Ok, so last post ended with me getting off the bus after 36 glorious hours. Understandably I was just about ready for a drink. I had decided to stay in the Pelourinho (Portuguese for Pillory) which is the main centre for nightlife in Salvador.
So of course I got in at 11pm and decided to go straight out for a drink. After Belem I was euphoric to be somewhere where it was possible to go out in the night without being instantly gutted so that the locals could fashion my corpse into clogs. The Pelourinho is the area of Salvador that has the most police by a very large margin - I suppose this is due to the fact that it´s the biggest tourist attraction. It´s also the area I would recommend the most, as to be honest the rest of Salvador was not up to much outside of Carnaval.
Now about that drink.
If any of you happen to go to Salvador, I heartily recommend the Pelourinho as one of the best paces to go for a drink. Probably in the entirety of Brazil. One of my favourite little places was the first I visited. Basically just a stall at the bottom of the hill on which the Pelourinho sat, but it was run by really nice people and was ridiculously cheap caipirinhas. It was also some sort of slave labour emporium, which added to the charm immesurably. The two owners had clearly roped their bearly pubescent grandchild into doing the bulk of the work, and i´d merrily rock up every night to watch the poor kid sweating and toiling away making caipirinhas for the masses. But they were good caipirinhas, so I guess the end justified the means.
Carnaval itsself was something of a lettdown. Although I really enjoyed it, it was essentially one of those parties that went on far far too long. Four days in and the same drum group is still playing outside your window at all hours of midday when decent people are trying to sleep.
Perhaps I was a little unlucky. After all, the best night out I had in Salvador was the night before Carnaval started, and it set the bar at a level which was more or less insurmountable.
The pelourinho is also a really excellent place to stay because it has three free music venues. Twice every week, each venue holds a free concert of whoever feels like showing up. Some weeks it´s jazz music, or orchestral, or whatever. I was luckily enough to turn up for the birthday concert of one of the stars of Brazilian music, whose name i have forgotten. It
was by far the most awesome free night out I have ever had. This was due to a variety of factors, including but not limited to:
A.) Acerola Caiprinhas - these are awesome, as acerola is a stimulant (as well as a type of cherry)
B.) The fact that for the duration of the night I had taken to introducing myself as Armstrong Finesse-Gorgeous to total strangers, none of whom spoke English.
C.) That one guy who showed up.
I should probably explain that last one.
I was at the front of the crowd when the music started. It was nice, lively, high tempo stuff that i didnt understand a word of but that seemed really cheerful. Which was nice. After the first couple of songs That One Guy had managed to insinuate himself into the front rows somehow, and from there on in things grew more interesting. That One Guy took it upon himself to constuct a ludicrously complicated dance routine, following the antideluvian method of Jazzyfunkodelia with which we are all familiar. It was one of the most manic displays I have ever seen. And, given that he was dressed like a policeman at the time (i kid you not) the entire front row of around thirty people joined in. In perfect time. I suppose the rationel was that if you didnt immediately Get Up On That Thing he might Shoot You All Up In The Face. In any event, it was great. A bit like being a member of the Backstreet Boys for the night but without the concomitant insufferable level of shame.
So after all that, carnaval would have to be something pretty amazing. And in fairness for the first couple of days it was.
Carnaval is Salvador is very different to the one in Rio. It is dominated by the drum groups and trio electricos, whereas Rio de Janeiro focuses on the Samba schools. The drum groups are huge African influence bands, usually with over 40 members and all marching behind a carnival float with the singers and a few more musicians. The biggest in Salvador are Olodum, Filhos de Ghandi and Ilye Aye. Filhos de Ghandi (Children of Ghandi) is by far the biggest, as anyone can join in the street - basically they dress you up like ghandi, you pay them a bunch of money and you join the float. Also they give you some perfume to spray on people, no one knows why. Olodum was probably my favourite to watch, they´re a very African looking group and it was a really different culture from what I saw down south. Ilye Aye I only saw on the last night, but they were amazing as well. They were by far the most culturally oriented - the only drum school that wouldnt admitt foreigners at any price.
As for the trio electricos, they were basically huge mobile music floats with bands on top. They vary a lot in terms of quality - I saw Evete Sangala (who is the most famous samba singer in brazil) twice, and she was alright. By far the best trio I saw was called Boka Louka which played the most ridiculously lively Axe/Pagode you´re ever likely to hear. It was a bit like someone had trapped a catepillar inside a synth, but it was a happy catepillar and it wanted to show that and also it had brought a percussion group.
To a great extent carnaval defies description. it´s an event on a bigger scale than anything you´ll ever see again. It´s more than ten times the size of the biggest music festival you´ll ever go to, and it´s got far more going on as well. I´ve mixed feelings about the last night, as FatBoy Slim had his own Trio Electrico on the beach. It was an alright set, but I was put off by the fact that the entire crowd was made up of white foreigners. it was a bit of a sour night that the whole of carnaval had to wrap up with an event that no one from Salvador could afford to attend except for as “pipoca”. Understandably, it was a pickpocket bonanaza but I cant seem to muster any sympathy for their victims.
