Six Weeks in Brazil

Who Brad Knows and Why They Helped Us - Last Post

2008-06-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-06-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-06-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-06-13T16:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Brad is on the News!

2008-06-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

Today Brad and I spent the day at Collegio Batista Americano, collecting material, meeting with music teachers and...being followed by a camera crew! The local TV branch of SBT decided we would make an interesting news bit so they interviewed us and recorded us as we researched.
Brad also got to teach a 3rd grade music class today, exchanging ideas with the current music teacher, Sabrina. I've uploaded the video I took of the news story. The quality is not the best because my uncle and aunt do not have a VCR. So I just sat in front of the TV and recorded with my camcorder. It's in Portuguese but worth watching for the end when Brad sings and busts out laughing!

A 450 Year Old Convent

2008-06-07T20:37:00.001-07:00

Today we toured the Convent of Nossa Senhora Maria da Penha. It is located on a hill at one of the highest points of the city and we were able to get some amazing pictures. We drove up most of the way and then went up about 10 flights of stairs to get to the top. On the way we saw shameless monkeys, wheezing tourists and gorgeous trees. Click play to see pictures of our visit.

In the meantime, please keep us in your prayers. This week our daughter transferred over to Arkansas and we miss her more than ever! On the upside, we've been told she is almost potty-trained! Yay!!!!

This week has been a little slower than most. We were able to go to a retirement home and interview a 100 year old woman. She gave us a couple of songs noone knew and we were very excited to transcribe them. She got emotional during her singing and told me that she fell in love with her husband when she was thirteen and never loved another. I almost started crying with her.

Here in Vila Velha is the chocolate bom bom factory, Garoto. We have been told that if you tour the factory, you can eat all the chocolates you can stand while inside. Brad got VERY excited. Hopefully I can get some pictures of us going beserk in a Chocolate Factory a la Lucy and Ethel!

Lucy's Brush with Death

2008-06-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family. As I promised, below you will find a re-enactment of my brush with death, as played by my cousins Carla, Lucas and my husband Brad. Enjoy!

Vila Velha, Espírito Santo (Town: Old Village, State: Holy Spirit)

2008-06-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

It's been an interesting week so far here in the beautiful state of Espírito Santo. The city of Vila Velha is a green, clean and booming town nestled between rolling hills and a cold-water stretch of beach. The governer of the state has chosen to make his home here and I can certainly see why. There is an international harbor and the oldest Catholic convent in the nation. This morning Brad and I went to the mall, which is just a couple of blocks away. Right away, I had to take a picture of this store. Now you know what happened to the Gap.

We arrived this past Sunday and have spent a good portion of the time with Sabrina, a music teacher at my aunt's school (she is a school principal) and the music minister at my uncle Evaldo's (who is the pastor) church, First Baptist Church Praia da Costa. This church sponsors a summer evangelistic festival on the beach that brings in about 60,000 people. It's called Jesus Vida Verão (Jesus, Life, Summer). Sabrina says no matter where she is, she has a Santos for a boss.

So far we have observed music classes at the school (pictured to the right) and participated in the music ministry here at the church. Next week, Brad will be co-teaching with Sabrina in an exchange effort, as well as attending a glass-bottle orchestra concert (this should be fun!). Sabrina is also taking us to see a Congo group. Congo is a style of music typical in this region. Hopefully we will have plenty of great footage to share with you guys!

Brad has had a rest from Portuguese for a bit and me a rest from translating because my cousin Lucas is fluent in English. He will graduate from Law school next year, so this is a good thing. The middle cousin, Eduardo, is not in the pictures because he is away at Seminary right now. Carla is 9 years old and the youngest. She is such a cute kid and makes me laugh all the time! Some of you have heard of the near-death experience I had at the beach this week. Well Carla is going to help me re-enact the event for your viewing pleasure. Please check back! In the meantime, enjoy her playing Tico-Tico No Fubá. Make sure you watch it all the way through. Trust me.

Você Diz Que Sabe Tudo

2008-06-01T20:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a video clip of the children singing our arrangement of the brazilian folksong: Você Diz Que Sabe Tudo. The sound quality is better than at the performance because of an odd orchestra placement. It was amazing to hear Brazilian kids perform this piece! The kids you see come from choral organizations (some hosted by a school, some by a community) from all over Brazil. This is the dress rehearsal for the Saturday performance of this choral festival concert. I'm not trying to be cryptic, but I had to promise not to mention specific details when I got permission to post this video.

