Caiçara

After being sick with dengue fever for exactly one week, on Wednesday I was feeling normal and healthy again.
Wednesday was a holiday celebrating a dentist who led battles against the Portuguese in colonial Brazil, and we had a wonderful day.
We, Raheemah and I, along with a couple other volunteers, one of my students, Taise, her husband Z, their whole family and most of their neighborhood traveled to a tiny town called Caiçara. We went an army of bicycles, one car with many children inside and the Raheemah moto sandwich you see here.

It was a BEAUTIFUL ride!
Here is an area infront of Z´s family home. His sister Rosana is also one of my students.

They swept the ground for our arrival. Or, more likely, they always sweep the ground. This is the front of the house.

We are in the desert. The landscape is so beautiful, and after the rains, very green.

Z gave the town a lession in making flutes out of PVC.
Here is the town center.


music break


Rosana and Z´s mother made a special meal for us!!!
New friends: Heemah and I entertained the village children for many hours. I learned a lot of Portuguese that day. I still know nothing.

This is Rosana and Z´s mother. We later found out she LOVES to dance.

After lunch we listened to Z´s father and uncle play and sing a regional style of story songs. Between verses you are suppored to clap and play percussion, then only the guitar plays during the verse. The guitar was double strug so it was harmonic. Amazing! It sounded a little like a steal guitar.

This is a week-old turtle.
The town´s marching band
Our spontainious dance party! Heemah, Z´s mother, the entire population of girls under 12 and I danced synchronized movements, with me leading, to Reggae. I´m am known by everone as the professora de dança.
We left Capim Grosso in the morning and stayed in Caiçara until after dark. We did the Heemah moto sandwich on the way back, even though there was a car with only the driver going back at the same time!

Dengue? Really?

They think I have dengue fever, even though I don't have most of the symptoms. I had a fever for three days, with NO OTHER problems. When I would tell people this they would then ask if I had a headache or muscle cramping. No, I feel fine. How about diarrhea? Am I able to eat? Do I have the feeling that my bones are breaking? There is no place for those of us who have a fever but feel fine.

Today is day four and my fever is gone, BUT I have another classic dengue symptom: the pain behind the eyes. Apparently this is a telling symptom, but after three days of a non-dengue fever, I'm sure I would have the eye headache too. In fact I've had the eye headache without a fever. Oh well. It's the only thing currently wrong with me.

A typical case of dengue is fever, bone-crushing pain, diarrhea, nausea, red blotches, can't eat, pain behind the eyes... You get the idea.

Oh, I do have pain in my butt where they gave me a shot

I've been drinking lots of fresh acerola juice.

Sleep disruption

Last night in bed while I was changing position I slipped my hand under my pillow, and it was immediately bitten by what looked like an angry leaf.

When I told the others about it at breakfast, Aija said, "I know which bug you mean. It does look like an angery leaf."

(I´ve also been hit in the head on two seperate occasions by what I think was a tiny helicopter.)

p.s.
Sunday was beautiful, and the Festa de Licuri was a huge success.

Trials

Various unrelated things coming to the same head:

It started raining hard and didn't stop. We live mostly outside so everything is damp. The kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, office and classrooms are covered, but you get wet going from one to the other.

A lot of us were about to do our personal laundry when the rain started. I had just washed all the rags and towels. They were hanging dry on the line, but I hadn't taken them down yet.

We put music on in the kitchen and all crammed in to eat lunch standing up, then from those positions we had a really nice weekly house meeting.

Four poeple sick with the runs, two also throwing up. I am one of the four, the only one who wasn't really sick.

It was also at this time that we ran out of water. 

Lisa and I are covered in little bumps that seem like too many to be mosquito bites. I think now it's spiders. I thought it was bedbugs. In our 2 hours of dryness yesterday I did as thorough a despidering as I could, while also trying to dry out my mattress.

A couple non-sickies took a wet walk to see these naturopathic nuns in another part of town and come back with some tummy remidies.

Capim grosso is not equipped for rain. When it rains here, everything stops, people don't go to class, etc.

We found out that, according the weather report, it's going to rain for over a week.  

Last night, after realizing we couldnt just wait a day for the rain to stop, John and I strung a clothesline in the theater/dance room. I put on my bathing suit and rewashed all the rags with the water pouring down from the drain pipe.

Buckets fill instantly when placed under the drain pipe, so at least we can flush the toilets!

The licuri festival was scheduled for Sunday, I think it's out of the question now.

What will the next week hold? 

Damp

Everything is wet. It's been raining since last night, and we live mostly outside. There is no way to be truly dry.

Green cake

For FRANCISCO's birthday we made a LICURI cake with AVOCADO frosting.

FRANCISCO is the theater teacher who comes up from Salvador two days a week.

LICURI is a local and somewhat endangered crop. One of AEC-TEA's many projects is to promote the use and appreciation of this nut. It is a TINY coconut, smaller than a hazelnut. We use it constantly, and we will be participating in the licuri festival on Sunday.