On reflection that was probably the thing that surprised me most over the week of Carnaval. Lots of people got robbed, as expected, mostly by having their expensive digital cameras out in the poorest districts of one of the poorest cities in Brazil. As you do. What I found odd was the reaction to this, on two fronts. Firstly I was beyond fucking amazed that people i knew would actually run after someone who had snatched their camera as if that person would not fucking stab them in the eye for it. At least once the police actually caught up with the guy who had snatched a camera and run for it, and that leads to the second thing that I just couldnt believe. People told me in a casual sort of way how they had been telling the police to shoot these kids once they got caught. One guy said in his defence that he only wanted the cops to shoot this teenage boy in the legs, as if he was going to just shrug that off instead of dying in the street after being crippled. The street crime in Salvador is rarely violent - the guys who will rob you are almost invariably pickpockets and kids who just grab whatever is in your hand and then sprint off. It´s ridiculous to think that people would happily have some impoverished kid crippled or killed outright just to get their shiny fucking trinket back in the pocket of their overpriced Diesel jeans. I know the usual bullshit responses to this are that the kids have no respect for how hard you have to work to get things like that, or that they´ll just trade it for drugs. Both points are ostensibly accurate, but they just dont justify treating kids that way. I know probably the majority of people living on the streets will be doing drugs, but that´s just because it offers momentary solace in an otherwise bleak landscape. You cant really use it as a justification for shooting them through the knees in revenge for your wasted overtime.
Anyway, that aside carnaval was a really good experience, if not quite as great as I would´ve liked.
And after all that I had to get some rest on a beach somewhere. Which I will explain later as this post is almost unbearably long as it is.
Sorry to go out on such a sour note but that´s just the way it is. Better luck next time kids.
Boa Noite
Phil
Posted by phil on May 13th, 2008
Right then,
so the next few posts basically never happened. Unlucky. Cos i´ve been vastly too busy to get on with anything that doesnt involve a ridiculous amount of travel, random encounters, strange animals and job offers. So i´m going to try and wrap up the rest of the travel since Manaus in one fell swoop. Starting now. Go!
I believe we left off with me just leaving the jungle and returning to Manaus. After that, I decided I was going to take the cargo boat down the river as far as Belem, with a stopoff in Santarem which is halfway there. This is the most common (if not only, in some cases) method of travel between cities in the Amazon. Although most have roads, many are not connected to the main road system, so for example taking a bus to Santarem from Manaus is impossible. Unless of course you drive it onto a boat and then sit there making bus noises to yourself whilst you´re sailing. It´s an option.
I had decided to travel “hammock class”, which means that you sleep on the deck (but inside) as opposed to in a cabin. As you may have guessed, you also have to sleep in a hammock. Which is nice. I bought myself a lovely green one from the appropriately titled House of Hammocks in Manaus, which is likely to be my favourite souvenier from Brazil.
I´m sure this all paints a delightfully romantic picture of Amazon travel, and to a certain extent that image is valid. However to another, much greater, extent, it´s one of the grittier and less dignified of transport media. The direct consequence of riding hammock class is that you get far too intimate with the other people who are seeking a taste of romance on the Amazon. In my case when i bought my ticket someone else had set up my hammock in a spine crumpling banana curve. This same enterprising young gent had clearly recognised my need for English-speaking companionship and set my place next to an Australian guy who was going the same way. Regrettably, due either to ineptitude or a touching belief that attraction can flourish in the most barren of soil given none-too-gentle encouragement, he decided to set our hammocks up so close together that any attempt to sleep ended with me unwillingly spooning my fellow traveller. Combine this with the non-consentual game of footsie I was obliged to partake in with the rotund feaux-ginger sailor in the hammock adjacent, and the quixotic first impression soon recedes. Speaking of which, whilst travelling down the river I made my first, and I hope only attempt at reading Don Quixote. On reflection, I think it would be better used as ballast.
The trip downriver was otherwise uneventful, and that is the typical experience of anyone travelling that way. It´s basically just a period in which you sit in bed, read and drink heavily. Kind of like holidaying in Ireland, as far as I recall.
My next stop was Santarem, a small town next to the meeting of the waters. The town itself is wholely unremarkable, save for a peculiar feature of the church there. Essentially it was equipped with loudhailers on all four corners, so if you didnt happen to go to church that day you could still be assailed by the sermon no matter where you were. Which is the effective equivalent of you turning off your tv to avoid the adverts, and Heineken then pitching a representative through your living room window to shout in your ear. Although of course they would be selling to you by pointing out that if you didnt jolly well purchase some frosty nectar right quick you would be set on fire in hell by people who were also raping you. Forever.
