Open Window Policy

I've been meaning to really highlight this for a while. Here in Brazil the windows are always open and people in general seem very opposed to screens. It's funny- a friend of mine who works with the healthcare system says Brazilians get terribly offended when you suggest to them they use screens, but there are regular visits by health workers into individual's homes to look for standing water that could be breeding mosquitoes (and through that, the dengue), and no one thinks anything of it.

It's been getting colder here in Brazil (yes, not THAT cold) but cold enough where the open window policy seems a bit too much. Really it was at the hostel in Iguazu Falls and at Sao Paulo where I was really cold. At home so far it's been ok, though I've stopped using the fan. Which leads to the other problem- a single mosquito in the room who likes to buzz your head JUST as you're falling asleep. Turning the lights on does nothing- you still can't find her. You can only hear her.

Bugs aside (though they're not that bad) I quite like the open-window policy. I'm much more attuned to the time of day and humidity... I just feel happier. (That could be Brazil in general though..) In giving a lecture to my students, I found it difficult to explain that a lot of the buildings in the US (especially commercial buildings) do not have operable windows. It's a very strange thing to think about- even for me.