What we found in São Paulo

2008-06-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

The week in São Paulo was hectic due to the traffic (considered to be some of the worst in the world) and the garoa (gah-RROH-ah), a colder, constant misty rain that lightly drizzles through out the day. Brad and I woke up early Friday and took an expensive taxi ride to the school of arts and communication at the University of São Paulo. It is simply impossible to explain how gigantic this university is. When we got there, I was surprised to find the doors locked. We looked around...checked out the sign...converted the military time to make sure we were reading it right...

Finally, another university student walked by and said: "Don't feel bad. I wasted a trip too." He then proceeded to explain that the university employees were on a paralization of workers - a one day only strike. But he was VERY nice and I think he felt sorry for us a bit and helped us find a bus that dropped us off a block from Lidiana's apt. We will have to drive in to USP when we are in Sorocaba because we were unable to come back to the library when it reopened.

Many times during this trip, people have felt sorry for Brad because he apparently has a mentally challenged translator. I speak Portuguese without an accent, so people assume I live in Brazil. They are confused by my inability to make a phone call, lack of government I.D. card and general cluelessness about change. However, in my defense, the phone numbers here are 30+ digits long, I have a passport and there are THREE different kinds of 10 cent coins! Did I mention I haven't lived in this country since I was eleven years old?

On Saturday, my uncle Paulo, his wife Diana (who is an instructional technologist by the way) and my cousin Marucia (Mah-ROO-seeya) picked us up to spend the day and night. The last time I saw my uncle and aunt, I was 9 yrs old. They took us to the cultural center which was hosting an exhibition on Mario de Andrade, the man we had gone to the library to research in the first place! It was a happy coincidence and Brad was able to listen to a few recordings. Afterwards, they went with us to the choral festival program and then took us to have dinner at "the hippest restaurant I've ever been to" - Brad Green quote.

It was a fondue joint. We had meat, cheese and chocolate fondues, one after the other-the most interesting and delicious meal! This brings up another point. Why is it that food in Brazilian restaurants tastes so much better than food in American restaurants? This trip is ruining our lives in a way because no restaurant in Lubbock could ever come close to comparing!
We spent the night with Tio Paulo and woke up early the next morning to fly to Vitoria, Espirito Santo.

The flight was uneventful but the process of boarding is odd. When we checked in, they told us to go to Gate 1. Upon arriving at Gate 1, we were all sent to meet the plane at Gate 15. This crowd of people moved down the airport only to be told that the plane was now at Gate 2. This has happened at every TAM flight we caught. I am very curious as to the reason for this, since in every other respect the airports here function exactly the same as in the U. S. It is a mystery that cannot be explained by any of the airline employees I have asked.

Answering Comments and Dr. Henry Leck

2008-05-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody!

We had such a great time imagining your faces while typing comments - we miss you all so much! Here are the answers to a few questions:

1. The 'snack' Brad was grabbing is a green coconut. It is a large coconut that can actually grow to enormous sizes. The ones in our hostess' front yard were small ones. It is very common to stick a straw in it (you need it hacked open at the top a bit), and then break it apart and eat the soft flesh inside with a spoon. People also drink coconut water like any other fruit beverage here. It is the only fruit juice that I know actually quenches thirst like regular water and it is chockful of vitamins and other good stuff. Also, it's magically delicious. The people in Northeast recycle coconuts - making purses and belts and jewelry out of the shell and using the fiber to make these gorgeous table cloths and to thatch roofs. This picture is not mine. It is from another blog.

2. We won't bring back any roaches Texas doesn't already have. Promise. Brad says that the roaches here are fat, like the size of someone's palm (a huge Junebug). But I prefer to think of them as well-fed.

3. We are having an amazing time! The blog helps us to process our experiences because so much happens in such a short amount of time that it can be overwhelming...especially for Brad who depends on me to translate (he he he). But do not for a minute doubt that this is one of many trips we hope to make back to Brazil. Brad spends hours and hours a day typing up field notes of his experiences for his dissertation. This is different from the blog but we hope to share it as a book someday.