The point of the stop in Santarem was to trip down to Alter do Chão, a village about an hour away by bus. Alter do Chão is one of the prettier and less developed places in the Amazon, and it has a couple of little islands which you have to get little taxi boats to. Basically very little happened there - I stayed in a hammock in a shed, along with two americans and the most terrifying and depressing Frenchman I´ve ever met. He was clearly drinking himself to death, because he would literaly drink straight cachaça from the bottle from the moment he woke up to the moment he went to sleep, chain smoking as he went. Often during the night he would wake up, jarred awake by his own unrelenting flatulence, have a quick cigarette and a cachaça and then try to shout himself back to sleep. His method of conversation consisted of raving at you in French, caring little for the fact that you didnt speak a word of it. He was one of the most interesting characters I have ever met, but as you might be able to tell my sympathy for him had crumbled by about the third hour of our association. Other than that little else happened in Alter do Chão, save for the discovery of the local Bingo tournament. Given that Bingo is technically illegal in Brazil it was wholly unsurprising that the entire town played it in the village square every night. What was mildly surpising were the prizes on offer - including but not limited to (I kid you not) a live cow. Live chickens were also frequently on offer, but I have to admitt I was a little gutted not to win the cow. In fantasy I had envisaged myself travelling around Brazil with a bull called Derrick. I imagined that I would attempt to negotiate a cut price for the two of us in youth hostels, and when that didnt work Derrick would smash them with his horns. Or udders, if he was he she. Eventually, I would alienate every Brazilian I encountered and end up eating Derrick out of desperation. So kind of like those old buddy-movies, except one where Jack Lemmon devours the other bloke right after the musical number in the box car.
After Alter do Chão the Americans and I took a quick trip into the secondary jungle, to the island of Dois Macacas. We were invited there by one of the guides from Alter do Chão, who said there was a German artist living there who let people stay for free. Which sounded nice until we realised on the boat that the only other reclusive German anyone could remember was also a bit of a cannibal. As it turned out he wasnt in, which wasnt much of a problem. It was a very beautiful location - effectively just open wood huts where you could hang your hammock, right in the middle of the forrest. I could hear the Howler monkies not far off, and whilst exploring I spotted a little peach-coloured Kolibri about the size of a ping-pong ball, which was also pretty awesome. There was a colony of hippies living there too, making badly manufactured and overpriced jewelry, and we had a bit of a sing along and some tofu which was nice. Then they showed us a gigantic tarantula living wild right next to the camp, which was less nice. So I went and huddled in terror in my hammock until it rained right throught the roof above me, then huddled in terror on a table where someone had all too recently given birth. Then my candle burnt out, and as there was no electricity I huddled in terror in the dark. The next day one of the Americans discovered another only slightly less gigantic spider which had nested for the night in the bag just I had been using as a pillow. Needless to say I did not take a look at it, instead electing to whimper a bit and twitch.
Next was the trip downriver to Belem, which was identical to that from Manaus to Santarem except with no spooning as i had judiciously elected to set up my own hammock that time. So I wont cover it again.
Belem is a very interesting city, and somewhere I would actually consider living. I have no idea why, as every time I talked about going out for a drink in the evening the locals explained that such activities were only for those made of sterner stuff. Namely kevlar. As a result I made the most of the daytime and ate a lot of icecream which was very nice indeed. Little else occurred there, except I watched the warm up for carnival, and met the Australian from my first trip down the river. He had subsequently contracted Dengue fever whilst on the boat a day or so after I left. So I was both sympathetic and a little smug. Which is a difficult facial expression to pull off, as you might imagine.
Next was the glorious 36 hour bus trip from Belem to Salvador for Carnaval. It was actually very nice to watch the scenery go by, but I am afraid that it doesnt make for very good blogging fodder and I was hiding my camera for fear of it being knicked. I´m also aware that the quick summary has completely failed to be, so I´ll leave it at this and take another run at a roundup entry tomorrow.
Night night,
Phil
Posted by phil on April 5th, 2008
Right, next bit.
I got on the plane to Manaus around midday in Rio. For some reason I always get really excited when I get to fly somewhere, so the prospect of a four hour plane ride was a happy one. Basically nothing happened except I discovered that there is a lot of the Amazon even from a long way up and that much of it is green. Actually it´s pretty incredible, as the colours are very different, and the rivers that have eroded the banks until they are orange clay are actually pretty amazing to look at, set against the green of the forrest.
Anyway, arriving in Manaus was a huge change from Rio. In that it´s got that run-down look shared by most places in Brazil. Rio had been a bit more maintained than the other places I´ve visited, but in the Amazon it appears that bits are still falling off at regular intervals.
My hostel was a ridiculously cheap place just off the centre of Manaus. As it turned out it was run by a charming rastafarian, a disturbingly gaunt and run down looking australian, and a local girl who looked to be about 12 and also made from sticks. The plot thickened, as it turned out that the 30+ Australian was romantically entwined with the local Twiggy-analogue. Apparently she was over 18 but a few of us at the hostel had our doubts. However, we refrained from conversational starters along the lines of “Congratulations on finding happiness with your diminutive child prostitute!”, as the place really was quite cheap. Further, the irritating little marrionette didn´t have the decency to be fostering a heroin addiction to shackle her to her didgeridoo weilding captor. Instead, it seemed that she had become hooked on Boney M, the sole supplier of which appeared to be the aforementioned australian. So she proceeded to blast out “Ra Ra Rasputin” and “Ma Baker” on a near-eternal 24 hour loop that made you want to lock her in the freezer until she thought better of it.
