RIP

Over the past six months, we have indeed experiencied some significant casualties. But don't worry. I'm not going to bore you with sob stories and statistics. We traveled to the developing world and had a great time. The few (thousand) dollars we lost in electronics and merchandise is a slight afterthought. I consider it a tourism tax.

But truthfully, some much more significant things are being left behind in Brazil. Their value cannot be measured in dollars, reais, yen, or euros. We suffered casualties in the most serious of senses. The Bahiaboys left New York on January 12 with wide-eyes, open imaginations, and extremely pale skin. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, and unfortunately, two of them aren't coming back.

The Tudo Bem I once knew is gone. The savagery that used to put me in awe has vanished. His heart has been tamed in Bahia, and I'm not sure if his wild ways will ever return. Is it simply a timeout for the former champ...or has he really went into retirement. I have my own suspicions, but no one knows for sure. The loss of an all-star is always tough for the team, but perhaps it's for the best. Maybe that solid role player will step his game up and become the superstar. Perhaps an all new era has begun. But whatever the future holds, the legend of Tudo Bem will never be forgotten.

O Atrevido no longer exists. I simply hope that the study abroad student formerly known as O Atrevido, and the potential that has been unleashed over the past few months, can be channelled in ways and means that will keep the general public out of danger. The young man you once knew, the one you thought would be perfect to take home to momma, has turned over a new leaf. But I wouldn't call him a savage. He now exists beyond the realms of savagery. Brazil has turned this man into a barbarian, someone whose desires can't be denied and ambition cannot be contained.

I will miss the two young men with whom I embarked on this adventure who are staying behind in Latin America. Fortunately, I am coming back with two people that I now consider brothers. Secrets are something that doesn't exist between us, and I have shared with these gentlemen something that I consider, the most significant experience of my life. For what may be my last post to this blog, I want to track the highlights of Salvador 2k6 from my perspective. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

But please note: Please pardon the inside jokes, ambiguity, and other feature that may make much of this incomprehensible to the average reader. Understand that I may actually have to get a job one day, and if I were to describe some of the things I did in Salvador in straight-forward language, un-coded language...I think you get the picture.

so...

great in flight movies
being chased by a rabid dog in Villa Magdalena
Chas + open legs + soccer ball + silky smooth move = devastating embarassment
Paraty, beaches, bonding
witnessing in person the invincibility of Carlitos Teves
Carnaval.
cutting my night with Filhos de Gandhy short to help a friend in need
trying to break down the Ice Queen
brutalcrushings.com.br
going to sleep in the wrong room after a long night
foot injuries in general
weird relationship triangles
new revelations in Praia de Forte
96 hour 21st bday party
easy money AKA basketball in Ondina
H Davidson, sliggitay, and frodo Baggins = the trifecta AKA winning
Porto Seguro
bigger and better things
only going to one capoeira class
trying to become Clive Owen
becoming an Academic gangster in a new language
too many nights in the Pelourinho
actually feeling proud of my country after the Italy game
3 months of work culminating in one sweet 75 reais taxi ride
the most devastating game of bowling I have ever experienced
bidding my family in Salvador adeiu
sharing Brazil with my real mom and dad
finally being a champion
realizing that blood may or may not be thicker than water
some time left to reflect in Rio

If I left something out, or if you have any questions, comments, or concerns - get at me. And if you don't know my email, leave a comment.

beijos,

O Chefao

Farewell

I suppose it's only right that I make my last post on my last night here in Brasil, ending things where they started in the great (and still ugly) city of Sao Paulo.

