Far from being relaxing, weekends are usually filled with lots of invitations varying from participating in/speaking at events at the university to getting together with professors and hanging out with students.  There's always something going on and I think Brazil remains one of the countries in which it's most impossible to be lonely or bored.

 
Last weekend Loni and I were invited to lunch with the director of our department, Samuel, along with a few other professors.  Samuel was going to teach us how to make shrimp moqueca, a famous African-influenced local dish that we had wanted to know how to make for a long time.  Moqueca is fairly easy to make and requires tomatoes, onions, peppers, shrimp, coconut milk and palm oil. 



After chopping everything up and mixing everything together, the ingredients are boiled in a special pot for about half and hour.  Moqueca is usually served with rice and farofa (toasted manioc flour) and should be preceded by a shot of the official Brazilian drink, cachaça. 



It was fun to watch our director cook and the results were spectacular.  My list of meals that I can't wait to try for family and friends at home is growing by the week; I hope you all are hungry for a taste of Bahia!

Potent artesenal cachaça

The plate ready to eat with rice, moqueca and farofa

I've written before about how Wednesdays are my favorite days of the week because it's a bit of a break in the routine of going to UESC.  I teach at the handicraft market in the morning and then I usually spend the afternoon enjoying some activity in Ilhéus.  One of my favorite things to do is visit the Praia do Cristo/Christ Beach where there is a place to rent sailboats, kayaks, canoes and stand up paddle boards.



Badaka, the man who owns the rental business, lives right on the beach in a little cabana on stilts and is quite a character.  He's thin and impressively tanned with a huge white beard.  He looks like the skinny beach bum version of a Brazilian Santa Claus.  The physical effect is maximized by the fact that he always wears a tiny Speedo and nothing else. 

Last week Badaka taught me how to stand up paddle with an added incentive of the fact that if I stayed in a certain area I wouldn't have to pay because I would be free advertising.  Stand up paddling was a little harder than I thought it was going to be mainly because of the wind and waves in the bay.  When I was in shallow water it was relatively easy, but when I was out on open water I fell quite a few times.



Every week Badaka repeats his offer of marriage.  "Marry me," he says.  "We could live in this little house on the beach for the rest of our lives and paddle out on the bay during the light of the full moons."  He always adds, "Do you want to see inside of the house?" I tell him that I'll think about it and that I'll probably see him next Wednesday.  This is daily life in Bahia.

Sometimes the smallest things about a different culture are the most interesting.  Take wearing rings in Brazil, for example.  Both a man and a woman wear rings to show that they are engaged, but they both wear rings on their right hands.  When they get married, they switch the rings to their left hands.  My students thought that rings worked the same way in the States and were surprised to find out that it's common in engaged couples for only the woman to wear a ring and that it's a diamond instead of a simple band.

Here in Brazil, if your significant other passes away, it's tradition for the other spouse to wear the ring of the deceased in addition to their own ring.  They wear both rings on the same hand to show that they are a widow or widower.  I took the opportunity to talk about the tradition in my town of "pearling" which is basically when a guy gives a girl a pearl ring and they are essentially "engaged to be engaged."  I've even heard of guys going one step further and giving an opal before a pearl to really seal the deal, but that's just getting a little out of hand. 

Every month, Loni and I have to give a university-wide cultural event that shares some aspect of U.S. culture and compares it to life in Brazil.  Last month we had a packed auditorium because we talked and demonstrated our way through an interactive presentation of music and dance.  Last week our event was called: U.S. Politics: Where do you Stand? and was held in a style of an interactive debate.

Though I like learning and talking about politics, it's not usually my first choice for presentations abroad as things can get heated fast.  My coordinator is a political fanatic, however, and specifically requested this topic for our second presentation.  I was doubtful that the students would be willing to give up their Friday evening to listen to Republican and Democratic rants but we agreed to give it a try.



Loni and I spent the last few weeks researching our topics (abortion, gun control, health care system, taxes and government spending, gay marriage) and defined different Republican, Democrat and Brazilian opinions on each issue.  The week before the event we visited classes to encourage attendance and advertised our presentation by hanging up flyers everywhere.  Loni is a staunch Democrat and thus it fell to me to be the Republican for the event (a difficult character to represent abroad, especially in the department of international relations at UESC).  I was more than a little nervous to be the Republican under fire for two hours in the mock courtroom of the law department, an intimidating setting for anyone.

