Hare Krsna!

Bom dia!

So, here I am again.

I’ll tell you now my experience with the Krisna-Fanatic and how Priscilla just wanted to have some days for Yoga.

Priscilla is a girl from Sao Paolo. She was doing holiday in Recife before, and came to Alto Paraiso to relax a bit and make some yoga after a week of party. 

So, on Sunday of the last week, we (Lu, Grabriella, Gleide and I) went to this place in Alto Paraiso for our field work. Beautiful place and a great position to place a "Spiritual Center"! The houses are made of wood; they look like small houses, with two floors. Small but charming. There is also a small temple, with an altar were the statues of the god are placed (I remember just the names of two: Lord Catanya and Lord Nityananda). In one of the houses they also have two kitchens, one to cook for the god and one for our food... We ate on the floor, on small tables, sitting on pillows. But, apparently, this was already luxury (maybe I should use another word, otherwise Krsna will get mad... But I'll explain later on..) as Priscilla told us that they used to eat on banana leaves on the floor before we arrived.

What I didn't expect was defenitively the change of temperature. It was "much" colder there! Fortunately I packed as if I would go to Holidays for a week, so that I had enough stuff to stratify. :-)

However, let's come back to the interesting part...

As we arrived, we met this woman, A. She's a devote of Krsna and she's there to introduce people into Krsna consciousness and practice with other devotes their rituals. She told me that one of the main goals of a devote is to convert other people into Krsna's consciousness... The similarity to the begin of the Crusades is not far...

Anyway, when we arrived, she seemed to be a, very, very, very (multiplicate this very other 10 times, at least) religious woman, but very nice and in peace with herself. She offered us to participate to the rituals and to have an insight to their traditions. We were glad to accept: it's always nice to know something new!

So, that evening we had our first ritual. She explained us that before we could eat anything, we had to offer it to Krsna. This means that they put a plate in front of the god’s statues and they make a whole ritual to wake them up, to give them some air (because of the heat), some water (also because of the heat) and some flowers. Very interesting so far! In fact they have to offer everything to the god, before they want to eat or drink it. This means that also for a simple glass of water, they have to do this ritual! 

She also explained us that Krsna has divided itself in 5 forces, and that Krsna has many different names. The main activity of the rituals is to chant prayers, to read some chapters from the Bhagavad Gita and to discuss about their meaning. Then they have to chant at least 108 times “Hare Krisna, Hare Krisna; Krisna Krisna; Hare Hare; Hare Rama; Hare Rama, Rama Rama; Hare Hare” counting beans. They usually have their first ritual at 6.00 in the morning. Who knows me, knows that I have jumped this part.. J

The main message I’ve got from the rituals is that life on earth is like a punition for those who turned their faces away from Krisna. So, we are here in this material world, to gain our spiritual life back. In fact, the most a spirit gets detached from Krisna, the worse body he will get on this world. For e.g. to be a dog is very bad. However, the worst thing remains to be an atheist person who does not believe in any God. She also said that our preferences in this life may affect our reincarnation of the next life. So she made the example of people who love sex: in their next life they may become pigeons, as these have sex continuously. For Krsna’s devotes, the material world and the senses make us blind for real spiritual life. For this reason, luxury (which also includes sex, which should be done only to have Kids), egoism and angry are the three doors which lead us to the evil.

They also believe in how food can influence our mode. There are three modes: the mode of good, the mode of passion and the mode of ignorance. For e.g., juicy and fatty foods are “good” foods; spicy and salty foods are foods of the mode of passion and stale and putrid ones are foods of the mode of ignorance. They also belive that in the morning people are mainly in the mode of good, while over the day they accumulate influences from the material world, so that in the evening the mode of ignorance is predominant. In fact, she said that to be sleepy and to sleep is part of the mode of ignorance. I just told her that I think that to sleep is great and very important…

She also told us that people that get into spiritual life, they gain like pluses. A first stop on the way back to Krsna is the moon. They believe that higher spirits live there, in a beautiful place with beautiful gardens, etc etc. When I heard that, I really thought “So, you’re wasting your time singing Hare Krsna from 6 am until the night only to get to the moon… Go to the NASA, it’s easier!”

Anyway, so far everything was very interesting. You can agree or not to what they believe.

