A Fila Andou!

Carnaval, Carnaval...where to begin? First - I am so indebted to a dear friend of my Aunt Kathy named Helio. Helio was there the day I was born - in fact, I got my first limo ride on the way home from the hospital thanks to Helio. He has been so gracious and giving to me and my family throughout my whole life. When he found out that I was traveling in Brazil during Carnaval, he arranged to have me stay with his dear friend/surrogate son Nelsinho and friends. Nelsinho is so thoughtful and feels a deep sense of responsibility for me - it is so sweet and overwhelming. Nelsinho is kind of the jokester/class clown of the group - not that I can understand any of his jokes, but they´re funny anyway! The really special thing about the group that I stayed with is that most people only knew one or two other people before arriving at Carnaval. You would never ever know this - after two days it would seem as if everyone knew each other for years.

There is something special about Brazilian culture that allows people to open up and love each other so quickly. In the US we often feel like we need to "get to know someone" before we can love them, which in a deeper, long-term sense is true. However, we miss opportunities to care about people and show affection in the here and now, even if we don´t know whether we will see them again or stay in touch. There is a correlation between how near-strangers can bond so quickly and how Brazilians talk about love. They actually have two words for love, whereas in English we only have one. Adore is what they use to explain their love for most things - friends, food, music, dancing, life, etc. Amo is reserved for deep, true love - like the love that you have for your family, or the love you have for the person you want to marry. Because "amo" is reserved for the deep, true, serious stuff, they are free to spread "adore" to everyone and everything, far and wide. An example would be this amazing guy Chico, who lived in Salvador and only knew one person in our group. Chico drove me to his house to let me use the internet...he drove me to the mall so that I could fix my broken cell phone...he drove others around so that they could make Carnaval arrangements...he was such a gracious person. I have been so touched by Chico and others like him who I have met here in Brazil.

I shared an apartment in Salvador with three amazing single gals, as well as the most adorable, lovely couple ever. The girls were named Tati (say "Tachi"), Claudia (say "Clauginya"), and Betânea. The couple was André and Carol. There were two other Carols in our group as well, staying elsewhere, as well as another lovely girl named Luciana. In the apartment right above us, there were probably six or seven guys, including Nelsinho. (Apparently there was a bet up there about which one would kiss the American girl first - that cost all of them their chances.) Our apartments had incredible views of the end of one of the parade routes. We could hear the music until all hours of the night and watch the action from the balcony if we needed a break from the streets. Most importantly, we were spit out right in front of our building after the parades were over, so we didn´t have to walk through the streets to get home, which was such a relief.

The business of partying at Carnaval is, well, serious business. Tati epitomized this kind of commitment - I think that this year was her eighth Carnaval in Salvador. She knew exactly which parades (blochos) and VIP parties (camarotes) she wanted to go to, and mastered the skill of networking/negotiating/bartering to ensure that she could gain entrance. Entrance is basically gained by having the right t-shirt with the appropriate design and logo. Here´s how it works - starting on Ash Wednesday, a year before the next year´s Carnaval, the t-shirts start going on sale. These on-sale dates continue throughout the year. Local people camp for days to buy the shirts at retail prices. Essentially ALL of the actual purchases of the shirts by the people who will attend these events occur on the black market. However, the black market is incredibly organized - it blew my mind. On last Friday morning, we drove to this stadium somewhere in the city, and all of the vendors had stalls set up where you could pick up the shirts that you ordered on the internet. Outside, there are cash sales and trading going on. At one point, Tati traded two shirts and some additional cash to get a shirt for the best parade - Chiclete com Banana, performing on the electric trio (sound truck) with the best sound.

There are hundreds (or maybe more) of events that you need a shirt to gain entrance to. Imagine - six days times four parade routes times maybe 30 parades per route per day, plus VIP areas lined up along the perimeter of all of the routes on both sides of the street. So - there are hundreds of thousands of people wearing these shirts at any one time, plus even more people in the streets because they can´t afford to pay - they call the crowded rowdy streets the "popcorn." The shirts add a collegiate sort of aspect to all of the fun - you sort of feel like you are on the same "team" as the people wearing the same jersey as you - not a surprising system to have developed in a country that is obsessed with the beautiful game - the dance, the opera - that is soccer.

Something that you quickly learn when you are attending Carnaval with hip, fashionable Brazilian girls is that you never leave the house in an unaltered shirt. The shirts are cut for men and are usually way too big. Some of the best times we had were using scissors to cut and tie our shirts into cute halter tops, tube tops, cropped tops, etc. Claudia was the master of this art form, as was one of the Carols, who works in fashion and actually used a sowing machine to create the perfect style. So adorable!

You might be wondering why I chose to attend Carnaval in Salvador instead of Rio. In Rio, Carnaval is essentially a competition between all of the major samba schools that parade in beautiful costumes, dance and play music, and then are judged and ranked. You can sometimes pay to dance with the samba schools, but usually you are in the popcorn. The VIP areas are really exclusive and expensive and not always where the young/hip/fun crowd goes. The streets in Rio are really really really dangerous during Carnaval - people die every year.

Salvador is where Brazilians go when they want to have a "Spring Break/American Pie" kind of Carnaval. (It was so funny when they used those words to describe it to me.) In Salvador, the VIP areas (camarotes) are amazing too, and a huge party - I´m talking 100% open bar with servers walking around, all you can eat appetizers, sandwiches, pasta, sushi...some had free internet access, massages, hair stylists...nightclubs inside playing techo and house...live bands inside and access to the beach...so so so incredible. But, the real reason to come to Salvador is that you essentially are the parade - you´re not watching, you´re creating the magic yourself! The music is completely infectious - the genre is called Axe (say "ashay"), and it´s a blend of energetic Latin sounds with African beats. A friend of a friend told me that I would feel so passionately about this music by the end of the week, and he was right. I don´t even know what I´m singing half the time, and I can´t imagine what it must be like for Brazilians who are constantly uniting in the meaning of this music. The lyrics make you feel so great: "I´m single!" "Smash everything!" "She is too good!" "I´m from all the world!" The raw energy in the blochos is the most exhilerating atmosphere I have ever been a part of. I felt so passionate about everything in front of me and everything in my life. I felt so good to be me - I felt so desired and I felt so much desire. I felt like I never wanted to stop singing, dancing, smiling, kissing, hugging, laughing...NEVER! I will carry that feeling with me and will never forget.

That´s all I will say. What happens at Carnaval stays at Carnaval, right?!

When in Brazil, do as the Brazilians do, and so I send love love love to all of you. xoxo, Katie