Who Brad Knows and Why They Helped Us - Last Post

Many people helped to make this trip possible. Most of these folks are family, but some are also very close family friends. I was going to map out how they are all interconnected but it ended up looking like a run-over meatball. Here is my brief run down and list of thanks:

Family Members Brad Met:

Mom's Side: Grandmother Maria, Uncle Paulo, Aunt Diana, Cousin Marucia, Second Cousin Lidiana and Cesar, Third Cousins Joao and Pedro.

Dad's Side: Uncle Evaldo, Aunt Lucilei, Cousin Lucas, Cousin Carla, Aunt Elvia, Uncle Wilmar, Cousin Kelly, Uncle Elton, Uncle Eliel, Grandmother Eva, Third Cousin Jeana, Great Uncle Jose, Great Aunt Maria, Second Cousins Andre, Marilha and Gabriel.

Hosts

Monteiro Family: Marcos, Dora, Ana, Andre, Vitor - Marcos went to Seminary with my uncle Evaldo. He is also a good friend of my dad's. Dora was my aunt Marinete's roommate at college and a member of the first church my dad pastored.

Barbero Family: Cesar, Lidiana, Joao & Pedro - Lidiana is my mother's first cousin. Cesar and Lidiana were introduced to each other by my aunt Marinete.

Paixao Family: Toninho & Helida - Friends of my father. They are not pictured on the blog because we were only able to spend one night with them but they were a great help. Mr. Toninho drove us around Sao Paulo and picked us up from the airport at 4:30 a.m.

Baklizky Family: Paulo, Diana & Marucia - My mother's younger brother.

Santos Family: Evaldo, Lucilei, Lucas, Eduardo, Carla - my dad's youngest brother. Went to Seminary with Marcos Monteiro.

Vovo Maria - Mom's mom. Lidiana's aunt. The most hilarious woman and most gorgeous 80 yr old you'll ever meet.

Oliveira-Barros Family: Wilmar, Elvia & Kelly - my dad's youngest sister. Was my first nanny.

Dorta Family: Altamiro Sr. & Marriquinha, Altamiro Jr. & Lana, Luiz - Members of the first church my dad pastored along with Dora Monteiro. One of only two families I remember from my childhood in Sorocaba. Altamiro Jr. could easily blackmail me. I was born during Carnaval so my mom stayed at their home for the first week and a half of my life.

Quick Shout Out:

Ze Paulo - Drove us from Sorocaba to Sao Jose dos Campos (3 hours).
Tio Paulo - Drove us ALL OVER Sao Paulo and found a rare LP for Brad
Members of First Baptist Church Praia da Costa - consented to be interviewed, recorded, brought us material and food
Members of First Baptist Church Fortaleza - consented to be interviewed, recorded, brought us material, food, helped with my missing glasses.
Uncle Elton - Taught me how to make pao de queijo
Lucas - For translating and giving me a break
Tia Lucilei - Let us take over her school for a week
Sabrina - collected material, helped with research, lent her music class freely
Altamiro Jr. - gave invaluable research guidance, collected material, set up workshops and consented to hours and hours of interviewing
Lidiana - For setting up our time with Dr. Henry Leck and Festival appearances
Dora - for introducing us to Elvira Drummond and having an AMAZING research schedule set up for us
Gabriel, Vitor, Carla and other children around us - for singing every song they could remember
Lucilene - for sharing her massive research material and knowledge of folk music with us

There are many more and if I forgot someone please know that I have your name written down and that your kindness and friendship is burned into the memory of our hearts.

Tomorrow we are going to our last interview. We will be going to a rural church about one hour from Goiana and spending time with neighborhood children. We will fly back to the US on June 30th but will not be back in Lubbock until July 7.

Thanks to everyone for following along with the blog. We have LOVED sharing our trip with you and hope you have enjoyed the experience! See you soon!

What Brazilians do when they live far away from a beach...

