The Handyman

I have run into an interesting situation here in Brazil and it involves something I really enjoy doing, fixing things. I grew up with one of these dads that could fix anything. Very rarely do I remember seeing service people come to our house to fix or install something. My dad grew up on a farm were it seemed you had to know a little bit of everything. With this type of example it is no surprise that I find myself wanting to know how things work and how I can repair them myself. While in Abilene I was proud of the fact that while I was no expert or able to build a house from the ground up I could do a little more than basic maitenance on many household items. And for those projects that grew a little out of my reach I always had a friend that knew something about what ever it was and could help me out. Call me crazy, but I enjoyed this process.

Imagine my surprise when I get to Brazil things are a little different. When moving I expected to be limited in communicating and navigating the culture, but I did not expect to be as helpless when it came to installing basic things around the house. Due to my helplessness I had to call in help and actually pay someone else a little bit to help install things such as celling fans and air conditioners. As they did these thing I was able to learn how they do them here so maybe next time I can do a few more things on my own.

Through this process I was able to learn a new cultural insight about the Brazilian mindset towards handywork. It appears that many Brazilians with even a moderate incomes do not venture into this world of "do-it-yourself." The common practice seems to be what I had to do, hire someone to do it for you. While I seriouly doubt this common practice will stop me from trying to do things on my own or work on possible solutions for my own problems it does call me to reflect on where these messages come from in both cultures and what other parts of our lives they touch.