OK, first full day in Salvador da Bahia...
I have decided that I am never coming home, language barrier be damned.
I have also decided that this blog over-promises, so mom, no deeply reflective narratives tonight. Only a play-by-play. (Despite my grandiose scribbles on napkins in the moment.)
I had an after-the-¨feijoada-lunch¨ snack, a supersweet ¨cocada¨ made by a bahiana who was selling the shredded coconut cakes down my the Jorge Amado museum. The picture is of one of the streets heading down that way from the hostel. I have been wanting one of those since I first heard of it from Steve S. back at school.
After that I had an hour-long lesson in the instruments of the sport of Capoeira: the PANDEIRO (tambourine), the BERIMBAO (look it up), and the ATABAQUE (the hand drum, looks like a tall bongo but with a head styled after a djembe, for example)...the berimbau requires way more hand coordination and fine motor skills than this boy can offer, so I might go back. Lessons were in the studio of the late Capoeira grandmaster Mestre Bimba.
After that, I met with a couple of well-known Salvadoran hip-hop artists, Jorge Hilton and DJ Branco (as featured in the documentary Hip-Hop em Sete Vidas... http://www.candacecine.com/proj-hh7v-pt.php). The producer of the documentary met with us, too. Tomorrow I am going to visit Salvador's radio station 107.5FM during Jorge and DJ Branco's weekly hip-hop show ¨Evolucão Hip-Hop.¨ I am looking forward to that, but the language barrier was tricky tonight. (Try facilitating a meeting in three languages, with many blank stares...from both sides of the table).
afterward, around 9, i ran over to the main square to catch a concert of ¨forró¨ music- or at least that's what i was told it was. (This weekend is the festival of San Juan, St. John, São João), so the historic center of the old town is all stages, banners, strings of flags spanning the streets, and food and drink vendors in festive spirits)...The music sounded like a marriage of polka and ska, and the musicians all had Tom Sawyer grass hats on, the kind with the edges untrimmed. Then they started covering 1990s pop hits from the U.S., but in Portuguese. A Spaniard named Nico, who I met last night, told me the ¨forró¨style of Brazilian music gets its name from U.S. troop presence in Brazil during WWII, during which time U.S. entertainers called it ¨for all¨, which, when pronounced with a portuguese accent, comes out a bit trilled and contracted.
The adjustment to the new language is tricky, and as a language geek, I am overthinking everything and taking it hard when it doesn't stick. The word order makes sense, but listening comprehension is maybe 40% if the speaker articulates. Otherwise I am more likely at an optimistic 20%, but reading is great. The spelling is getting better. In fact, it is the case with almost every word that I can mentally infer how it evolved from Latin alongside its Spanish cousin. It totally makes sense, until it comes time to a) remember it, and b) actually pronounce it. What comes out of my mouth is a kind of junkyard variety, the bastard offspring of two beautiful parents. Anyway, in due time...besides, anything before next Wednesday, when the actual language program and classes begin, is gravy...pure extra credit. I just don't want to have to UNlearn anything. gack.
beijos
