Please forgive the length of this blog, but it has been one heckuva day. Arley picked me up this morning at 730 as usual to go to ORCEC rehearsal. Today was our final rehearsal before the concerts on Wednesday and Thursday nights. You remember we did not rehearse yesterday, so we really needed to have a great rehearsal today, which we did.
When we got there, Arley informed me that the opera singers have decided not to sing on the concert as we have not had enough rehearsal time. Only once last week and then they showed up yesterday at 10am as scheduled, but we had canceled rehearsal since we could not get in. Truthfully, this was fine with me as I was more stressed about the opera pieces than anything else, and they were the most trivial pieces on the program. No Problemo!!
We had rehearsal and everything went very well with just a couple of exceptions. It was kind of funny, they started getting on each other about missing stuff and not watching. Through our dialogue, it was determined that I was being perfectly clear with what I was giving them, they just weren't watching closely enough. We finished rehearsal around 1015 and my day was wide open.
WE came back to the hotel and I changed into some comfy clothes for the day. We ate lunch at a hamburger type place. This was the first burger I have had since arriving. The manager spoke perfect English as he had lived in the UK for 6 years, so we had a nice conversation.
AFter we ate, we drove to Arley's apartment to pick up Christina and Beatrice for our daytrip to the mountains. We drove for quite sometime, probably and hour and a half until we arrived at this place in Arapaca. As in the US, Brazil also had slavery. It was on this sugar cane farm, that the first slaves were liberated in Brazil on January 1st, 1873. We took a tour of the master's house, the slave quarters, the torture areas, and then the sugar cane processing machinery itself. This particular place makes cashasa, or Brazilian tequila. At the end of the tour, they gave us a little glass of cashasa that had been in the barrel for six weeks. It just about killed me!!! Wow, was it strong!!! Christina bought me a bottle of a bit more mild cashasa that she likes to mix her drinks with.
This was a very interesting stop as just in the US, they treated their slaves very badly and it was amazing to see where they were kept at this plantation.
We then continued on towards Guaramiranga, the town in the mountains we were going to. It was quite a drive and we passed through many rural towns/villages along the way. It is very scary the situations these people live in. You would not believe we are in the 21st century. Just awful living conditions. We finally arrived at Guaramiranga and it was quite a nice little village up in the mountains. I say "mountains" but they are truthfully just really big hills. Bigger than the Ozarks, but nothing like Colorado.
While there, we stopped at a few places to take pictures, then we went to their cultural center where they have a music program. some of Arley's old students from Pindoretama live there now. Lo and behold, they were have a "jazz band" rehearsal when we arrived so we watched that for awhile. Really sounded pretty good, except bad balance. It was cool to see them play.
We then continued on up the mountain a resort that they often stay at when they travel here. A miniature Tantara if you will with about 15 Chalets, a little lake, and some restaurants. Just a place for the city folk to get away to on the weekends.
We then continued to Pica Alto (high point) which is the highest point in this mountain area and the highest point in the state of Ceara. It was very cool. You could see for miles and miles. Very beautiful. After taking some pictures, we made the drive back down and headed home.
We were getting kind of hungry so we stopped in a town called Buturite' ( I think that is the name) and had some dinner.
OK, THIS WAS BIZARRE!!!
When we walked in, Arley heard some girls speaking English, so he got their attention and they came over and talked to us. They were both from Brigham Young and they are in the town for their mission experience. I mentioned that a good friend of mine, Kirt Saville had just taken a job as Asst. Director of Bands at BYU two years ago and the one girl, Lisa Christensen, said, "Oh, I know Dr. Saville, I played in his band last year at BYU." NO WAY!!!!! Can you believe this. All the way in this little town in Brazil and I run into an American who knows Kirt Saville.
She said she had been in Brazil for 14 months and she had spent the last 6 months in Pindoretama!!! So of course, Arley asked here if she had heard of his orchestra. She replied that she had a very good friend in Pindoretama that played in his band and sure enough, it is one of his students. This was just way too bizarre. Another weird situation where fate is involved.
We had a really nice conversation with the girls and then they went on their way. We finished dinner and then drove on back here to Fortaleza. I got back to the hotel around 930 and here I am.
All in all, a very interesting day in Brazil. Arley and I of course talked about bands and music the entire time we were driving. Also, alot about Brazilian history and culture. He is very educated and serves as a wonderful tour guide.
Tomorrow, I have nothing but the concert, so he is going to pick me up at 11am and we are going to eat lunch at the home of an English man who we met at the concert that he knows. This man teaches English in various places around Fortaleza and is going to start going out to Pindoretama two days a week to teach the kids in the project how to speak some English. He is a very nice man and had invited us over for lunch sometime while I was here. From there, we are going to hang at Arley's house until time to go to the concert.
We will arrive at the concert around 4pm for a 5pm start. The program is only one hour, so it should be an easy night tomorrow. I will write again tomorrow night.
Hope you enjoyed hearing about my excellent day in Ceara, Brazia
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