Opera in the Amazons

The Amazon rain forest. The name itself draws images of an impassable expanse of towering trees, dangerous and exotic animals and plants and Native Americans who continue to live in the same way their ancestors did before 1492. At the heart of the Amazons sits Manaus. Manaus is a huge city, almost 2 million people and a center of tourism and industrial power. If come to Manaus expecting to find a small city lost in the Amazons, you will be very mistaken. Shopping centers, banks and skyscrapers are just as common here as any other city in Brazil.
In the middle of the city you will find an opera house. The Amazonas Teatro was finished in 1896 and was constructed with materials from all over the world that were shipped up the Amazon river to reach Manaus. It is really an amazing piece of architecture and design that is used to show the story of the area with European and native influence.

After taking a tour of this amazing building we were able to return in the evening to attend an opera concert. It was the pinnacle of globalization:South Koreans that live in the US (New York) that were signing in Italian/German in Brazil.  It was a wonderful concert and the singing was amazing.
Tomorrow we head out into the rain forest, so after an hour boat ride we should be there. Sorry for the poor quality of photos of the opera house, my camera doesn't work so great at night.

Bounce back!

Okay, I'm not dead or in a coma. I have been sick so that is why there haven't been as many blog posts. Not because I haven't had time, but a sick person's blog usually isn't worth reading. Unless they are one of those people who give inspiring stories about finding faith in God and learning to love their families. I'm not one of those people. Hearing about my renewed gratitude for toilets isn't inspiring. So after heading out from Salvador, we headed to Fortaleza. That night I felt so sick I didn't even see Batman. Yeah, that sick. I worshiped the porcelain god for the next few days. This morning we headed out to Manaus. Manaus is the state capital of the state Amazonas. Tomorrow we head into the Amazon rainforest for a few days so today is a day inside the city of Manaus. Manaus is home to almost 2 million people and you would never know you are in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. We went to see the theater that was opened in 1896 and it has building materials from all over the world. Tonight we are going to try to go to a musical event there. It is beautiful and at the time they had to ship everything up the Amazon river to get here.
That's about it, just a quick update.

Salvador

We’ll do a quick recap up until now. We left Recife for Salvador, Bahia on Monday. I wasn’t feeling very well but the flight was smooth so I came out okay. We rested up and this morning we headed out to explore Salvador.

Salvador was the first capital of Brazil and is one of the most historic cities in Brazil. Salvador was also the heart of the Brazilian slave trade and the modern movements for the Afro-Brazilian culture started here. There were times among the shops and buildings that I felt that I was somewhere in Africa where they speak Portuguese, like Angola or Mozambique. There is a very definite pride among the artisans of their African heritage and culture.

We started by exploring a fort that was the first constructed by the Portuguese when they arrived in Salvador in 1501. It also has a light house and a museum and it was really interesting. One of the fun things about the museum was seeing many of the nautical instruments that I used and learned about while on the Europa in 2001. I think the sea is an amazing and powerful thing and the ability of ships to be able to navigate and return home is an absolute miracle.

We headed into the center of the city where many of the largest churches and political buildings are. At the center of it all is the Basilica, where the Portuguese royal family had Mass while passing from Bahia to Rio de Janeiro in 1808. Salvador is a spectacular site with the sea full of cargo ships on one side and the hills rising right out of the water on the other. Many of the main squares are located on the side of the hills that drop a hundred feet, so it is really beautiful.

Large cities are usually beautiful buildings with very expensive stores and monuments, palaces and theaters. Yet one thing that usually comes to mind with large cities is also the number of homeless, begging and destitute people. The two paradoxes are very striking. The person who lacks nothing, the other who lacks everything.

In Salvador this is especially true with the contrast of the large, beautiful churches that are coated with gold inside; with the person asking for money in front. With so many people with very strong African descent it is the continuing tragedy of colonial exploitation and slavery. The church was built upon the wealth made by slaves and today the church makes the money while the slaves have continued, only in different jobs.   

We went shopping at the Mercado Modelo which is located on the sea front where they used to unload the slaves and hold them before selling them. There were a lot of nice crafts and decorations, but nothing really grabbed my attention until the 100% cotton traditional shirts and shorts. Which I bought and they are the best PJs ever. I’ll send a picture later.

We finished the day by going to a special Mass where they combine Catholicism and traditional African deity worship practices that have become attached to particular Catholic saints. It was really interesting, like a Southern Black Baptist with a Catholic Father. It’s interesting how Mass can be so different all over the same country and geographic region.

That’s all the updates. This blog post will probably not be posted on the date it was written because we have to pay for internet and I am cheap.

Game Time! Epilogue

I went to our "End of Recife" social tonight and everyone was asking about the game and I was sharing about how much fun it was. Vanessa asked how it was to see Ronaldinho play and I gave her this "What are talking about?" look. I was under the impression that he was playing for Flamengo from Rio de Janiero, but what I didn't know was that he was traded several months ago. So I watched him play and score a goal. Without knowing!
I remember pointing out a player that was giving Sport a lot of trouble to Cristina and Brady, and thinking that Ronaldinho must have influenced his hair style. No shoot Sherlock, because it was him!
So enjoy this gol that I didn't quite fully appreciate at the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RHMkJUfh-c

Game Time!

