I’ve been avoiding writing this post because I’m overwhelmed by how amazing an experience the batizado proved to be. Not to mention the fact that I have over a thousand photos from the week, thanks to Eric! I’ll attempt to sum it up for you…
As I said in my last posts, it was hard. I worked harder that week than I ever have – physically, at least. It was hot. The gym was stuffy and once a day someone would get the brilliant idea to turn off the fans so we could hear the mestres speak. Personally, I’d rather not die of heatstroke and just plan on reading body language and hand signals, but no one asked me. But gosh…it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Amazing people from all over, all working hard together, all encouraging, all with a sincere desire to improve…completely committed to this crazy sport and to the people who practice it. It was inspiring. The mestres were incredible, not only to watch play, but to play against…talk about a challenge. Yet I always had a smile on my face in the roda because I was falling more and more in love with capoeira…with the mandinga – the malice or clever trickiness with which capoeira is played.
We’re also blessed with incredibly friendly, easy-to-talk-to mestres. This was particularly important to me as a non-Portuguese speaker. Everything was done in Portuguese, so I had to rely on my Spanish knowledge to interpret what I could from what they said. It took a lot of work, and plenty of interpretation help from friends, but throughout the week I picked up a lot. Eric, however, was less than pleased when I came home speaking a few phrases in yet ANOTHER new language. He’s finally warming up to Spanish…I don’t think I’ll push it with Portuguese just yet. I do, however, want to continue learning on my own, as it’s so important to capoeiristas.
Getting to the next level in capoeira is not just about the physical aspects of the sport. You must also learn to play all the instruments, sing in Portuguese (eventually leading the songs for everyone…eek!), learn history, learn the language, and work diligently within your school. As you move to the higher levels, you are depended upon to help teach classes, work with lower level students, work with the kids’ classes, etc. It’s really easy to come up with capoeira-related tasks/events for every day of the week. This isn’t a sport that you really want to pick up casually…or at least I don’t. I’m in, and I love it. I want to stay in, although I’m nervous about how that will look once we move back to the States after having it be my whole world here.
With that, some photos. First, a few of our special guests and teachers, Mestre Barriga, Contra Mestre (CM) Ivan, and Contra Mestre Rodrigo.
Hanging out throughout the week before and the week of the event:
Kids’ class, random practice photos:
Okay, I still haven’t gotten to the final show, but I think I’ll leave that for another day. Thanks to everyone who’s asked about the event!
We’re flying to Madrid tomorrow night. We’ll go through Tangier (Morocco), spend Christmas in Salamanca, visit a friend in Barcelona for a few days, then head back to Madrid to fly back to Panamá. We get back here on Dec. 30…then Eric heads to Raleigh from Dec. 31 – Jan. 9th! Whew! Busy!