It started to be a bit weird when A. started to try to convert me and Luciola to Krsna consciousness… She kept on saying that we would be great devotes, and so on. At a certain point I told her, that I actually don’t believe n God. She looked at me, and I swear, if a look could kill, I would be death now!

Things became weirder when she talked about the fact that she wants to open her own Center to make a lot of money. What was the thing about luxury and the evil again?! J There were so many contradictions: a lesbian woman that affirms that sex should only be practiced to create new life is not very reliable.. There were so many funny moments in these days. But at the end I really felt pity for this woman, that seems to hold herself on this believe with all her force to not fall.

I also felt pity for Priscilla: when she arrived to that place, she had no idea that it was a “Krsna-Center”. In fact she just wanted to practice some yoga, sleep and relax. A. told her hat yoga is not good and forced her to wake up every morning at something like 5am (the devotes have to take a bath before doing anything), to serve the God and to do almost everything for her (and of course, for Krsna). She also told us that once they went with a group of people to a cascade. Priscilla thought “yeah, a bit of air, finally”. The trip became kind of interesting when A. started to dance and sing “Hare Krsna” in the middle of the cascade, animating the other visitants to join her… She wanted to die! J I hope she will write a book about her week with Krsna! 


Anyway I really appreciated this time. I still think that religion is here for people that need to believe in something to be strong in times when life is not going as it should. As long as they don’t try to force other people to believe in the same thing, everything is fine. They have some good points, and some other which I find completely absurd. However I’m still in love with this material world, and I would not want to give away one of my senses to gain some spiritual life! I still think that our “spiritual life” is strictly connected to our senses. How would we be able to think without any inputs from this amazing world?! I cannot imagine something more beautiful than to enjoy all the emotions we get from our environment.

Pots, Field and Krsna

Oi mi queridos!!!!

Me desculpem, há muito tempo que eu não posso escrever!
So, I'm now here since already three weeks, and I'm still in love with this country! It's sooo beautiful here!
Right now I'm overfilled with work, so I had no time to write you. And, I also don't have internet anymore in my house... I thought it would be too beautiful to be true... Well, it isn't! ;-)
If you're asking yourselves how my work is going: it is going great! It's now two weeks ago that we planted more or less 1000 plants in 320 pots. With a lot of love and good energy, we have now a balance of only 3 plants to be replaced! Luciola told me that this is very unusual, as usually Cerrado plants are very difficult to keep in a greenhouse, so that high mortality rates were expected. We're both happy that everything is going so well, so far!
We also started our field experiment, which consist in taking plants (with their roots) from different sites in the Cerrado vegetation. At the end we will compare soil and plant proprieties between sites were endangered plant species occur and were invasive (alien) species occur. It's a hard work, but the nature here, which is  Savanna, is wonderful! The only problem is that we have to analyze the samples right after the collection, which means that we have very long days of work.
However the last days were an exception: we were in Alto Paraiso, an area a bit outside from Brasilia.
There we had to stay in a Hotel in the middle of  Nonwhere. Actually, it is not really a Hotel, it's more a place were people can retire to practice spiritual rituals. In fact it is a "Hare Krsna" pousada... Normally no Guru is there, but, luckely, or maybe not, when we got there (Me, Luciola, and two students: Gabriella and Gleide) there was an american woman welcoming us, wearing a sari and having a golden symbol on her front.
Well, this was the begin of a few very weird days...
Unfortunately, I have to go back to my samples now, but as soon as I can, I'll tell you about my "Hare Krsna Days".
;-)

Foooood!

As I already said, the food here is great. I have always nice fruits in my kitchen, most of which I collected my self. For example there is a fruit called Jaca. A huge green fruit with spikes. I heard that it is very nice, so I wanted to try it. The problem is that I had no idea how to recognize a mature fruit and how to get it, as the trees can be very high. Typical for me, I just asked the first person I met on the street to help me. It was a woman that told me that she's not experienced enough, so she addressed me to a guy that has a shop/bar in the neighborhood. As I'm a foreigner, all the people sitting in the bar get involved in my fruit mission. I finally came back with two huge Jacas and some Jeni papo (a small round fruit, of the size of a Guava, very sour and apparently good for the throat), with no idea how to eat them. I just asked if I have to cook them, to avoid self-poisoning, and the guy told me "não". So I came home and opened these fruits and tried to eat abit from all parts. I then chose the tastiest ones and kept on eating them. Fortunately Leidy, a flat mate, came back from school and reassured me that I was eating the right parts! :-) 

During the field work. Luciola and I, were eating mangoes which are growing along the streets. They are small and sweet, the best mangoes I've ever eaten! 

