9.22.2006
We arrived several minutes later and parked the car on a side street. With everyone ready to go, we walked down to the parade procession, which looked a lot like Carnival. People were dressed up in bright colored boas, high heels and mini-skirts and shirts. I was suddenly surrounded by navels, butt cheeks and cleavage. There were drag queens, floats with large speakers, and people bumpin’-n-grindin’ along the parade path. We followed Cosmo down to where the action was. The next thing I knew we WERE the action! We were walking in the middle of the crowd, with spectators watching us. I felt like I should be doing the parade queen wave. I’m sure it was quite a sight! There we were, the American family in the middle of a flaming crowd. I’ve never felt so middle-class conservative in my life! I felt the need to go and get a tattoo or another piercing or dye my grays!!!
We were bumped-n-grinded back and forth, running into the back of people, and into the sides of people. We were smack dab in the middle of a sea of people jumping up and down, proud to be gay. I have to say, for being so hot and crowded, the vibe was very positive. I was proud to be gay, even if I’m not. After I gave up my middle-aged self loathing, I started to have fun. I found myself bumping and grinding with Matthew & Grace to Donna Summer’s Dancing Queen and proud to be the only ones spelling out Y-M-C-A with our arms.
Enjoy the pictures!
9.19.2006
Visiting the House that Ayahuasca Built
We arrived at the church for the 50th wedding anniversary celebration of the Mestre and Dona Teresa. She, a young bride(19 years old), married the Mestre (60 years old) of the church in 1956. He passed away in 1972 and she took over as head of the church. As we bumped along the pothole stricken road, members of the church were walking along the highway to the church gates. I suspect that many members are of low income and do not own or have access to a vehicle. The congregation seems very diverse in its make up. I met a federal judge, a senator, a business man running for office, and the house servant that works for Cosmo at his house. The socio-economic breakdown will be interesting to see once Matthew gathers this information.
Members were dressed in their traditional uniforms, the women wore a white long skirt topped with a kelly-green short skirt, a white long-sleeve shirt, with a kelly-green sash stretching across their body from left shoulder down to the right hip. Their hair is worn down, so that energy can flow freely through it, and a white sequined crown is worn. The men were dressed in all white as well; long-sleeve shirts, and jackets, pants and white shoes. Each member is adorned with a gold star-shaped pin when he or she becomes fardado/a, confirmed in their belief.
As we walked into the church structure, which was palapa style, I was instructed to go with the children to the left, while Matthew was told to go to the right. The men are not allowed over on the left side of the church, this area is designated women and children only. This caused some anxiety because I didn’t understand anything the women were telling me. I just followed and was lead to the back room. The room was another large palapa style structure with a thatched roof surrounded with a three foot high wall. The room was filled with hammocks, we found an open space for our hammock to fit. When I say open, I mean a two-foot space on the beam between two hammocks. There were over a hundred hammocks hanging, some had little bundles, babies sleeping, swaying in the breeze. We secured our and stowed our bags of food and water against the wall. I felt as through I couldn’t leave the back area because of the kids. However, as time progressed I did wander a bit with Grace on my shoulders as Maddie slept in the hammock.
Once the ceremony started all the women and men lined up on their designated sides, and each drank a quantity of Ayahuasca and returned to their place in the main room. Soon I could hear guitar music, singing and maracas shaking in rhythm. Matthew told me that they would sing the entire hymnal of Mestre’s hymns, which consisted of over hundred hymns. There would be a break at 9:30 PM, at this time, half the hymnal would be complete.
Fardada women with their children milled in and out of the backroom, and kids of various ages ran back and forth between the main festivities and the hammock room. Most of the kids swarmed Grace because she was the only blonde hair child. We were quite the spectacle because we were foreigners. Many children wanted to practice their English, but most of the women stayed clear of us.
Grace and I danced to the music and watched as large insects flew in and out of the room. While watching a large beetle fly around, I notice what appeared to be large hairy spider legs curled around one of the top roof beams. I thought, “that looks like tarantula legs”. Could it be?? I walked slowly around to get a better view, and sure enough, a huge tarantula, the size of my hand, was perched over the room, watching intensely. Normally, I would have been terrified but, since I watched a Jeff Corwin Adventure show where he assured me that tarantulas were not dangerous to humans, I looked in amazement. I showed Grace and she wanted to climb up to get a better look, she is definitely her fathers’ daughter.
