Tour around Old Recife

Today we took more of a detailed tour around Old Town Recife. We first visited an old prison that has been transformed into a market. We then had a professor from Recife named Nilson Corccia give us a walking tour of the old part of the city. Lastly we boarded a boat and had a wonderful time cruising the Capybara River. I certainly saw some images that will last with me a very long time. We then came back to Old Town and discovered a wonderful fair or festival occurring. After dinner we went out and watched a band and experienced some wondeful music and dancing.

As mentioned our first activity of the day was to visit an old prison that once housed criminals from Pernambuco and neighboring states. The pententiary was built in the 1800's and was shut down in the 1970's. The prison intentionally segregated prisoners so that they would not be influenced or be able to learn from prisoners that committed different crimes. At the bottom of the prison would be what we would consider as solitary confinement. However this was even worse than being locked up by yourself for days. The bottom floor had a door that would allow water into the prison cell. The prisoner would be tied up and be subjected to rising waters when the tide from the ocean would come in. Chris and I were hypothesizing that with water this could bring wrinkley and decaying skin. River rats, snakes and fish could peck at that person creating severe pain and fear. There was a local railway that was built by the British in the 1800's as well. This was beneficial because prisoners could easily be transported back and forth. The railway went through several transition periods from being private to nationalized back to private then nationalized and finally run down and completely out of use. The prison is now a market with shops. It was rather weird walking through former prison cells, visiting what are now shops. If only the walls could talk? Actually thank goodness they do not.

After the prison or market tour. We walked around old town with Nilson and Reynaldo. Reynaldo in particular has been a huge help. He is a professor along with Antonio. He is young and really helpful. I give him a lot of credit handling our group. As you can imagine with a group of 18 teachers there are plenty of questions and conversations. He should be commended for a job well done.
We learned that people in the past identified or told others about where they were from by mentioning their local church. The church owned most of the land and the people would pay the church rent to stay in their particular house or dwelling. Franciscans was the most prominent religious order. We also learned that the Catholic church is only open during mass. The Protestant church on the other hand is always open. This has actually resulted in some Catholic worshippers converting to Protestantism.

After lunch we said good bye to Lucas, Lacrissa and Bruno. The playoffs started today for their favorite soccer team, Santa Cruz. Chris and I really wished we could go and we made a joke to Bob our group leader about it. However as he pointed out, if we went, everyone would want to go and that would cause a problem. I certainly would've loved to see a local soccer match. The more I thought about it though, I am sure our graduate students were looking forward to a break from being with us. Just to have a sense of normalcy and speak in their native tongue. I will be interested to hear how the game went tomorrow. I also hope they stayed safe. There are fights that occur inside and outside of the stadium. That is why they forbid alcohol from being sold inside the stadium. Anyways I digress once again. Our second activity of the day was taking a river cruise around Recife. I really enjoyed the relaxation and the ability to observe. As I have mentioned previously to most of you what I really love about these institutes is that the learning is done while participating in activities. What I mean by that is we are for the most part not sitting in classrooms listening to presentations. We are outside observing, listening, responding and most important moving around. This is how I learn best and I feel like the rest of the group would agree.

During the river cruise I saw some images that were encouraging and discouraging, just like in any other area. I however have never seen images of poverty which I witnessed today. Some of those images will stay with me the rest of my life. Anytime I feel the need to complain about not having this or that I need to think of the scenes from today. We literally saw the smallest shanty structures I have never seen. I have witnessed poverty in Jamaica, Ecuador and Cuba. This ranked up there or even more so with some of the worst poverty I have ever seen. One image will always stick out. The people around here are very friendly. We were crusing along the river passing one of the shanty structures and we saw a little boy who was maybe two. The little boy had a diaper on and his pacifier. He waved to us and screamed at us. I do not know what he said but he ran along his house following the boat. I could not help but feel bad for this boy. Will this boy have the opportunity to raise himself out poverty? Will he have the chance? Does generation after generation experience this in this shanty area? I also could not help to think and contrast this boys life with my niece's life. The are both around the same age but yet their opportunities to succeed are in my mind so vastly different. This weighed on my mind for quite some time, thinking about this little boy and his future.

After turning into a tomato on the river cruise we docked at old town and began to walk to the area where the synagogue was that we visited the other day. We looked around in amazement in how vastly different the scene was. All of this on a Sunday night. The place was packed and full of people. There was a huge street fair taking place with vendor of all sorts. There was music, magicians, comics. It was booming. Chris and I decided to visit a restaurant and just observe the scene. We both want to hold off on buying things so we don't have to cart them around for two weeks. Some people have been shopping up a storm. Most of the vendors were selling products that catered to women anyway. So Chris and I just sat back and watched the scenes unfold. All of a sudden we hear booming drums coming from the distance and inching closer and closer. We walked to the area and noticed maybe 30 drummers doing their thing and doing their thing quite well. It was awesome seeing this drumline. I could not help but get my groove on.

Lastly Mike, Kelly, Donnika, Chris and I decided to walk along the beach and head to a park nearby. Kelly and Donnika had visited the park and led the way. We arrived and there were people everywhere. There was music playing in the distance and we of course headed in that direction. We then spent the night listening to the beautiful sounds of Brazilian music. If you can not move to Brazilian music than there is something wrong with you. The music is lively and full of life. There were people gathered around a circle listening to a band do its thing. Inside of the circle couples and others were dancing the forro, merengue and salsa. It was great to watch. I also didn't feel like I stuck out so much as a tourist. It is obviously much easier and more comfortable traveling in a small group. I certainly felt like I had a wonderful cultural experience.

Tomorrow we will be leaving Recife for five days. I am not sure about the access to the internet. So you may not hear from me.