4. The graduation pics were of Joseph, Brad's youngest brother, graduating from Ouachita Baptist. He will be going to medical school in Kansas in the fall.

Okay, now moving on to yesterday. Yesterday was a very emotional day for Brad and myself. We attending one of the workshops for the Gran Finale choral festival with Dr. Henry Leck from Butler University. He is a world-renown children's choir expert and happens to be one of Brad's editors & publishers at Hal Leonard. Since the festival is performing one of Brad and mine's arrangements of a Brazilian folksong, he invited us to come up and speak at the workshop and explain the history of our involvement.

People took pictures of us...it was wild! Brad got very emotional in hearing the group sing the arrangement. I got to translate for him and he would say something short and I would expand it in Portuguese (because EVERY SENTENCE is longer in Portuguese!).

Finally someone asked if Brad was saying all that I was translating and I just told everyone that I was his wife and so I knew what he was saying and what he WANTED to say. For some reason, they thought this was hilarious.

In the evening we went to meet with a Brazilian music teacher who has collected over 10,000 (!!!) folk songs all over Brazil. She was incredibly generous and taught us so much! She showed us clapping games, cirandas and rodas de verso which are all just incredibly rhythmically rich and melodically beautiful. Unbelievable night. She also gave us valuable pointers on how to collect more songs and how to use our time more efficiently.

We are going to the library at the University of São Paulo today and organizing our collected material so far. It will be a little quieter. I am also going to post video at the end of this week or beginning of next of the 400 voice festival choir singing Brad's song! We cannot wait!!!!

Our love to everyone. We miss you and are blessed by your friendship and support of us during this trip.

Arriving in São Paulo

2008-05-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

As I am writing this, my cousin Pedro is upset because he does not want to do his homework!

Getting to São Paulo was hairy!

We left Fortaleza at 4 p.m. and had a projected landing time of 9 p.m. However, the winds were not in our favor. First, when our plane stopped in Salvador, they noted that the radar was broken.

We waited in the plane for about 3 hours before they asked us to unload and move to a different plane. This took another hour and a half. Then, when we approached the Guarulhos Airport in São Paulo, we had to redirect to Rio de Janeiro (which is in another state) because the heavy fog made it impossible to land. After an attempted landing in Campinas, we finally arrived in São Paulo around 3:30 a.m. Poor Mr. Toninho (a family friend) had to come pick us up (which took another hour) and we FINALLY arrived at my cousin Lidiana´s apt. at 5 a.m. We slept until noon!

Today we went to observe at the Collégio Batista Brasileiro and the teachers in the teacher lounge put on a show for us! It was hilarious! They showed us this game where kids imitate a snake growing a tail by crawling under each other´s legs and forming a conga line. We laughed and laughed at this teachers crawling around on the floor! They were great.

Tonight we are going to a folklore dance and I´ll try to post video. In the mean time, I´ve peppered the blog with pictures from Lidiana´s windows (she lives on the 13th floor).

The temperature in São Paulo is very pleasant. We walked about 10 city blocks this afternoon and just enjoyed the scenery. Lidiana lives in the bairro of Perdizes and it is such a cute area! Lots of great shopping and restaurants. There is also a city park that has walking trails and cultural events nearby. More on this later!

Fortaleza Videos

2008-05-25T20:15:00.000-07:00

Here are the rest of the videos. In reality, it was just one video but I couldn't upload such a large file. So I cut and compressed these. Hope they reflect how wonderful Fortaleza is!

A Summary of Fortaleza

2008-05-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,

Thanks for your patience! Here is one of the video clips I have for you...the other ones are not loading correctly and I'm tired of trying to get them to work! It's too hot!

Berimbau Lesson & Capoeira Moves

It's Good to be a Part of the Family of God

2008-05-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know what happened with my glasses because it is such unbelievable kindness! My original glasses are gone for sure. At this point, they are probably at the bottom of the ocean or turned into some sort of wind chime.

My hosts who are the pastor and children's minister (husband and wife) of the First Baptist Church here in Fortaleza, called a couple, members of their church, who own a chain of eye care centers (like eyemasters) here in town. Let me just tell you what they did.

