On Monday, I trained as usual, and talked a bit with my friend Beto, who told me about his tattoo artist friend. He gave me directions to his neighbourhood, and I met him the next morning. I went in and described the worm I wanted on my foot. I ended up not getting it on my ankle, which is better. It is more easily seen on the top of my foot. He looked up pictures online, like I had, for cartoon pictures of worms (a realistic worm would be kind of creepy looking I think). We found all the same ones, ugly and not all that cool. Finally, he just pulled out a pencil and started drawing. It ended up being way better that way. When he finally created a worm that I liked, he got started. For anyone who´s thinking of getting a tattoo on their foot, IT HURTS! Sooo much. I remember the last one kind of hurting, but it wasn´t so bad. By the end of the session, I was more uncomfortable than anything, really impatient. This worm, though, was painful, especially when he moved closer to my toes. Luckily, though, the foot is a small place, for a small tattoo, and mine wasn´t very detailed. It only took about a half hour, so it was alright in the end. He told me to buy the specific cream and to wrap it in plastic wrap for the next four days. I asked him about training capoeira, and he told me to wear socks and tennis shoes. I did al those things, and by day 3, the face of my worm was practically gone!! I went back to him and showed him what happened. He told me that I couldn´t use the plastic wrap or the tennis shoes anymore. The face is better now, but I think I may go back I leave for Recife. The face still isn´t perfect.
So I really haven´t been doing much of anything during the week. I haven´t even been going to the beach because of my tattoo. I´m afraid of being in the sun and swimming. If I go to the beach, I am just tempting myself. I don´t think it´s possible to go to the beach and not swim. At least, not for me.
Friday, I went back to AEC to teach again. This time it was even better, because I didn´t feel quite as useless. The last time, it was fun and I think I did help, but I didn´t feel like I was working. This time, we had songs in English again (Celine Dion, how Canadian!) and we went over vocabulary for the conversation subject. We went upstairs, and I sat down with the group again, waiting for conversation to start. Then, Nadia told me that I was needed in the other room. I took a piece of paper and a pen, and I gave an oral exam to the advanced students. My very first day and I´m already grading people. It was fun, though. If this is what my job is going to be like, it´s great! We just sat in the room, chose a subject, and chatted. I made sure that everyone spoke, and then by the end of the test, I gave everyone a mark out of ten. I´m looking forward to February when I will be teaching actual classes.
Saturday, there was a roda in another neighbourhood, actually the same neighbourhood that I got my tattoo. It was a roda for the kids taking class out there. I had a hard time buying the game, and when I finally did, the roda ended. So, I only played once, which I know is my own fault. I can´t believe I still have so much trouble buying the game. It´s as though I want to, but the more I wait, the more difficult it becomes to actually play. That´s just another thing I need to work on. Before the roda, I had been practicing the berimbau.. that´s something else I need to work on... stringing the berimbau! Even with beriba that´s easier to bend, I still can´t get the wire tight enough.... one day.. one day I will do it properly.
Later that day, Lobo and I took a bus out of the city (I can´t remember the name of the place) for another Candomblé party. This time it was special, though, because it was his mother´s Candomblé home. She was there, dancing, and I met a few more family members (man, does he have a big family). By the time we arrived there, I was already tired, and I should´ve known that it was going to be a tough night. The dancing had already started when we got there, I found a seat near the women, by the door and I watched. Slowly though, my eyes would close and my head would droop. I kept trying to stay awake, and I did succeed, but it was really difficult. The biggest problem of all was the fact that the drumming is very loud and very rhythmic. Even when I´m fully awake, the beat seems to reach deep into my chest. By the end of the party, my heart was pounding so fast, that I wasn´t sure what I was feeling anymore. It didn´t feel like I was sleepy because I felt like running and shouting. Even when the drumming had stopped, and I was just sitting there, watching them serve food to everyone, I couldn´t sit still. My heart was still racing a million beats per second, and my legs were shaking. When I got my mound of food, I felt better to be moving and focusing on something. I couldn´t eat all of it, though, because by this time it was around 11pm, too late to eat so much. Lobo and I were supposed to spend the night in the house, because we had another Candomblé party in the same area, the next morning. Unfortunately, they didn´t have any room, so we had to find our way back to Garcia. This turned into a huge problem. We got a ride to the bus station, where we waited and discovered that there were no more buses back to Salvador. So, instead we took a taxi to the main bus station in Salvador, which cost us R$35. Again, there were no buses running, so we had to take another shared taxi to Garcia, which cost another R$10. Luckily, I thought I may need to bring some extra money, and good thing I did. I usually don´t carry more than R$20 on me at any given time.
We woke up the next day, and headed back out of town for the next party. Let me just say, I seem to complain about these parties, but it´s not because I don´t like them. It´s just that every time I go, it is late at night, and I become very sleepy. Going to the party during the day was very enjoyable. When we arrived, they were already serving lunch. We ate, and afterwards, the dance begun. I had wondered before how they were able to dance with their eyes closed, spinning around the room, but never bumping into one another and when they go for the door, their eyes still closed, they find it with ease. How do they know where the door is if their eyes have been closed and they have been spinning around the room?? I discovered that when their eyes are closed, and they are in the trance of the dance, they don´t see using their eyes. In a way, they are not inside their own bodies anymore, and they have no control over how they move. They are actually looking at themselves from the outside. It´s quite amazing to watch them move. At one point, actually the night before, on Saturday, there had been a man, sitting on the floor. I knew he was in a trance because his eyes were closed too, but he wasn´t dancing. At one point, he got up, started shouting and his body seemed to just fly through the air, landing motionless on the ground, passed out. The people helped him up, and walked him to the door. As they were approaching the door, his body flew again, landing on the chairs, back onto the floor, but this time, he rolled. He rolled all over the room, without any control. During all the parties I´ve been to, I´ve wondered about how this is all possible. To lose all control and to be in this trance. I watched as people went from being in a conscious state to the trance, how the shake and shout, how they dance, and how they hug one another and me. I love how I am there, they know that I am a stranger, but somehow I am still welcome to be there, in the middle of everything. They still offer me food, and treat me as one of them. I just feel bad that I don´t understand what´s going on. I don´t know when I´m doing something wrong. I don´t know their traditions and their customs or their beliefs. With the limited Portuguese I have, I really don´t even understand when they explain it to me. I just sit there and observe, the only thing I can do.
So, I leave for Recife on Thursday night. I will arrive and head to Carolina´s house. Carolina will be the first in Brazil to host me from Couch Surfing, so I´m excited to experience this for the first time on my own! It will be good to be traveling again, although I will miss Salvador, and most of all Lobo. I´ll be back in November, when I will look for more jobs and resolving any issues I may have with my work visa. When schools close again in December, I will travel again until the end of January. Feburary being the month when I start teaching real classes.
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