First exploration

So right now it is the festival of Sao Joao (not sure how to use this computer for accents)... which basically means that Salvador has been empty, for everyone travels to the interior of brazil duing this time... But there was a slight bustling happening in Perlourino...

I heard through the grapevine that my favorite group, (and probably a trillion other people~s) Olodum would be performing on sunday night... but that you had to purchase a tshirt and dvd in order to get in. My host mother (who went off to cuba for a weeks vacation) left me in the hands of her ubercool best friend who offered to venture to pelouino to ask about olodum~s show...

as we walked through the touristy streets of pelourino, approached by several Bahianas trying to sell african jewelry, we casually asked aound where Olodum~s house was... to our surpise, after realizing that their house was closed, we ran into a street performance of olodum~s children school, who was performing for a television show. I stumbled into exactly what i wanted to search for--olodum~s street kid project, which brings in kids to learn music and percussion. All these adorable kids from 7-17 casually performing in the street.... i hated being amoung camera snapping tourists who probably didn~t know anything about samaba reggae music... but I mentally slapped myself for sneering at the tourists and just enjoyed it all, with a cheesy smile on my face and tapping my feet.

On the bus back to Victoria where i live, Helena (my `baby sitter`for the week) stopped a few blocks from home, to show me what REAL bikinis look like. (She and the family had laughed at what i thought was my skimpy american bikini). To make a long story short, after sever laughs, a few dropped jaws , and some scared faces as i looked in the mirror after trying on a few... i walked out with a flourescent pink `conservative`brazilian bikini. ¨When in ROme¨, right?

Later that night somehow i orchestrated four of us students to go back to Pelourino for some forro dancing that was apparently going to be happening in the main square. I absolutely hate traveling in groups... i wanted to go on my own, but to be safe, i had to bite the bullet. Even though not much was happening compared to normal, it was amazing to see small children dressed up like little cowgirls as they celebrated the Sao Joao festival, and all the vendors of various fruits, drinks and meat on a stick (i forgot the name)... The vendor that sold me some deliscious lemon splashed chicken couldn~t have been more friendly.. with a toothless smile and bright plump cheeks she kept telling me, ¨look at all of my children and grandchildren... you have to live live live and keep smiling¨... i~m not sure what prompted her to tell me this, becuase i don~t how i could have smiled more, but i will never forget her face and inspiring attitude. It~s as if i knew her already.