Anyway, there turned out to be nothing in Manaus so i decided to go and live in the jungle forever instead. All in all it was a pretty interesting experience - i discovered i had to stay at a jungle lodge instead of just marching off into the unknown, as the latter was too expensive for anything smaller than a group of 12 or so. So I ended up heading south into the Solment river that connects to the Amazon (and does not harbour Candiru, which was the first question of every bloke who went)
The actuall experience of the jungle was pretty straight forward - we saw a lot of interesting animals like eagles and monkies and spiders, giant toads and sloths and piranhas. Basically everything you could ask for, which was nice. We didnt sleep in the jungle overnight, because it rained so much that if we had a built a shelter to sleep under it would have turned into a game of animal sardines as everything living in a ten mile radius huddled under to dry off. Or more accurately, a game of “Look at the sheer amount of fangs and shit I can plant in your soft, human face whilst you sleep. Are you enjoying that? Are you? Because I´m fucking loving it. Not so fucking special now, are you thumb-boy? Going to fashion a useful tool out of some sticks to dig yourself out of this one? How about that? How about no? Does no work for you?”
This is as I imagine the internal monologue of the giant spiders we saw. At least, if i was one it would be my train of thought. Perpetually. As such I was a little untrusting of them. And a little put off by the fact that whenever one turned up in the jungle lodge we stayed in, the guides would parade it around for a while on the back of a machette, explaining how it had been sleeping in one of our rooms. Poisonous? We asked that too, but aparently they were only “agony” spiders which just gave you the screaming pains for about 24 hours. And at least such was treatable at the local hospital, which was a good 12 hours away. Sweet.
We swam in the Amazon most days, which was surprisingly nice one you got over the piranha fears. It was warm and idylic, and it felt like a very different world from Rio. Which of course it is. The Amazon locals are incredibly isolated, and despite the surplus of natural beauty you cant help but feel sorry for them. We got invited into the home of one of our guides, and it was extremely basic. His entertainment seemed to consist of the bible, a bottle of scotch and a gun. Which for some is the makings of a very exciting weekend, but you can imagine that gets tired around the 6 year mark. We watched the locals make farofa, a kind of ground meal made from a giant root, and that was interesting as well. It just struck me that it wasn´t any kind of a life to be born into, given the other options even in Brazil. The nature of the Amazon is that if you stray more than ten miles out of the jungle you know, you´ll probably die. And the hospitals are so far from you that if you get injured, that´s it too. Most were illiterate, and so poor that they really couldnt leave to a city to find a job. And given that only about five people live near you, and you´re related to all of them, it´s a pretty grim scene down the disco on a Friday night.
So yeah, it was interesting. As was the time we spotted a sloth in a tree, which led our guides to stop the boat, climb the tree and literally hack him down from the top branch to the forest floor so we could goggle at him from up close. Apparently the way he tried to claw people in the face was just him waking up. Really I was appalled at the kind of contempt these guys had for the animals, so i´m trying to find some organisation to report them to that might actually have some sort of impact. Suggestions welcome, please. In the end it might just be giving them a negative writeup to the people whose guidebook I bought (Footprint, endorsed by Michael Palin, no less) but it feels a bit limp all in all.
Sorry if this post is a bit sparse - I´m behind at the moment as I´ve just finished Carnival in Salvador, and seven days of party has taken it´s toll. Next I´ll cover how I got out of the Amazon and to Salvador, and try and be a bit quicker about it. I´m in rehab on the beach for a few days, so perhaps progress will be quicker this time.
Night night,
Phil
Posted by phil on February 8th, 2008
Righto
It´s been literally forever since i´ve written a post - probably about a month in fact. Lots has happened in the meantime so I´m going to break it down place by place. So far I´ve been to Rio, Manaus, the jungle, Santarem, Alter do Chao and some random place in the secondary jungle that was full of giant spiders and hippies.
So, today is Rio. Woo.
Actually I´m gonna start from just before. Basically, the projects wrapped up and finished for Christmas with the obligatory big parties, which I got to attend. It was pretty standard stuff for the most part - Santa doing the rounds during the day in one project, a big do with music in the other. My favourite, slightly disturbing part, was the letters that kids were writing to Santa.
I ended up writing some for the illiterate ones (in portuguese, no less), but one girl had written one by herself which was awesome. It basically went along the lines of:
” Dear Santa
Today our teacher Marcello came round dressed up as you so we didnt get to go outside
and play football. Then he went to see the little children in the other class so we couldnt
do anything in the afternoon. That was really stupid. I hate Marcello and I hate you.
Sincerely, Little Girl. ”
Disturbing, and yet awesome.
So, yeah.
Next, we had a big party for the volunteers on the Friday night before Christmas. Nothing really happened, except the next day my hangover somehow blew up into a fully fledged stomach virus. Which was nasty, as you can imagine. I spent Saturday night in various positions of prayer and supplication, hoping that it all got better in time for my flight the next night. I was still recovering on Sunday when a couple of Brazilian girls came round, packed up all my stuff and shaved my head. Which was nice.
I felt like maybe the stomach bug was a harbinger of doom for the whole trip, but then the taxi driver who took me to the airport rescued the whole situation. Once he discovered I was English he insisted on playing me Black Sabbath at full volume, which was awesome. I´ve never listened to it before (I always thought their one famous song was shit) but it was really nice upbeat travelling music.
I arrived in Rio at four AM, and spent the next few hours sleeping in the waiting room to avoid being instantly shot through the neck by the locals lurking outside. I parked myself next to some nuns, hoping that huddling inside their aura of saintliness would prevent anyone from stealing my shoes whilst I was unconscious. Which it did.
