City Library Branch Adventure #1

After lunch today, Duck and I went on an adventure. We walked nearly an hour to one of the city libraries, around the east side of Lake Pampulha and north. We finally reached the Parque Municipal Fazenda Lagoa Do Nado (City Park Farm Lake of Swimming, where swimming is curiously not allowed), which houses a library called the Centro de Referência da Cultural Popular e Tradicional (Reference Center of Popular and Traditional Culture). I learned early on that these 22 city libraries are part of a system of cultural centers and rarely, if ever, exist on their own as neighborhood libraries the way we think of them, but rather are organized by themes. I am very curious to meet with the director of the city libraries (hopefully next week; this meeting keeps getting rescheduled) and see how she envisions the libraries’ role in city life.

We walked right by the park because I didn’t realize (or remember maybe) that the library was inside the park. When we walked by as we were leaving, I saw that there was actually a giant sign saying that said “Centro de Referência…” As we walked in, there was really only one path, straight ahead and downhill, so we followed it. At the bottom, there were other paths and buildings and a sign pointing to various features (like the various sports fields/courts and the snack bar) but did not contain the library. Just beyond it was a pink building that we thought was it at first, and was closed with a handwritten sign that said it would be closing at 2pm due to lack of power (it was 2:50 when we got there).

We sat down outside the pink building, facing the snack bar building, where there was also a group of teenage boys on bikes, a vendor selling popcorn and roasted nuts, two police officers on motorcycles (just sitting there, the bikes weren’t on) and a van that said Rede Minas which I looked up and seems to be a local tv station of some sort. There were two men wearing Rede Minas shirts and carrying a tv camera and a teenage girl who was maybe an intern or something. I began to suspect that the library was attached to the snack bar building. After I had sat for a few minutes (it was a long, hot walk!), I got up and circled the pink building and came around to the snack bar building away from the police officers. There was a big sign that said it was the reference center, but also another handwritten sign on the door saying it was closing at 2pm every day due to lack of power. There were lots of other posters and flyers on the door, and beyond the posters, I shaded my eyes and could see into the library. It looked like one long room with bookshelves. Based on the height of the shelves and thinness of spines, I’m guessing it’s a children’s library. Since we couldn’t go in, we walked through the park a little, got ice cream from another vendor, and watched another group of teen boys play soccer barefoot.

When we left the park, we walked 20 minutes southeast to a Methodist church that Duck wanted to check out. A woman buzzed in just as we walked up, and the man who let her in stood and talked to us for a little while, and invited us in. Duck asked if the bible study event listed on their website was happening and if he could come, and the guy said yes. He also brought us in, showed us around, and pressed us to fill our water bottle and use the bathroom. When we left, Duck wanted to continue up the street to FAJE, the Catholic university, but it was going to be another 15 minutes of walking and we were both so hot and sweaty by then that we just called an Uber and went home to rest.

The Uber driver was chatty and interesting, arguably the most useful part of the trip for me. It started, as it usually does, with him asking us a question, which we had to ask him to repeat and explain (of course) so he got the drift that we’re not from here. He told us he’s studying English and French and asked what we’re doing here. As usual, when I said we’re from Boston he said lots of people from Minas go there, and I said that’s why I’m here. I finally got up the nerve to ask him more specifically about whether he goes to the library and he said no, it’s not part of the culture. I asked him what he thinks people do instead and he told me that he started working at the age of 6 selling things, and people work hard and drink a lot and watch Youtube and soccer and just try to enjoy life. He also said that the educational system is bad from the start and kids get the short end of the stick. But he was very proud that his three kids (ages 22, 21, and 17) are all still in school. At the end of the ride, I thanked him for talking with me. It felt like he has shared some very personal history and thoughts with me and I really appreciated it. Hopefully I’ll be able to engage more people in conversations like this, which was part of my research idea to include opinions of people who do not use the library.