Monthly Archives: July 2015

Thursday, July 23 – Central Prison, Brazil, Performing for the Guards and staff

After the director saw the performance we did for the prisoners, he asked us to perform for an event they had for the guards and staff the following day.  We were able to bring them laughter and encouragement as well as trying to encourage them to treat the prisoners fair and just. It was really cool doing our Capoeira dance here in Brazil (where it originated). We always get people to participate in a “Roda” (which in short, is a circle in which you play Capoeira with another person while others stand around and clap to the rythmn). In some countries we…

Read A Little More

Tweet

Wednesday, July 22 – Central Prison, Southern Brazil, Second Presentation

After our first performance in the morning, we then moved all our equipment to another section of the prison to go directly into a patio. There was this one gate you had to go through, (kind of like a turning door that you go through at a bank or certain stores, the kind only one person fits in and you have to keep walking to get out except this one was really narrow and made of bars) anyway, we had a hard time fitting our speaker through it and it took a good 20 min to finally figure out the…

Read A Little More

Tweet

Wednesday, July 22 – Central Prison, Southern Brazil, First Presentation in Theater

We do an act where one of us wears the costume of a homeless man and walks about begging. I am in the back ground acting as an artist, drawing the homeless man. I watch as a man ignores him and won’t help (one of my brothers playing the part) and then finally a young man stops, gives him his coat and cares for him (another one of my siblings plays the part). At the end I, as the artist, show the picture that I have been “drawing” and it is of the face of Jesus, conveying what Jesus said,…

Read A Little More

Tweet

Sunday, July 19 – Helping the Homeless

I had read things about about this city that said it is one of the richer cities in Brazil, since it is a port city, and so I pictured a developed down town area and a rich kind of atitude. But in reality, it was quite different. There are scores of homeless, and poor, so much so that throughout the city there are make shift tarp houses and tents all over. Even in developed places places like the airport, bus station and shopping markets. One day I saw this man wander in the rain looking through the trash. He stopped…

Read A Little More

Tweet

Saturday, July 18 – Down Town center, Southern Brazil

The down town center is absolutely packed with crowds hustling and bustling about. Everything in Brazil seems to be big and busy. As soon as we set up our music equipment in the center plaza, a large crowd gathered. We stayed out for hours, performing and sharing many things. We learned how to make these massive bubbles that float up really high and are mesmerizing. Kids and adults just love to watch them in our acts. The crowd was really energetic and listened attentively to all we taught.

Tweet

Thursday, July 16 – Traveling through Brazil

The most southern state in Brazil is cowboy land, or as they are called, Gauchos and they take their culture very seriously. The land is beautiful, full of livestock, horses and ranchers. They have a cool cultural dance (which we hope to learn a little of) and are definitely a very distinct and passionate people.  One night as we traveled it was getting late and we were looking for a place to stay. After only finding places that were either really  bad, or too expensive, we finally came to a ranch type hostal. The owner was a very kind, elderly rancher…

Read A Little More

Tweet

Wednesday, July 15 – Crossing into Brazil

Crossing the border into Brazil was super easy! Usually you have to go through one process for people to enter and then another for a vehicle and another for the trailer and usually along the way you run into technical difficulties (that could delay you anywhere from an hour to a day). But entering into Brazil they did not need any paperwork or documentation for the van or our trailer which was awesome and saved so much time. We started this drive so many miles ago in Colombia and after coming so far I cannot believe we are in Brazil! It…

Read A Little More

Tweet

Friday, July 10 – Rosario Prison Unit 6

They call this prison a concentration  camp because it is so bad. It had rained the day before and so the area we had to perform on was all mud. It was difficult and everything got messy but well worth it and we were privileged to give the men a relief from all their suffering. My brothers wrote a beautiful rap type poem that is about being in prison and a perspective beyond the walls. The say it to a chill/dub step type song my father wrote and it always really connects and touches the prisoners, especially hearing foreigners rhyme…

Read A Little More

Tweet

Monday, July 6 – Prison in Rosario, Argentina Unit 3

The prisons in Rosario were in absolutely horrible condition and over 100 years old. The day we visited it was freezing. I mean the wind chill brought the temperature into the teens. But despite this lovely weather, the prisoners wanted to come outside to the spot where we performed and did not want to leave. In consideration of them we just kept our show short and then asked them if they wanted to go back inside. They all said no way, they were fine and asked us to do more. I was able to give them each an aluminum survival…

Read A Little More

Tweet

Friday, July 3 – Down Town Cordoba

For some reason I had pictured Cordoba being a some what tourist, uppity type place, but it was the exact opposite.  Many of the buildings were run down, abandoned and looked like they were condemned. The train station was a wreck and the number of homeless and handicapped on the streets was staggering.  The need was very great and we were able to help a lot of people. The down town center was packed and people seemed stunned that we were giving them a quality show free of charge.   I do an Irish style dance (our family heritage is Irish) where I start playing my…

Read A Little More

Tweet