Lasts

Come Sunday I leave Salvador...so this week has been full of lasts. Last days of class, last finals. A couple of hours ago I just turned in my last paper to officially signify the end of the term. Tonight we have our Despedida Dinner where us students and our host mothers will come together and share one last meal. Last night I went to my last Capoeira class. It was super sweet. In honor of the occasion the mestre had me play everyone in the Roda. Usually, everyone takes a turn and rotates, but they made all the people I was playing rotate while I got to be in the spotlight. Another farewell tradition they have is at the end of class have a "Samba de Roda." This is a uniquely Bahian style of Samba that involves 3 quick and small steps and a lot of booty shaking. Everyone stands in a circle clapping as a few men play the drum, tambourine, and berimbau. One girl and one boy dance in the middle and people rotate through as they wish. The boys get creative with how to kick out the man and do everything from pulling on his corda (capoeira belt) to forcibly remove him or hand him a cellphone as if someone was calling. At the end of it all everyone hugged me and I was very touched by how much everyone was sad to see me go.

I feel a little like I am about to head into limbo. There is still about a month until I return to the US, but only 2 days until I leave the home I have made here in Brazil. I am excited to travel around, especially to meet up with Nina in Rio and my mom on the 12th. But I am not looking forward to the exhaustion of unfamiliar cities and being a lost tourist.