CSA

My disguise worked! I posed as an academic, got into the Caribbean Studies Assoication Conference last week and immersed myself in academics from all over giving talks, presentations, showing films and getting into heated discussions about the Caribbean, the U.S, Brazil, race, imperialism, pop culture, religion, immigration and a host of other topics. It was a fabulous, inspiring week with fabulous people to boot. A friend was also in town that I hadn’t seen in a while and it was great to hang out with her. I ran into other people I knew, had encounters with new people and partied with a group of really cool folk. I became the de facto tour guide/translator (which is hysterical considering my limited language skills) that was made all the more challenging by having some vegan/vegetarians in the posse. But I got to try the delicious and inexpensive African vegitarian place that I had heard about and take folks to the slightly hippy feel (but not hippy food) vegeitarian spot that is near me. And I learned one important thing about Salvador – being black here does not protect you from getting robbed. This is something you hear from white tourists a lot “oh you’re lucky cause you aren’t a target.” Well on Friday night, I was walking with 3 other black women and one of them got their bags got stolen – ripped right off her arm. Granted – we weren’t walking in the best area, and she had just taken out a camera to take a picture ( a no-no that I had been warned about before). Luckily everyone was ok and she only had the camera in the bag – but it still freaked us out.
It was sad to them all leave en-masse on Sunday morning but hopefully there will be folk that I keep in touch with. Now back to my mellow Salvador life. I just came from capoeria with a teacher named Yorubudddah (i kid you not) who insisted on working us to death. This weekend I go to Sao Paulo (the 5th largest city in the world!) for the Pride festivities. Happy Pride all. And of course this weekend is the Dia de Namorados/as. Much better title than Valentines day.