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Bus ride through a non existent forest

Maroon bus. No air con. Potholed road to Tucurui. 4 and half hours of travelling through land that used to be forest I believe.

Shrubland now with termite hills, the odd eucalyptus grove, white cattle with bony humps, brown rivers, ponds, wooden homesteads with verandas, palm trees of various sorts and many burnt tall trees. The bus moves at a fast pace stopping every now and then to pick up people who stay with us a while. It is a good journey. The landscape and roadside settlements don’t change much. Until we pass a massive cement factory next to a small but developed town.

Soon after in the distance is a white spray flying up and we come to a big dam and a reservoir stretching for miles to our left. The power of the water as it creates electricity, the width of the river and the huge river lock. We are getting close to our temporary destination.

Connecting Home

The Guiana Palace Hotel in the good sized town of Tucurui is clean and simple with good wi fi.  I am able to upload images, collect accumulated emails and feel again connected to my wider world. There is very little significant news except a great success with some grant funding for the Hothouse. We are building the steps – bit by bit.

The Escaderias de Santo Antonio

Humid busy traffic streets and a hill leading down to ….

a parade space being made ready for the nights espectaculo when the Escula de Samba will take the streets. We walk along to where the floats are being finished off. They have a particular style – realismus and / or maybe pop art.

Where do they fit in an artistic spectrum? What stories will they tell. There is a band practicing up on a high terrace.

Running out of energy we head back to the hotel for resting time with beer, fruit and cachaca purchased from a large supermercado. It is good – we sit and read and listen as a storm of huge dimensions soaks the world around us. No rush to go out – we know that now. Everything has it’s time.

When we arrive down at the Escaderias there are many there though it is not yet heaving. Corn, cheese epanadas, beer all purchased and eaten as we find a place to sit and make friends with the people around us. Very family. Very relaxed.

There are people in private hang outs, judges in their huts, street cleaners and camerapeople. A light spattering of rain brings out the umbrellas. We wait, and wait and listen to the sound checks not quite sure what will occur.

And then they begin to move from the far end and the first school begins to make it’s way down the parade ground. Designed to tell a story with costumes in phases and 2 big floats pushed along front and back. There is a formula that each school follows and which is presumably judged. Soloists, tightly choreographed groups and more free dancers. The music is one song performed by 3 singers accompanied by a guitars and tres and a large batteria.

The band are wirelessly amplified as they move along and the show lasts an hour – with one tune ! The crowd watch seemingly quite uninvolved, chatting, watching, yawning and drinking. We watch, eat chips and I drink!

Though I’m sure I wasn’t drunk …  that’s not Kathryn’s story!

The Bridge

Sunday and we are hiring a car to go to visit the monument made with the Landless movement to remember the massacre of April 1994.

First we take a slight detour to see a 2.5 km bridge over the river which opens the conversation about the exploitation of the Amazon, of it’s people and it’s resources. The political agenda is ever present. The trains that carry the extracted minerals, wood and cattle can be this long and run day after red not day. The current ‘socialist’ government has no feelings about preservation of peoples and environment  and follows from previous administrations that have been allowing the rich to burn the forest and it’s people in order to create farmland and mines. The many hydro electric dams are just then next stage and have dire consequences locally, regionally and globally. This is the context of their work and one of the focuses of their Latin American solidarity work.

Car Drive and Popular Education

Little hire car manages the pot holes and craters in the road guided by Dan’s secure hands! Conversations never stop and the theme for a while is about  language and the development of a new paradigm that is ‘popular’ education not ‘informal’ education. Informal implies a negative, a lack of developed thinking and a concept that is on the outside and not central. However, in every aspect of cultural development and education we have developed a methodology that is both reflective and disciplined, carefully constructed and conceived in response to social context. The term should be ‘popular education, as a partner in the learning environment to formal education. So the work we do at Mais Musica is as important as the work that others do and is extremely rigorous in it’s thinking, development and in it’s place in a national and international environment….. and we drive on through mile after mile of ex forest that is now ranch land growing cattle for international markets. There are palm trees, trucks of every size and potholes and craters in the road!

Lunch takes the conversation to eating meat as we sit in a roadside place called Bull in the Fire.

Me and Kathryn consume lovely rice and beans with salad as they eat chicken barbequed and brought over on long shafts of metal!

Monument

By the side of the road.  19 burnt Brasil nut trees, each at least 10 metres tall. Commemorate the massacre of people from the Landless Movement. By the military police. To send a signal ‘Don’t mess with the rich landowners’ More died than the 19 who are represented by the trunks. Those were the only bodies left. Many women and children were buried in unmarked graves

We sit on the veranda of a wooden house and talk to the women who live there by the side of this road. The eldest lady was here when it happened and hid under a mattress until it was all over.

