Wednesday 17 July 2002
The next morning we woke up a bit dazed after having slept in a nice double bed. Claudia was already in the kitchen making breakfast for us, quite a contrast to our previous mornings in Peru and Bolivia.
Gui was at work, but he had arrange the coming days off in order to bring us all to their beach house for the weekend. That sounded like a great arrangement.
This day was mainly for relaxing and shopping for the weekend. We followed Claudia to the market, the shopping mall and she took us for a walk in one of the tennis clubs, where they have membership. Tennis is serious matter for Gui who plays at a high level. Claudia uses mostly the aerobic facilities and enjoys the social network in the clubs.
The Sao Paulo province is the more wealthy part of Brazil and highly influenced by Italian and German immigrants. The people here actually relate more to the Italian than the Portuguese mind, when describing them. The similarity to Europe can be seen in different ways. Like in Europe, the focus on environmental issues is serious. The kids have actually a subject at school called "Ecology" and along the beaches we saw signs encouraging people to take care of the environment. We didn't expect to see that kind of nature care, but felt very well about it.
Brazil is still old-fashioned in other areas. The women are not paid well compared to men, despite education and occupation. Claudia didn't care to work, as the salary is very poor. She cleans and makes food and took care of the kids, when they were small. She told us that this was uncommon for wealthy households in Brazil. Usually a nanny and a maid are hired even if the wife is unemployed. Other women actually find it a bit weird that Claudia cleans the house herself.
The difference between rich and poor was obvious. In the neighborhood where Claudia and Gui live, the families had established a 24-hour guard together. Whenever they had to open the gate to get in or out with their car, a young guy on motorcycle kept an eye on them for security.
They actually thought about moving into a condominium, where the entire neighborhood was surrounded by walls and with a permanent guard at the entrance. We saw more of these condominiums and didn't really like the idea, but when crime is severe this might be the only secure way to live.