A lack of materialism

One thing that I have noticed here in Brazil so far is a lack of materialism and attachment to things ( at least in the older generation) as I have only visited elderly women.  Their houses are clean and sparse and they really dont have many possessions.  The possessions they do have, they value and fix them when broken instead of throwing them away.  It is much easier to get things fixed here than in the US.  So far, in two days, my grandmother has had her slippers (flip-flops for you mainlanders) repaired where they had ripped, the ethernet cord repaired (the man literally opened it up and put on a new connector thing) and fixed an extension cord that exploded in flames when she tried using it with her 1950s iron.  She says it now works but I am unsure if I should test it out with my computer.

I love Telenovelas, its been great for learning language and the plots are definitely full of drama.  I have been watching the one that comes on at 5.  But there is another one on from 8-9 that everyone watches, that I have yet made it through without falling asleep during (thank you jet lag and not sleeping much during finals).  Its the only thing on tv that people watch.   Last night one character, who was confined to a wheelchair because her car flipped over, tried to take public transport in Rio to visit her friends in a very posh restaurant.  She could have taken a taxi (she had lots of money) but instead championed for handicapped rights and took a bus that was handicap accessible.  It was a great example of how Brazil is very modern.  They have wheelchair accessible buses!  Its very much a middle class country.  In the south and southeast there is a whole class of people that are very well off. There are supermarkets, air conditioning, great traffic signals with crosswalks.  Yet, this coexists with a lot of infectious disease and poverty.  I am going to be meeting with a professor at Cornell who has lived in Salvador for the past 20 years and worked on slum health in Favelas (slums).  It should be very interesting.