So yesterday was our free day, but I think we exhausted the
boys almost as much as if they had played a game. After breakfast we went to the beach and found a section
without rocks for some of the guys to go into the surf. Ty, MJ, and Grant got too far out in
the waves for the lifeguards’ liking.
The Brazilian lifeguards were yelling at us to yell at the boys to get
them to stay closer to shore. They
claimed there was a strong undertow at that beach that would sweep them out to
sea if they couldn’t touch the bottom.
One of them claimed to hear a lifeguard use the word “gringo”
repeatedly. Once the guys were
closer to shore we had no more problems with the lifeguards.
About half the guys went into the ocean, just diving over,
under, or through the waves. The
rest stayed on shore playing keepaway for a bit before setting up a field using
sandals as goalposts, drawing endlines in the sand, and just like true
Brazilian beach soccer, no sidelines.
The spectators and the surf were all in play. The tide started coming in as we played, meaning that our ad
hoc goals kept getting washed away.
Each time it washed away play was suspended and the goal was reformed a
couple feet higher up the beach.
Unfortunately, Diego had to sit most everything out due to his
ankle. But he and Andres did go
haggle over bracelet and shirt prices with a lady selling clothes and trinkets
on the beach.
After a couple hours we went back to the hotel for
lunch. After an hour’s rest the
guys were getting restless and I was getting worried that the guys would spend
an entire week in Brazil without actually seeing the country, its people, or
way of life. So, I convinced
Anderson that we should walk through the streets south from the hotel to reach
the boardwalk that I had run to the previous day. We began walking through residential streets keeping as close
to the ocean as possible. Only a
few small hotels like ours are scattered amongst the homes, apartments and
small beachside condos of the neighborhood. None of the buildings are any more than 3 or 4 stories high. We walked for a spell, stopped at a
grocery store, then continued on.
As we came in sight of the boardwalk we began to see people, where
before we had only seen cars.
Cafes started popping up, as well as streetside vendors. I was getting excited that we would
finally get to walk amongst Brazilians and experience the culture. Buying local staples from a food cart,
window shopping for Christmas gifts for my family, dropping a coin in a street
musicians music case, and resting at an outdoor café watching life go by. These are the things I was hoping to
do.
I suppose we did get to experience Brazilian life. For about 2 minutes. From the time we came upon the
boardwalk, Anderson was getting visibly nervous. In my international experience, safety comes in
numbers. If there are lots of
people in the group, someone is much less likely to attack, and if there are
lots of people around, someone is a lot less likely to risk an attack with many
witnesses and citizens to assist the victim. I fully anticipated pickpockets, and reminded the guys of
that danger. But we had a group of
25 with 5 adults and there were people everywhere; on the beach, walking on the
street, sitting at cafes.
Moreover, I had run down that boardwalk further than we walked twice, with
never a disturbance or noticing any dangerous activity or advances. But apparently that wasn’t enough. Very quickly Anderson sensed danger and
got us to turn around and head back.
We stopped off at the grocery store again and ate at the
outdoor pizza restaurant located just outside of it. The pizza was pretty good. More than anything it was a nice change of pace from the
hotel food, which has become a bit repetitive. The same beef stew, the same fried chicken, the same rice
and beans.
By the time we had finished eating, the sky was dark, save
for the bright glow of the full moon.
Ronald, Anderson’s friend and business partner came in his car to get us
to prevent us from having to walk back.
I suppose it was a good thing to save the guys’ legs for the game today,
but the primary reason was safety yet again. Because only 5 guys could fit in Ronald’s car at one time,
he had to make several trips. Each
time Anderson chose to send back the kids that “fit in” the least, so that the
group would be less likely to stick out from the crowd. So that meant the Americans went first,
with (and I’m going to try to say this as literal and scientifically as
possible) the kids with less melanin pigmentation in their skin leaving before
the kids with more melanin pigmentation.
The area of Bahia is inhabited with predominantly African peoples due to
the dominance of the slave trade in the local economy before its
abolition. So our excursion into
the real Brazil was short-lived, and in my opinion, disappointing.
But while it may be my bone to pick, the guys aren’t
necessarily complaining about not having seen much of Brazil outside of the
hotel, bus, beach, and fields.
Their contention is that they haven’t had any opportunity to spend any
money on souvenirs. They were
asking to go to the mall that we see from the bus window on our way out of town
for the games, but I really believe that the mall here is going to be no
different than a mall in the US. I
guess the primary roadblock to us doing anything else has been
transportation. The bus is really
only available to us for games, and without it we have no way of traveling
around. We are too far from the
actual city of Salvador for things to be walking distance, and none of us are
from the area so I wouldn’t trust us to be able to navigate the public
transportation system. But. I have
asked and Anderson says we will get to a Brazilian market and get some
non-hotel Brazilian food, but we’re running out of time. As I write this we are on our way to
our fourth game, against Ypiranga.
If we don’t do anything different tonight, then all we have is
tomorrow. So I have hopes, but
they are not expectations.
After we got back, I took some more pictures on the beach. Apparently the lighthouse near us is pretty famous in Brazil. The Farol de Itapuã it is called.
Then some of the guys decided to partake in the Baiana tradition of drinking the water from inside a green coconut. They picked their coconuts from the hotel trees and hotel staff cut the top off for them to insert a straw. I tried it. It didn't taste like the sweet coconut I was hoping for, but not bad.
I think that’s going to do it for now. I’m going to try to get up to see the
sunrise tomorrow morning, so I’ll try to write up today’s game and other
happenings/observations then.
