Olinda

Yesterday, Abuêndia Peixoto Pinto, one of Angela's colleagues who teaches English and psycholingistics and works with the undergraduate teacher-preparation program, took me on an outing. We went to Olinda, the colonial town just north of Recife. Olinda was settled in 1537 by the Portuguese and conquered by the Dutch in 1630, who were in this area for about 30 years (it was the Dutch who built Recife, moving their operations from the hill on which Olinda sits down to the rivermouth and harbor site that became Recife). You can still see some Dutch influence in the domestic architecture of the old part of Olinda. There are numerous churches dating to the 16th and 17th centuries, an old slave market (which has been turned into a craft market for tourists), and lovely views from various vantages and praças (plazas) on the hill.

Abuêndia and I had a snack of tapioca (this time com coco, with coconut) at the praça near the Catedral da Sé (the seat of the archbishop of Pernambuco) and were serenaded by two repentistas, shown in the photograph. Repentista singing is a tradition of on-the-spot improvisation characteristic of the Pernambuco region. Abuêndia told me that they were describing us as two "intellectual ladies" with contrasting color of hair eating our tapioca snacks, etc. The singing was passed back and forth from one to another, and the melody was repetitious and chant-like. She seemed a bit annoyed at them, so they may have been saying other things, as well. Or perhaps she was annoyed because you have to pay them before they will go away.

There were many traditional crafts for sale (as well as cheap tourist goods)—costumed figurines from the carnaval, which is a huge deal here, jewelry made from local seeds and other plant materials, lace and embroidery, wood carving, and others. One of the most common is wood carvings of rows of houses painted in bright colors, representing the houses on the steep and winding cobblestone streets of the old part of Olinda. I bought one of these and the craftsman told me it was made from the bark of the cajá tree, harvested in a nondestructive way (I believed him, but have no corroboration). The material is light and cork-like and, he said, easy to carve.