FERIDÃO NO RIO















bandeira de uruguai no praia de ipanema
















jardim botânico
















música de anos oitentas no bokowsky em botafogo
















favela!
















a vista do corcovado num dia nublando
















músicos num café no santa teresa
















pôr do sol no pão de açucar

CANDOMBLÉ

After work yesterday, I went to the coffee shop to meet a friend. There was a Candomblé father there, waiting for his wife in the shop. We wrote our names and birth dates on serviettes, and he used numbers to divine something about our personalities. He looked at mine and said something was wrong. In Portuguese, he said, “the number in the head is too close to the number in the foot, so there is no equilibrium,” and Pétala translated it for me. He was convinced that it wasn’t right so I told him that I was born with a middle name that was never used. He did the numbers again and he said, “The path is open, and you will walk through.” I asked him if I could attend a Candomblé ritual. Daniel very kindly gave up his hot date to translate for me.

That night, we met with some people in the tattoo studio/bar, bought some wine and drove for about twenty minutes to Father Ale’s house in Igrapés. It was in the dodgy part of town, where the roof is a sheet of tin, the floor is dirt, and there’s no mobile phone reception. Apparently it’s where the drug deals are done, and police refuse to enter without at least ten cars.

We stood in a circle around the one room in the house (there was only one plastic chair) whilst Father Ale took a shower and changed into his robe. When he was done, he lit a candle and turned out the light, and poured the wine into the cup. He stood at the door with his back to us and started to sing in an African language. The dog fell asleep in seconds.

The spirit came into Father Ale’s body. His body shook and he laughed a wicked laugh, and then turned around to face us. He hugged each person three times. He blew cigarette smoke into the cup to transform the wine then passed it to each person to drink. It was sweet and smoky. The father and the spirit children sang more, mostly in Portuguese but also in the tongues of the Africans and the Brazilian Indians.

The ghosts went into the spirit children and they were not prepared for the spirit power. They twitched and shook and stumbled around until they had to pull the bands on their arms so tight the rope left marks on their skin. The spirit in Father Ale made lots of jokes, then spoke to everyone in turn. My spirit spoke in a foreign tongue.

Ok, so it wasn’t well translated but apparently my problem was that my parents had no religion and I had never been baptised or initiated into any religion. I’m faithless, and that’s the worst thing to be in a country that is overly religious but also extremely tolerant of religious difference. He said I lack direction and when I dream, I dream I am falling down a hole.

The spirit left Pai Ale’s body, and Pai Ale went outside to fetch some leaves for the spirit children to eat. Plants are the power of Brazilian Indians, and in the song the spirit children ask for plants to eat. Then the process was repeated, but this time a different spirit came into Father Ale’s body. It was a good spirit who became a little bit evil on earth. When he spoke, it was with a much deeper voice than before. We drank the wine from a different cup. He told me that I had strong ‘majunity’ (spirit power) but too much negative energy, and I needed to do something with it.

When the spirits had left their bodies, and the wine bottles were empty, we turned on the light and the circular drawings done by the spirit children were revealed on the floor. They matched Father Ale’s tattoos. The dog woke up.

Then we smoked some cigarettes and went home.

ORDEM E PROGRESSO
Well it's been a little while. I’ve been a bit lazy. Busy with other things. You know how it goes...


These two photos are from Ilhabela (literally, beautiful island), which is a couple of hours drive out of Vale do Paraíba.

Corinthians are the coolest team in Brasil! But they have been losing a bit lately...

Whoops! Forgot to take the beer out of the freezer.

Aiesecers and trainees at Santa Isabel on the weekend.



Venham namorar aqui! (Come to make love here!) 10 reais an hour. You drive into a private booth, and have sex in your car or on your motorbike!

I’ve been helping at an English school this week, and also learning Spanish and Portuguese. The kids keep asking if I’m an emo just because I have an unusual haircut. The teachers call some of them ‘Grade zero’ as a joke, because ‘they have no hope!’

The weather's nice at the moment. The days are warm but not too hot. Now we're into Autumn, it's stopped raining in the evenings, which is better. It's really easy to meet boys here. People still use 3.5 inch floppy disks. Alcohol is really cheap. My Portuguese is horrible.

ABOUT THAILAND (from Myanmar).
Dear blog,
Bangkok is a nice city. It's huge and sprawling. Street vendors and temples and go go bars and skyscrapers all seem to sit comfortably together. It's official name translated is, 'Great city of angels, the supreme repository of divine jewels, the great land unconquerable, the grand and prominent realm, the royal and delightful capital city full of nine noble gems, the highest royal dwelling and grand palace, the divine shelter and living place of the reincarnated spirits.'

On the plane from Delhi to Bangkok, I was sitting next to an American and decided to head south to Pattaya with him and his friends for a few days. We even stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. Pattaya is a mecca of sex and beach, particularly for single, morally-relaxed men. Apparently at one place, the customer can choose from about 1000 girls, all numbered. I've never seen so many transvestites either. Upon entry to one of the bars, I was mistaken for a Thai prostitute.

In Bangkok, I got a room at Th Khao San where all the backpackers stay. I spent a day shopping and eating 20 baht roadside phat thai and spring rolls. Housekeeping "cleaned" the pile of coins I left in my room. Did they think it was a tip? Every night outside my window, a band played horrible Oasis covers. Next time I'm staying in Sukhumvit.

Doonnnntt loookk backk in angrrrrrrrrrrr.