AVOCADOS are only eaten sweet here. The locals think guacamole is a horrible idea. We live under an avocado tree- a treacherous yet blessed existance.

Alguma coisa

Just got back from leading a dancing session at a day center for adults with mental disablities.
AEC-TEA, the organization I'm working for, has so many different projects going in the community.

Learning portuguese fast but still too slow.

Diogo- Stepping into the painting

To continue the nor cal parallels, we took a vacatican to Bolinas. Now you have to imagine Bolinas as a tropical Paradise with little monkeys instead of squirrels, a bathtub-warm ocean that hugs and kisses you and says, "My love, why have you been so long? Never leave me again!" and heavily laden mango trees everywhere.
There were many other wonderful fruits growing there too, only a few of which have names that I know in English.

Cicadas sound like sprinklers.

A monkey pooped on our mosquito net while we were at breakfast. That was the last time we left our door open.

The rain brought out these giant flying ants that would drop their wings, and the ants brought huge cartoonish toads called cow frogs. The were everywhere, tongues grabbing ants.

We interacted with every species. It was like being in a Disney movie. the Animals there were just chillin´living their lives. I swear a mule was waiting at the market to see if his credit had cleared.

This post isn't finished. I will continue to add to it. Check Raheemah´s posts on chateaulorange.blogspot.com for more details. So many wonderful things happened to us. It was an amazing and full vacation. Here are some pictures:

a little monkey

Val, Antonio, Coro and another guy whose name I forgot playing Capoeira Angola on the Beach




Giant spider

The walk to the beach from are pousada took about 20 minutes and involved crossing a river up to our chests and trecking through white sand dunes. Once we were there, the beach was ours.



Playing Capoeira Regional with Raheemah

Tiny Fried Fish

Large ant working

Diogo´s one road. Well, actually it has two roads... Or one road with a fork in it.

Another large spider

Ridiculously large snail

That´s Melanie in the middle. She took most of the pictures. She´s from Germany, and is super cool. The three of us took the trip together.




Val getting us all coconuts. There were eight of us. We were with the capoeiristas from the photo and their friend Raphael at a swimming hole in the river, a "sweet-water beach", washing the salt off of us. The tree is very tall, by the way. He took a while deciding which tree would the best coconuts for all of us. That took longer than the climb.





Val lead us back through beautiful jungly parts, stopping occasionally to reach into a bush and pull out some delicious fruit.

In Val´s house. He made it.

one of many cow frogs

party at the pousada where we were staying. Everything in town was full for the holiday, so Sophie, the woman who runs the pousada, let us stay in the room that is usually used for massage. Less comfortable quarters, but cheaper, and cute. And functional- our coconut frawn roof kept the rain out. We later found out that Val made that too. It´s a small town.

A short cut to the bus stop.

Rising, Shining

I'm on breakfast duty this week.
That means I Take 3 and a half reals and an empty pitcher, and I go get fresh bread and milk at 7am. We get the bread a couple blocks away from a shop that sells two kinds- sweet and sour. Sweet means there are a few sprinkles of sugar on top. Sour just means not sweet. It's just white bread rolls, but they are fresh and warm and wonderful. Next I go to the house around the corner where they deliver the fresh milk. If you get there before 7am it won't be there yet. They might still be milking. If you get there too much after, it might be gone.
Then I come back and boil the milk (because it's unpasturized), make coffe and make breakfast. Yesterday it was fried plantains, vitamina (a smoothie of avocado, milk and sugar), coffee, bread, butter and a substance which isn't at all texture of jam.

We all get up early every day, but it still feels relaxing. We eat breakfast and lunch together. We have daily chores.

It kept raining every time we put our laundry on the line, but yesterday it was dry and so were our clothes. But then, after a capoeira lesson, and teaching a two hour dance class, I had completely soaked through two sets of clothes.

I have proper capoeira pants now.

That's all for now.
Semana Santa, Easter week, is this week, so the center will be closed, and raheemah, Melanie (a cool German volunteer) and I are going to spend 5 days at the beach. It will be two bus rides- four hours to Salvador, followed by 2 to the town we will be in. It was recommended by Flavia, one of the Brazilian volunteers. I don't know if I will be online during our vacation.

For a more detailed account of our doings, raheemah is posting on the house blog: chateaulorange.blogspot.com

Hotchie doggie and hippie hoppie

Hotdog is pronounced hotchie doggie.

The town is very excited about my hippie hoppie class.

Went to a breakdance class today to promote my class. And get my sweat on.

Then I went to fabio and Sacia's party to celebrate the adoption of their twins. More sweating as I played tickle-karate-capoeira with Fabio's tireless little niece for hours, until finally I became her mount and she waged battle against the other children. They were on foot, but numerous.

Warm rain on the walk home.
And motercycles.
That's not typical for CG, but if this is Willits, then the Redwood Run is coming through town. (This weekend is a motercycle festival. The heavy metal concert last night was part of it.) MANY women bikers.

We were welcomed home by birimbaos and singing under a sheltered area in our rain-soaked courtyard.