THE START OF THE ADVENTURE - and what I´m doing...

[Kenny Kozol]

Dona Didi Dancing Samba In The Streets of Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 29, 2008


As I write from my friend Wesley´s 8th story apartment in the Gloria neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro listening to a CD of samba canção, I am embarking on a number of new adventures. For starters, this is the first time I´ve written a blog - so we´ll see how this goes. As for bigger matters, I´m back in the glorious (like the name of the neighborhood I´m writing from) Rio for the second time, one year after my first visit. In the three days I´ve been here, my time has been filled with life and movement on the streets and in homes, hanging out and talking with friends and others, listening to live music and dancing in clubs, bars and outside, and simply taking it all in - yes, Rio is wonderful.

Though this first post is only a reflection of my initial experiences and adventures here, I do have a specific purpose to my trip to Brazil. I recently received a Brookline Education Foundation grant for a project I entitled Sing, Dance, Drum, Talk, for which I will investigate language acquisition and education through my own study of Portuguese language, music, and dance in Bahia (a northeastern state of Brazil where I will head shortly), focusing on how their intersection contributes to fluency. My goal is to grow as an educator by observing my own learning process, studying teaching styles from another part of the world, and observing how students learn through an oral tradition. I plan to learn in the classroom and on the streets and hope to keep as much of a beginner´s mind as possible.

I arrived at 10:35PM Friday night, met by my college buddy, Daniel Zarvos, a Carioca (local from Rio), just in time to drop off my bag and head out to Lapa - the wild neighborhood for musical action. Friday night in Lapa is the biggest street party you can imagine with non-stop samba from every corner. We ate at a restaurant with a nice quartet, walked around a bit and by 1:30 or so Daniel had to take off to meet a friend. I chose to stay in Lapa on my own as the night was young and I was curious to see what I would encounter. Being alone when travelling can bring about some of the best experiences. Soon enough, I made my way through the thousands of festive locals crowding the streets and found my way to the outdoor samba club Beco do Rato (The Mouse´s Alley). Shortly thereafter, I met someone nice to dance with and walk the streets `til the wee hours.

As I said, my short time has been packed. On Saturday night, I went with my new friend from Beco do Rato to a highclass nightclub called Rio Scenarium. After relaxing in the upstairs lounge for a bit, we checked out the band only to find that the singer for this amazing, high energy, hip-shaking, funtime-making samba ensemble called Empolga As 9, was my good friend from New York Magali. Magali and I played together in Samba New York and while I had tried with no avail to get together with her when I was here last year, it had completely slipped my mind that she might be in Rio, as this Carioca spends her time between here and NYC. Needless to say, I quickly made my way to front and center stage and it was beatiful to see her reaction of surprise - no less than mine. She extended her hand for a kiss and the show went on! As many who have been in Brazil know, this country has magical powers, and remarkable and profound encounters with people, and miracles of destiny and fate are not unfrequent here - I´ve certainly had many.

I started yesterday with a `pastel de frango e queijo´and cold glass of sugar cane juice at the Sunday street market in Gloria, and then spent the afternoon in the Jardim Botânico (Botanical Garden) neighborhood with Daniel and his family. After a birthday party for Daniel´s aunt who lives next door to him, I went back to Daniel´s with his sister and wild uncle, the poet Guilherme Zarvos, with whom I had hung out last summer. I have keys to, and split my time between, two great apartments here: Wesley´s in Gloria and Daniel´s in Jardim Botânico. Gloria and Jardim Botânico are two very different experiences. Gloria is full of life, walking distance to the clubs of Lapa, the beautiful and charming neighborhood Santa Teresa, the business district of Cinelândia and many other places. The neighborhood is lively, filled with cheerful noise outside the window, dogs barking, kids playing, people listening to familiar songs on the radio, a view of the surrounding eight-story apartment buildings of working class Brazilians and theTavares Bastos favela (where parts of the Incredible Hulk were filmed) just blocks away. Jardim Botânico is further from the center of Rio and is quiet except for the sounds of the birds, a woman next door who plays the same song on the piano that she was playing last year, and occasional voices of people walking by. It smells delicious from all the tropical plants and trees and when you look up you see an enormous stone hill that shoots straight to the sky and is topped with the ever-present Cristo Redentor which reaches almost all parts of Rio´s landscape - from the street in Jardim Botânico, you feel you can almost touch it. Yesterday, while hanging out with Daniel, his sister and uncle, we were visited by the 5PM passing of the macacos (monkeys) in the trees outside his window. These little macacos pass by every day at 6AM and again at 5PM. One of these somewhat cute (until you really look at their strange and kind of scary faces) creatures decided to come right up to the open window and talk with us. We all looked at each other, made funny noises for a few minutes and when he jumped to the closest tree branch wanting to come in and join us, we closed the window.

