Blogs from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, South America - page 6

After practicing capoeira for almost one month I have shown to the class and my teacher, Guto, that I have learned the 8 different sequences and that I am ready to move on to the next level. Thus the baptismal ceremony.... At the end of every class there is a jogo, a capoeira session if you will, where they actually play capoeira in the roda (circle) and not just practice the sequences. In a jogo, there are no rules... you can do any movement you like to try to out-play your opponent. Before, I was only allowed to watch and clap my hands with the music, but yesterday at my baptismal ceremony it was my first time to actually participate in the jogo. I was called forward by Guto and was matched with Juan, who is ... read more

The day after... two words, my god. What the hell happened last night? Well, let me try to begin to explain... Rafael invited me to Carna Brahma which is an axe music festival (axe is pronounced ashay and it is a type of music played in Brasil usually during carnaval). We met up with 12 of his friends and we all took a rented van to the event. When we arrived there everyone piled out of the van and the guys, including me, lined to take a leak at this bush. After draining ourselves, we made our way up the hill to where the concert was being held. About half way up, I realized that my camera was not on my belt anymore and I had no idea where it was... Kenya phoned the van guy ... read more

I´ve been here in Brazil a little over 3 months now. I´ve tried to avoid writing too many of my subjective interpertations here, and let friends and family draw their own conclusions from the observations. But true objectivity is a myth. Suffice to say that everything here is so drastically different that it´s impossible to communicate, even between my own eyes and brain. This drastic difference could be most accurately described as differences in culture. With everyday allowing a further grasp of the Portuguese language, I´m understanding more. It´s neither good nor bad, but the experience of adapting to a new culture has an affect of making you feel like a stranger, not only where you are, but in the place you call home. Language has a rhythm. Once you can understand the words and the ... read more

From Rio we headed north on another overnight bus journey to the historic town of Ouro Preto just south of Belo Horizonte. This small town is very beautiful with a colonial church around every corner and a maze of cobbold streets winding up and down the steep hillsides. Yet again it was festival weekend so prices were higher than normal...we ended up staying in the cheapest place in town for the three nights. It was worth it though as everyday there were lots things going on all over the town: music, dance and theatre. We went and looked in a couple of the churches at the amazing carvings covered in gold (stolen from good honest folk no doubt) and spent plenty of time sitting in various parts of the town looking out across the streets and ... read more

To put it mildly, Serro is rough around the edges. Arrival into this mountain community, as its namesake infers, is a rude awakening. Ninety kilometers, but a three-hour bus trip from Diamantina, its backdrop could not contrast more starkly to the sparkling movie sets of Diamantina, Ouro Prêto, or Tiradentes. A curly haired ten-year-old and I rock and yaw in unison as the bus navigates the few portions of road that are paved. Housing is abysmal and hard to distinguish from scurvy storefronts in the outskirts. Only around a sharp curve in the distance does the view improve. The center of town is now a half mile off. The hopeless and repetitive scene of block concrete buildings connected by sagging electrical wires in time appears more in line with the 20th century. Moreover, there is a ... read more