The time of the year for...square-dancing
When I was here in Brazil from October to December, I remember seeing pictures of children at one of the projects dressed up as country bumpkins, and I was told about some festival in June, but I had no idea of the extent of these "Festas Juninas" or "Junina Parties." It turns out that the whole country has a series of country-bumpkin parties in June (but also July) whose origins are a combination of an homage to St. John (as well as Sts. Peter & Anthony) and a pagan solstice festival.
Some typical elements of these parties include:
I went to my first Festa Junina on Saturday night outdoors at somebody's country house, and I was surprised how inter-generational the party was. In addition, I have been practicing with the children at the Liberdade Project to dance quadrilha in their festival this coming weekend, and I have borrowed a rather large country-bumpkin dress to wear. (Stay tuned next week for photos...) For the past several weekends, I've seen children dressed as bumpkins going to and from these festivals in practically every neighborhood I've passed. I haven't found any logical explanation yet of why these "June" festivals are happening well into July, but that's very Brazilian.
I forgot to mention last week that I had an opportunity to visit a privately run home for chidren with major disabilities (mostly severe motor disorders) and senior citizens here in Belo Horizonte called "Caminhos para Deus" or "Ways/Paths to God." I was a little worried about what I might see there when I was told about a previous international visitor who was upset to be visiting the place, but my fears were soon relieved. It was unbelievably clean, calm and caring for the more than 300 residents that lived there. We visited nearly all of the "children" (some of whom were close to 40 years old), and out of this group, only one young woman could talk, and she immediately started to yell out when we got to the room where she was "Hey, over here!" over and over. :) She also could sing a children's song that my coordinator recognized.
Last week I had my first Brazilian doctor's appointment (don't worry, Mom, it was just a dermatologist). Just like in the U.S., many practices can be so full that you can't get an appointment as a new patient for months. Thankfully, I have connections (my roommate) who helped me to get worked into the busy schedule. My coordinator went with me to help translate. As I was leaving the apartment, I thought to ask if doctor's offices here in Brazil accept credit cards, and it was a good thing that I did, because they don't. Although credit cards are generally accepted nearly everywhere in the U.S. as a consumer convenience, here they are not due to the extra fees that banks and credit card companies impose. A lot of times if credit cards are accepted, the businesses will past on this additional cost to the consumer. But I digress...
One cool thing was that the doctor's office had a digital fingerprint recognition machine, which I had never seen. I think that was for people on certain insurance plans, because I didn't need to use it. I was surprised that they asked for the full name of both of my parents, but it turns out that is a routine thing to do here because you have many more people with the same name. Because we borrow first names from around the world in the U.S., it is not so often that you know three or more people with the same first name, but here it is very common. For example, I already know at least four different "Fernandas."
Like busy doctor's offices in the U.S., we waited for an hour before getting to see the doctor. Her examination was much more thorough that anything I'd experienced in the U.S., and true to Brazilian style, there was more chatting than you would normally have with a doctor in the U.S.; she even told me to be sure to convey a hug to my roommate. (People here are always virtually sending hugs and kisses if they don't have a chance to do the real thing in person.) Another nice surprise was the bill at the pharmacy. The doctor prescribed four different things, and the total bill for all four was less than US$35. The doctor's appointment cost about US$70.
Today things went surprisingly well for the two English classes. One thing I constantly have to remember is to show the children an excited, loving face. The other American volunteers currently here, Chris and David, in addition to helping with the English classes, are working on getting the computers into shape, reconfiguring some, building a new one from parts, etc. I'm also trying to update and finish translating the Methodist Foundation's website. (I'll post a link when I'm done.) My coordinators and most of the local Methodist pastors are off to the national Brazilian Methodist Annual Conference this week in the neighboring state.
I found out today that the music/Christian education teacher is still out, so I'll be substituting again for her at both projects. This should be the last week of children at the two projects where I work before their school vacation (although some schools have already finished the term). Next week, the teachers and administrators will meet to plan out the activities for the coming semester, and then the week after that is vacation for us. I'm hoping to visit my friends in São Carlos in the neighboring state of São Paulo. In addition, I'm already making a list of things to bring back from the U.S. when I visit in September because there is an odd assortment of things that are either unavailable or ridiculously expensive here (e.g. sunscreen).
And it was very un-Brazilian of me to almost forget to mention the World Cup finals. We watched the second half of the runner-up game on Saturday between Germany and Portugal and all of the final game yesterday between France and Italy. Even though Brazil wasn't in the finals, many stores that would normally be open on Sunday afternoon closed early for the game. It's very funny for me to realize how much new soccer knowledge I have absorbed in these past few weeks. Now I can recognize the coaches and star players from a handful of countries, as well as having a better grasp on the rules (e.g., at which stage in the tournament there is overtime). We were happy to see Italy beat France, and, apparently, so were most of our neighbors. It's very interesting how emotionally involved and entertaining the Brazilian commentators are. In the U.S., if I have to watch sports, I generally try to do it without sound so I don't have to listen to the commentators, but here, it wasn't bad (it probably didn't hurt that I can only understand about 40-50% of what they're saying...). So now Brazil has another four years to re-group and try to re-claim its title as soccer world champion.
