Obladee, obladah, OLODUM!

We arrived in Salvador, Brazil, with some sense of trepidation, as our guest lecturers from Salvador, Nelson and Molly Cerqueira, had stressed the safety problems of this troubled city. So we headed out on a walking tour of the old historic district, the Pelourinho, with a bit of dread -- and stumbled on one of those delightful moments of travel where you find something unexpected and totally fun.

We took the municipal elevator (something like Oregon City’s but with an entire marketplace at the bottom) to the bluff above the port area to visit monuments, churches, and the requisite shops with ladies dressed in traditional white hoop skirts and bright head wraps (the old slave garb now used for tourism). The lovely colonial-era Portuguese architecture dating from the 1500s makes this city architecturally stunning (it’s a Unesco World Heritage site), but the weather was iffy and we were dragging a bit.

Then we heard music, rounded a corner into one of the town squares, and stumbled on a band in the plaza playing lively Afro-Brazilian music. It turned out to be one of Brazil’s most famous music groups, Olodum, performing in front of a huge crowd of our students who had beaten us up the hill. Olodum was filming a TV commercial to advertise the upcoming World Cup games in Brazil. They have played with Paul Simon and appeared in one version of Michael Jackson’s “They Don’t Care About Us” video (not the Prisoner version). All I can say is, they were FUN. Instant energy.

One of the students got to wave a huge American flag in the video, and there were other international flags in the crowd, and everyone was learning a dance step to go along with the samba-reggae music. So if you see a commercial for Brazil’s World Cup that has people dancing to energetic music and flags waving all over the place, look for us in the crowd. Of course, we’ll be the only ones not dancing.

I shot a quick and bumpy video that I will post when we get home, but for now here is a picture of the crowd scene. The music was so fun -- vibrant, catchy, totally alive. I bought a CD to bring home. We should have a party, because this is great party music.

You may never get to see Olodum playing live in the square in the Pelourinho, but if you ever do make it to Salvador, be sure to see the beautiful Igreja de São Francisco, or the Gold Church. Cherubs and angels in abundance, all washed in gold leaf. Unfortunately, no photos allowed. But amazing…