Irregular Verbs, Washing Steps, Amazonian Activism, and being papped
Several paragraphs about Portuguese lessons and Portuguese Grammar start this blog, you can skip down to the asterisks if you want***but who knows, it might be interesting even for those of you who DIDN'T do a four year languages degree or a two year bilingual secretarial course....
Language Matters
I never really trained as anything in my life, apart from as a bilingual secretary (and maybe, later on, as an 'oral historian' or an 'educationalist', which aren't really proper careers. I did a French and Italian degree which always makes me think that I got a degree in 'ordering the beer on holiday' - but if I'm anything, I suppose I'm a "linguist". I spent two years at different times living in French speaking countries, and my French is still pretty good. I learned Spanish in my late twenties to go to Peru, and my Spanish is a bit better than my Italian because I never really had any connections with Italy or Italians. I did some Portuguese classes 20 years ago, the last time I went to Brazil, and that wasn't too bad, but I'd forgotten it all, and although I was doing oral sessions with a Brazilian online class (falarportuguesbrasileiro.com ) it was going very slowly and frustratingly in England.... but since I've been here my Portuguese has come on in leaps and bounds . And as I've said in previous blogs, I'm really pretty much understanding everything people say to me, as long as they're addressing me and not talking to each other.
Until I got to my absolutely LOVELY Portuguese language school last week .... and started at the beginning (again) with the grammar... and discovered all these Prepositions and Verb Endings and realised I've just basically been guessing at most things and my stabs in the dark (based on old memories from Spanish or Latin) have been pretty inaccurate. That's SEVEN WEEKS that I've been saying 'Sou de Inglaterra' and it's meant to be 'Sou DA Inglaterra' ... for example.... (the preposition modulates for the female country, who knew! It's sou DA Inglaterra etc (female country) or sou DO Brasil etc (male country), except, oddly, for some exceptions which don't seem to have genders and are just De - sou DE Cuba, sou DE Portugal, etc!).
So now I've just started the second week of classes, me and my great classmates Oleg/Alec from Russia/China/Canada, and Joao/Hano from Germany have moved up a level and already we're onto Book Two and are powering through the tenses. Portuguese has an inordinate number of tenses, many more than I am ever going to be interested in using (anyone want an Imperfect Preterite Subjunctive? I certainly don't! They seem to have Future Subjunctive too...)
Here, for those interested, is a nice example of a cartoon using subordinate clauses with Imperfect Subjunctive which is the last thing in Book Two (I don't plan to get this far)
("But Mafalda, even if I explained the problem of Vietnam to you, you wouldn't understand'
"So I'm a fool?"
"It's not that you're a fool - but it's not a subject for children!"
"Oh, no?"
"No!"
"So, how about telling me and leaving out the pornographic bits'"
- E se você me explicasse sem as partes pornográficas
I like the examples they use, at least!
....
The idea is that after Jenny left I was going to do three weeks of classes to set me up with some Portuguese grammar (and also some structure to my days) before Carnival.
So I'm at this excellent language school, I'm living in Barra (which is a very hot area surrounded by beaches, as opposed to a pretty cold Hebridean island also surrounded by beaches- I got a bit confused when I looked up 'things to do in Barra' and Google suggested "see a plane land on Traigh Mhor")
I've been going out with my fellow students some of the time, plus doing my thing of trying to exercise AND go to a museum or cultural activity each day. I'm also pretty knackered, it is not possible for a Fiona to concentrate for three and a half hours every morning (nine till twelve forty, with a half hour break) and I usually drop off at some stage during the classes. I'm easily the oldest student (though the teacher we had last week was my age which was refreshing, she's about the first person i've hung out with since I've been here who's anything like my age!) I'm sure that they all think that the reason I'm going to sleep in classes is cos I'm so old. But anyone who was at school or uni with me or has ever gone to a film or play with me at any time in my life will know that I have ALWAYS gone to sleep during activities which involve lots of sitting around. The ADHD diagnosis has been helpful for that, making me realise that I'm not a bad person, helping me just let the teachers know in advance that that's going to happen without feeling at all guilty. I've been getting up and jigging around a bit when I remember, and that helps.....
What's next
Once the language school finishes I'll be moving to Santo Antonio Alem Do Carmo, a really nice area just next to Pelourinho, the old city where I was living before. I'll be there in time for Carnival. No idea what that's going to be like. I was here 20 years ago for carnival but it was all a bit of a blur. I'm not sure how involved to get.... you can buy tshirts to take part in 'blocos' (actually go in the carnival processions with a band) or you can buy seats to sit in a Camerote (a balcony area overlooking the procession with food and drink).... or you can just go with the flow and see what passes you by. I think there's a bloco in Santo Antonio so will be investigating that when I get there.... I'm now on a Couchsurfing Hanging Out in Salvador whatsapp group so I'll have some people to hang out with, which is all I need really, but other ideas and suggestions are welcome.
