There was some kind of big commerce exposition at the convention center nearby at the end of last week, and the capoeira group – CDO Panama, short for Cordao de Ouro, cord of gold, I believe – performed there. We got there right at 8 when it was supposed to start, but things were running late, so we had the pleasure of seeing acts from other countries.
We saw a little of this:
Chinese fashion show
a little of this:
Dances from another part of Panamá
and also this guy, who was Eric’s favorite:
He was probably all of 10 years old, and his buddy, wearing the same costume of pajamas and a big dragon head, was probably 5.
I happened to sit down next to the girlfriend of one of the guys in CDO, so I got to chat with her, Ana, a little. Finally, the capoeira performance began. I didn’t know how the photography was going to go since I couldn’t really just stand in front of everyone for the best view, there were huge speakers on the front of the stage blocking half of the good moves, it was dark, they were moving fast, and there was a huge lit-up screen behind them. None of these are elements that I’ve ever known how to deal with before. Luckily Eric coached me through all of this during the other acts, so I was decently prepared (compared to how I would’ve been otherwise) by the time they went on.
I ended up taking almost 400 photos of their maybe 8-12 minute performance! Don’t worry, I’ve paired it down quite a bit for y’all. Here are a few of my favorites. The white girl flying through the air is Jessie, the one I said is from the DC area originally. The guy with the braids/dreads (and doing the crazy handstand) is the leader of the group. His nickname is Mono, or monkey (again, racial issues are different here), and he is engaged to the beautiful girl playing the drum and singing. The other guy flying through the air is Juan Pablo, the boyfriend of Ana, the girl I was sitting with as we watched this. In case you care about all of these relationships. 🙂 The one playing the tambourine is the one who I think is named Moíses and who was with me in the roda for my first time.
Incredible, huh? I talked to a few of them afterwards and was greeted with hugs and besos. All of them seemed glad that I had come and were excited that I had taken pictures. Mono added me to their facebook group today, so I’ve posted a few of the photos for them.
So – changing gears – for Christmas I gave Eric a scrapbook type thing full of date ideas for us for 2015. At the point when I made it, I wasn’t sure if we would be in Raleigh or in Panama b/c of CB, so it has ideas for both places. Last night we tried out our first official date from the book. We went to a restaurant called Market. You can check it out here. It pretty much caters to Americans, but it’s known for having really great steaks and hamburgers. It is owned by this one restaurant group that has three restaurants in the area that are all supposed to be really good – kinda an Ashley Christensen kinda thing for you Raleighites (Raleighians?).
I had the corvina (typical Panamanian fish) and yuca and it was AMAZING. Best food I’ve had in months. Doesn’t it look delicious!?
A-MAZ-ING!
Here are a few other pictures from our night out:
Of course after not being able to watch the three previous games of the ACC Tourney, the Heels wolfpacked all over themselves when I did get to watch. I take full responsibility for the loss. Ugh. Notre Dame? Really? Better than some others, I guess, but jeez. I still am learning to accept Miami and Virginia Tech into the ACC. The Irish are too much.
This morning I interviewed a potential empleada and we really liked her. She wants full time work, but we don’t need it, so we offered to let her start here knowing that she’d be looking for full time work elsewhere. Since we have the windows open all the time, EVERYTHING is covered with dust and dirt. It gets really gross really quickly. Eric learned his lesson about walking around barefoot yesterday when his feet were black after about 30 minutes. We couldn’t tell if his feet were making the floor dirtier or vice versa. Gross.
We’ve also heard that during the rainy season, you have to leave your drawers and closets open so mold and fungus doesn’t grow on your clothes and especially in leather shoes. Ah, the tropics! It ain’t all glamor.
