Tag Archives: Making friends

Power outage, our community, and more kiting.

By the time our guests left on Sunday afternoon, our power and water had gone out. There is no great story here. We were just without power and water all afternoon and evening. We ate leftovers for dinner by candlelight – more spooky than romantic, given the spiders and creepy-crawlers around, then went for a short drive around town to see who had electricity. Then…what else were we going to do? We fell asleep.

Eating leftover chorizo and yogurt in the dark

On Monday and Tuesday, I started to get into a routine. I did some writing each morning poolside, then yoga, then dishes. On Monday I also took a walk to explore the neighborhood, as it were. Here are a few pics from that walk, to give you an idea of what’s around. These aren’t necessarily representative of Punta Chame as a whole, but rather just things I thought were interesting.

Both evenings we went down to Machete. The wind was too strong for Eric’s kite size (10 m) on Monday evening, so we just got drinks at the bar and sat on the beach to watch the sunset kiters…my favorite thing ever. On Tuesday, we walked the 1.4 miles to Machete together, and Eric went out in a mass of 25 or so kites and did a great job in all the traffic! I sat down with Itzick and Roco for a bit, and Itzick commented on how well Eric was doing. Then both Itzick and I took pictures of the bulldog in the sunset b/c, well, Roco’s awesome.

 

 

Itzick and Roco – can’t tell if Eric’s in the background or not. Sometimes it’s hard to tell at sunset.

 

 

Batizado photos – Unidos Pela Capoeira 2015!

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.

CM Rodrigo in his signature pose. I don’t know where it originated, but most photos throughout the week featured someone in this pose. Oh, and that’s Jhonnatan with him. Nickname: Por que…b/c he asks a lot of questions.
CM Rodrigo
Mestre Barriga
Árabe, Paola, George y CM Rodrigo at the rooftop pool at Jessie’s apartment.
CM Ivan
Mono y Contra Mestre (CM) Ivan
CM Ivan, Mestre Barriga, CM Rodrigo llegando a Panamá
CM Ivan in Casco Viejo. I love this shot! Not mine…
CM Ivan in Casco Viejo.
CM Ivan and CM Rodrigo
Jessie and the mestres – serious as always!

Hanging out throughout the week before and the week of the event:

Jessie! My sweet gringa friend.
When you put a capoeirista in a pretty setting, you can guarantee that theyll end up upside-down and asking you to take a picture of them
Profesor Apaxe from Colombia. He’s the one who I played against on stage on the last day in order to get my green cord. He also awarded me my cord. Great salsa dancer too!
The guys watching the girls do a little samba on Árabes birthday. Not obvious at all there, boys.
Hanging out with Árabe in our cool shades.
Our gorgeous view!
Mono has gotten to be a really good buddy to me. A great coach, an encourager, and a dear friend.

Kids’ class, random practice photos:

Red light, green light, but with a mestre. Fun!
The guys practicing the Puxada de Rede (roughly, the pulling of the net…a classic Brazilian dance).
CM Rodrigo leading the kids’ class on the final day of the batizado. They had a blast with him!
Daughters of two friends (Auri’s daughter Vicky and Lourdes’s daughter Sara)
CM Rodrigo helping a little girl to do a cartwheel or au.
The roda is a little different when you have a giant man playing against a tiny little girl. Hilarious. So sweet.
Some of the kids have some serious talent!
Auri’s daughter Vicky trying to push CM Ivan down. Not technically a thing in capoeira, but gosh it was amazing to see how he could stay in his handstand while she shoved him! Hilarious too.
Prof. Apaxe spinning on his head because, well, he can.
Flying!
After the kids’ class.
All the kids under CM Rodrigo’s influence…for better or worse!

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!

 

Batizado Day 2

Today was hard, but satisfying.  After the fact, you know?  It’s not like I was sweating it out in this sweltering gym and thinking the whole time about how wonderful it was to be pushing myself this hard.  No, a lot of the time I just thought about how it’d be embarrassing to puke.