The tragedy was an enormous moment in northen Brazilian history and the people from the Landless Movement asks Dan to help build a memorial/monument. The process was long and totally democratic in every aspect and this seems to be a character of his pedagogy (methodology).

The burnt trees were chosen for their poetic character and collected from the forests by truck and crane. They are positioned to create an aerial map of Brazil. Every April people from the movement come here and camp for a month or more and it becomes a school, a theatre, a place for learning and solidarity. We drink cocunut milk and sugar cane juice in a roadside ‘shack’ and talk some more.

Izzy the Poet

On our way back to Maraba we stop to see a woman who has worked with them for many years as a trainee educator and then a poet. We met her in Belem 2 years ago when she attended my workshop. In her tiny single brick wall house we talk. She is now a teacher. She has 4 young children. She has pneumonia. She is optimistic and also sad it seems. As we sit and look out at the dirt tracks, the chickens, the scrawny mongrel dogs playing out I can’t help thinking yet again about how different all of our expectations of life are. The young child playing on the bed – where does his life lead. Travelling is so reflective

Dancing and Playing and Dancing some more

Arriving back we snack and then get ready to go out to dance with our blocos! We have the Copo de Farado t shirts and tonight I take my trumpet in case the opportunity to play arises. Finding a bar again we sit and have a drink and a photo opportunity arises.

Our bloco is gathering and we go join them ready to dance the length of the promenade towards the big stage. At the front are the choreographed dancers, then our gang of 80 or so part people and behind us the big boogy bus. The tunes come from that and also then sent to the speakers along the road. The bars are full… we are all a bit mad and ready to party and off we go.

It is mad and fun… and we feel very much part of this bloco from Cabelo Seco. The next along will be some of our young people in choreography and Zequinas band on top of the truck. I go to join them ! 2 surdos, kit, bass, guitar, vocalist and horn section + me. I change shirt to match and after interminable sound checking off we go. And there are so many tunes!!! That I don’t know. I smile and play some of the time. Good fun… and I see Kathryn and Mano down in the road in new shirts as well – dancing and getting sprayed with foam …

We end up at the stage and go for some more cachaca all together and then start to dance to the singuera band … a kind of sexy reggae .. home about 3..

Breakfast is Prepared

Carnival day one in Maraba and woken quite early by the chat of people outside our window. The net has kept is safe from mossies though I was bitten a little yesterday evening. Our room in this house is a little home for us for this time and feels friendly. The daily cold shower is a good awakening.

Today the young people are going to help prepare breakfast for us all and then we will share and play a little music before they go off to rehearse for their carnival bloco. We gather round the kitchen table – Anna Paula, Andrianna, Evany, Kathryn, Me, Caroline, Camilla, Eliza, Dan, Mano and Matheus. We eat apple, papaya, cheese toasties, coffee, hot chocolate and we chat in 2 languages. It is very friendly nd a weekly occurrence in the house. The youngest child is 11 the oldest 16. Then we offer some Licorice allsorts brought from the airport and the faces are a picture. A very new taste that although sweet is also very new. Aniseed is not a local taste at all! Kathryn then gives everyone a lovely small diary and a onemanband postcard. They are so pleased and we sign the cards and put our phone numbers in the books.

The first Musical Exchange

Around the table. ‘Bring me sunshine’ on the trumpet goes down a storm. Then a song ‘ Oi Messo’ with drum and percussion. We learn then chorus and sing along. A second more samba like song follows and Eliza on the pandeiro is very good for me to see. Maybe this is my opportunity to learn this thing!

Out come the cooking chopsticks from HK! And around the table we hit chairs for a little time. It is fun as ever and the energy is high. A good step. There will much more of all of this. We relax again and chat and add dates to the diaries. People drift and more arrive and for a little time there is more sharing with a bit of fun the melodica and community leader anna Louise arrives with T shirts for her Bloco. They all laugh as I try mine on. I thought it was cool but it is obviously a bit strange with my white white arms!

Money and Solidarity

We sit in the front room and talk about money, expectation, contribution, sustainable development and the future. It is fascinating to try and work out the landscape together. They are being so careful how they make decisions in this community. Everything is discussed with the young people and community leaders. There was an award from the state that will hopefully pay for a number of things over the next year(s) including the making of a community garden/cinema, trips for people outside of the community, training for leaders, instruments etc. They are taking it very very slow and trying to make sure there is no misunderstanding, no exploitation and that the work is truly embedded an led by the young people. What are my expectations?

