate and unbiased information.  (What is accurate, anyway? No one community is the same, and so what is “accurate” in one place may be totally wrong in another.)

O Morrinho is an art project that can enlighten you about life in a favela of Rio de Janeiro, and it is a story that is told from those who live there, not an outsider’s view.

O Morrinho will be screening its documentary, Deus Sabe Tudo Mas Não é X9, (or in English God Knows Everything But is Not a Snitch). It will show on October 22, at 6:30pm as part of Georgetown Center for Latin American Study’s “DC Film Showcase from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.“

For everybody that has read my posts about favela tourism and O Morrinho, you have heard about O Morrinho and their documentary film. For those that haven’t read my posts, well you should read them! (Hey, a little shameless advertising for myself never hurt ).

If you want to learn more about O Morrinho, check out their new website here and their twitter here.

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Why This Generation Y Talk:

Global Girl, embracing my "Gen-Y-ness"

I recently joined a new group called Brazen Careerists. It is a great blog community talking about the new challenges and innovative solutions that Generation Y (born between 1977 – 1998) has brought to the table. In Brazen Careerists there are tons of groups for people of all types. With half my life currently existing in Brazil over the last few years, I joined the Brazil group.

I met Eline Kullock through this group. Eline has a blog “Foco em Gerações” and runs a business helping large firms hire, among others, Generation Y’ers. She recently asked me how I viewed the generation gap in Brazil versus the United States. This was a challenge because it is hard to describe generation gaps in another country where one hasn’t experienced the changes of generations first hand, but she sparked my interest.

I decided to write how I see the generation gap in the United States, and then make some commentaries on how this might be different in Brazil. I welcome everyone to add in their two-cents, correct me if I have perceived something with which you don’t agree, and let me know what you think!

The Legacy of “When You Grow up You Can be Anything you Want:”

Many people have talked about how my generation is so different because of technology. People have also commented on how we are more progressive, we are more accepting,  and that we are less patient (“We are the NOW generation”). I believe that all these characteristics describe our generation well, but I would say what has truly  distinguished my generation comes from a simple phrase that has strongly marked our childhood:
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A Global Girl Flashback: Experiences as a “Voluntourist”

Today, I was checking out the twitter accounts that I follow, and I saw that Observatório de Favelas had posted a link saying that one of their projects, Imagens do Povo, was on RJ TV  yesterday (TV Globo’s local Rio de Janeiro news program). The tweet reminded me that I have never talked about my first experiences with Rio de Janeiro, which was through a voluntourism project where I volunteered with Imagens do Povo. I had an interesting experience and learned a lot of lessons about myself and about volunteering, and so I thought I would share them with you all.

You all should definitely check out the story about Imagens do Povo on RJTV.

Imagens do Povo

My first experience in Rio de Janeiro was the experience that I gained through volunteering with Imagens do Povo. This organization is a department of Observatório de Favelas that works to turn communication into a right accessible to all by teaching people of the favelas photograph. Through photography these communities can become empowered by having the opportunity to actively express their own perspectives and visions through art instead of simply being the victim to mainstream media. Continue Reading…

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This post is a follow up from a post about how I don’t particularly care to be a “gringo.” I suspect that part of the problem with being a foreigner is that I am a United Statesian. (There really needs to be a better word).

As the US culture spreads througout the world, people form strong opinions about the “image” of the United States. These unpleasent feelings towards the United States were cetainly worse when Bush was presidency, but even after Obama I still feel there are hard feelings.

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This post comes from a follow up on the “Unspoken Gringo Contest” post from a few days ago. Writing that post brought up some important and thought provoking questions for us travelers who often don’t feel like they are tourists but rather taking advantage of the  new experiences brought about by the fact that the world is becoming smaller with less defined borders.

When traveling, should one “When in Rome, do as the Romans?” or remain exactly the same as one would act in the country where one normally lives?

I generally fall in when in Rome category, but am I denying my roots and not being true to myself? Or am I just genuinely trying to take advantage of the new opportunities, one of which is eating different food, dressing differently, going out to different places, etc?

I have known girls to fit in the category, “I am an American and proud of it. I am going to wear my college windbreaker, tennis shoes, and running shorts no matter how fancy the places we are going are and how classy the locals dress.”

I guess as the world becomes more and more global we wont have to worry about this question anymore. But to tell you the truth, I like to take on a different world and different feel while I am in a different country. So for the time being, I am going to live the mantra, “When in Rio, do as the Cariocas…”

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