From Alberto, April 19, 2000
Greetings from Caruaru, THE Capitol of Forro. 

If you haven't received mail from me before, I am sending out periodic reports of my trip to Brazil and these sometimes include pictures.  For some people the pictures are too much to download, and so I'm not sending these notices to them, generally.  Anyway, if you'd like to receive reports from this trip, please write me back.  Otherwise, this is a one time thingy. 

Yesterday we arrived in Caruaru and it was a nice day.  The rest of the gang headed to a school for the disabled, our group leader, Lee got to plant a tree and there were some other vocational visits as well. In the evening we had a rotary meeting, gave our presentation, had a fine meal and were treated to a presentation of dance and music by a group called the Piphany Pricessa - something like that.  They are a very famous group of pipers and drummers playing traditional drum and fife music for various occasions.  I also got up and sang The Power and Glory which is a wonderful song we used to sing at camp by Phil Ochs. Also, lucky for me the band leader gave me a fife as a present and we played music for an hour or so after the meeting was over.

The family I'm staying with is partly Jewish, which is my first connection with a Jewish person in Brazil. My mom has all sorts of stories to tell and is very alive and well.  She is an architect and her office is next to our house.  Also, there are two daughters and we all made bracelets together last night and continue to make them during the day as well.  I picked up many beads at a yard sale in Seattle before I left and just now we are starting to make bracelets and I'm handing them out to people during the day.

Today was a great day.  We started with a breakfast of fruits and juice, coffee and buttered bread.  Sounds simple, but was really lovely.

Afterwards, we took off for the museum of Forro. There were other exhibits, but I mostly spent my time looking through the forro exhibit.  It was mainly a honor to Domingoes and his contemporaries.  Many great photos, instruments, clothing, tour dates, records, and forro blaring in the back and foreground.  There was also a special room devoted just to Elba, a famous local singer. 

This is the capitol of Forro.  There is no doubt in my mind.  Campina Grande also lays this claim, but I think in one day, I really heard more forro than in the rest of my life combined!   Every restaurant, every persons' house, the museum and through a great market that we visited - everywhere people are playing forro.  It's like Reggae in Jamaica.  

Anyway, the museum was great and I picked up some postcards and a magazine about their great festival of San Joao which takes place during the whole month of June.

I could talk all day about the museum.  It was fascinating. 

Later on we visited an artisan village which was a tribute to a great clay artist Vitalino, and we visited his house and saw many clay arts which are done in his style.  Also, we visited another house of Galdino, another famous clay artist.  After touring the artist village we had a nice lunch at a local restaurant, Lengo Tango and then we were off to the big crafts market.

Also, people told us before we arrived that the big problem here is lack of rain.  The moment we arrived yesterday, it poured like crazy and two times today it has rained hard for more than a half hour, so people are thinking that we have brought the rain which is nice.

The craft market was full of crafts and many tourists.  The rain made things pretty interesting as not all of the stalls are prepared for such an event and I found myself wading in my Tevas through the market, stopping to watch the rain at times.  Who would have thought I'd miss this aspect of Seattle?

About the town.  I think about 300,000 inhabitants, perhaps less.  Mom suggests that about 10% are starving and another 30% are very very poor.  This is the poorest place we've been and it's pretty obvious that this is the case.

No matter where you go, you're bound to pass a favelha.  And our hosts are very interested in trying to help out.  And they do.  Mom funnels money from a Canadian charity to individual families and Dad is busy helping to support a school for the handicapped. 

After the market we went back to one of our hosts' apartments.  It's a $400,000 place, with two floors, 360 degree view and swimming pool on the roof.  It was a great place to watch the sunset, and get an overview of the town.  Also, it's a full moon tonight so we watched the moon come up which was lovely.  He's got a churascurria (and a chain of supermarkets) and so we drank cold drinks and ate fresh meat which had been cooked in the living room.

I enjoyed the breezes and hanging out by myself a little bit and contemplating my life.  I'm trying to think about what to do next with myself when I get back to Seattle and my best thinking to date is to ask people I know and then also to do some research this summer about career choices.  I think I'm leaning towards something where I can be my own boss, but teaching also seems attractive.  I think I need to figure this one out myself, but I'm also open to suggestions.

So, Brazil.  It's just about Passover and tomorrow night for the first seder I'll be attending a passion play with 4000 people.  After a day in the country. The day after that we head to Recife for the end of our tour as a Rotary exchange group.  Nine days in Recife and I'm looking forward to that time very much.

After that my plan is to head to Salvador.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200.  Everything I've been hearing about the place tells me that it's for me. So, that's my current plan.  Another plan I've been mulling over is to catch a bus to Petrolinas.  Noone recommends this and people would probably think I was crazy to head there, but we stopped there for a pit stop on the flight from Rio to Sao Paulo to Petrolinas to Recife to Joao Pessoa to begin our trip and the place looks interesting.  Perhaps another time. 

I'm feeling inspired this evening and could write for a while, but I think it's time to make a bracelet with the girls.

Good night.  Hope things are well where you are.

Alberto