I explain that More Music has some funding to develop internationally and that this trip is R&D in relation to that. That we are paying air fare and covering my salary. That Kathryn is coming at our family cost. That we really hope that our work is an exchange for living costs – food and accommodation while we are here. There is no expectation to bring home money. However in the long term if this is to develop it will have to have it’s own funding stream. Solidarity, learning exchange, social capital and long term community growth are our aims.

Walking the promenade

Lunch is good. Guava juice is wonderful. Dan and Mano shop for food and we walk the length of the prom where there is endless activity in and out of the water. Much prep for the carnival tonight with bars developing, stalls opening and many of the young men coloring their hair.

We watch, talk and reflect deeply in our conversation and watch the river flow.

Meeting the others for beer we talk more this time about methodology and pedagogy of our work, the journeys to China and how we might collectively develop from these 3 weeks. It is so interesting. The conversation never stops! Walking back to the sunset we pass the stage, meet the big car sound systems,

have a dance with Anna Louise and her monkey and then home for a little rest time before out for our first night carnival.

Bloco in Maraba

Dressed in Copo de Farado vest tops we walk into town. White arms exposed in pride! There has been much conversation about me playing trumpet with Zequinas band later complicated by no rehearsals and different information about when and where and whether it is appropriate.

Dan and Mano are very very sensitive to how the community of Cabelo Seco and also the wider community will perceive any development with ‘outsiders’ and this has been slightly fuelled by a newspaper article in the paper using their press release as a basis which focuses on collaboration and sensitivity but that is headlined  to imply something different. And Zequina is very sensitive. As we leave we meet him and he says that they are not playing tonight. This is good so I leave then trumpet behind. We pass the big stage and make our way down the prom where there are now many stalls selling everything from beer to cashassa, food of many sorts and hats, masks and headdresses. There are sound systems at every bar and quite a lot of people out many dressed in bloco t shirts.

At every moment assessing what we see and trying to make sense of it. Here it is trying to understand what will happen with the truck and the dancers in the bloco. It soon becomes apparent as we sit in a bar and drink Cayparinas and watch.

Mosquito Net

Our sleep is under the canopy of a pink mosquito net on a newly built bed in the spare room of their house/community house. With a fan blowing all night and a heavy rainfall somewhere there in the dark we sleep deep. Breakfast is fruit brought from street sellers whose cries we hear from our window. (The streets and houses are very poor. Like shacks with occasional large scale 2 story houses poking up ready to take over. This is more like Baracoa in Cuba, or the streets of old Shanghai where the living is ON the streets and where people have very little.) Mango, banana, cereal and juice. Coffee brought back from Berlin where Dan and Manoela travelled just before now to attend a conference and launch their new book in Europe.

The 9 o’clock Meeting

With Eliza (15) and Camilla (16) I walk with Dan to the school 15 minutes away. This is a place where we will work after carnival. We are to meet the staff and start the process of collaboration. The young women are there because they will follow this project through and keep the connection. They have just left the school and are returning with the banner declaring the National Award they received a month or so ago. We sit in a room with 15 teachers and introduce ourselves and the idea of the 3 point start up project in the school. It will be presentation (2 hours), young leaders workshop (4 hours), teachers day (8 hours). The school is so poor. There are so few resources. It is for 9-15 year olds. There are 3 phases to the day. One group come from 7.30 – 12, another from 1.30 to 5 and in the evening it is open for adults returning to learn basics of secondary learning. We talk and share main common thoughts about education and how arts and culture can allow for different access, confidence building and development. There is an excitement and recognition of the long term plan to treasure and promote the culture of Cabelo Seco through it’s young people.

Home in the Rain

For conversation and sharing of the meeting in discussion with the young people. Continually consulting and talking about what has happened, how we engaged, what will happen next. This is steady steady careful confidence building and skill sharing. We are also starting to plan and consider the next week plan when we will probably travel away a little. There are various options opening up as ever. Tucurui for carnival, Belem for holiday…. Boat trips….

And then off for lunch which is at a restaurant that will provide us free food while we are here as a partnership deal. This is one of the ways of Solidarity support.

Galpone des Artes

A little rest and read and then to meet two new friends at the gallery not so far away. We walk again down streets that are becoming more and more familiar.

We visit a gallery space with a digital space. Privately owned. There is a very complex issue here between the state funded world and the rest. We seem to be in continual conversation about communities, identity and life. Dan has so much to share and so much experience. Very interesting. We spend an hour or so in the place and see some great work. A Ponto de Cultura.