A couple of hours into the ceremony Grace wanted to go and find Matthew. So, I perched her on my shoulders and we went into the main room. There we saw, the women and children standing in straight lines forming an L wrapped around the main alter and the men on their designated side also forming an L, together creating a human square around the center alter where Dona Teresa sat. They were dancing back and fourth, two side steps to the right and then two back to the left. Everyone, even the children, singing and dancing and shaking their maracas. The sound was deafening and the feel was energetic. Matthew was easy to see, since he stood a good foot over everyone in the room. He was dancing and singing on the outskirts of the main square. All those people who came that are not fardado must not join the main square. Grace wanted to go to him, but I promised her we would see him soon at the break.
The break finally came, marking its arrival with a firework display that scared Grace and Maddie half-to-death. We found Matthew and told him we wanted to leave, that trying to sleep in a hammock was out of the question. He agreed and we found Dona Teresa to say goodbye and congratulate her. I was surprised that everyone seemed pretty normal, despite the fact they were all miracao, or in the vision of Ayahuasca. So, my fear of being surrounded by a bunch of people all tripping out, was dispelled. The people of this religion believe that Ayahuasca is a sacred tea that heals their soul. I have much to learn from these people...
9.15.2006
Ethnographic Space
9.14.2006
Meeting Frog & Toad and Other Creepy Crawlers
9.11.2006
Starting Fieldwork
We bumped along the dirt road out to her house, my back started to pain me a bit from the pot- holes. I could see a statue of Dona Teresa’s late husband in the far distance. A broken down fence blocked any view of her home from the outside. In fact, I was quite unimpressed with how the house looked. Older in appearance, with chickens and roosters milling about. A low hanging thatch roof covered the walkway up to the porch. Here is where we waited, in what looked like a make shift waiting room. Chairs and porch couches lined the perimeter and a large throne-like chair with red velour coverings on the arms and foot stool, stood at the center. After waiting for about 10 minutes, a small, frail looking woman, in a polyester dress and rubber flip-flops walked slowly up to the chair and took her place. Matthew stood up and so did I, and greeted her with a small hand shake and head bow. And then small talk commenced. Much of which I didn’t understand.
She made much ado about the kids. Matthew told her that Grace had been sick and she quicked reasoned that someone jealous of us had put a curse on us. She advised us to seek out a shaman for help. In the meantime, Cosmo had captivated Grace's attention with a Cicada about the size of a hummingbird he found under his chair. He picked it up and cradled it in his hands, soon it slowly crawled out onto his arm and rested. Grace was amazed and look closely into its eyes before it took off in thunderous flight and scared her half to death.
There were young women helping out, bringing out coffee and treats to eat. One woman had a 3 year-old boy that ran around with Gracie. I've made note of her name to ask her later for an interview. On the 15th of September the church is having a "work" which will start at 6pm and end our 4 in the morning. I'm a bit apprenhensive about going. The thought of bringing out the kids for the night is something I'd rather not do. However, Cosmo assures me that we can bring out our own hammacks and be in the children's room, where all the kids play and rest. We'll see. It would be interesting ethnographically...
This encounter was interesting and I can't wait until I can understand the babbling of Portugese so I can participate in the conversations. It is tough being on the outside of things...
9.08.2006
More Random Shots of Rio Branco
Random Shots
Vomiting Coconuts
Acclimating to a foreign country can be no fun! Yesterday, we all fell ill with a stomach illness. Maddie was the only one spared thanks to mother nature's super filters! Grace threw up three times during the night, which scared her half to death, since this was the first time she experienced vomiting. When Cosmo got home from English class, Matthew told him how sick we were. He jetted off in his car saying his was going to get something for us. I felt relieved, thinking that MOM or Pepto was on its way. Need-less-to-say, I was a bit bummed, when a knock came at our door 15 minutes later and Matthew was handed two large coconuts, freshly cut with straws coming out the top. The locals say that coconut milk helps with diarrhea and vomiting, but Grace didn't like the taste and neither do I for that matter--so we suffered! We are all zapped.
We were to travel to Bolivia today, this is kinda ironic since today is Brazil's independence day. Unfortunately, we are going to postpone the trip for a few days. I'm bummed because I was looking forward to seeing and meeting some Bolivian cattle women.
The weather here today has been surprisingly delightful. Like early September in Charlottesville--warm but not too humid, a chill to the air in the early morning and nice breeze in the late afternoon. Quite a surprise considering we are smack dab in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. The usual day starts out cool but by the time we are up from siesta (not sure what they call this period of the day down here), about 4pm, its pretty hot and still. I've heard parrots screeching but haven't seen any yet. They have cicada's down here that chirp at a high frequency, almost like the sound that high voltage power lines put out. They are about 3 times bigger than the cicada's in the states, about the size of a humming bird. Cosmo has a gift for catching them and then calming them down so much that they crawl up on this shoulder and hang out for a while. I've dubbed him the "cicada whisperer".