Capoeira

One of the many great things about our village is how much energy the staff puts into showing us Brazilian culture.  This week, we had a capoeira group come to the camp and perform.

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian dance performed by slaves as a way to practice martial arts without their owners knowing.  It´s a mixture of dance moves and fighting moves.  The group that came to meet the Footprint Village consists of children who are very poor.  This group teaches them skills – capoeira and percussion instruments – to help them get out of severe poverty.

Even Thomas tried it!

After the demonstration of capoeira, music, acrobatics and folk tales, we ate lunch together.  And then it was the Footprinters´turns to share our culture!  Each delegation gave a short presentation from their own country and showed where we came from on a map.

It was an amazing opportunity and a very fun day!

 

Out and About

Today we went on an excursion into Sao Paulo.  Sao Paulo is one of the biggest cities in the world! 

We visited Independence Park, which commemorates Brazil´s independence from Portugal.  It also hosts the mausoleum for Dom Pedro, the liberator of Brazil.

The park is beautiful. 

 

We had some activities and a short skit on the history of Brazil´s independence. 

The official cast of the traveling version of "Dom Pedro Liberates Brazil"

We also experienced another of Sao Paulo´s famous things – really bad traffic!

 

We´re Off…

For the weekend!

The kids will be spending the weekend with a Brazilian host family.  Another great opportunity to see some of Sao Paulo and experience Brazilian culture!

Darci will be spending the weekend with Mari from Costa Rica, Delaney will be chilling with Mili from Argentina, Will is off with Hector from Peru, and Thomas is partnered with Matteo from Argentina.

Leah will be hitting the beach this weekend with the other leaders, JCs, and staff to relax and plan the second half of the camp!

We will most likely be offline until Monday, so happy weekend to all!

 

Musings

Some quick notes from the camp computer lab…

1. We are across the street from a Buddist temple and can sometimes hear them chanting. It´s quite nice actually.

2. It is definitely summer here. Hot, hot and hot!

3. There are monkeys that come down from the trees and watch us do activities sometimes.

4. Learning 70 new names is hard work and takes more than 24 hours to do.

5. I have a GREAT delegation and I´m so happy to have them here (and for Will to arrive in the morning!)

6. The Americans have become fast friends with the Canadians and the Australians.

I promise our next post will have some pictures. Happy New Year to everyone!

 

Where?

As you may have noticed, we are going to beautiful Brazil!  Sao Paulo, to be exact. 

source

Some fun facts about Brazil…

Brazil is the largest country in South America

Since Brazil is in the Southern Hemisphere, we will be there during the summer (even though it will be winter at home!)  We think the temperature will be in the high 70s or even 80s during the day, but it will probably be cooler at night.

Sao Paulo (which means Saint Paul in English) has 18 million people living in it, which makes it the third largest city in the world!

Brazil is the only country in South America that speaks Portuguese!

The money of Brazil is called the Real, so we won’t be spending any dollars while we are there.

Brazil is home to the Amazon Rainforest and samba music

Brazil is the only country to have played in every World Cup soccer tournament, and they’ve won it five times!

What do you know about Brazil?  Leave us a comment and let us know!