Some typical elements of these parties include:
- people dressing up as country-bumpkins, specifically including a bride and groom and wedding attendents
- bonfires
- typical foods such as barbecue meat on sticks, corn-on-the-cob, fried pork rinds, stews, cotton candy, and hot drinks
- "forro" music (sounds like a fast country two-step or quick-step)
- a Brazilian type of square-dancing called "quadrilha"
I went to my first Festa Junina on Saturday night outdoors at somebody's country house, and I was surprised how inter-generational the party was. In addition, I have been practicing with the children at the Liberdade Project to dance quadrilha in their festival this coming weekend, and I have borrowed a rather large country-bumpkin dress to wear. (Stay tuned next week for photos...) For the past several weekends, I've seen children dressed as bumpkins going to and from these festivals in practically every neighborhood I've passed. I haven't found any logical explanation yet of why these "June" festivals are happening well into July, but that's very Brazilian.
I forgot to mention last week that I had an opportunity to visit a privately run home for chidren with major disabilities (mostly severe motor disorders) and senior citizens here in Belo Horizonte called "Caminhos para Deus" or "Ways/Paths to God." I was a little worried about what I might see there when I was told about a previous international visitor who was upset to be visiting the place, but my fears were soon relieved. It was unbelievably clean, calm and caring for the more than 300 residents that lived there. We visited nearly all of the "children" (some of whom were close to 40 years old), and out of this group, only one young woman could talk, and she immediately started to yell out when we got to the room where she was "Hey, over here!" over and over. :) She also could sing a children's song that my coordinator recognized.
Last week I had my first Brazilian doctor's appointment (don't worry, Mom, it was just a dermatologist). Just like in the U.S., many practices can be so full that you can't get an appointment as a new patient for months. Thankfully, I have connections (my roommate) who helped me to get worked into the busy schedule. My coordinator went with me to help translate. As I was leaving the apartment, I thought to ask if doctor's offices here in Brazil accept credit cards, and it was a good thing that I did, because they don't. Although credit cards are generally accepted nearly everywhere in the U.S. as a consumer convenience, here they are not due to the extra fees that banks and credit card companies impose. A lot of times if credit cards are accepted, the businesses will past on this additional cost to the consumer. But I digress...
One cool thing was that the doctor's office had a digital fingerprint recognition machine, which I had never seen. I think that was for people on certain insurance plans, because I didn't need to use it. I was surprised that they asked for the full name of both of my parents, but it turns out that is a routine thing to do here because you have many more people with the same name. Because we borrow first names from around the world in the U.S., it is not so often that you know three or more people with the same first name, but here it is very common. For example, I already know at least four different "Fernandas."
Like busy doctor's offices in the U.S., we waited for an hour before getting to see the doctor. Her examination was much more thorough that anything I'd experienced in the U.S., and true to Brazilian style, there was more chatting than you would normally have with a doctor in the U.S.; she even told me to be sure to convey a hug to my roommate. (People here are always virtually sending hugs and kisses if they don't have a chance to do the real thing in person.) Another nice surprise was the bill at the pharmacy. The doctor prescribed four different things, and the total bill for all four was less than US$35. The doctor's appointment cost about US$70.
Today things went surprisingly well for the two English classes. One thing I constantly have to remember is to show the children an excited, loving face. The other American volunteers currently here, Chris and David, in addition to helping with the English classes, are working on getting the computers into shape, reconfiguring some, building a new one from parts, etc. I'm also trying to update and finish translating the Methodist Foundation's website. (I'll post a link when I'm done.) My coordinators and most of the local Methodist pastors are off to the national Brazilian Methodist Annual Conference this week in the neighboring state.
I found out today that the music/Christian education teacher is still out, so I'll be substituting again for her at both projects. This should be the last week of children at the two projects where I work before their school vacation (although some schools have already finished the term). Next week, the teachers and administrators will meet to plan out the activities for the coming semester, and then the week after that is vacation for us. I'm hoping to visit my friends in São Carlos in the neighboring state of São Paulo. In addition, I'm already making a list of things to bring back from the U.S. when I visit in September because there is an odd assortment of things that are either unavailable or ridiculously expensive here (e.g. sunscreen).
And it was very un-Brazilian of me to almost forget to mention the World Cup finals. We watched the second half of the runner-up game on Saturday between Germany and Portugal and all of the final game yesterday between France and Italy. Even though Brazil wasn't in the finals, many stores that would normally be open on Sunday afternoon closed early for the game. It's very funny for me to realize how much new soccer knowledge I have absorbed in these past few weeks. Now I can recognize the coaches and star players from a handful of countries, as well as having a better grasp on the rules (e.g., at which stage in the tournament there is overtime). We were happy to see Italy beat France, and, apparently, so were most of our neighbors. It's very interesting how emotionally involved and entertaining the Brazilian commentators are. In the U.S., if I have to watch sports, I generally try to do it without sound so I don't have to listen to the commentators, but here, it wasn't bad (it probably didn't hurt that I can only understand about 40-50% of what they're saying...). So now Brazil has another four years to re-group and try to re-claim its title as soccer world champion.
posted by Christine Piggee at
5:53 PM
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