So you get a better idea of how this works, there are probably 20-25 of us from Panamá, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, and as of tomorrow, Miami.  There is one mestre – Mestre Barriga.  His name pretty much means Belly.  In case I haven’t touched on this before, everyone in capoeira has an apellido, a nickname.  Sometimes you get it when you do something stupid and people call you out on it, sometimes it has to do with how you look, like one friend who is named Irmão, or brother, because he looks a lot like our contra mestre.  Sometimes it has to do with your style of play.  My gringa friend Jessie was really good at Kung Fu before she started capoeira and she’s super smooth and quick, so they call her Ninja.  I’ll get my name at the end of this week!  Can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with for me!  I think I’m the only one without an apellido at the batizado…so I’m ready for it.

Here you can see my friend Árabe (left), CM Rodrigo (middle), and Mestre Barriga (right) at the Canal yesterday.  Of course, they played a little capoeira too while they were there, but my favorite of the photos they sent around was this one:

IMG_6884

Jogando capoeira at the Canal:

IMG_6897

So back to Day Two.  It’s just amazing how hot and suffocating the air is inside the gym.  There are some fans, but unless you’re standing right in front of them, they don’t do much.  My goal is usually to position myself in front of one when we start a class.  By dinnertime I was feeling pretty rough…mostly nauseous from the heat and exertion.  I made myself eat though, and laid down on the floor for 20 min or so.  I still wasn’t great for the rest of the day, but I made it.

After dinner, one of the things that we practiced are martelos.  Martelo literally means “hammer,” and according to wiki is defined generally as a kick with the instep with the most common target being the head.  CM Ivan decided that we needed to work on taking kicks, this time to the upper arm.  So…we paired up and began kicking the mess out of each other.  Not comfortable.  I worked with one of my Brazilian friends, Thaisa, which in hindsight may not have been the best choice.  The girl doesn’t mess around.  I definitely got some practice in.  I can take a hard kick.  And I have the giant bruise to show it.  I named it Thaisa.

IMG_6909

The most impressive duo during this exercise was definitely Mono and our German friend Noel.  You could hear their kicks land throughout the gym, over all the other kicks and talking and groaning.  Within 5 minutes of finishing the exercise, Noel’s arm was purple.  Mono posted this photo of his own shoulder last night.

12339182_10153663137510867_5543583378489246871_o

Continuing with injuries, I’ll give you the rest of the rundown.  Remember how I broke off a piece of bone in my finger a couple of months ago?  Well, I reinjured it yesterday.  Who knows if the piece broke off again or if it’s just jammed or what, but it’s swollen and I can’t get my rings on again.  Fun.

IMG_6896

I also managed to land on my kneecap pretty hard on Night One of the event.  I didn’t feel it much then because I was in the roda and playing against a guy who must be 6’6″…adrenaline kinda takes over…but the next morning I had some intense pain whenever I put any weight on it or touched it.  I knocked it a little yesterday and that didn’t help.  I can still walk fine and move it pretty well though, so…onward!  Funny thing about all these injuries – they’re ALWAYS on the left side.  Never fails.

Oh, and I think I got lied to by one of the contra mestres last night!  I had heard throughout the year that there is a certain toque, a certain rhythm, that you’re supposed to play on the berimbau if someone dies in the roda.  Of course, this dates back to when capoeira was used in serious combat, so you don’t get a lot of that these days.  I think there would be more CPR and 911 calling these days.  But anyway, the actual toque seems to be shrouded in a bit of mystery.  I asked CM Rodrigo about it yesterday and was surprised and excited when he was happy to share it with me.  I videoed it and shared it with a few others, thrilled that I had cracked into this secret world.  NOPE!  Turns out he showed me a fairly standard toque, but not one that I’m used to, so I didn’t know the difference.  Dang it!  The quest continues…

A few pics from the day:

I’m excited because Instrutora Rebelde, a woman from Miami, arrived early this morning.  I can’t wait to meet her after hearing about her all year.  Plus, she’ll be the one and only female instructor in the crowd.  She has quite a reputation, so I’m excited to see her in action!

IMG_6899

So if you’re reading this today or tomorrow, say a prayer for endurance, proper nutrition and hydration, and no puking.  Halfway there.

In closing, Summer is adorable and ready for Christmas!