I was very nervous about how the presentation would go because we were counting on participation from students and other professors. I was worried about the interest in the event along with communication problems as we were presenting in English. I was also concerned about offending people or making inaccurate comparisons with my limited knowledge of Brazilian history and politics.  Overall, things went fine but we didn't have nearly the amount of students come as those who came for the music and dance presentation (not a surprise).  My coordinator was disappointed about this and at the conclusion asked the students what the next topic should be in order to guarantee a better turnout.  One student suggested "How to Road Trip Across the U.S."  Now that's something I'm looking forward to talking about!

Wednesdays are my absolute favorite day of the week because it offers a chance to break away from the routine of commuting to UESC every day.  On Wednesday I take a local bus to the center of town and work with a UESC student, Aryadne, to give English classes at the handicraft market.  The vendors are anxious to learn any English they can because Ilhéus is a hot spot for tourists.  Periodically, huge cruise ships dock at the port and then the town is overrun with Europeans toting cameras and wearing hats.  Nearly all of them make a trip to the market at some point during their stay in Ilhéus and the vendors report that they usually try and communicate in English.



Classes at the market are fun and challenging in ways completely different than teaching in a classroom at UESC.  Almost all of the students are older adults who are very shy and self-conscious about speaking English and some of them can't read or write Portuguese very well.  The vendors don't have to pay anything for the course and all of them come an hour early before the market opens to study with us.

We keep classes very basic and focus on practical words and phrases along with pronunciation.  We try to emphasize the fact that being confident, friendly and even attempting to use English with tourists could make a difference in their sales.  Classes are casual and involve a lot of laughing and joking around.  Since we have class in the food court of the market other random situations occur like stray cats and dogs hanging out and vomiting or defecating during activities, giant venomous centipedes frequently fall from the rafters and land on tables sending students running, and sometimes the rain falls so hard on the metal roof that we can't hear each other even if we shout.  When teaching in Brazil, every day is truly a new adventure.

Loni is a huge soccer fan so while we were in Salvador we made sure to go to a Bahia game.  From my experiences in Chile at soccer games which included tear gas, lots of police and out of control crowds, I was initially wary of the plan to go to a game.  We picked a small, middle-of-the-week game to attend to avoid the craziness and had no trouble at all.



For me, the coolest thing about going to a soccer game in Salvador was that we were able to check out Fonte Nova, the brand new soccer stadium recently built in preparation for the World Cup.  The stadium was both beautiful and modern and I was very impressed. 



We were able to sit by the drum and fan section which was a whole experience in itself.  The fan club was just like the devoted student groups at American football games.  They had cheers and songs for any and every play, were decked out in colors and paint for their team and had no shortage of enthusiasm or noise.



It was not only fun to watch the game but to listen to all the fans as well.  Brazilians take their soccer teams very seriously.  I think I was the only person there not wearing an associated jersey and I'm going to have to remedy that for next time as I received more than a few odd looks.

About an hour and a half north of Ilhéus is a little tourist city/backpacker hotspot/surfer heaven called Itacaré.  Everybody in Ilhéus raves about the place so I thought I would head north for the day and see what all the fuss was about.



Turns out all the fuss was justified.  Itacaré was not only beautiful but friendly and easy to manage as well.  Seems like other people thought so too because the place was packed with tourists from all over the world; I think I talked to more foreigners than actual Brazilians.  Itacaré caters to a non-Brazilian crowd and everything was translated into English.  There were also places like coffee shops, multiple ethnic food restaurants and plenty of bars and clubs for those who don't go to bed at around 10:30pm.



I spent the day walking around and exploring the beaches and watching surf classes.  I had lunch at an Arabian restaurant and then checked out some of the trendy tourist shops.  The place to be in the evening was a specific lookout over the water to watch the sunset, and it was a glorious one.  I had heard that there was a local who always played the berimbau as the sun was setting and he was there last night as well.  It was hard to leave the small, idyllic paradise of Itacaré after just spending one day there, but I know that I'll be back soon!