From the outset Rio was really beautiful. I dont know quite what I was expecting except Corovado and Sugar Loaf Mountain, but it was all very pretty and had lots of windy little streets and that. I stayed in Santa Teresa which felt very safe for the most part, and was full of nice little restaurants, also with an amazing view over the city. Although that one day where I came out of the hostel to find twenty police enjoying the view was a bit weird, given that they were all smoking nonchalantly with assault rifles slung over their shoulders. Makes you a bit nervous, understandably.
As a side note, I´ve taken to wearing my money belt inside my trousers to prevent people pickpocketing me. The practical upshot of this is that I´ve also taken to absentmindedly opening my underwear and bouncing a handful of of small change off my testicles at irregular intervals. Which, also, is nice.
I dont know what more I can say of rio except for that it´s really exceptionall beautiful. I did all the touristy stuff, doing sugarloaf mountain, drinking from a coconut on Ipanema beach, taking photos of Christ the Redeemer and so on. But I´ve not done anything off the beaten track. It´s just been nice to be a proper tourist for once.
For New Years I went to Cocapacobana beach, like everyone else, and we had a dance on the sand and watched the huge fireworks display at midnight. Incidentally the Brazilian approach to fireworks is much like the Americans, boiling down to “See the big black thing above your head? Twat it with as much explody stuff as possible, all at once.” Bless them.
Still, it was really good. I got to talk to Brazilians a lot, which was really nice. Making use of the Portuguese has made me feel clever, although i´ve learned now never to ask about someone´s family - at least one close relative is certain to have died in recent history.
Anyway, after all that good stuff I jumped on a plane and headed to Manaus. Which I´ll write a post about whenever I feel like it. Hopefully soon.
Tchau tchau
Phil
Posted by phil on January 23rd, 2008
Hiya,
Ages since I´ve posted, busy with something more important, blah blah blah blah.
So! I´m off travelling in six days! Exciting!
Below is a map that Ant and my sister have kindly drawn for me, suggesting a route for my trip around Brazil. You will note that the red line avoids every major city in Brazil, terminating in the middle of the Amazon in a town called Negro.
You will also note that it does not come back. Succinct.
Seductive though the suggestion of a one-way soujorn to darkest stabby-death land may be, I´ve decided to make my own arrangements.
As I mentioned, I´m off to Rio for Christmas! Yeah! I leave six days from today, although I actually arrive on Monday morning…
I´m ten days in Rio, then off to Manaus. Manaus is the capital of the state of Amazonia. So it´s my main opportunity to get murdered by something that isn´t wearing a baseball cap.
To be honest I´ve absolutely no idea what I´m doing in the Amazon, appart from drinking gin and sleeping in a hammock. I´m not even sure why I´m drinking gin, as it was mainly contrived as a form of sorrow-diesel for aging, haggard spinsters with nothing to live for but their menagery of incontinent cats and the cobwebs growing in their wombs.
Ok, got a bit off track there. But I am drinking more gin. True fact.
So, Manaus is just going to consist of me bimbling up and down the Amazon, listlessly poking the wildlife with a stick. Until something maims me, presumably. I´m planning to travel north, south and west from Manaus before returning via Belem and then on to Salvador for Carnival.
Salvador is the best place in Brazil for Carnival. This is basically because it´s all one huge street party, rather than a bunch of pay-on-entry events like Rio. It also has the largest diversity of music there, including a lot off stuff you might not hear much down my way. One example is Axé music, to which I was recently exposed. It basically sounds like you filled a weasel full of cocaine and gave it a xylophone. And then i turned out to be pretty handy with one of those, after all.
Not sure why it has to be a weasel, but it spoke to me. Anyway, I saw people dancing to it for the first time on Friday. The Brazilians have the gift of rythm, but for me it´s pretty terrifying. I´m still getting the hang of Samba and Pagodge, which at least appear to have some basic structure to them which I can shuffle through with my usual club-footed ineptitude. Axé, on the other hand, is just mad. It´s played unbelievably quickly, and yet everone knows the steps. All of them. Except you Any attempt to follow this stuff has inevitably ended with my just staring at a bunch of people blazing through about a thousand steps a minute in some manic attempt to emulate Steve Austin playing Dance Dance Revolution.
Anyway, this seems like a totally inappropriate time to stop writing to that´s what I´ll do. I´m going to write another post in a minute, maybe even with pictures, to explain what I´ve actually been doing for the last two weeks. This post was mainly for explaining the future, rather than dwelling on the past.
Até logo
Phil
Posted by Ant on December 17th, 2007
Another exciting installment,
Well, basically í´ve not written much because not so much is happening. Or rather, a lot is happening but i´ve gotten used to continual massive changes so it all seems much of a muchness.
My new project seems to be going well - it´s not like the cataclysmic stressfest of my other project. It´s huge and well organised, and has a lot of money behind it. Food and materials are abundant, there´s even a notion of discipline. It´s a bit weird to go from one extreme to the other, but it´s making me appreciate how much they need someone in my first project - even if i´m only a performing monkey who occasionally hammers some basic English into the kids.