The Mensa in our school has a very basic menu (rice, beans, salad and meat) but is really nice. But the best food so far, I found it in buffets were it is possible to eat for lunch or dinner! After the soil collection, the other day, I was so hungry that I insisted to go to eat some meat, which here is delicious. We went to such a buffet and I filled my plate with chicken, beef, pork and fish... I eat like a pig for something like 9 CHF. 

The main problem is that they not only have nice fruits and meat here, but also fried things and sweets... I have to call all my discipline to not eat too much! We'll see if I'll manage... ;-)

The Jaca and the Jeni papo

The table of my kitchen with a papaya, some banana and  the collected mangoes.

1/2 ton of soil

Last Tuesday we had to collect soil for our pots. As we have many pots (320), we had to collect a lot of soil... Really a lot! We were lucky to find a place were soil was easily accessible, but still: we collected around 300 L of soil. We also had to buy 200 kg of sand and finally mixed everything. As you can imagine, in the evening we were all kind of death! Now we filled up all our pots and we are now in train to plant all our plants. It's really a lot of work, very physical, but really nice! I love to have these practical parts in my work: you can keep your mind fresh. And it's a nice feeling to have a tired body in the evening: I feel that I did something that day! 

Rossella O'Hara and Rhett Butler ;-)

Sieving the soil

Flying eggs

One day, after lab work, I was walking back home when I suddenly heard some music in the corridor of the school. I went to look and I saw a lot of girls giving away water bottles. I thought it may be a manifestation for water, or something like that. I asked a girl what was going on, and she explained me that it was a party for the begin of school. At least this was what I understood (ovvero, Roma per toma)... I was surprised about this whole enthusiasm that Brazilian students show for the begin of school! They were running and dancing, throwing eggs, color, flour and some other not identified liquids around... Then I've got pressed a piece of paper in my hand. It was the party for the Bachelor-degree! I really like this tradition! In Switzerland we don't use to run half naked around school, screaming! We just receive a piece of paper to our home via post...  

The bell-man

On Sunday of the last week I had the possibility to go to swim with a few neighbors. There were a Brazilian girl, an Italian man and a Venezuelan guy. They all seemed very nice... We had a nice afternoon in a overfilled pool ("più che una piscina era una pisciata" cit.) and at the evening we went back home. Later on in the evening, my bell ringed. It was almost 23:00! I went looking who wanted something at that hour! It was the italian guy. I told him that it was very late, but it was impossible to get rid of him! After a while I just pushed him out of my apartment. The next evening I went to Luciola's apartment to talk about school stuff, to eat something nice (she's a great cooker!) and to have some fun. When I got back Petro Nudo (yes, this is the name of a flat mate I had last week) told me that a man was looking for me. I asked him if the guy was short, bad looking and quite old. He said yes: it was again the italian guy. The next evening he looked for me 2 times and the day after he bothered my flat mates 3 times! This was really too much! He used to ring after 22.00, an hour were most people would like to go to sleep! Well, I decided to get rid of the bell-mam forever. I ringed at his door and had a talk with him. Who knows me, knows what this means. I'm sure, he will never again try to ring my bell. Now I'm a bell-man-free girl and happy!

Pots

Now a bit to my work. I'm now here in Brasilia to study the interaction of invasive and common plant species in the Cerrado region. To do this, I have an experiment in the greenhouse for which I need 320 pots. Unfortunately, we were not able to find the needed size of pots, so that we finally bought plastic boxes. As these are transparent we had to wrap aluminium foil around them, to protect the roots from light (algae formation; ...). However, the funny thing is that now the greenhouse is looking more and more futuristic! :-) 

Luciola and I and the 320 pots

Grammatic lessons from Carlos (machismo grammátical)

Carlos was a flat mate of Luciola, he just left today. He was very funny, and one evening we started to talk. He then started giving me lessons about important differences in the Portuguese grammatic:

For men; For women

Puto = Gay; Puta = Puta (Bitch)

Toro = Homem que tem muitas mulheres (Man that has a lot of women); Vaca = Puta

Galinha = Homem  que tem muitas mulheres; Galinha = Puta

Aventuriero = Homem  corajoso e que tem muitas mulheres (Brave man that has a lot of women) ; Aventuriera = Puta

....