This couple, who didn't know me AT ALL, came to the house to pick me up, took me to the optometrist, paid for my doctor's visit, took my prescription straight to the lab in town and called the owner of the lab who was on holiday. The owner came in to work on my glasses. They sold me the frames at a huge discount and then in a retail miracle, the glasses were ready the next day, today! My prescription is so complicated that I've always had to wait at least a week!

The couple then came to the house today to deliver my glasses and not only that....they brought me a present! It was a beautifully hand-painted towel finished with hand-made lace. Iris, the wife, told me she knew Americans like to decorate their bathrooms and so she bought me a green towel (to match my name) and for me to use in my bathroom.

Can you believe it? It is good to be a part of the family of God. He truly blessed us through the generosity and extreme kindness of this couple. Blessed be His Name!

Lucy

Visiting Morro Branco

2008-05-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

Morro Branco is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Words cannot describe it, so pictures will have to do the job. Hit the play button below:

The only unhappy part of the day was that my glasses dissappeared. No, I didn´t lose them in the ocean. They were in the car one minute and gone the next. Tomorrow morning I will have to get a new pair. It´s certainly not the worst thing that could happen to a person on a trip but it was annoying.

Keep checking back. Tomorrow I will also transfer video from Brad´s capoeira lesson, our visit to a community music school in a very poor part of the state of Ceará, and Brad´s interview with Elvira Drummond, one of Brazil´s most prolific and famous composers and arrangers for children´s music. It was unbelievable that we got to meet her!

The last little interesting tidbit is that during our interview with Mrs. Drummond, we felt the building shake. I thought it was the wind blowing since we were on the 24th floor, and Brad thought that someone was pushing on the sofa (go figure). But it turns out that they were aftershocks from an earthquake in a town a couple of hundred miles from here. 4.8 on the richter scale. Wow! Our first aftershock (not counting the current cell phone bill).

Lucy

Entomophobia

2008-05-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

Last night I was still excited from the Capoeira lesson we watched, the popcorn, and buying shorts in a more seedy part of town. I couldn´t sleep. Around 2 a.m., I gave up trying and went downstairs to edit some video.

It was hot and humid, almost unbearably so, and I walked in to the office without turning on the light. Big mistake. I felt something scurry across my foot and I jumped into the air. I put down the laptop and flipped the switch. What should I see running around? A large, brown, flying roach.

Mind you, it´s the middle of the night. The whole house is tiled and so every sound echoes quickly. Everyone is sleeping upstairs with their doors open and I´m paralyzed in fear, a scream choked in my throat causing me genuine physical pain.

This beast of the apocalypse was about 2 inches long. He looked at me, threw me a gang sign and started running straight toward me again. I leaped out of the office and grabbed my hostess´s shoe (a heavy sandal). But I couldn´t muster the courage to get close, so I just started chunking the sandal at it like a baseball - over and over again. This of course, infuriated the roach, who then began preparing for lift-off. At the point of launch, I caught it with the sandal - didn´t know I had it in me. The mess was incredible.

So I left the roach smeared on the office floor, went upstairs, took a 6th shower, rubbed alcohol on my foot and went to bed. This morning, I had to confess to my hosts that there had been an unfortunate showdown and that a dead roach was waiting for them in the office.

They asked the maid to clean it up.

Lucy

Fortaleza Part 2

2008-05-19T09:17:00.001-07:00

Today we visited the school of music education of the Universidade Federal de Ceará. It is located on an old farm that belonged to a famous Brazilian author, José de Alencar. His writings are mandatory literary study for any educated Brazilian and covered on the KILLER university entrance exam, the vestibular. I´d put a link for him here but I can only access google pages in portuguese.

We interviewed a professor there and also visited two museums, one on afro-brazilian studies and a museum of hand-made lace - which by the way, is an amazing art form! I added a little movie at the bottom with the rest of the pictures from this morning.

Lucy

Fortaleza Part 1

2008-05-18T11:53:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

Yes, we are alive and well, enjoying good friends and food and recovering from 20+ hours on airplanes. We arrived in Fortaleza, Ceara´ yesterday at 10 p.m. Immediately after we went to the beach to drink coconut water (why not?) and enjoy a late night snack. We came home (we are staying with a wonderful family, the Monteiros) and had supper around 12:30 p.m. (again, why not?). It was incredible. We fell asleep listening to disco and Elvis courtesy of a neighboring family that was hosting a wedding reception.

