SightSEAing!

Today began with an early breakfast and a Mozart-intensive rehearsal for several hours under the shade of the palm trees. Due to a rather unfortunate electrical situation with our only available keyboard, the choir has been learning an entire Mozart mass with only a tuning fork and our own senses of pitch!  We like to pretend that we're good sight-readers, but it's entirely possible that we're just ignorant of how completely lost we are. Optimism reigns, however, as we continue to work through our repertoire.

With David (and Mozart) temporarily satisfied, we hopped on the bus and headed out to the 5th largest Catholic cathedral in the world, located in central Fortaleza.

Despite the fact that none of us come from a Catholic background, a reverent hush fell over the choir as we entered the sacred space. After meeting one of the staff members, we were invited to "test the acoustics" of the church, and spent several minutes filling the rotunda with as much choral sound as we could muster.

Finished touring the cathedral, we headed to a city square in the shopping district for pastels, a traditional Brazilian meat or cheese-filled pastry. There was also a stop at several stores, where souvenirs and gifts were purchased for friends and family members, and as such must remain unnamed.

In the afternoon, we boarded a schooner via local fishing boats...

 and set sail to view the coastline of Fortaleza, and experience the sunset at sea.

The boat, Philosopher, sailed for approximately an hour, following the coast across the city, and pointing out several landmarks along the way, such as rock formations, famous ships, and infamous shipwrecks.

Before turning around, the Philosopher stopped to allow passengers to take a dip in the ocean and enjoy the warm ocean air!

Splitting up for some tourist-y dining and shopping, once again gifts were purchased that necessitate secretive blogging. Therefore, let it be known that fun was had and food was eaten by all, and if you desperately need to know what was purchased, you'll just have to wait until we all get home. ;)

We remain primarily happy and healthy, with mercifully only mild travellers illness occasionally rearing its head. Kindly keep us in your prayers as the students continue to work on our repertoire, and professors get ready for master classes and joint rehearsals in the coming week!

Shopping: A (South) American Pastime

Some of you may be shocked to hear that, while we have a pool right here on the compound, I have only been in it once, and that was a few days ago. Today was yet another leisure day, and what did I do? I read The Return of the King, of course. Brilliant book. But others disagreed with my priorities and preferred to spend their time in the pool, or on the beach.

We did eventually get around to doing something productive in the afternoon, with a short choir practice. The main even of the day, though, lay in our trip to a nearby shopping mall.

Now, I am willing to put forth the debatable position that shopping malls are incredibly boring, but this proved to be an interesting trip. For one thing, the mall was expecting us to do a flash mob.

If you know anything about our repertoire, we have nothing quite befitting a flash mob, but we did the best we could with In a Grain of Sand, singing spread out around the railings looking down to the first floor, until we all slowly walked onto the staircase and arranged ourselves. Though I was nervous no one would hear us above the hubbub of the mall, my fears proved ungrounded as people crowded to hear us sing and applauded after each piece. We were then ushered up to the outdoor patio of the food court, to perform on a stage.

(the stage is behing all those chairs and tables... and don't worry, there were more people than this when we performed!)

We managed to squish all of us onto the dais, and with a few mikes in front of us, continued our singing.

Oh, and the view was breathtaking.

(don't you just love clouds? I love clouds)

(that's Harley, if you couldn't tell by the hair)

(more clouds!)

We also managed to grab some delicious chocolate from one of the shops. Oh, and Brendan and Vaughn got asked if they had cocaine. Is it usual for tourists to carry drugs (besides Imodium)? I don't know.

The biggest surprise came, however, when we learned of a... change of plans regarding our performance with the University here on Saturday. We were supposed to perform Mozart's Missa Brevis with them, and that is still the plan. However, we have been told that they have no choir. So... we will not be able to practice the choir part with them much. As such, we pretty much have a week to learn this piece on our own. Oh, and it's thirty pages long. 30! In a week. Doable--yes. But it will be a lot of work. If you have it in mind, please pray for us as we must work extra practice times into our schedule. If there's one thing we have learned in this trip, though, it is to be flexible.

We ended the day by talking about our word of the day: dissonance. Not all dissonance is bad--it can point to something greater (see C.S. Lewis for more on that). The beauty, though, is in the resolution. And even when life throws dissonance at us, we can know that God is working all things for his glory and the good of those who love him.

At the moment, we are relaxing before heading to bed, enjoying the (relatively) cool night-time air (it is just after 11 PM). Tomorrow holds another full day for us. And to think, we already only have a week left. Time flies when you can't check it on your cell phone 24/7.

