Loading ...La Villa & Capoeira
Written by Brian David Crane on October 17th, 2005
I spent an extremely interesting weekend (or at least Saturday was interesting) here in Cba seeing and doing two totally new things. Saturday morning, I woke up after 4 hours of sleep (the previous night I went over to Jeremy’s house to celebrate his sister’s birthday - Jeremy is an alumni of mine from my IICANA English class) and met up with Eugenia before taking a bus out to Granja de Funes II where she gives weekly folklore dance classes to kids. Funes II is a barrio on the outskirts of Cba created by the state government to help house poor people (i.e. a housing project). It is fairly rough and is the type of place where people heat their homes by illegally connecting jumper cables to the overhead power lines (to avoid paying for their electricity) and then connecting these sames lines to the old-style metal bed frames which are then stacked against a wall to heat a room - obviously extremely dangerous. It is also the type of place where, once the government “gives” these people their houses, they turn around and sell the kitchen appliances, the interior doors, and light fixtures, and exterior windows, and eventually the exterior front-door in order to buy food. It is in these places that the cartoneros live (the people who travel by horse & buggy looking for cardboard boxes to sell/recycle). I write this as a means of comparison to the level of poverty I saw in Costa Rica & in the outskirts of Cancun in Mexico. I am not sure which situation is worse (because they all are bad) but I know I will remember the two sisters who came to the dance class on Saturday because they were so poorly fed that they had developed spinal & leg problems as a result of a lack of food and, from what I could guess, had also suffered brain damage. The number of kids in Funes II is staggering; it is hard to decide if a boy and girl are brother & sister or son & mother (according to Eugenia, girls generally have their first child before they turn 16 and, by the age of 25, might have 4 or more kids). It was a glimpse of poverty I had not previously seen in Argentina. As for the class, it was fantastic, absolutely fantastic. I danced (or tried to) with the 20 kids who came - Eugenia didn’t need my help as there were two other Argentinians a bit older than me who were more than sufficient - but it was cool to see all of the kids and how they responded to Eugenia. They were really happy to see her (as she was to see them). For me, it was a strange mix of emotions and questions…namely how can these people get out of this situation?After the class, I met up with Geli, Andre & his girlfriend Maria, and Patrick & Sheeba (both from Germany) to go to a Capoeira show. I had seen Capoeira in Brasil in Salvador (that’s where this picture is from) as well as in Cba one time before but Capoeira Brasil (a group from Cba) that put together this exhibit on Saturday was better than either of my previous two experiences. The music, the clapping, people spinning on their heads, back-flips, front-flips…it was impressive (and you can supposedly use it to fight someone). I have a NEW VIDEO POSTED that unfortunately lost quite a bit of its original quality here listed under the Videos tab.As for other news & notes of interest, I am in the midst of planning a Halloween party in our house, I continue to go to my classes of painting with all of the super-nice older women, I just gave my first test in my english class and almost everyone passed, I recently put up more flyers in La Faculdad de Lenguas offering “Free English Conversation Classes”. I am looking for more Argentinians like Luz (the girl who I trade one hour of English convo for one hour of Spanish convo/grammar) - I received 3 e-mails and two phone calls in one day. No matter what I do, however, I can’t help but see the end of my time here and I am sad to leave and anxious/nervous about what the next couple of months hold.
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October 17th, 2005 at 8:08 pm
I can’t explain how much I understand your feeling of anxiousness when you’re about to leave your life there. I’m so proud of everything you’ve been able to experience there and so happy you went to a ‘foreign’ country–not like everyone who thinks living in England or Australia or Canada is a real ’study abroad’. My point is, the experience you have in a foreign language goes so much deeper than you’ll expect–and you’ll realise when you go home–you’ll miss speaking Spanish the way you do, and the words that you’ve learned to convey meanings that can’t easily be translated can be frustrating, and you’ll find yourself trying to fit into a place that quite possibly you don’t fit in anymore. I think it’s great that your family came to visit, because it’s an amazing opportunity for them to see your life, and now you have these points of parity that you can allude to–at least to someone. I really didn’t get that when I lived in Japan, and I still wish someone of my family had visited me while I was there. In any case, I’m glad that I was able to see you in Cba, and know again, that you’ve always got a place to stay whereever in the world I am
October 18th, 2005 at 2:28 am
wow. I agree with every word Benjamin just stated above. You’re also welcome wherever I get to live in the world. Oh and I’m gonna call you tonight.
October 19th, 2005 at 1:50 am
Hey dear brother- Long time no talk. I miss you, but I’m sad that you’re sad and anxious about coming back. I know it’s going to be a culture shock when you return, and a family shock, suddenly being around the whole clan again. I had a couple of questions to ask you about study abroad stuff, as i am trying to figure it out now. Union’s exhchange program si not NEARLY as developed as UT’s, so it has basically come to me looking on the internet for a university or a language school or something to go to. I am looking at a couple of language schools in SA, namely in Mendoza, Ecuador, and Cuzco, Peru. Santiago, Chile is also an option, but I think I remember you telling me it was super expensive to travel/live there. What are your thoughts? I definitely am planning on doing a homestay, and being there for about 8 weeks, or maybe 6 and traveling some….not sure. Give some advice, will ya? I love you and I’m praying for you. See you in a month!