Me, Cristina Cowley, and Brady Squires

Putting on a soccer jersey is always something special. It's like putting on a super hero costume with a bit of religious zeal involved. There is something magical about walking to the stadium surrounded by people wearing the same logo, same colors and wanting the same thing. The scream that everyone joins in when you (not the team, you)score is something you can't describe, but something you have to experience.
Today I went to my first soccer game in Brazil and it was amazing. The team we went to watch is called Sport and they are from here in Recife. The other team was Atletico-MG from Minas Gerias. Sport is right in the middle of the pack while Atletico-MG is the leader. Atletico-MG won 4x1, but the first half ended at 1x1 and it was really intense. Sport scored first and it went nuts! Banners, cheers and everyone jumping up and down. It was very interesting to see the differences between Brazilian style tactics to what I usually see watching MLS or European style soccer. The counter attack was the name of the game and it was interesting to watch how the game was a lot more fluid than the build up attack. The ball handling was amazing and many times when I thought the player should pass, he just took it in himself.

To describe and understand part of my experience we'll have to return to earlier in the day. As our last field trip in Recife (we head out to Salvador on Monday) we went to the Museum of the Man of the Northeast. It was a very interesting museum to show how complex the Northeast is by highlighting historical influences such as the Portuguese, Dutch, Native Americans and Africans along with current driving influences such as religion and economic/educational differences. I thought it was interesting that by taking a cross section of the what the Northeast is and how it has become so was something that seemed simple but it is really complicated and multi-leveled.In an earlier blog I mentioned that whenever I feel that I understand Brazil there is always another mask, another layer.

Back to soccer. So we went and bought our tickets and went to go eat. After we ate we headed back to the stadium. One thing that I learned about Brazilian stadiums (and probably most foreign stadiums) is that security is much more important than fan accessibility. Each area is separated from the other by fences and police lines so it felt like there were four stadiums,each based on ticket price. Because we bought cheaper tickets we had a specific entrance we needed to go enter through. Because we didn't quite understand this and because of poor directions we ended up going through security three times before we got through our right gate. Security isn't quite what we think of at professional sports in the United States. There were riot police in full gear checking people, confiscating anything that could be a weapon or thrown. When we tried to pass through the ticket gates for the higher end tickets the police just looked us up and down, but when we went through our gate (the 'poor' person section) they had the guys pull up their shirts to make sure we didn't have anything concealed.

I'm not saying this to show how MLS stadiums are a much enjoyable experience, but to highlight how the lessons I learned about in the museum were being shown in real life. The differences socially and economically are very real and alive. Even soccer itself, an English game introduced to Brazil, has become 'Brazilianized' to the point that Brazilians differentiate between American Football and 'Brazilian Football'. What appears to a simple experience, watching a global game, turned out to be a lesson in culture and the effects of history and society.        

Chicken Port

Today was another tourist day. We went to Porto de Galinhas, Chicken Port, and played around the beach for the day. Porto de Galinhas has natural pools that form with the low tide where fish and sea animals wait for the tide to come back in among the reefs. So we feed the fish and swam around for a little while before chilling on the beach, playing soccer and tanning/sunburning depending on who you are. You can guess which group I was.
  We were playing soccer with a ball that probably weighed .000001 lbs and so any gust of wind and the ball went crazy in the air, but it was good fun with the tide coming in. It's so interesting how we are treated as a group in the tourist zones compared to the smaller cities further inland. In the tourist zones we are approached as targets while in the interior people are generally more curious about why we are there.
 I'm not feeling so great, probably a combination of something I ate and sunstroke. Or I have malaria or dengue. So if I'm not in the hospital, I'll write again tomorrow.

Old Recife

Today we were back in class and it was really interesting to discuss the differences between our trip to the sertão and the trip to the beaches (aka tourist trip). While I learned a lot from both, there were some pretty big differences. More on that later on the trip. I am writing a paper for my internship so I will probably share parts of it as it develops.

In the afternoon we went around Old Recife (Recife Antigo) and it was amazing to see all the older buildings. Some were even older than many of the buildings of the 13 original colonies of the United States. One of the most interesting things I have seen on this trip is the Synagogue Kahal Zur Israel. Because of the Inquisition and political persecution many Jews that had converted to Christianity in Portugal had immigrated to Brazil. Under the Dutch occupation of Northeastern Brazil these Jews that had practiced Catholicism on the outside and had secretly practiced where able to openly practice. The Dutch, even being Calvinists, allowed more open expression of other faiths. Under this time period of 1630-1654, the Jewish community prospered and built the synagogue. When entering into the synagogue the guys of the group put on kippahs, so it was interesting to see how much of what I had learned from World Religions last semester came back.

The caption on the bottom says "Road of the Jews"

Afterwards we went to one of the oldest churches in Recife. Capela Dourada or 'The Golden Chapel' is plaited over the molding with a thin layer of gold and it is stunning. There are many wooden statues inside that look like stone or even flesh. Some of the older statues of Jesus have actual human hair from worshipers in the 1800s. The Baroque style is unique because among the complex decorations are native fruits from Brazil like pineapple and caju, so it is often called 'Tropical Baroque'.  

Well, I had some great pictures I wanted to upload. But they didn't, so go to Facebook!