Then ice creams in a self serve parlour and more conversation before back to the house with a few more meeting points along the way.

Then … we sit and talk more and drink a little as a storm brews outside and … we stay in as the rain pours down… and down… and down. We are in the forest. Oh yes. The RAIN Forest !!!!!!!

This diary will develop with photos and news from us both.

Lisbon

Beautiful few hours in a city that feels quite familiar after our autumn trip. Coffee on the square at the top of town. Beer with the dreadlocked youngsters at the beer park overlooking the river as the sun began to go down. Beer and snack in a lovely pastelleria and then as the barrio alto places were shut we went into a very local café/restaurant – Casa de India – and had great fish and potatoes, rice and sald and more beer. A stopover and also a place I am sure we will revisit lots as daughter Rosie and Paulo settle here.

Travellers

The man city fan on the first flight there with his four friends – only missed four matches this season. Sad cos of his broken knee that stops him working. But he is a traveller for sure and likes to talk of his travels as a truck driver round Europe. Fellow Brazilian traveller from Manchester with 2 portugese guitars and a white shirt with a big collar. All the way to Brasilia he follows us! The granny looking after her children and grandchildren and folding up the red blankets and pillows as we came down to land.

Land in Brasilia

At every moment assessing what you see and trying to make sense of it. Remembering the same feeling travelling on the train from Kyoto to Tokyo many years ago spotting all the golf driving ranges in the towns. Here there are no doors to the airport. It is open to the world! And now as we fly north what will we see out of the windows?

Maraba Arrival

Cloudy, cityscape below, red roof, red dust track roads, big river, What will we find? Luggage for a start (phew – all the bags with presents an instruments!) and then Dan waiting. My childhood friend re-met after a long gap (more of this later) and as we round the corner to get outside : 8 smiling young people playing and singing in welcome. “Bienvido a Maraba. Kathryn and Pete” Great joy and suddenly it all makes sense. We have arrived in a new community who are as excited as we are. Ready to play I am sure.

Cabelo Seco

The drive is with a member of the community and some of he young people over a long bridge, down a bamboo lines road and into the area of old Maraba where the community of Cabelo Seco is. The name means dry hair and was written in response to the seeming dryness of African hair when it came in contact with water. This community, we are told, are the oldest within the city and also inevitably the most disenfranchised. There are 200 families – Afro indigenous people and this is where Dan and Mano have worked for 7 years and lived for the last year (there will be much more to tell). It is a community that is threatened in particular by the building of a hydro electric dam, the regulation of the river level and the massive expansion of the town that will see this communities water front changed from a place where they wash clothes, fish and swim to a series of hotels and rich peoples mansions. The focus of our friends work is with a group of young people, with whom they have worked for four years and who they are listening to and letting lead the project for the whole community. We arrive at their home in the middle of this community, sit and talk with the young people, are introduced to Zequino (the local grandfather and holder of the music traditions), and we introduce ourselves – largely in Portugese. At every moment assessing what we see and trying to make sense of it.

The day is long – we walk, eat lunch, talk and receive briefings on safety and discuss potential schedules…

“As I listened to calypso last night

I knew I could not give up the fight

I would have to let go and let the love flow

With you right there in my sight

You’re my Miss Sunshine, my daily ray of sunshine…..”

and the “Bags are Packed, we’re ready to go”

most of the applications are written, and those that aren’t will be finished as we travel.

The press release is written and attached below…. goodbye Morecambe Bay…

Cabelo Seco sedia residência internacional do músico e arte

We have started to pack and collect gifts to take. The news from Dan in Maraba is that the humidity is intense and that there are various different groups waiting to meet and play with us. It is a new adventure and one that is quite scary.

Breathe and relax. Look forward to the flights!

2 days of a full moon and the clear sky is intense. Yesterday I was very low with everything closing in so this morning woke with a new resolution to make energy postive. A certain hysterical approach worked from an early morning run to the gospel singing session in Preston at the end of the night. In the middel there was a conflagration of funding applications and discussions about the future. How can we predict. we can only hope and wish.

at the end of my day this Monday they sang the Anthem in Preston and it was good! Worked hard for 2 hours with Rose and 50 singers and at the end we did suceed in making a powerful sound and gaining a sense that this song will work . Great stuff!

Spent a bit of time today getting this site ready to go live. Need to add some music and images into galleries and then off we go. Main thinking at the moment seems to be about tackling the Lancashire Music Hub. Trying to understand how and why it will work.