Another bizarre and unbelievably fantastic animated video entitled "Era Uma Vez Outra Maria" was shown in the capacitaciones today. This time, the subject was about gender stereotypes. There were no audible words but instead sounds were used to express communication. Indeed, a bevy of strange sounds, some just high and low pitched beeps and clicks and clocks were used to convey facial expressions and actions. What appeared to be the sonic call of whales and dolphins was what the video used in order to express emotions and dialogue from the animated characters. It was a story of a young girl, Maria, who does not want to be pinned down by stereotypes. Though she wanted to play soccer and not with dolls, a malevolent and giant pencil would follow her and erase her actions when she tried to be "different" than the other girls around her. By far the most provocative part in the video proved to be the scene in which her older brother made his way to the family bathroom to masturbate with a porn mag, while their father smiled in approval. The next scene showed the Maria in her bedroom attempting to masturbate, when along comes that mean pencil and erases her hopes of an orgasm and instead draws pictures above her head in an animated bubble of the disapproval and anger of her parents. If I were not so blown away by the time the video was over I might have asked some questions but wow...needed some time to process the whole thing. One of the promotores gave a short lecture after the video describing the importance of communicating effectively and with accurate information to the youth that they will be trying to inform in the community. She emphasized how it was up to the promotores to develop trust and good communication with the youth as, for many of them, they have not been exposed to much of the education and information that is available. "Gender stereotypes are still alive and strong here as she explained, children are still reduced to the colors pink and blue." "What about white, yellow, green, and blue", she said! True enough. I know I should refrain from getting mushy, but, I'm really going to miss these capacitaciones and all the awesome promotores.