The meaning of tchao

So far I didn't had huge problems with the language. As I speak a bit of Spanish, I normally understand what the people are talking about and they understand me (or they keep on smiling very nicely, saying yes to everything I say). However I had my first "figura di merda" as we call it in Italian when I went alone to the supermarket. When I crossed people, people used to say "Oi" (Hello) and I answered with a friendly "Ciao!". But they were all starring at me in a weird way, and I couldn't understand why! When I went back home, I told to Luciola what happened, and she started to laugh (once more), telling me that here "Tchao" is used to say "Goodbye!". Of course the people looked at me in an odd way: they used to say "Hello" and I always answered with a "Goodbye"...

Jesus

After this first day full of emotions (the idea of living with a psycho is not so easy to digest), I wanted to buy a diary  for myself to keep all memories. I went to the small shop in the school and a lot of kitschy booklets were starring at me, full of puppets, hearths, flowers,... I just wanted a "normal" diary, not one that projects me back to my sweet teeny years. I finally chose a black-white one that has some smilies painted on it. When I was paying, Luciola started to laugh, asking me if I understand what's written on the cover. I hadn't seen that there was written something: "Jesus é o amigo de todas as horas!" (Jesus is your friend at all hours). I started to laugh and I said "That's great, as I'm very religious"... ;-) Now Jesus is with me at every time, as also when we went to eat something for lunch in another city near Brasilia, some days later, there was written "Jesus" in giant letters just in front of me. :-)

Sergio and the knife

The first night in the new apartment I met Juliana, a biologist that was living there since a week. While we were talking, a guy came in the apartment, without saying a word. A bit weird, I thought. The next day, I met him in the corridor and I stopped him, saying him hello and asking him for his name. The only answer was a whispered "Sergio" and he left.. mhmmm, strange guy.. But I thought that at least he would have been quiet! :-) When I met Luciola (the PhD-student I'm working with), later in the day, she asked me about my flat-mates. When I told her about Sergio, she became pallid and told me "Stef, you have to move from that apartment". I was totally confused and asked her for a reason. She than explained me that the last year there was a Sergio in the house, that corresponds exactly to my description of this guy. This guy apparently threatened the whole flat with a knife because he didn't want to share the unique freezer that is present in the kitchen. He also cut off 3 fingers to a guy that is responsible for the house.

She also hypothesized that this was probably the reason, why I had the chance to go to this nice room (there is only one room per apartment with bathroom AND windows..): no one wanted to live with a psycho! I started to be a bit worried, and thought that this kind of stuff seem always to happen to me! I told her that I really like the new room, and that I would just try to avoid him and close my door when I'm in my room.

After a few calls done by Luciola, where everyone get scared to hell knowing that Sergio came back, (obviously abusively as the police gave him an interdiction to get back to the campus) we found out that the guy in my apartment is another Sergio! I was so released!!! :-)

New room

So, last time I wrote you that I was in a small crappy room without windows. Well, already the next day I was so lucky to get a new room in another apartment. I love this room, it's big, it has an own bathroom and it has WINDOWS! :-) In the apartment there were already two people, but after a few days I had the apartment all for me. It was great! Just hang out a bit, doing my work in peace.. Great! But the quietness didn't hold a long time: the apartment is again half filled with other 4 people. As they are Brazilians, they  have the "talking-gene" fully expressed, and no volume regulation... ;-) However, they seem to be all very nice! 

The living room

The kitchen

My new room with windows

The giant closet: a dream for every woman. 

The only problem is that I have not enough cloths to fill it up! ;-)

The view from the balcony

Brasilia - Primeira Semana

It's now a bit more than a week than I'm here, but I feel like if months have already passed!

The people here are great, the nature too and... the food! Delicious! Everything seems brighter, more colorful and even if I'm really tired, I feel totally alive!

Many things happened in this first week, so I'll subdivide the huuuuge post in small stories. :-)

I hope you'll enjoy!