Yeah, I know there's a film out at the moment with the same name. I haven't seen it yet, but from what I gather it is somewhat related to the content of this blog entry. Whatevs.
Incase you didn't know already, I am working as an English Teacher here in Brazil. It's really hard to classify people into 'classes' in Brazil, since the gap between the rich and the poor is a massive gaping canyon, and classifying people is never a good idea. What you need to know for the purposes of this blog is that Sao Paulo is the economic hub of Brazil (and South America in general, for that matter). There are a lot of wealthy, rich people living in this city and they live very well.
However, you don't need to be a multi-millionaire to have help around the house. We live in a one bedroom apartment and we have a maid come once a week to completely blitz the place, wash our bedclothes and defrost the fridge/freezer when it needs it. In London I would never have been so extravagant. I would have done the bloody cleaning myself, it's only a one bedroom flat for chrissakes. Here, having a maid is not considered an extravagance - some people consider it a necessity.
I have mentioned before how labour is cheap in Brazil. For most people here who are what I would normally categorize as middle-class in England, it is very normal to have a maid clean your house. Most of the students whose homes I teach in have a maid (or two) who comes in every day. I've been to a couple of homes that have a live-in maid. When I tell them I have a maid that comes in once a week, my students often ask me: "What do you do the rest of the week? Once a week isn't enough!" The general consensus is that I should have a maid clean the flat twice a week.
The first apartment I stayed in did have a maid twice a week & apart from cleaning, she cooked rice, beans and some Bahian (as in, from Bahia - a state in the North East of Brazil) specialties once a week for the owner of the apartment.
A lot of larger houses and apartments were (and many still are) built with a maid's bedroom near the kitchen & service area, hidden away from the rest of the home.
It's all a bit Ancient Rome/Pre-war England, really. A significant amount of people in this city spend their lives having everything done for them: dry-cleaning, laundry, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping - the list is endless.
However, as a student said to me last week (she employs two maids at her house), this state of affairs cannot go on forever. The Brazilian economy is experiencing a massive boom on a scale never known before. Brazilians have never had this much money or opportunity. The army of maids, valet parking attendants, cashiers, doormen etc will not want to be doing these jobs forever. As the price of living increases in Brazil, they will demand higher wages (as they should: they are usually paid minimum wage, about £250 per month), they will (hopefully) receive a better education, they will have higher expectations of their lives - basically the whole hiring of 'help' will become something less and less accessible.
It's very interesting to be living in a country that appears to be right in the middle of a modern Industrial Revolution. They might even end up having an actual revolution. Errr....come to think of it: I hope not, that would be quite scary.
Showing posts with label cleaning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cleaning. Show all posts
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Monday, 20 February 2012
Observations: Kitchens
As previously mentioned, most apartments and houses only have a cold water supply. A proper hot water supply such as we are used to in Europe/US/Canada is the preserve of the super-rich and, err... footballers. This means the sink, washing machine, etc all only use cold water.
Kitchen sinks are usually square/rectangle-shaped and deep. Most sinks will have a double-sided draining board which is completely flat. Older/nicer apartments & houses will have draining boards made of solid stone. Some more modern and cheaper draining boards are just made of metal. They're crap. The draining boards made of stone are obviously better, you simply use a squeedgy to wipe the water and dirt off.
Kitchen appliances in peoples homes often look cheap and/or old compared to what you would be used to. Don't be fooled. Kitchen appliances in Brazil - especially in Sao Paulo - are really expensive. Seriously, even in GBPs they can be 2, 3 sometimes 4 times the price depending on the brand and how common/rare the style/type of appliance is. People here don't replace washing machines or fridge-freezers because they are old/don't look nice/don't fit in with the new decor, they replace them only if they stop working. Getting appliances that match is the preserve of the rich too. Brazilians tend to buy the simplest thing that works.
This is because almost everything electrical in Brazil is imported and the import duty is astronomical - at least 60% - not to mention 20% VAT added on top (in SP state). Having said that, good appliances can last a long time and we have been impressed with the reliability of their gas stoves & ovens. The child safety catches are a pain in the ass though.
Dishwashers are rare, I haven't actually seen one in a house or apartment yet. They are available, but again they're expensive. Also, the people who can afford them can usually afford a maid to come in a couple of times a week and clean for them, and they'd rather have that than a dishwasher. It's all a bit Ancient Rome - I'll write a blog about it another time.
Most kitchens will have an additional room/area attached to it called the 'área de serviço' (service area). This is a room specially for doing laundry. Here you will find an upright washing machine, a handwashing sink (very deep, with an angled ridge for scrubbing), and a clothes horse (often hanging from the ceiling - ingenious). There are usually some cupboards and storage in this room specifically used for household cleaning products, laundry detergent, etc. Brooms, brushes, rubber floor sweepers for washing the floors are kept here too. The área de serviço is always well ventilated and near a window for the rapid drying of clothes. It is rare to see a dryer in a home: they use up a lot of electricity and they're not needed most of the time - clothes dry quickly in the heat.
