tchau ILP…olá ferias!

This post has been long overdue, and for that I apologize to all those people who have been sending me emails *cough, mom* wondering, “are you okay? haven’t heard from you! are you alive?” I am very much alive – it seems that Rio is a gigantic roller coaster for me…I seem to have a very mellow few days, and then all of a sudden I’m doing crazy stuff for 2 weeks!

Well, some news…the Intensive Language Program has ended (which means no more waking up at 7 am…for a month at least!!) and I can confidently say that I have learned a lot. To be honest, the material was nothing new, but the difference was that when I learned it before in Berkeley I would go to class, do some work, take a test…but never was forced to think about it in any other context than an academic one. Here, I better know how to conjugate “vir” in the past plural form or else this poor Brazilian will have no idea what I’m trying to say. Despite my brain being a slow thinker (I am so envious of all the native spanish, italian, and french speakers who are used to conjugating verbs!!!), if the person I’m talking to doesn’t have ADD I can communicate fairly well. I’m still a bit nervous every time I go into a mercado but…the only way I’ll get better is if I try, não é?

I really can’t remember everything that’s happened since the last time I’ve posted, so I’ll just write about the most recent thing on my mind. This morning at 3 am I returned from a 3-day weekend trip to Búzios with about 20 capoeiristas (uma pessoa que joga capoeira). Brief interlude for the people who don’t know about capoeira: it is a “game” of dance-fighting that descends from African slaves. While working in the field they were prohibited from fighting with each other (because presumably it was practice for fighting with an armed person after attempting escape) so they disguised it as a dance. Mestre Nestor has a school that trains right by PUC and I’ve started going to classes there. He is very famous in the capoeira world, especially among English speakers, and has written 3 books about capoeira. And he is very funny and really easy to talk to. Here is a video of his school just to see what it looks like:

So…Búzios is basically a shwanky vacation spot for cariocas where many have “weekend houses” that they go to to escape crazy Rio life. The family of one of Nestor’s students has a house there that they graciously let us take over this weekend. And this house was INCREDIBLE! Only one house’s distance away from the beach (which was very tranquil and peaceful, not like Rio’s beaches at all) and giant enough to play capoeira in the living room…bellíssima!!

The main purpose of this trip was the music: capoeira music has a main instrument called a berimbau that is used to create the unique sound. We made over 30 this weekend, and boy are they work! First, you start with a pole of wood that’s about 2″ in diameter and you use a facinha (little knife) to peel away the bark. Next, you take a broken pedaço do vidro (piece of glass) and scrape away all the fibers that are lose/uneven. Finally you sand the whole thing down really really well and then do some more work on the ends, like constructing a notch for the wire and putting protective leather on the other end. This alone took me at least 3 hours. Next is the cabasa (not to be confused with cabeça, head) which is basically equivalent to a gourd. There are 3 types of berimbaus…voila (small), mídio (med.), and gunga (big), and they vary with length and hardness of verga (the wood pole thing) as well as the size of the cabasa. So you cut the cabasa and take out all the seeds and scrape out the inside…it’s very different than the pumpkin-type thing you are imagining though, everything inside is very dry (seeds and all), fibrous and hard. The last main component is the arame (the string basically) which actually comes from a tire. With a giant knife you hack away at the inside of a tire until you can see this little band of wire. Once the wire is visible the whole way around, you tear it out and that’s what you use to make the arame!

picture of a berimbau

I think one thing that struck me big time while doing all of this is that…this feels right. This knowledge that has been passed down in this manner for centuries still uses elements like tires and gourds and pieces of wood. There were expert berimbau makers and there were beginners there too, but I now feel like a quasi-expert because I put in at least a full day’s work on one. I feel more connected to the instrument that I ever would have if I bought one in a store, say. I felt the same way at forestry camp, where we wittled spoons and made mobiles out of twigs and beer cans. For me, the work was definitely worth the end result, as I feel it usually is. I think this was a welcome reminder to use more elbow grease and spend less money once in a while.

The last thing that I must devote time to saying about this weekend is that CAPOEIRISTAS ARE CRAZY!!! Seriously, though. You think foresters have a crazy reputation for drinking and going crazy in the woods? You think Berzerkeley co-opers throw ridiculous drugged-out parties? Let me introduce you to 3 C’s: cachaça, cerveja, e capoeira. Put them together on a weekend and you have a loud house playing instruments, singing at the top of their lungs, dancing samba-funk, and playing capoeira on the beach until 6 in the morning. And for those truly not of faint heart, the party doesn’t stop and you just keep on drinking and making more nik-naks (like hummingbird feeders, candle holders, miniature people…) out of leftover materials until everyone else wakes up in the morning. Combine all of this ridiculouslessness with the Brazilian humor that always involves jokes and laughing…and holy cow. I can practically guarantee there will not be a more crazy party time in my life. But then again….there is carnaval. Brasil is seriously crazy and so full of energy I can’t convey this message enough!!!!

So life has been treating me very well these past few days. I have a new toy instrument to learn, I got in my fill of drumming and percussion instrumenting, I know a lot more Portuguese, aaannnnd I have at least 50 new mosquito bites to keep me happily itching for a while. I’m leaving tomorrow for a weeklong trip to Florianópolis, in the southern state of Santa Catarina (where we’re basically planning on hiking around the island), and then I return on the 14th, which is WHEN LIZ ARRIVES (family, Liz is my roommate/bestfriend from Berks who is making a pit stop in Brazil before heading to Peru to study for a semester)!!!! Then Carnaval starts on the 17th, so don’t worry too much if you’re not hearing a lot from me within this next month.

As always, love to all and I hope your February is off to a great start!!!

06/02/2012 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Búzios, berimbau, cachaça, capoeira, Nestor | Leave a comment