Cowboy Festival! June 11-12

It’s time to fill in a few of the missing holes → I’m going to back track and tell you about the places I didn’t write about.

Saturday-Sunday June 11-12

Last weekend I was still at IPEC, but I spent most of Saturday and Sunday in Pirenopolis, the closest town. The walk into town is about a 45 minute walk through pastures and farms. Pirenopolis is not a “happenin” city and there isn’t really any reason for Brasilians to visit it. However, this weekend was the one weekend out of the whole entire year that Pirenopolis has a huge festival called Festas de Cavalhadas. This festival reenacts a battle fought between the Moors and the Christians a very long time ago. Each year, men from Pirenopolis get onto horses and dress themselves and their horses up in elaborate decorations. Then there is a jousting competition in a huge arena.

I went with the American university students at IPEC into town and on Saturday we just explored and did a little shopping. On Sunday we saw all the horsemen and attempted to watch the jousting, but the stadium was crowded and it was hot out. Then in the afternoon I said goodbye to the Americans and to beautiful IPEC and boarded a bus to Brasilia to head on to the next ecovila (called IPOEMA).

On Sunday night I arrived at the Brasilia bus station, which is even larger than the Tel Aviv bus station. Upon my arrival I called Luiza, a very nice woman who I made arrangements to meet up with. Luiza had graciously offered me a ride from the bus station to IPOEMA because she said public transportation is hard to get, especially at night time. She was also picking up an incoming work volunteer named Jair, and it was my job to meet up with Jair because he had a cell phone that Luiza could reach us on.

I did not see him at my entry area (where I was told he would be waiting) so I went and bought a local phone card and gave him a call. Turns out he didn’t speak any English, haha, so I communicated to him as best I could that I was American (de los esatod unidos), wearing a large backpacking backpack (mochila grande) and I would wait for him at the “desembarcar” area. I proceeded to the disembark sign and walked around looking for someone who might be looking for me. I received no welcoming stares, not even from the person who I hesitatingly asked “Jair?”… So I took out my ipod and plopped down and sat on the ground right smack in front of the desembarcar sign. A few moments later a man came and knelt down next to me and asked, “Nina?” Haha, yay! He found me! I was so happy! Jair and I communicated pretty dang well with a mix of Spanish and Portuguese. There were definitely parts of the conversation where I repeated, ‘no en-ten-gee’ (I don’t understand) but Jair was nice and accommodating with my comprehension level.

By a few waves of a hand and a description of our location and appearance, Luiza found us in the middle of the bus station. We headed outside and got into the car with Claudio (one of the founders of IPOEMA). I was so happy to have found my group and I was excited to see what IPOEMA was all about.