The Brazilian Way of Life Part 1

This morning I got up and and it was raining. That was no surprise. We are in the middle of our rainy season and it had been raining all night. Yesterday afternoon while the sun was out, Marilze (my old lady), hung out clothes to dry on the line. We didn't get home til after midnight and by then it had already been raining several hours.

So all of these clothes ended up hanging out all night in the pouring rain. You might wonder why, especially if were to turn slightly to the right and see this:

Our brand new Brastemp electric dryer that my parents gave us for Christmas. It's not a Whirlpool from Allen & Bean but it's the best Brazil has to offer. Why is it sitting there not being used? Because it uses too much electricity. Marilze says she will only use it when necessary.


While we grew up in a land and time of cheap energy, my wife grew up with hyperinflation. There were several years where the inflation rate was 100,000% a year. That would mean that prices doubled every two or three days. There were wage increases but they were monthly and didn't keep up with rising prices.


Just to show you how pervasive this way of thinking is, I don't know anyone who has a dryer except us. Of course that's not a question I normally ask people but I've never seen one in somebody else's house and I always see their unmentionables hanging on their clotheslines. Because dryers use too much electricity.


Maybe one day I can get her to splurge and do a load a two. I keep telling her she should live a little. She does put the towels in the dryer. After 11 years drying on the clothesline, they were all stiff as a board but now they're soft as can be. I guess that's her version the good life.