The past few weeks, though filled with the same fun and debauchery (those stories will have to told at some other juncture) have also been marked by a strange feeling that did not present itself with such force in the previous months. It is a feeling that fights against itself; the simultaneous joy of returning home, back to friends, family, and the sadness of leaving a place that has changed all of us in profound and irreversible ways. It is the feeling of truly looking forward to getting home to all that is familiar, and yet realizing that home won't exactly be the same because we're not the same. This explanation is no doubt dramatic (and perhaps overly so), though it is hard for me to escape the importance of it all, at least for me. The friends and experiences of this journey have been ones that have shaped all of us, though this shaping has not necessarily been the same for all. For some, it has meant unleashing the beast within, and becoming, as I'd like to say, a true champion. For others, it has meant learning the meaning of endurance, and though we sometimes find failure in our attempts (and have to pay 70 reais for it), success always finds true winners who never give up (especially when they get great advice from late night tv shows in Brasil). And for others still, it meant learning the importance of sometimes going against your established principles and taking a leap of faith, unsure of where you will land. Though most will not fully comprehend these aforementioned lessons, the point is--and i think that I can speak on the behalf of my comrades--that Brasil will always hold a special place in our hearts for our respective lifetimes.

Finally, though I would not like to, I must concede that I, Tudo Bem, lost the bet--who would be robbed first in Brasil--and lost it several times over at that. To give a proper account of the damage done I will record of the following, thanks to MasterCard:

1 Pair of Havianas Sandels: 14 reais (about $7)
1 Ipod: $300
1 Old-ass raincoat: I don't even know.
1 Dell Laptop: $2000
1 Digital Camera: $200
1 Digital Voice Recorder: $100
Making it out of Brasil alive with a couple of my best friends: Priceless

If you want more details...that's tough cuz i've got shit to say about it.

And thus, more eloquently, I bid farewell to my compratriots, O Chefao and O Atrevido, who I thank for seeing me through some of my toughest times, and to all of you, who have been interested enough in our wellbeing to check out the blog from time to time (and probably accidently typed in www.bahiaboys.com and found some gay porn...hopefully you weren't in the library) and leave a ridiculous comment or two. Stay up and stay safe.

~TUDO BEM

Savagery

Because O Atrevido has been neglecting his bloggins duties, I feel compelled to instigate his return through new means (other than just telling him to write an entry when I see him.) Therefore, from this day forward, I will systematically expose all of his exploits, no matter how rank or uncharacteristic of his pre-Brazil reputation...and believe me, O Atrevido is a changed man. He is now a ruthless savage. Yesterday, at a beachfront luau, I witnessed O Atrevido at his finest. For the typical party going young man, seducing several Bahian ladies (which he did with ease) would be enough. But no, the highlight of his night can no longer be defined, or made complete, by the now routine act of picking up girls. O Atrevido holds himself to a higher standard.

At the end of the night, I saw him literally smack one of the contestants of Big Brother Brazil 6 in the face. I know this sounds extremely random. And yes, it is extremely random. That's the beauty of it. O Atrevido, on a whim, (lightly) pimp smacked - and by defitiion, physically, and emotionally degraded - a man who had two months earlier been on one of the most popular television shows in Brazil. Why was this pseudo celebrity at our luau? I don't know...and honestly, that doesn't matter. And why did O Atrevido smack him? Because he felt like it. The mark of a true savage. No respect for, or need to abide by, societal norms and constraints. If you saw a contestant of American Idol in the street, would you smack him/her? No, you wouldn't. Not because you didn't want to...but simply because you know that you can't...due to fear, shame, or a reverence for the law and its repercussions....my colleague here in Brazil has no need for these petty emotions and thoughts. Somewhere between Carnaval and São João, he lost them. That's the difference between you and O Atrevido. He does whatever he wants. He even does things he may not particular want to do...just because he can. You can't. You have limits. When O Atrevido is involved...the potential of the situation, be it good or bad, honorable or evil, is infinite.

May God help us all.

The Resurrection

The blog has been barren for the past few weeks. But do not fret, we have not been taken captive by savage Amazonians or smitten with Dengue fever. We have just been lazy bastards…neglecting our dedicated fans.

As you probably could have guessed, Brazil is still paradise. But don´t get it twisted, everything is not fun and games…or sun and sand. Summer here is slowly ending (remember, it´s the southern hemisphere) and a few clouds have had the audacity to rain on our parade. And believe me, when rain arrives in a tropical environment, it does not play around. Tropical Storm Salvador 2k6 came and went with a fury, but we survived – it may have dampened our social life a bit – but the sun has recently come back…and we´re all making up for lost time.