So far i´m not able to work with the nature side of things, which is a shame. However, I´ve come up with an exciting Blue Peter esque recycling project for the kids which I´ll be doing next week.
- Basically we´re making little birdhouses out of old milk cartons and shoe polish. Excellent stuff, should keep them diverted for a bit and teach them about useful recycling and helping nature, hugging trees, stroking haddock and all the rest of it.
So it´s looking good - actual functional work and a good plan. Should be good to show my sponsors back home as well, whom i seem to spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about.
Still, with the reduction in English teaching my ability to sleep has returned. That and i´m a lot more relaxed, and enjoying my other project loads more. The run up to Christmas will be fun anyway - lots of scope for shennanigans and games and songs. I feel like i´m bonding with them a lot more, feeling like less of an outsider.
My phd proposal is gathering a bit of steam, which is all good. I´m sure you´ve all been staying up nights worrying about that one.
The main point of my last couple of weeks has been getting my travel sorted. I´m now all set to go all the way round Brazil, and cover about three times the length of Europe. Or something equally ridiculous. I start out in Rio for Christmas and New Years, I travel all through the Amazon and arrive in Salvador for Carnival. All in all, I´m really excited. Especially because I´m doing it alone which is what i´ve always wanted. I know I´ve not posted many pictures so far, but you can expect this to pick up during the travel.
Best of all a friend of mine is coming out for a couple of weeks. Hopefully bearing home comforts.
Anyway, i think that´s it as I´ve no real major plot points. In case you were wondering, the title is another song, but refers to the fact that I´m now permanently half-ill due to the extended clubbing schedule here. I´m really loving that part of Brazil but it´s taking its toll! I think The Amazon will be a good time to detox - cane liquor an deadly deadly fish rarely mix. Unless I could make a Candiru Caipirinha….
no.
And so to bed,
PS. Congrats to Nell on getting a new job, and to Rich on getting a Distinction in his MA. And to everyone who went to see Bill Bailey.
Posted by phil on December 2nd, 2007
Hiya!
Ok, firstly, sorry I´ve been completely useless and not blogged for about 2 and a half weeks. It´s been an emotional rollercoaster as ever here, and I need to organise my travel too….
Speaking of which, I´ve just procured myself a ticket to Rio for Christmas! I´m arriving on Christmas eve at about 4am - the travel agent was very clear about the fact that I should stay in the airport for the next three hours, rather than trying to go straight to the centre which would culminate in a situation too horrible to contemplate. (apparenly the airport is right next to two really big favellas, and the bus stops right between them. Hurrah for urban planning!)
I´m not surprised by this at all, but it´s nice that she´s looking out for me.
I´m just booking my hotel - http://www.riohostel.com/
although it goes up in price immensely at new years, it looks bobbins and safe. and it´s recommended by everyone everywhere ever, which is reassuring.
Anyway, the last couple of weeks have been a little boring in parts. I´ve discovered that teaching six sessions of english in a week is just bloody impossible, and it´s been giving me semi-frequent bouts of insomnia trying to come up with something suitably entertaining.
Beyond that, it´s been pretty straightforward. I´ve found a some really good clubs, and I´m becoming a regular. I might´ve mentioned before that there´s a jazz bar right next to my house, and I´m in there once or twice a week as well. The situation is all very cool, it´s just not ridiculously exciting to read about!
Good news is that I´m starting my second project this week, and it´s looking exactly like what I wanted to do from the beginning. It´s basically nature work and recycling with kids, which should be ace. I´ve an interview for it tomorrow, so wish me luck! but basically i think they will just ask me what i want to do and what experience i have. As far as I know they wont reject me, but you never know. fingers crossed….
Ok, aside from all the routine and the partying and the stress with the kids, a couple of things have stood out since last time i wrote. Well, three.
Firstly, on friday night I had a disturbing encounter with Brazilian Christianity. My teacher from my social project had talked me into attending what I thought was just a choir meeting… But as it turned out it was the single largest gathering of Evangelist Brazilians in the last 25 years. They were all in a massive field by the river, where a priest on a giant stage practically foamed at the mouth for a solid two hours whilst the crowd held hands. My teacher actually cried on more than one occasion, which was disconcerting to say the least. Plenty of people were doing the same, sat on the ground highlighting things in their bibles as well… And i narrowly avoided being baptised, by pretending i didnt know what my teacher meant every time she asked if i had accepted christ as my personal saviour….
all in all it was pretty intense. in fact probably the most intense experience i´ve had in Brazil. We really dont have anything like the religious fervour that they do here, it´s really incredible to see in action. What struck me as well was that all the young people there seemed really happy - it was just another big party for them, and reliogion seemed a lot more natural for them. Although in Britain it´s not viewed as very cool to be overtly Christian here there isnt any real stigma attached. All in all I´m glad I went, but I dont think I´ll be going back. I´m not the religious type and i think my teacher imagines she has an obligation to “save” me, which i could do without.
Ok, second thing….
I finally went to a giant samba event that i´ve been prevaricating about. It´s called Imperadores do Samba, and it´s held a few nights every week in a huge warehouse in the south of the city. It´s in a rougher part of town, and there´s a huge following for it in the favellas. Basically it´s where people go to prepare for carnival - it has a huge band, lots of guest singers and loads of dancers in skimpy outfits and glitter. Quality. So I´ve earned a lot of points by going, and buying myself a t-shirt as well. It´s become part of my basic spiel about myself when i´m meeting new Brazilians, which is nice. I am actually trying to learn samba here. Those of you who have seen me dance will know the horror and the mirth i´m inflicting upon the locals….