I went to Bling Bling night at one of the clubs with a bunch of students home for the holidays from around the world. They wear designer jeans and carry Louis Vuitton. The club was different for sure. There's a show that goes for hours and includes several bands, breakdancing and other kinds of dancing, and a fashion parade. Your group gets a table and sort of bops around it, but you don't really dance.

I spent a day visiting some contemporary art galleries around Bangkok. A number of Australian and Japanese artists were featured, alongside Thai artists. Not many gallery-goers though. The galleries were rather spread out around the city - there was no real 'art district,' like in Melbourne. Abstraction and new media seemed really popular.

Thai lifts have no ground floor: the ground floor is called the first floor. Pretty much wherever you go in the city, there is a 7-11 in sight. At the vast majority of restaurants/cafes, waiters stand over you whilst you pay the bill.

Hello. Where from?
Australia.
Oh I love you.

I'm actually in Myanmar now, at an internet cafe that has managed to circumvent the government's ban on gmail and blogger. My next blog will be about today's visit to Aung San Suu Kyi's house and the National League for Democracy office in Yangon.

Til next time.

Woke up at nine this morning and ran down the street to complete the last module of my Open Water Diver course. I passed, despite much confusion over the dive tables. Yesterday was the worst though. I had to do two dives and go through my skills whilst throwing up about ten times in the water. I think it was a nasty combination of food poisoning and a long boat ride through rough seas. I'm still struggling with food today, but feel much better than before.

It was our last day in Goa. On our way to the airport we said goodbye to our mate in the leather bag shop who is obsessed with Lauren. He called his cousin and organised a five star hotel in Delhi for me tonight. Indian airports are on high alert for highjacking today, great.

We arrived in Delhi around seven, and Lauren and I parted ways. I spent two hours in a taxi to the Tibetan Refugee area where Aaron had left my passport with a receptionist. I was worried for a while. Being stuck in Delhi tops my list of nightmares at the moment, as I've found it to be a rather boring and frustrating city. But she was super nice and it all worked out ok. In fact, that whole area was really vibrant and cool and the guest house seemed nice. Wish I could've stayed for longer, but ended up going to Hotel Nikko. It was great to have a hot, high pressure shower, watch music videos, call room service, walk around naked and drink those little bottles of gin. I enjoyed it but felt a bit guilty. It's a random massive modern building in the middle of a run down street. The suite I'm stying in cost an exorbitant amount of money. You step outside and poverty's everywhere.

So tomorrow's my last day in India. I'm a bit disappointed to be leaving without seeing Mumbai or Dharamsala, or going back to Jaipur. I didn't even visit the Taj Mahal. Next stop is Bangkok. I sort of miss Melbourne.

Oh oh wait. I should write something about conference. It was over a week ago now, but IDC was great. We learnt alot about India, more than anything. The external sessions on HIV/AIDS were particularly good. The highlight for me was the day spent visiting NGOs in Jaipur. I visited Prayas, which is a school for children with mental and learning difficulties. They taught the kids classroom as well as life skills. Some made crafts such as candles or books, some delivered meals in tiffin boxes. Each child had a personal bank account, which the profits from what they earned are paid into. It was pretty amazing to see just how happy they all were there. The kids knew more songs and jives than Aiesecers.

In news today,
PM Manmohan Singh called for plans to make economic growth more equitable amongst minorities, especially Muslims.
Sania Mirza and Shika Uberoi lost the women's tennis team final in the Asian games.
US congress has passed a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with New Delhi

Yeah.

IN GOA.
Hello. Namaste. Konichiwa.
Everyone in India thinks I'm Japanese and have lots of money.
Yesterday I was in two traffic accidents. Our scooter crashed into the back of a van, and I burnt my leg. My friend was pretending he knew how to ride and he didn't. Then the guy who owned the scooter started telling me a story about Japanese girls who married Goan boys and had lots of children. I was a bit annoyed at having to postpone my scuba lessons though.

The second accident happened when we left Club Cubana in the morning. We met some new friends there and squished into the back of their car to drive down the mountain. The only problem was that their driver was completely drunk and backed into the back of a van on the driveway. In the space of minutes, a mob appeared and they started hitting and punching him and fighting over damages. Next day the same driver was back in action, taking us around.

Ok, it's getting late and blogging is hard work. Next time I think I will just post photos.

BLOG.

…because it’s Monday evening and I am eating muesli at home. I am reading the first few pages of One Hundred Years of Solitude, even though I know I won’t be able to finish it anytime soon. I am also finally starting my blog.

This morning, I picked up my passport from the Indian consulate. They were surprisingly efficient which was nice. However the drive there was not efficient because somebody led me astray and we ended up on a winding journey through some random Melbourne suburbs. I drove to uni and sat my finance exam early in a little office on the second floor. I recall writing 30 pages, so I guess it must’ve been ok. It was 36° outside today, but after 3 hours in that room I was shivering. I tried to change the setting on the air conditioning, but it seemed to have no effect.

After my exam I walked up to Parkville and smoked a cigarette. A little boy ran up and down the sidewalk trying to stomp on a sparrow, which kept flying away. He must’ve been about five. Wished I had my camera with me at that moment because there was something beautiful in his violence.

So I’ve finally cashed in my BHP shares, paid some bills, finished my muesli and almost finished packing. Apparently I’m carrying 5 kilos of someone’s stuff to Bangkok for them. I loaded 125 songs onto an iPod shuffle to take with me. My bag is heavier than it should be, but I’m ready to leave.

So welcome to my blog. Now Sabrina, where is yours?

The purpose of this space is threefold:

(a) To share some thoughts on Aiesec and other things

(b) Keep in touch with people whilst overseas

(c) Write down my deepest darkest secrets

Thanks for reading.