We spent all of Saturday at Caldas Novas, GO at Hot Park. Hot Park combines a water park with a man-made beach (complete with wave machine): a necessary invention for Brazilians who live in a landlocked state. The park boasts of warm, natural pools courtesy of an extinct volcano and its resulting hot springs. The short video below features the GORGEOUS park, Brad, me, my cousin Kelly and aunt Elvia. Music by Tom Jobim, Brazilian composer:

Now We are in Goiânia, Goiás

Monday we flew in to Goiânia, Goiás, where my Vovó Eva lives. We are staying with some of the MANY relatives I have on this side of the family: My aunt Elvia, uncle Wilmar and cousin Kelli. On the way over I realized that there are little things I have not shared so I am throwing them all in this post. If it seems a bit disorganized, just pretend we are having a live conversation. Most of you are used to my "skipping stone" thought process anyway!

For some reason, platform shoes are back in style...the really high ones that make people look like circus acrobats. One lady at the airport was having such a hard time she looked like a baby giraffe. My compassionate nature prompted me to take a picture and giggle afterwards.

It is really nice not to have to take off half of your clothing at airport security. The lines for security are almost non-existant and we zoom right through. There are no liquid restrictions, no throwing away of your favorite razor. Yet Brazilians consider our airports more dangerous. It reminded me of a Michael Moore movie where he interviews Canadians and asks them why they don't keep weapons in their homes and yet their crime rate is so much lower than ours.

There has not been a single person who I have spoken to here that has not asked me about the presidential race. They are more informed than we are about our own candidates. They are also fascinated with Obama. Even my 80+ year old grandmothers are following this election year with interest. The question is the same: "Do you think Obama is going to win?" By the way, the picture to the right is of me and Lana, who needs to live closer to me because she rocks!

On the flight over I heard passangers whispering excitedly when they noticed our plane was completely covered in autographs. One said: "I think this is the hotdog flight!" I wasn't quite sure what that meant until the airline attendant came on the speaker and announced that we were on a special Festa Junina flight and that we would all get hotdogs. I cannot convey the level of excitement. Apparently, hotdogs are a treat. We enjoyed them but the lady sitting next to me just about cried with happiness. She leaned over and said: "I wish they were passing out another one. This is unbelievably delicious!" I almost told her we lived next door to a Weinershnitzel.

Brad is aghast that they don't sell peanut butter here. They have a type of peanut paste but it is not the same thing. My uncle Paulo, a peanut butter afficionado, told me that it does not taste as good as the American kind. To me this is only fair, as many delectable treats I grew up with cannot be purchased in the United States except at expensive import stores. Brad also slept in my grandmother's hammock. He liked it very much. Someday, we're gonna have one.

Prunes are considered a dessert here. They add them to all sorts of pastries. Brazilian supermarkets have a cream cheese that is syrupy and stays in a glass jar. They have a cheddar cheese flavor that has replaced Brad's blood content. Brad has also fallen in love with a root named mandioca and the flour made from it: farofa. He eats as much of it as he can get his hands on.

The ultimate gastronomic experience, however, belongs to the Casa de Trufas (house of truffles). This place is within walking distance my grandmother's house in São José dos Campos and sells the largest truffles I have ever seen. Not only are they fabulous but they are CHEAP: $1.50 each. We bought a box to bring home to our parents and brothers in law (who we know will appreciate these immensely).

They sell them in flavors like coconut, lime, passion fruit, Açaí, bitter chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate the list goes on and on. I took a picture of one next to a quarter so you all can get an idea of the size of these things.

Wednesday, Brad is going to interview my grandmother to get recordings of the music she remembers. I'll try to post a music file for you all to hear her singing. She looks like a shorter, blue-eyed version of my dad. She is loving and generous and the kind of person that always has a sunny outlook. She has a painful knee injury that cannot be operated on due to her age. She laughed it off and told me: "I'm getting healed in New Jersusalem." Just so you all can keep track of the family members we have visited and how they relate to me and each other, I'll post a family tree here soon. I just have to sketch it out a bit.

