It’s been just over a week since I arrived here in Ribeira, and yet as I look back on the last days, my disorientated first moments in the airport of Salvador seem all a big blur. Between then and now, a thousand changes, discoveries, new encounters, tastes and smells, new words and melodies and unforgettable experiences have filled the days, and I sometimes wonder if it wasn’t ten days which slipped into one!
The ICBIE welcomed me like a family, with open arms and smiles and the beautiful colourful enthusiasm and warmth which everyone carries and shares. I feel enchanted to be part of this energy, of this world of interesting projects and ideas! I started my English conversation classes with a mixture of excitement and curiosity, and a little worry too! As everything, from the number of students to everyone’s level and simply my voice, was going to be a surprise. It wasn’t long before I forgot my doubts and plunged into the song I had chosen with Roy and which he had kindly offered to play for us at the beginning! Making the class start with a concert was a wonderful way to overcome any tension and shyness in our group and we finished the lesson laughing about the three little pigs in our new version of the fairytale! The students are all ages and levels and this makes the class even more dynamic and challenging, and I realise as I prepare the lessons how many are the ways to start a conversation, or simply capture a word or topic and bring it to life with everyone contributing something personal and unique to the atmosphere.
I am discovering Salvador and its culture in many ways, striking churches in the centre and the colourful Pelourinho where I spent a day, and then there are the moments which are priceless and beyond any guidebook, those created by the people you meet, the sparkle of a friendship, a place, a word and the mysterious game of circumstances which makes all these things coincide. Like the morning when Julio appeared at the ICBIE to take Guido and me to his house where three beautiful and very aged bycicles awaited us. Between the rays of sunshine and showers of rain we rode, around the wavy coast of Ribeira to Bomfim and through the labyrinth of streets in the poorer areas to the forgotten alagados, where we were invited by Julio´s friend inside his house and welcomed even here where we felt more like intruders. It was like stepping behind a curtain, and opening our eyes on another reality.
Or the night when we all went to dance forro in a very big exporural near the airport, a whole area with concerts and celebration with many farm animals.
There are also the incredible mamau, abacaxi, and acai, and this is only the beginning of a very long list!
