Pirenopolis was fun. the crazy guys i was staying with took me all around in their 1970 volkswagon beetle, whose only mode of ignition was pushing, as its key had been lost of broken years before and its hot-wire cables relied on a battery that really didn't have the umph. nonetheless, once started, the car went anywhere. they took me to a swimming spot that required driving on roads through hills in the wilderness that didn't look fit for anything but a horse; yet that car only required our getting out and pushing once. I had the honor of driving it around at night on the colonial-era stone roads while its owner laughed and yelled 'é um tank de guerra, velho! te falei!'
today Mare and i met up with her friend who took us through a favela. she works as a nurse in a small hospital there and knows people inside, so we were ok to go in. i guess it was about what i expected of a brazilian favela. i got my hair cut there. afterwords they took me to meet Mare's great-grandmother who will complete 100 years in June. she was one of the coolest people i've met. she was much more awake and sharp than a lot of young people i know, telling stories, asking after members of her family, and telling me about her past. she came over from italy when she was 16 to work on a farm, got married at 17 and had her first baby when she was 18. On this trip I've gotten to meet a lot of interesting people inhabiting very different realities.
I went with Mare to her church last night... not catholic, however. I guess there's a large evangelical population here, despite brazil being the largest catholic country in the world. it was a new experience for me. the women and men enter at different doors and sit on different sides of the church, and the women must wear white veils on their heads. in the front, some men bring in instruments to play along with the hymns... i hate to be a music snob, but it was pretty out of hand. sometimes you cold pick up a melody. the service had a pretty tight program to stick to, but the parts were very interesting to see. one part, in which everyone was to pray aloud for about 15 minutes, was dominated by this guy sitting infront of me who started shouting praise to the lord and kept going for a much longer time than i thought possible, considering that it seemed like improv. finally old ladies started to stand up to see who it was. when he finally made a pause everyone shouted amen at once and the minister quickly continued to the next part of the program which was a finger-wagging/waving/pointing preacher. and the end the orchestra, comprised of a few saxophones, violins, valve trombone, and euphonium got another chance to play through all their rests.
são paulo is the largest of any city i've ever been to. one drives for miles and is still in the middle of skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. if i'm not mistaken, it's the third largest city in the americas behind mexico's federal district and new york city. I'm glad that I came back here, because there's a lot of culture to see, and Mare's family and friends are super nice.