Boninal

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Boninal is somewhere 8 hours away by car, through the semiarid zone in Bahia. It's a small town with 15,000 residents. The town is mostly black (Bahian aspect). Most of the blacks work the manual jobs.. everyone gets along though. Actually, one of the grandparents of my host mom is a light-skinned black. Boninal is my host mother's hometown. She grew up there and came to Salvador to further her studies when she was 17 years old, and she got married and stayed in Salvador and her brothers returned after their studies and stayed in Boninal.
I had a four-day weekend, so we left Salvador around 5 or 5:30am, my poor cousin, Igor, had to drive. I was sleep deprived, which made me easily carsick, and the roads here are windy, two lanes (one for coming and one for going), with lots of potholes! The many pot holes caused us (and at least 3 other cars) get 2 flat tires, (while we were on our way back), as the sun was setting and the moon was coming out, these folks figured out how to get the spares in and continue on homeward. We left Boninal at 2pm and got home around midnight.
There was a culture festival going on. From 6pm to 6am, which presentations, live music, and different things. This was happening from Friday thru Monday morning...Each day had a theme to explore Brazilian culture and its African roots. It was very fun, a lot of people gathered to dance and drink and eat and hang out. Many of them are kids, adolescents, dressed up with makeup and dancing.. out on street corners making out. All the young people were younger than me, I would assume that the older kids are in college in Salvador, etc. All the pics of the festival are of the school courtyard, my host mom used to study there.
Just so, even in small towns, there are wealthy and poor people. In this town, my host mom's parents and family own a few of the shops, the gas station and some markets, so they are pretty well off there. Most people know of my grandparents. When we were at the festival, people came up to greet and chat.
I love the small-town feel. I could walk around alone, carrying my camera (you cannot do this in the streets of Salvador). People leave their doors open for guests.. kids running around, riding their bikes, going for a dip in the river.. people have gardens.. and chickens running around. The climate is nice too, warm without humidity! It's amazing.. Too much romanticizing, sorry.

The public schools there aren't so good, so Matheus, 9 years old Brazilian cousin, goes to a private school in another town, Seabra. Well, my host brother goes to a private school in Salvador. So, those who are able, send their kids to private schools. And for them to go to universities, they have to move to the urban centers. And since I believe that education makes for empowerment and mobility, this place has a very static kind of lifestyle.

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