Kitchen floors are almost always tiled. They will often have a drain or two on the floor in the room for the purposes of cleaning the floor. Tiled floors are cleaned by flooding the floor with soapy water and pushing the water towards the drains with a rubber broom. The rubber broom also wipes the floor dry. I much prefer it to mopping - that takes ages to dry and you have to keep wringing the mop.
Brazilian kitchens don't often have a lot of kitchen surfaces or room to prepare food. I have no idea why this is, it's really aggravating. We end up using the sink area a lot for that kind of thing. Also, they don't tend to have a lot of cupboard space. I'm mystified by this, too.
Cutlery and crockery are cheap and tatty looking. Most people use cutlery that has plastic handles, it's unusual to see decent quality all-metal cutlery. Decent quality crockery sets are also rare (and expensive). I've seen a fair amount of plastic crockery in use. Ceramic crockery is expensive, even the kind we would normally consider basic. Brazilians love their tupperware - every home has an impressive stock in a range of sizes and colours.
They use pressure cookers a LOT. Mainly for rice and beans (which they eat all the time), but I'd imagine it's for other stuff too. It's actually a novel way to save on gas consumption. Brazilians are very concerned with keeping their gas and electricity bills down.
Toasters: they don't use them. They all seem to have electric sandwich-makers and toaster ovens, which is nice, but they're not toasters. They don't eat toast. I, however, do. I'm English: I like to eat toast for breakfast. Toasters are available to buy (they're not very good), so we bought one. It makes me feel human,
Kitchen sinks are usually square/rectangle-shaped and deep. Most sinks will have a double-sided draining board which is completely flat. Older/nicer apartments & houses will have draining boards made of solid stone. Some more modern and cheaper draining boards are just made of metal. They're crap. The draining boards made of stone are obviously better, you simply use a squeedgy to wipe the water and dirt off.
Kitchen appliances in peoples homes often look cheap and/or old compared to what you would be used to. Don't be fooled. Kitchen appliances in Brazil - especially in Sao Paulo - are really expensive. Seriously, even in GBPs they can be 2, 3 sometimes 4 times the price depending on the brand and how common/rare the style/type of appliance is. People here don't replace washing machines or fridge-freezers because they are old/don't look nice/don't fit in with the new decor, they replace them only if they stop working. Getting appliances that match is the preserve of the rich too. Brazilians tend to buy the simplest thing that works.
This is because almost everything electrical in Brazil is imported and the import duty is astronomical - at least 60% - not to mention 20% VAT added on top (in SP state). Having said that, good appliances can last a long time and we have been impressed with the reliability of their gas stoves & ovens. The child safety catches are a pain in the ass though.
Dishwashers are rare, I haven't actually seen one in a house or apartment yet. They are available, but again they're expensive. Also, the people who can afford them can usually afford a maid to come in a couple of times a week and clean for them, and they'd rather have that than a dishwasher. It's all a bit Ancient Rome - I'll write a blog about it another time.
Most kitchens will have an additional room/area attached to it called the 'área de serviço' (service area). This is a room specially for doing laundry. Here you will find an upright washing machine, a handwashing sink (very deep, with an angled ridge for scrubbing), and a clothes horse (often hanging from the ceiling - ingenious). There are usually some cupboards and storage in this room specifically used for household cleaning products, laundry detergent, etc. Brooms, brushes, rubber floor sweepers for washing the floors are kept here too. The área de serviço is always well ventilated and near a window for the rapid drying of clothes. It is rare to see a dryer in a home: they use up a lot of electricity and they're not needed most of the time - clothes dry quickly in the heat.
Kitchen floors are almost always tiled. They will often have a drain or two on the floor in the room for the purposes of cleaning the floor. Tiled floors are cleaned by flooding the floor with soapy water and pushing the water towards the drains with a rubber broom. The rubber broom also wipes the floor dry. I much prefer it to mopping - that takes ages to dry and you have to keep wringing the mop.
Brazilian kitchens don't often have a lot of kitchen surfaces or room to prepare food. I have no idea why this is, it's really aggravating. We end up using the sink area a lot for that kind of thing. Also, they don't tend to have a lot of cupboard space. I'm mystified by this, too.
Cutlery and crockery are cheap and tatty looking. Most people use cutlery that has plastic handles, it's unusual to see decent quality all-metal cutlery. Decent quality crockery sets are also rare (and expensive). I've seen a fair amount of plastic crockery in use. Ceramic crockery is expensive, even the kind we would normally consider basic. Brazilians love their tupperware - every home has an impressive stock in a range of sizes and colours.
They use pressure cookers a LOT. Mainly for rice and beans (which they eat all the time), but I'd imagine it's for other stuff too. It's actually a novel way to save on gas consumption. Brazilians are very concerned with keeping their gas and electricity bills down.
Toasters: they don't use them. They all seem to have electric sandwich-makers and toaster ovens, which is nice, but they're not toasters. They don't eat toast. I, however, do. I'm English: I like to eat toast for breakfast. Toasters are available to buy (they're not very good), so we bought one. It makes me feel human,
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