Ok, finally, the parents of a friend of mine had me round for dinner the other night. What was strange about it was that she was away for the weekend, and it was just me, a belgian guy and a friend of ours. So, quality time with her parents. All you could want. Classic.
Those of you who know me well know what kind of fear this stuff gives me. Eating with someone´s parents with them there is bad enough, but alone is my ideal of hell on earth. But in Brazil I´m really making an effort to be more outgoing, and it seems like the horror in generates in me hasnt physically erupted out of my skin like i thought it would. yet.
anyway, it was actually a really nice evening. the mother cooked, and we had some spicy (ish) fish stew with a glass of brazilian wine. the food was lovely, but cheap brazilian red is like someone with a severe kidney disorder drank a litre of flat tizer and then pissed into a bottle. which is to say, it tastes kind of like grape juice. but less nice. The father of the family was really nice too, and in almost surreall fashion he plied us with Cuban rum and Havana cigars. I´m not one for smoking, but I accepted out of politeness. And, as expected, spazzed it up entirely. Made such a mess of cutting it that by the end it looked like I was trying to suck on a burning Curly Whirly. Which actually sounds like fun, now i think of it.
I´ll try that when i get home, i think.
And that´s it for another unstructured post. More and shorter soon, i promise
and so to bed.
Posted by phil on November 12th, 2007
Ok, the above title is about some of my kids - this should hopefully compel ant to help me set up my photos account on the blog. i´m too inept to do it myself, but once i´ve got it going you will see what i mean about the sprogs. they are deceptively cute. you might also note that a baby leopard is quite cute right up until the point where it has dug into your torso and fashioned your lungs into a rather fetching hat.
well, i´ve not blogged for a bit. mostly because i am quite happy now. the host family is nice, i am in a good location, my weight is increasing. i´ve even joined a gym. i´m discovering that no-one liked my old host, which has imbued me with feelings of vindication. also, teaching the kids is showing some progress. I´ve even started to plan in advance properly which has pleased me greatly.
All in all, it´s going well. so what exactly do i need you for?
But really, it´s nice to be doing this again. Florianopolis was very good - pictures to follow as well. i still didnt stand up on the surfboard, but in time i think i will pull it off. The week after was relatively straight forward, and i´m finding my stride in the project. although i´m realising it´s impossible to teach english in the afternoon. Hopefully i´ll be able to do my second project in the afternoon and avoid the problem entirely.
So yeah, in lieu of complaints it´s pretty much impossible to structure a post concerning my week. Let´s talk about the future instead.
Plans are curdling in my noggin for the travel. it´s racing up on me now, as it will literally start two months tomorrow! I´m planning to fly to Rio on the 23rd of December, spend christmas and new years on the beach then hop to Manaus in the Amazon for a Heart of Darkness style experience. After that mind-mangling intensity i´m heading back east to Salvador, where i will spend carnival before a friend of mine (hopefully) comes for the last two weeks of travel and many adventures in magic land.
So I should probably book some stuff. Also, god willing, I might be able to take a week-long trip to Cuba before I come home. I´m planning to return around the second week of August - if all goes to plan I will literally come straight off the plane and on to the Reading Festival for much revelry.
So yeah, it´s all going bobbins. I´m a bit worried about progress on the Phd proposal but i think i can talk to my old tutor about it again, just to keep the momentum up. I´m also setting up another site this week for the Lions Association of Felixstowe to show where their sponsorship money has been going. Up until recently I was a bit worried about not doing enough to justify the funding i was given, but i think i am trying really hard and now making some progress too. In case you´d like something more informative with less invective, í´ll post the link here once it is up.
Anyway, that´s all i can think of for now. sorry it´s a lame post, i hope to make up for it in photos. Now i´m off to make picture cards for the kids. A teacher is me.
- wait, last thing - because i´ve had a good week last week i´ve decided to give up speaking english at home. eventually i hope to give it up altogether, at least here in Brazil. Day one has not been too hard, so we´ll see how it works out…
Night night
Posted by phil on October 23rd, 2007
Hiya,
Ok, it´s been about two weeks or so since the last post but i will try and keep this short.
Firstly, it´s been my birthday in the interrim. Which was nice. The kids in the project sang to me, i got hugs, i got a card. It was all good.
Secondly, the conflict with my original host finally went nuclear with me telling him what a total irresponsible cunt he was. It was remarkably theraputic, i would recommend it to anyone. Apparently he still blames the whole thing on me. This seems to be due to my habit of continuing to exist when it is inconvenient and when he is not looking directly at me. And due to my needs for such frivolities as calories or carbon-based foodstuffs (in his defence, the flat was replete with aluminium and silicon based nourishment, but they made my insides hurty), and my tendency to respire with such annoying frequency. In fairness, Ant has made similar complaints in the past. Perhaps i should look into developing some sort of cocoon to encase myself in when my company has become too demanding. Made from bile, perhaps.
