Salvodor

        I have been on the ship for twelve days now and I just finished with my second port of call: Salvador. Salvador is the third largest Brazilian city, based around the second largest bay in the world, All Saints Bay. Because of previous slavery, 78% of the whole population is African American. This makes Salvador's culture very interesting and different from most of Brazil. On our first tour, which was two days ago, we went to an African American school. This school was much different from any other schools in this poor neighborhood because all the other schools didn't focus very much at all on real academics such as math, reading, and writing. Instead, their heroes were samba dancers, drummers and futball (soccer) players, for that is what the schools mostly taught. This school tried to let students know about famous African American architects, engineers, writers, and docters. It sounded like I would want to go to the other schools at first, but then I learned the reason why the school I visited taught more academics like schools in the US; even though the kids in the other schools might be better dancers or futball players, they are the ones who usually turn out to be homeless! And trust me, that neighborhood did not need any more homeless people. The 1,500 student school that I visited still learned more music than in the US, but that is because of culture. Fortunately our tour in the school ended right as a large class of African Americans started their music class. The tour guide let us watch the wonderful show and the teacher of the class let us be in it! My brothers and I chose a drum to play. Then the kid that was playing the instrument before showed us a rhythm to play. Somehow the rest of the class adjusted to my style of playing and we played an awesome song all together! The 8-year-old who's instrument I was playing came up to me after the song and asked in his accent, "Me name is?" It took me a while to figure out what he meant, but finally I replied, "Mason". He smiled from ear to ear when he discovered he had said the words right. (Or almost right!) After I was done drumming, I got off of the stage and was given a shirt to remember the giant school by. I walked out, listening to the drummers, knowing that these students wouldn't turn in to the homeless beggers that waited outside.
        Later that day, our tour guide led us into a building and up onto the roof. There was a bunch of muscular men waiting for us. Apparently we were about to see an African American martial art, Capoeira. It was so amazing. The moves that they were doing were more advanced than in movies! They could do standing front flips and backflips, sideways one-handed handstands, cartwheels into front flip 360s, and much more. I was amazed when they asked me to come up with them and dance also. One man taught me how to do this round house kick. I wasn't at all as good as them, but I did pretty well considering my competition! Unfortunately, we had to leave eventually and go to a samba drum class. Of coarse I was already pretty pro at drumming from my earlier experience at the school, so it was really interesting and fun. The only bad thing was that by the end of the class I had bruises on my hands from hitting the drum!
        Salvador is a very interesting place to visit, just wait until I tell you what happened yesterday! I had a great time there and I hope I can go again.