******
I have actually done some pretty amazing things since my last blog.
Leaving Lencois - the Afranio Peixote Memorial Gallery and links to Morecambe
On my last days in Lencois I went to visit the Afranio Peixoto Memorial Gallery. Afranio Peixoto was an academic, a doctor, a lecturer in medical law, a writer, a novelist, a politician, an essayist and a historian (I think I've listed everything!). He was born in this house in Lencois
and it was his wife, Francisca de Faria,
who began to dedicate this house in his name - collecting together his books, certificates, his writing desk, and all sorts of other things. (She presumably had a lot of time on her hands). It's now in the hands of the local council who pay (not much) for full time staff to be on hand - I had a perfectly lucid chat (in Portuguese) with the curator. I went in because in February the Hannah Frank exhibition is going to be moving from the Soar gallery to this beautiful gallery!
The gallery currently has an exhibition by Artur Soar (our friend who spent a week in my house in December, see the blog before last) .... which is pretty amazing - it includes lots of different types of images of Afrania Peixoto, including these ones
with this little notice next to them
saying 'Afranio Pop' - reproduced from a Risograph print of a linocut, printed in Morecambe UK December 2023.
And here's Artur in Morecambe in December, during his art residency at Good Things Collective, with the Risograph Afranio prints which he made there!
Back to Pelourinho
I came back to Salvador on Wednesday 10th and moved into fabulous temporary accommodation in Pelourinho, right in the very centre, overlooking the main square. Here's the view (and sound effects) from my window....
On Thursday 11th it was the Lavagem do Bon Fim, which has been going for 280 years. Baianian women (the ladies with enormous white dresses and amazing head dresses) wash the steps of one church, down by the sea near Pelourinho, then walk EIGHT KILOMETERS to another church, and wash THOSE steps...and this time literally A MILLION Salvadorians, plus me and Jenny , walked with them.
We were carried along with the amazing energy of the crowds and the music - and being sprayed with water by firemen... it was impossible to stop really. Walking home was a different matter. But here's the evidence that I did it on my new Google Fit app
Amazonian Activism
On the Friday I had a very special dinner: I met up with Dom Phillips' widow Alessandra (Ale) Sampaio, who lived here in Salvador with Dom, but had moved to Rio since his murder. She was back in Salvador seeing friends and family. We didn't stop talking for two hours - it was really moving to meet her and I've come away with renewed energy for the Amazonian activism that I started in 2022 with the 'For Dom, Bruno and the Amazon' festival and exhibition. Ale has been working to ensure that the book that Dom was researching when he was murdered 'How to Save the Amazon - Ask the People who Know' will be published (see here for more info including the contribution to the project of a £40,000 grant last year from the Whiting Foundation). And with the help of some journalists, activists and friends, she's also setting up a new Foundation, the Dom Phillips' Foundation, to educate young Brazilians about the Amazon. There'll be a website in Portuguese, Spanish and French... and I've committed myself to helping to get 100-200 British supporters of this foundation once it's set up to contribute £5-£10 a month to help to keep the work alive. Is this you? Please let me know!
While I was with Ale I started thinking about the energy that's needed to do this work, to honour someone we love - in a very small way it's what I've done for my aunt, and it's certainly what Francisca de Faria did for her husband Afrania Peixoto. It's the kind of project you pour all your energy and all your soul into - it's like the drive that artists have to make art, you HAVE to do it, there's nothing else you CAN do. And where love and energy lead, others follow. But there's serious work to be done in this area....
Yesterday I attended an online (and in person)
talk, organised by the Dept of Languages and Culture at Lancaster Uni, (who have been exhibiting our For Dom, Bruno and the Amazon' exhibition) entitled "Investigative Journalists as Cultural Mediators in an Age of
Threat: Examples from Mexico and the Amazon" at which Dom's niece
Domonique spoke, and also journalists from Mexico and from Cameroon,. One of
the big issues raised was the involvement of big business and government forces
in the print press... and also the fact that there are so many injustices around
the world which don't receive sufficient press attention. Only today
I received a Whatsapp message from local anthropologist (and my late ex Pete's
friend) Cecilia McCallum about the murder this week of Maria de
Fátima Muniz de Andrade Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe, following on from last month's
murder, still unsolved, of Pataxó Hã-hã-hãe leader Lucas
Kariri-Sapuya in Bahia (this very state where I am at the moment) by farmers
challenging the territorial rights of the Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãe people.
More about this story here and you can follow MUPOIBA (Movimento Unido dos Povos e Organizações Indígenas da Bahia) on Instagram here. I don't know what the answers are, but sharing the information internationally must be one part of it.
Being Papped in Santo Antonio Alem do Carmo
Back to the personal:... I was waiting across the road from the cafe where I was meeting Ale, holding some flowers to give her for her birthday from Sian, when I was 'papped' by a good looking Brazilian who then whatsapped me the photo he took - pretty good, huh! (Next time I'll pay more attention and wear neutral shoes!) He turns out to be called Eduardo Boccaletti and you can follow him on Instagram here. He's not a professional photographer but certainly has an eye for a nice shot!