We´ve been busy living the life of itinerant jogadores de futebol (soccer players), hitting up pickup games wherever and whenever we can, and we´ve all adapted to the local beach culture and have each joined gyms (referred to as “academias” and as abundant as barbershops in black neighborhoods.)

This past weekend we took a 12 hour bus ride to the historic town of Porto Seguro, learned some history, met some new people, and relaxed. Between bumming it on the towns beautiful beaches and avoiding the various vendors of crappy souvenirs, we made our way to the Pataxós indigenous reservation. We chilled with the natives for a bit, hunted buffalo and sampled some of their finest peyote…But seriously, it was a very interesting experience. The community consists of 30 families that are trying to reclaim their culture, and organize their village independently of greater Brazil and maintain local autonomy and control of their resources. They actively maintain their own cultural traditions by preserving their traditional wardrobe, language, and communal organization and pride themselves on a non-assimilationist attitude. However, in this day and age, they obviously can´t live in a vacuum. Interestingly enough, 95% of the village is economically dependant on artensanry (all of which I assume is sold to outsiders) and they are given a very huge economic boost by gringos like myself who pay for guided tours. Given this background, a lot of the traditions they present are supposedly not particularly authentic, and probably didn´t exist back in the day before the Portuguese showed up…but hey, who am I to judge? I got the feeling that whatever this community is, or is trying to create, is something positive. Using a strong cultural identity to build sustainable, united communities…what could be bad about that?

Well that´s all for now. Just know that the Bahia Boys are back in busy. Look out for upcoming urban anthropology and philosophical insight with a Latin American twist that you won´t find anywhere else…we´re always trying to move on to Bigger and Better things. O Atrevido and Tudo Bem are drafting their next entries right now! Don´t miss it, tell your friends, and leave comments.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everybody. I'm happy to announce that the Bahia Boys are officially back...and one of them is now 21. Our recent lives have been filled with a lot of mischief and mayhem, but always kept in balance with a healthy dose of alegria (and plenty of cachaça). If we keep on our current trajectory of development...I don't think Cambridge will be ready for our return.

But even more importantly, your friend O Chefao has taken that crucial next step. He is now an academic baller on two continents and in two languages. I'll be back soon to provide all our dedicated fans the gossip they deserve and desire...but for the moment (and for the foreign language capable), here's a little snippet from my first attempt to drop knowledge in Portuguese. Enjoy (and please overlook grammatical errors.) and be on the lookout for great pictures coming soon to a facebook profile you know and love.

O exemplo mais explicito da solidariedade entre africanos no século XIX era O Levante dos Malês, uma rebelião escravo que aconteceu no ano 1835 em Salvador da Bahia. Os rebeldes eram um grupo de escravos e libertos que incluía jejes, haussás, e nagôs, e, segundo Reis, juntavam sobre "uma identidade pan-africana embrionária." (Reis, 109) Ele afirma que "a entidade africana na Bahia foi, então, fundamentalmente construída e constantemente acionada como ideologia popular radical de disputa política." (Reis, 109) A participação dos africanos libertos durante a rebelião demonstra um vinculo importante entre eles e os escravos africanos. Este vinculo demonstra a importância de etnicidade e solidariedade cultural na historia dos afro-descendentes no Brasil. As diferenças culturais e sociais entre os escravos africanos e crioulos eram suficientes para eliminar a possibilidade de colaboração entre eles apesar deles sofreiam embaixo do mesmo sistema de repressão racista. Estes dois grupos nunca resistiam à escravidão em uma maneira unificada. Eles foram manipulados socialmente e isolados pelos senhores brancos com sucesso. Os senhores entendiam o poder da solidariedade cultural e organização coletiva e dividiu os crioulos e africanos, criando hostilidade entre eles. Mas no caso da rebelião de 1835, eles no conseguiam destruir a unidade que existia entre todos os africanos, os libertos e os escravos, e entre todas as nações e grupos de etnicidade diferente que existia dentro deste grupo. Por isso, o levante dos Males era um das rebeliões mas perigosos e bem-conhecidos na historia do Brasil. As ações da comunidade branca, depois da revolta, foram influenciadas por a realidade, e a ameaça, desta unidade negra.