A Leisurely Saturday

After a long week of travel, performance, and cultural experiences, today was a well-needed day of rest and relaxation. We kicked off the day with a late brunch and a crash course (David called it a “rehearsal”) in Mozart’s Missa Brevis under the palm trees beside the pool. Though the acoustics of the open compound (and the groaning growls of the generator in the background) may have left something to be desired, the atmosphere certainly didn’t!

The afternoon was spent in one of the most wide-spread Brazilian obsessive pastimes: soccer! We hopped in the bus and headed to a recently completed FIFA stadium...

...to watch a professional soccer game between the state team of Ceará and their rivals, Náutico. Jerseys were purchased, photos were taken, we were surrounded by a hysterically screaming mob of Ceara fans, and the home team came from behind in the final five minutes to secure a hard-fought tie game. 

Supper was yet another unique experience at a Brazilian burger joint called Juliana. 

They specialize in a frozen açai berry dessert that was served with banana slices, powdered milk, and homemade granola. Basically, it was ice cream served as a meal! 

There were also burgers in your choice of hamburger bun or pita bread, with toppings ranging from bacon to sausage to fried eggs!

All “fed up” and sleepy once again, we headed back to the compound for some devotional time. Today’s word for reflection was harmony, and it was fun to hear all the members of the choir explaining how they view harmony in their lives and particularly in  their relationships with God. We wrapped up the day with a prayer and song activity called a Complin, popular within the Anglican and Catholic church traditions. 

Secretly (or blatantly) gleeful at the thought of snow in our northern homes, we headed to bed after yet another successful day in South America. 

The last few days in pictures

I thought I would take a little time on this lazy Saturday morning to add a little more to the blog and post a few pictures I took over the last few days! Niklaas and Hannah have done a great job with their daily blog posts!

It has been a busy few days, and until yesterday (Friday) Darryl, Dave and Ben were without their checked luggage! Thankfully all bags arrived a little before lunch on Friday!

This is a picture from the Thursday Night dinner after our participation in a local worship service:

Friday morning - At a large Baptist Church complex - Brazilian Boys playing soccer:

Friday Morning - Meeting, sharing and singing at an Addictions rehabilitation centre (run by the Baptist church):

They gave us coconut water in coconuts:

Harley shared his testimony:

Singing:

Friday afternoon the students were at a second drug rehabilitation centre, while Darryl and I spend Friday afternoon at the University in rehearsals and practicing. We met with our University host and spent some time in the auditorium... I was completely fascinated by the cats:

Cats looking into the auditorium while we practiced:

Cats everywhere:

That's it for now. Besides a few sunburns and colds, we are doing well!

Until next time...

It Keeps Resurfacing

Maybe we were too slow yesterday morning. I'm not sure. Whatever, the reason, we were told to get up even earlier today. All the tiredness that I hadn't been feeling last night caught up with me. Thankfully, we had a long bus ride ahead of us, and Stephanie was kind enough to wake me up when we arrived at our first destination.

Today we visited two rehab centers, one for men recovering from drugs and one for men recovering from drugs and alcohol. At both of them, we all sat in a circle and they introduced themselves to us (and we were occasionally able to distinguish their name in the string of words they said), including how long they had been clean in the areas of their addictions. The times ranged from three years to one day. We then introduced ourselves (each time followed by many "Oi, [name]"), and at the second place included what programs we are in at Providence (I'm one of the few who is not a Music Major, it seems).

For our part, we were able to bless them with a few songs, and Harley and Brendan shared portions of their testimonies at the respective centers. Vaughn also gave out an autograph, I think. I, however, was blessed simply to hear about their lives and their struggles to overcome various addictions. If you ever need a reminder that God can love even you, just look to those who rely on that love to help them through each and every day.

In the evening we sang at another church, and I must admit that we blew ourselves away with the incredible acoustics. It is very easy to enjoy singing in a building like that. Not to mention, once we were finished, we were swarmed like super stars by the young people of the church. Language barriers aside, we will all be receiving many Facebook friend requests in the near future.

And now we are back at the retreat center, relaxing after our meeting (in light of the fact that we get to sleep in tomorrow--finally!). Today's word for reflection was 'melody.' What is melody? What melody do we hear the most? And for me, today and this whole trip so far, I have heard the melody of God's voice. It keeps resurfacing, popping up in the testimony of a friend, the struggles of a recovering drug addict, the generosity of a church, Professor Cameron Mackenzie's message, and simply in observing the city and reflecting on its people. He is present with us and everywhere we go. And even when his voice seems to be in discord with all the other melodies, all the other voices, his word holds true. He is the God who keeps his covenant. He is the LORD our God, and the God of the whole world.