Anyway, I´ve moved in with a new host - a woman and her son - and everything here is fine and dandy. We live in the centre, so everything great is within reach. The son is my age and speaks english, and the mother only speaks portuguese. So i can practice my portuguese until i offend the mother, then the son can sort it all out. Bobbins.
Finally, I´m off to Florianopolis in about two hours! Really, this time. The tickets are booked, the weather is good, the surfboards are free. Everything looks ace, i am going with nice people and i´ve got no complaints about anything. Once i get back i´m going to try really hard to get some pictures on the site. I currently have monday free, so i might just spend it slaving over the internet and hopefully generating some envy :D
I´ve started planning my travel now (official as of today). It´s mind boggling, but i am confident that i´ve enough cash. I´m going to do the Amazon for the most part, and at the moment it looks like i will be in Rio for Christmas and New Years and then Salvador for Carnival.
Yeah!
Posted by phil on October 12th, 2007
Once again, no idea why i chose that title. I blame the depressed price of alcohol.
So, stuff happened. much of it. It doesn´t feel like it has been a week since I wrote. perhaps because it has been slightly more.
Anyway, lots has happened in the past several days, and in no particular order. i´ll try and keep this short but you never know.
Firstly, it was a holiday this weekend but sadly i did not get to make the most of it. I had planned to go to Florianopolis (floripa to the locals) but saddly the rain got so bad that come thursday morning it was impossible for us to travel.
Needless to say i was gut-arood. I´m making the most of idiosyncratic english. you have no idea how i miss it.
So, it´s mostly been a Nietszchean weak of privations and cravings. Mostly.
Mmmm, delicious pretentsion.
See what I did there? I admitted to being pretentious whilst using a complicated grammatical formulation rarely seen in Portguese! Oh, the mirth!
Anyway, this week has been the typical emotional rollercoaster. It started off with me meeting up with an English girl who had volunteered in Brazil some three years previous. Her name is Marika, and after staying for a year she remained in Porto Alegre for twelve more months, reason being she was smitten with a capoera teacher whom she later married when they both went to London in 2006. Again, complicated and unweildy grammar. She was very nice, all was good and she had some excellent travel suggestions which i hope to put into practice.
That same day, I got to have dinner (Jantar, no less) with the family of my Aryan comrade Simon. They were incredibly nice, he has two host brothers, a host mum and a host gran! All of whom speak little or no English, so it was pure bliss to have complex Portuguese spoken around me for an evening.
By the way, I also learned my “joke of the week” the following day, as a consequenece of the eveing. Apparently the granny knows that I have a problem with my current host, and offered to take me in as some sort of toy boy :P which led my Irish travel buddy Roz to remark -
“Why don´t old women go to the gynaeocologist?” I didnt really want to know, but she told me anyway: “have you ever tried to open a cheese toastie?”
Bleaurgh. Splurk. Other vomiting noises.
Anyway, an evening in a proper Portuguese family was bobbins. It really made me realise that I am not being unreasonable to want to move, so that´s good too. But enough of this bad medicine, and on to happier things.
Ok, not happier things. It´s been a downer of a week and an uneventful weekend. But still, i found an amazing place to stay in Floripa - it´s right on the beach and you can borrow surfboards for free. Strangely, to rent a board and have breakfast (which is free there) would cost more than your room. But who am I to blow against the wind? anyway, it´s good. I´m going soon.
That´s another thing I´ve noticed about Brazil - i tend to use ridiculous expressions on a regular basis, purely because they are English. I seem to be addicted to them. Still, it´s nice.
I´m craving wine at the moment, and nice cheese. For all that, Brazil has it´s high points. I had my birthday meal this eve, on my tod, but in a nice Italian place. They were very nice, and served me caipirinhas that were made from rocket fuel. Which would explain the length and incoherence of this post. It would be a nice date restaurant, save for the fact that after too drinks you´d probably be on the floor. I have yet to adjust to the ridiculous cheapness of strong liquor in this place. It´s a paradise for Gonzo journalism, which I hope to try out in the Amazon.
So, wrapping up now -
the group of exchangees is gelling better every day. we have our problems but we are growing accustomed. I really hope we will be able to speak portuguese together as a common language by christmas. Then I will be obscenely happy. And for a change I´m feeling like this is something i can do.
My host needs changing. Occasionally i spit in his mouth as he sleeps.
I will be going to florianopolis in October. On the 12th. To live the dream. Yeah.
The only other odd thing that happened was I gave some money to homeless people this evening. Not odd, i know, but here the situation is very different. In the uk 60% of homeless people are mentally unwell, and the majority of the remainder are fleeing domestic abuse. Here, homelessness is largely the consequence of poverty. I only gave them about 50p each, but this is enough for them to eat for a day or so. It´s an odd sensation and I don´t know how i am dealing with it. The material realities here are something that most of us have comfortably avoided. I´m not sure how i am now I have acknowledged they are there.
That perplexing downer aside, I´m revving up for my birthday week. I hope to be having samba lessons soon, and we are having a big blowout on friday/saturday night. so it is all to look forward to.
Special hellos to my dad, whose birthday is on wednesday, and to Rich who is suffering unduly in Beijing.
And so to bed.
Posted by phil on September 25th, 2007