Living Large

So one of the Bahia Boys is about to turn 21. Fortunately, his host family has a beach house on an island that's only a short ferry ride away from Salvador. What is even more fortunate, is the fact that his family is throwing him a party on this island oasis this weekend....stay tuned for the inevitable deluge of great stories.

In other news, would you believe O Chefao if he told you that we spent last Friday at the Miss Bahia pageant, and then spent all Saturday afternoon at the beach with two of the contestants? Well, if you have seen O Atrevido's recently updated facebook photo album, "Brasil," you probably do. And if you don't believe...shame on you. Just because your imagination is stifled by a humdrum North American existence, don't doubt the Bahia Boys.

But the story of our weekend with Bahian beauties should really be told by Atrevido. It was all his doing. And he has all the pictures. He's really moving up in the world. He may not admit that he's on Vince Young, or Reggie Bush status, but Atrevido is now undoubtedly a first round draft pick.

Real Drama

I have been told that you cannot understand Brazil unless you at least watch a few of the novelas. So yes, in an effort to better understand the local culture, I have indeed been watching Brazilian soap operas. Now let me inform you about TV here. Most people don’t have cable. The vast majority of households here, mine included, have access to two, maybe three, channels. And here’s how the schedule goes: early afternoon and late night are dominated by American movies dubbed in Portuguese (except one of the channels seems to always be showing the American TV series “Lost”). Besides that, most of the rest of the day is split between news, the biggest soccer match going on at the time, your typical Latin American afternoon variety/game show, and Big Brother Brazil (and I thought reality TV back home was bad…) But primetime is dedicated to novelas. They are basically soap operas, but each episode is a chapter, and they only last for three to six months. Everyone in the country watches them. But unlike in the US, where we have sitcoms, dramas, and different types of shows, novelas are it here…and therefore, they’re a bit more diverse than your typical As the World Turns, or Bold and the Beautiful. They have novelas about everything. One, called JK, is about Joselino Kubicek, the President of Brazil responsible for constructing the city of Brasilia, the country’s current capital, during the 1950s. There’s actually a new novela that just started this week. I missed the first two chapters, but finally caught it tonight. Guess what…it’s about slaves. I kid you not. A soap opera about slaves….only in Brazil. Maybe it will be just like Roots... I remember my Dad told me about when he saw Roots. It was actually back in Nigeria in the 70s. He saw it at the national theatre on the big screen. He told me how after it was finished, everyone was really amped, just waiting to get their hands on one of those damned “white oppressors,” and enact some revenge on behalf of brotha Kunta. Fortunately, there basically are no white people in Nigeria, so no one got hurt.

Speaking of enacting revenge…we all went to a meeting for the Steve Biko Cultural Institute last night. It was very interesting…basically a lot of folks that are active in the black movement and the fight for affirmative action here in Salvador. There were some presentations and speakers, one of which especially interested me. His speech actually wasn’t that interesting. It had been a fairly long night, and the room was very full, and very hot. This guy’s speech had been going on for awhile, and to be honest, I was getting pretty tired of hearing Portuguese. So I was really only half listening, probably picking out about 20% of what he was actually saying. But in what I assumed to be his closing he started to get a bit more dramatic. There was some fist waving and his demeanor started to take on that of a fiery black nationalist. To me it was all still just a lot of loud Portuguese, but at the very end of his speech, as he got really energetic I understood him crystal clearly when he, still in Portuguese, said, “We’re going to kill racism. We’re going to kill the racists!” which of course was followed by raucous applause and a standing ovation. I looked over at Tudo Bem (both of us were already standing in the back of the auditorium) to confirm that my Portuguese did not fail me and that he did indeed say “We’re going to kill the racists!” He gave me a nod of affirmation, but was clearly taken aback by this momentary call to arms. Fortunately, the night did not end with a massive horde of black people searching the streets in an effort to forcefully exterminate racism and its adherents. I think the speech’s ending was more a moment of overzealous rhetoric than anything else. But you never know…