Festa Junina

We had a GREAT time with my childhood friend, Altamiro Jr., his wife Lana and son, Luiz. They took us to a large fair celebrating Festa Junina. If you want to know what that is, this wikipedia article in English actually explains it pretty well. If you are more adventurous and want to see better pictures of these events, check out the same page in Brazil's wikipedia. We went to this fair for a specific reason. View the video clip below to see what it was.

Would You Like to See Brazilians Square-Dancing?

On Wednesday night, Brad and I conducted a choral workshop at Academia Concerto, a choral organization in Sorocaba. We sang through several of Brad and Lucy pieces, worked on vocal technique, talked about the similarities between adult and children's choirs and then ended our time together teaching them Arkansan Square Dancing. Keep your eyes on the blog within the next few days. I'll be posting video on our Festa Junina Fair visit: includes the oddest orchestra you've ever seen!

Sorocaba and my Grandmother

Right now we are in Sorocaba, SP - the city I was born in. We went on a brief trip down memory lane yesterday and also spent time researching at the university library. I'll post pictures of our hosts tonight. We are staying with a family that is very close to mine. As a matter of fact, their son and I grew up together, but he is a bit older so he remembers more details.

We got to have lunch with my grandmother, as I mentioned earlier and will be returning to her house this weekend to spend more time with her. I have missed her very much because we spent summer after summer at her house. As a matter of fact, her house and the house we are currently staying at in Sorocaba are the only places that have remained the same since I was born. Below are two short photo stories. The first is of my grandmother's house, and the second of Sorocaba. I will try to post again tomorrow. Today Brad and I will be planning for a choral workshop that we are presenting at Academia Concerto here in Sorocaba. It is a professional choral organization and we are very nervous! Altamiro Jr., my childhood friend, is the director. His wife, Lana, conducts the female choir.

Good Bye Holy Spirit...

Tonight we are packing to return to the state of São Paulo. This next week we will be dividing our time between Sorocaba (the town I was born in), SP the city and São José dos Campos, to visit my grandmother, Vovó Maria. We'll fly out of Espirito Santo tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. This past week has been very productive for us. We interviewed several older folks for their memories, musicians, children and even my uncle's maid who taught us rhymes and sayings from her childhood. At this point, we have well over 500 songs collected. It's incredible how many of these come back to me when I hear them sung or spoken! We've gathered research from the university library, exchanged material with local music teachers, played jump rope games with 3rd graders and tried not to be overwhelmed by the large amount of music we have to sift through! Of course we could not have done it without the help of Sabrina, who I have mentioned before. She is amazing!

Today my aunt took us to visit the chocolate factory. We couldn't get in to the factory itself for some political reason but we did visit the show room where Brad attempted to stuff himself with as many different kinds of bom boms as possible. These are simply the most delicious chocolate treats you'll ever taste. When you step out of the car in front of the factory, you are engulfed in a chocolate-y smell-most delicious. Afterwards, we went to a part of town called Gloria (are we seeing a pattern in the naming of these places?). Gloria encompasses a 3 block shopping mecca made up of tiny and unique stores selling everything from Chinese imported plastic hair barrettes to Coutoure. I managed to buy Maggie the CUTEST orange dress and a lovely collection of previously mentioned barrettes and headbands. They were darling! Poor Brad just followed us around, making that sacrificial lamb face most men make while shopping with their wives. For his patience, he was rewarded with a screening of Tommy Boy. Downloaded from I don't want to know by my cousin Lucas.

Top Ten Things Lucy Has Learned in Brazil

1. Home-made Juice is worth the effort

2. Coffee Brewing is an art

3. Being connected to family is a great way to understand one's personal quirks

4. Maggie needs to speak Portuguese

5. Air Conditioner should be appreciated. At All Times.

6. Beach vacations are the most relaxing

7. Brad can never own a speedo.

8. I have an awesome and generous extended family.

9. Jump roping is hard

10. Walking at night, on a beach boardwalk, listening to antiquated love songs and watching a group of older folks dance along is a great way to get ready for bed.