After the family-oriented afternoon yesterday, I met my friend for Sunday night samba in the street in Santa Teresa. This story will be my last for the first blog post of my journey, and it´s an important one for me. I never fail to marvel as I take in the people here - there is more joy than sorrow and always lots of life. My friend and I went right up to the front of the circle that had formed around the 10-or-so-person swingin´ samba band that clearly had some regulars and a number of others sitting in. Just as we got there, an older and somewhat frail-looking women in her eighties (who I later found out is a regular named Dona Didi) put her arm on my shoulder to pass by and I heard her say to herself, ``Por que estou sentada?´´ with a tone that can best be translated as ``What the hell am I doing sitting down?´´As she passed by me she proceeded to dance samba for the next two hours. We all danced with our partners and in some way we all were dancing together. For me this is a civilized country. People dance, people smile, people put there hands on you as they pass by as to say ``excuse me brother,´´people sing ALL the words to ALL the songs and young and old celebrate together. Last night, as I looked around, there were also children, there were the hip and the hippies, the cool and the average, people with many different styles and looks, rich and poor, but in this country samba unites all styles of people of walks of life. There is a lot to learn here, and this is just the beginning of my voyage.

[Jude Kelly]

Very nice. My wife & I are heading to Rio, Sao Paulo and Parati next month for three weeks of fun in the sun. Thanks for the great view into Lapa - we will definately check it out. Would love to meet your friends in Rio too. Brigado

[Josh Levine]

'Nito,
Quero ir!!! Espero mais noticias de voce.

Josh

[MARIANA]

MI QUERIDO AMIGO DEL ALMA:
ES UN ORGULLO PARA MI EL LEER TODAS LAS EXPERIENCIAS EN TU PROYECTO Y EN LA VIDA QUE ESTAS VIVIENDO(SI PUEDO DECIR EXPRIMIENDO) SACANDOLE TODO SU JUGO A ESTA VIDA Y QUE BUENO POR QUE POR AHORA SOLO TENEMOS UNA, TE QUIERO MUCHO Y ESPERO SIEMPRE ESCUCHAR SOBRE TI. MARIANA

[ainslie whiteman]

I read your first blog post-sounds awesome! Yay kenny! are you up for cabos next year??griffin says hi! love you!

[Richard Grudzinski]

Really cool what you're doing. I've enjoyed what you've written so far which is very vivid (as some one already commented). Bueno pa' gozar!

[dayse s waissman]

Meu querido Kenny.
Que surpresa receber o seu email.
Estou muito feliz por voce estar tendo essa oportunidade de vida e aprendizado.
Se voce ficar mais no Rio voce deveria ir ate a escola de choro chamada OFICINA DO CHORO .Acho que fica em Botafogo na UNIRIO.Meu sobrinho esta estudando la,IVAN FARAH.
Tudo de bom .Continuarei lendo as suas aventuras.BOA SORTE!!!
dayse

[T]

Hey Kenny, I enjoyed reading your first blog post. The way you described your experiences was so vivid; I felt like I was there. I will be checking back often. Tell Daniel hello from me and have a fabulous trip! P.S. Will miss you at Marta's wedding!

[Rhiannon Murphy]

Love you brother!! Everything went well in Boston. Danced and Drummed!!! Somos Guerreros!!! Continuamos nuestra viaje!!! Amor y Luz, Rhia