Day 1! Day 2? Maybe Day 3. Who's counting? We're on Brazilian time!

As the child of a safety officer and a lawyer, I can't help but feel slightly guilty posting about the escapades of the Chamber Singers in Brazil today. Not that we weren't safe or legal (don't worry Mom; we were!), but the standards for safety and legality in Brazil are so radically different from Canada that I think we all experienced a little bit of culture shock.

For starters, we as a choir piled onto the bus by 8 am for a day at an oceanside beach about 20 minutes away from the hospitality centre. Roberto, our translator, informed us that Fortaleza is home to one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world, and we agreed with his assessment wholeheartedly! White sand, blue water, scorching sun, crashing waves, and even a couple horses thundering down the sand created a perfect atmosphere for our first full day in the country of Brazil.

To kick off our beach experience, we loaded into a couple of local fishing boats and took a swim a kilometre out to sea, floating in the ocean waves. After ooh-ing and ah-ing over the waves and the boats, we returned to the beach and hopped onto several dune buggies, driven by professional buggy racers for a death-defying roller coaster ride across the sands of Fortaleza. No seat belts, no training videos, no helmets, and virtually no rules made for a white-knuckled ride for some, and a hooting and hollering good time for others!

There were stops made for zip lining into the ocean, tobogganing down the sand, photo ops with mountains and beaches, and races up and down the dunes. Similar to an amusement park ride -- minus the safety harnesses and roll bars -- the dune buggies topped out at approximately 120 km/hour, though I believe there are a couple of chaperones prepared to swear that some of us drove significantly faster than that.


After a delicious lunch of fresh-caught red snapper, tilapia, garlic shrimp and traditional Brazilian sodas...

...we loaded up the sun-burned choristers and spent the evening worshiping with a Brazilian congregation several miles from the compound. Professor Cameron McKenzie preached through a translator, and the choir enjoyed singing several pieces with a congregation of incredibly enthusiastic locals.

Dinner at 9:00 pm was another traditional Brazilian meal of rice, beans, sun-dried beef and chicken, and more local beverages, and we finished up the day discussing our struggles and triumphs adjusting to the rhythms and orders of South American life. Just before midnight, we wrapped up our discussions beside the pool in the compound, and the sun-scorched, travel-weary, but very happy choir headed to bed to do it all over again at 6:00 am tomorrow.

¡Até amanhã!

Out of Rhythm

So, you've heard about most of our adventures thus far. Tons of fun. Really. When we spent the night in Winnipeg, Harley and I stayed up until 3 in the morning discussing philosophy and theoretical physics and communication theory and music composition and fantasy novels and whatever else. It was a blast. But on to the tour...

Personally, I'm a huge fan of flying. I love planes and airports. I love the view.

The view when we landed was great too. It was a welcome sight after our six months of snow in Manitoba.

So much green! So we loaded onto a bus...

...and headed off to where we are staying (which I'm sure you'll see many pictures of in the coming days).

As we drove through the city of Fortaleza, I just had to write down some of my impressions. Well, first, I noticed something from the plane. All of the roofs look the same. Same colour. Same soft slant. And there is graffiti everywhere. Oh, and it's humid. My jeans felt damp before I even left the plane.

I was interested to note the religious symbols around me. On billboard simply proclaimed "Jesus te ama" which means "Jesus loves you." (I saw this message among the graffiti as well). Then I saw a picture of Jesus carrying a Bible in one hand and a halberd in the other--quite militant. And then, through a window, I saw a crucifix on someone's wall. This is a deeply religious country, it seems.

The physical structure is different from what I am used to as well. Everything is walled and gated. More important places have barbed wire and spikes sticking out of the tops of their walls. I heard that Fortaleza is the 7th most dangerous city in the world. And yet, most of the shops do not have doors. Instead, they simply open onto the sidewalk, lacking even a front wall. And people will just sit out on the sidewalk in their lawn chairs.

There were some familiar things as well, though. For instance, most billboards and signs had North American-looking people on them, not Brazilian, as though blonde hair and pale skin were standards for beauty. And there was a circus tent.

When we landed, Karen gave us the word "rhythm" as a point of reflection for the day, and I can say that the theme has certainly been a lack thereof. Sleep is thrown off (or lacking entirely). Our environment has changed. (We found a baby tarantula in the shower already). And so what do we do in the midst of this? What do we do when life changes?

We trust in God, I guess.

And have fun.