Feira de São Joaquim
My niece and travelling companion Jenny was leaving on the Saturday after spending six weeks in Brazil, and I went with her on her last morning to the big market where she stocked up with lots of Brazilian ingredients for lots of lovely Brazilian dishes that she'll be making at home....
And more
You may be surprised to hear that I'm inherently lazy and my normal state in this temperature (min. 30 degrees) is lying on my bed, or in a hammock where available, dozing. But as I mentioned before, I have resolved to do something cultural every day while I'm doing the language class. On the first Sunday I went to a free Oludum concert in Pelourinho; in the evening I'd been invited by my Pelourinho hosts to go to a Candomble ceremony. We couldn't take photos so I can't show it to you. It was all totally, totally new, different and mindblowing, everyone (including us, in the 'visitors gallery') wearing white, the congregation dancing, drumming, chanting, people in trances, old, young, men,women.... absolutely fascinating experience. We had a guide who had explained what was happening, beforehand, and a bit more afterwards, and I think I'll be going to another one this week.
And then on the Monday I started at the language school.
I had a cold for the first couple of days so didn't do any cultural things in the afternoons, just slept and did my homework. But on the Wednesday we went to the Music Museum with the school, something that I would have thought I would have appreciated more than I did (there were lots of videos about the history of music in Salvador, all in Portuguese, and although there were downloadable links so you could follow on your phone, I didn't have headphones with me so couldn't really access the info properly). However there was a very nice explanation of drumming rhythm downstairs at the end with audience involvement that was great. And maybe I'll go back with headphones and give it another go.
on Thursday I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art - which I understood a lot better having been to the candomble ceremony, but I still liked the building itself more than some of the pieces of art, though I loved the textiles, and the 'graffiti art' outside...
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On Friday we had a cookery class and made Moqueca - coconut fish stew, basically - gorgeous
on Saturday I went to a fab craft exhibition/shop, on Sunday I was invited for lunch with my really kind and sociable local landlady's sister and her family, after which I went to a beautiful art exhibition at the 'Barra Lighthouse' with international contributions on the subject 'When the Sun met the Moon' (I bet my aunt would have liked that, she did lots of suns and moons)
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As well as the temporary art exhibition, the lighthouse has a very interesting permanent exhibition about Salvador's long naval history.
The problem with lighthouses is, of course, that they are very narrow and have lots of steps, and of course I decided I was going to go up to the top. See the last blog entry relating to labyrinthitis... well, my dizziness kicked in bigtime at the top of the steps, and it took a bit of sorting myself out to get back down again....
and that brings me to yesterday, when I walked up the coast to see the very strange Jesus-on-a-stick (Morro do Christo) that marks the end of the south bit of Barra I suppose
Lots of homework to do now, defining the particular reason why I've chosen a continuous rather than a specific past tense and making sure that I've used the right verb endings... (I really know how to live it up, don't I!)
and what's next
I'm also vaguely trying to plan what I'm going to do in March which is when my pre-booked accommodation runs out , I want to travel to Amazonia, I want to leave quite a bit of stuff somewhere and come back for it before I go to the US, (I have, as my friends Miles and Jo assured me before I set off, too many musical instruments with me, and the hiking boots which were very useful in Lencois don't need to be going with me to the rain forest).... There is the opportunity of a very interesting looking 'truck trip' for a few weeks with Oasis Overland that leaves from Rio on 14th May taking in the Iguazu Falls and other spectacular stuff. And, try as I might, I can't find a way of getting from South to North America (where I'll be spending the second half of the year) without leaving the ground, that doesn't either cost £13,000 OR that looks palatable. So these are the things that are exercising my mind at the moment. Also if anyone wants to share a cabin with me from New York to Southampton for 8 days in early January 2025 please let me know, by the way...(Yes I KNOW that cruises are worse than planes - but irritatingly it's the wrong time of year for sailing ships [see 'trade winds'] and the cargo ship passenger business has stopped post Covid.)
If anyone has a friend in Sao Paulo here I can leave one or maybe two musical instruments and a pair of boots and a heavy sailing jumper and some woolly socks for three months, that would be useful. [EDIT - SP dropoff sorted now thanks!!] Any other suggestions for the other dilemmas in the previous para also gratefully received. And if anyone fancies joining me for any of this (3 or 5 day trips down the Amazon on boats that only run once a week.... 20 hour bus journeys up the interior of brazil..... etc etc Or the Oasis Overland 25 day truck trip from Rio to Buenos Aires taking in the Iguazu Falls leaving 14 May) let me know!
love, Fiona in Brazil
All comments please email me on fionaistravelling@gmail.com and if you'd like to join a whatsapp group and get some uptotheminute photos and chat and a chance for some two way commenting here's the link
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