This morning we went to church at the First Baptist Church of Fortaleza. In the middle of the service, the pastor´s son asked Brad to play the recessional. Love that laid back attitude! Tonight, we´ll be doing the special music for the night service, which in Brazil, is the more formal service.

The most interesting thing I´ve noticed is that since we are near the Equator, it is incredibly warm and humid. There is no central AC unit so the windows in the home we are staying in are pretty much open with exception of the shutters. We slept with the doors and windows open and the fan spinning furiously ahead. It was heaven.

Here are just a few pictures of our experiences over the last 24-48 hours, starting with one of our favorite brazilian sodas, guarana´:

This is the airport walk way in Chicago. We thought it was pretty hilarious that not only do Americans enjoy being assembly-lined down to baggage claim, we also like laser shows.

Here we are at the beginning of our overnight flight. Happy and naive, believing we will sleep well through the trip.

By the way, the in flight movie was PS. I Love You, or as I like to call it, PS. I Want the Last 2 Hours of My Life Back. Brad watched an episode of Mythbusters and a special on Swedish mines.

These are some of the fruits that we have for breakfast. The green one on the left is an Ata. If a Kiwi and a Chicken had a love-child, it would taste like this fruit. Fleshy and sweet (to my sunday school class - try to control the snickering). The red fruit on the right is a cross between a tomato and an orange. It´s a Caquí.

Below are pictures of the house we are staying in at Fortaleza. It is an oasis.

The left, the main entrance, to the right, an outdoor shower for those after-beachy afternoons.

Below to the left is the front door and to the right the front garden. Dora Monteiro, our hostess, told me that they have a random chameleon about a foot long that likes to come visit.

Now I´m off to take my third shower of the day. Let us know what you think,

Lucy

Graduation Day

2008-05-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

I've added a slide show of pictures from Ouachita Baptist Graduation Day. There's a surprise in there... If you have problems playing the video, try installing Windows Media Player 10 found at the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/10/default.aspx

Congratulations Joseph! Just a few more years until we have free health care!!!

Lucy

Our Brazilian Shortcut

2008-05-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

Many of you have wondered when we will actually step foot on Brazilian soil. This is a complicated question...mainly because we are complicated academics. Intense and complicated. With glasses.

We will leave Lubbock early Thursday morning, headed to Arkadelphia, AR for Joseph's graduation. On Monday, the Greens drive back to Denton for a couple of days - just enough time to repack, get Maggie settled with my folks and sleep in the wonderful cocoon of silent darkness that is a semi-retirement neighborhood.

On Wednesday morning we fly to Brazil. Our route goes something like this:

Dallas - Chicago - Sao Paulo - Recife - Fortaleza

Your eyes do not deceive. We are headed to Chicago first. This is because flights are cheaper when you go on an airport tour. It'll be great. The last time I flew this route I got to watch "Smilla's Sense of Snow." This time around, I'm hoping for something a little less exciting, like "Prince Caspian." Brad would like to either see "Die Hard" or "Terminator 2."

Getting Ready

2008-05-03T12:16:00.000-07:00

We are going to spend 6 weeks in Brazil. We'll spend that time in 5 cities across 4 different states:

Fortaleza, Ceará
São Paulo, São Paulo
Sorocaba, São Paulo
Vitória, Espírito Santo
Goiânia, Goiás

The areas are vastly different from each other. In all of these cities, our goal will be the same, to collect and explore Brazilian children's folk music wherever we can find it. We'll be observing in schools, participating in music festivals, interviewing anybody who'll talk to us and digging through university archives.

So far we've managed to get shots, gifts and passports. Not much packing yet, but we have lofty ideals on that front. Hopefully by the night before we leave?!? At any rate, visit this blog often so you can "travel" with us. We'll post pictures, video and music...and let you in on all the craziness that is SURE to happen when Brad and Lucy travel ANYWHERE!

On a high note, Brad will get to meet several members of my extended family. This can only be a good thing since I'll seem absolutely tame in comparison.

Boa Viajem!