O Mercado

As I go deeper into this exchange I find even more things I love about Brazil.
Today I went to the huge market with my host dad and brother. A place where no tourist would ever go...It's like a flea market, full of everything. There are loads of fruits, veggies, honey, cheese. And all of the sellers are the ones that make the products. It's like a natural market in the US only HUGE, and there are all kinds of people. Rich, poor... the whole world mixes there. There are little restaurants in the middle of the markets, with authentic food from Minas...it's real, and that is what I've found I like.
In Brazil, there is an obsession with cleanliness because of the poverty that people here encounter, but it's turned everyday life somewhat sterile. I can see the culture being lost..which is why today was so neat.
The market was Brazil. There was not one element of the US there. Not one brand name, not one packaged good. Just what people made themselves. There is a grace in that.
Lately, I just think what an opportunity this is. To be a Brazilian for a year. To know what it is like living thousands of miles away from home, virtually alone, completely uprooted, surrounded by millions of new things...so many new things to learn. Few, very few people have this opportunity, to see a country as those that live there do. Because the more I look, the more I realize that tourism is not a way to see anywhere. Tourism's objective is to cater to the wealthy Americanized palate. You can never see the world if your blinded by your own culture.

pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/sommerbrazil/OMercado