First Impressions.

Oi!

(Hi in Portuguese)

After being here a few days it's safe to say my brain has been overloaded with amazing images, sights and a lot of information. I am glad to say that with today being our 1st workshop our pace has slowed a little which is nice, as it's now giving me a chance to actually take in everything i've seen so far.

I am not only trying to adjust to the time difference here but I am also still trying to get my head around the unbelievable uniqueness of this place! The fact that I have already crossed over to Uruguay numerous times freely is pretty unbelievable.

We have already had a tour of Livramento, which is in Brazil, and Rivera which is in Uruguay. Both were so interesting and full of amazing details about each area. Our first task was to go out as a group to gather images which had stuck with us or that we found to be powerful. Of course, when seeing these two places I could not help but try and compare them and try to find the differences between the two. It was obvious that despite having many differences, there are a huge amount of similarities. 

An image which a lot of us agreed was very powerful was a market area which is separated by the border, this image shows the Rivera market stalls on the left, which are in little huts which each seller pays the government to use and trade from. On the right hand side are the Brazilian markets which are very traditional and the gap between the two is where the Uruguayan markets used to be. Seeing both of these environments side by side was amazing and the image is so stark which makes is so clear to see the differences with both. 

The square which the Brazilian stalls are in is very old and unfortunately has not been preserved. Another image which stayed with me was this one of a statue which a seller has tied his tent to in order to keep it up. I found this to speak a lot about the value of the Livramento history to the people who live there. Perhaps because the government have not shown much interest in preserving the history of this place means that the people do not understand that they should be fighting to keep as much of their history as possible. 

I am looking forward to learning more about this unique place and using this information to create something which will hopefully speak to people on both sides of the border.

L