Honkey

I´ve never felt so white in my life. I am not talking just white, white. I am talking about Casper the Ghost White. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves White. Wonderbread White. Let me explain. I liked Salvador so much I decided to stay here for an extra day. As I was walking through the old city last night I heard awesome music coming from upstairs of a house, so I thought I would go check it out. It turns out it was a capoeira ¨show¨, which was nothing more than 20 guys in a circle practicing capoeira with two other tourists looking on. As I wrote before, capoeira was a fighting form practiced by slaves in colonial Brazil. Its part martial arts and part break dancing. (I am embedding a YouTube video of capoeira so you can get a sense of what it looks like. Just click on the video to start playing it.)



So back to the show. Each of the guys in there were 1/2 Bruce Lee and 1/2 Michael Jackson (and not new Michael Jackson either, I am talking about Michael Jackson circa 1983). In short, they could kick your butt in pefect rhythym. They sparred with each other for almost two hours to the pulsing beat of drums and berimbaus (string instruments). It would have been incredible if it ended there. But....they thought it a funny idea to bring me down the one white guy in the room (cue The Price is Right´s Rod Roddy´s voice, ¨David Coooome on Downnnn¨) into the center. Ooooh, it was soooo painful. I normally don´t have much rhythm but put me in a circle with a bunch of Michael Jacksons and it looks like I have two left feet, both of which are clubbed. So the whole thing devolved into the white guy perfectly fulfilling the stereotype. It was the first time that I was glad that I didn´t have a camera...