We are in full flow developing the campaign for the Solidarity Kitchen. Not without its frustrations. We have had an art directional nightmare all week. Philippa came along to document how we are working and got the opportunity to capture a few photos from a slightly sketchy creative revie. I think the facial expressions say it all.
We are launching the kitchen with an event next Friday. Andrea and I running through the logistics to make sure it happens.
We hit to the streets of Recife early last week to find out what the general public like to have for lunch in the hope it would help us with the direction of the work. We found that people like to take an hour, only want to spend R$5 (around £1.50) and absolutely no-one had heard of the Solidarity Kitchen, not even the lady who was standing outside it when we interviewed her!
We also had a little look at the competition.
I went to the Old Town at the weekend to see it in daylight without the effects of Caiprinhia. It looks a lot older in the daytime. It was absolutely deserted as well which made it a complete contrast from how I had seen it before. You can see the original buildings built here by the Portuguese however, they have not been well kept and the parties on the weekends don't do anything to preserve them.
The phone booths are quite funny as well.
It seems that many of the local folk in Recife are having real issues with the pronunciation of my name. I thought it would be fairly straight forward with it only being four letters. I was wrong. The current list of names I have been called is as follows:
Hi-anne. Hi-man. Hi-nam. Hi-na. Hi-no. Hi-oooo. To just Haa....a.a.a in the hope that I will respond. Henry the little boy in the house has given up with my name and instead calls me Soupa (that's soup in english!!!)
Below are the key culprits. Diavola and Sergio from the Solidarity Kitchen.
Diavola (left) holding cake, Sergio (right) stirring something.
I went to my first Brazilian BBQ last week. Philippa, who runs TIE, very kindly put on a BBQ at her house for everyone involved in the project. A fantastic spread was laid on. Lots of meat, lots of chicken, lots of sausages and lots of beer. (No cake though!)
It was Ivanildo’s birthday last night. He is now 61. Masame, a Japanese friend of the family, brought Ivanildo and his grandson Henry some traditional Japanese attire as a birthday present.
It was good fun to experience how people celebrate birthdays in Brazil. It wasn’t all that different. Lots of food, all the family around the table, The Carpenters playing on vinyl and of course lots of cake.
On Sunday afternoon I headed to the picturesque town of Olinda to go to a festa. When the Portuguese arrived they liked it so much that it got its name 'O-Linda' ('Ahhh-Beautiful').
A few beers and a BBQ later and we went to the highest point in the town, famous for its tapioca queijo e coco. That translates as a floury pancake filled with cheese and coconut. Delicious and perfect fuel for the attempts to samba that followed. The less said about that the better.
I saw some of sights by bicycle at the weekend. After getting a warning about the sun and being issued with a rather dashing piece of headgear, Ivanildo and I hit bicycle lanes of Recife.
He showed me more of Brasília Teimosa, a couple of beaches and we also rode to one of the monuments in Recife. You get an incredible view across the water to the old part of the City.
We also came across these rather odd statues. Women looking up to the gods with their boobs out.
Over the weekend I went to Recife Antigo, the old town. There was an outdoor gig with a band playing mangue beats.
Mangue Beats apparently started as a cultural movement in 1991 in Recife. It was in reaction to the cultural and economical stagnation of the city. It's now mainly music, the result being a mixture of local traditional music like maracatu and hip hop, rap and rock. It was good. A bit weird at first. But good.
I went with Henrique (he is one of the family I live with. He lives at the house with his girlfriend and son) and his work mates.
Lots of caipirinhas (from little stalls at the side of the street) and lots of dancing as well.
I love this city purely for its loli-pop people rather than ladies. Driving through Recife yesterday we were going through a busy part of town and I saw these very energetic people. They make sure people stop (as often they don't) and make sure that people get across the road safely.
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