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Buffet breakfast. All you
can eat! They've got some great juices. There is also sliced pineapple at every
meal, lighter in color than the ones we get from Hawai'i, but plenty good.
We loaded our buses, and added an equipment van to our entourage for the concert
equipment that needed to go. The streets are too narrow to take a big bus, and
the smaller buses don't have cargo space. Our first stop was Ouro Preto for
some more shopping. I think we've exhausted all the places to shop now.
To buffet lunch. All you can eat! Here's the photo I forgot to include the first
time I typed up this page, in case people wondered what the food was like:
Across the street we played
some hackeysack. Hampton has started a tournament.
We visited the local gold mine. We were lowered down into the mine by an English-built
cart thing from 1827. We had to go 14 at a time, and as the cart I was on descended
into the mine, I heard Continuum testing out the acoustics. A little Irish Airman
if I recall and Loch Lomond. There is arsenic in the water so they had to stop
mining there without further equipment. It's interesting to hear about the similarities
between the Portugese bringing slaves from Africa to work the mines, and comnparing
it to our own American history. Joao said he didn't know why Brasilian slaves
didn't come up with spirituals like in America, but he suspected it was because
Brasil was a Catholic country. I'm still trying to figure out why only only
slaves in Protestant cultures would sing, but it seems to be the biggest notable
difference.
Before leaving the
mine area, we made sure the visit the gift shop, where there were minerals and
bottled water. We're buying a lot of water.
After the mine, we headed
to Mariana. Upon arrival, we weren't able to get into the church for our concert
yet, so we had rest period on the bus. I promised the boys ice cream for such
a fine concert the ngiht before, so after rest period, we all wandered down
to the ice cream place, and along the way, there was a band of mostly kids setting
up to play in the street. Turns out it was the anniversary of the town or something,
and they had the band playing for that, as well as a procession of some sort
in the town a while before our concert. (Below, you see a photo Page took of
the girls dressed up for the procession).
Though we had planned on 45 minutes to get used to the acoustics, we didn't
have more than about 15 minutes to rehearse because they started ringing the
bells of the church, and it was impossible to sing with them on.
The church we sang in was across the street from another church, and it turns
out people with money used to show it off by building a new church for their
favorite saint. Kind of like the towers in Bologna, Italy I figure. So, the
church density in Ouro Preto and Mariana tends to be high.
Before the concert, we had some food and got ready for the concert while Mr
Tarango continued to read from Hatchet, which he had started the previous night
in the silent time before the concert.
The concert was even better than the first one. It had a focus an energy I haven't
seen yet with this tour, and maybe not since last tour. It's that kind of common
mindset and focus that we only get on tour when we're prepared and have our
thoughts oriented towards what we're doing together. The boys looked and sounded
great. Since Hear My Prayer wasn't a big hit the previous night, we swapped
in Precious Lord, which Mr Kula cooked up with Contnuum before the concert.
We surrounded the interior perimeter of the church for Mountain Nights and again
used the available balcony for the Benjamin Britten piece. The boys were very
justifiably excited and proud, and this time there were even more people asking
to get CDs signed.
For our first non-buffet meal, we had had some sandwiches for dinner before
the concert, but it really wasn't enough food to last us, so Page and Christina
tracked down some pizza for after the concert.
We returned back to Dom Bosco and rushed to bed since we have an early flight
and it takes two hours just to get to the airport. Our wakeup time is 3:30.
The boys are just going to sleep in their clothes and we had them pack in the
morning.
I've still got some SF water in my water bottle, which I'm rationing as a tangible
reminder of California, but as it dwindles I'm getting more used to this time
zone and more used to the food and the language here. Things as going well.
Especially since we had only one Troubador retire after last year's tour, we're
due to have lots of guys leave, and I'm very aware as each day goes along we
are closer to the last time this choir will ever sound quite this way, and the
last time we will see many of these boys for a long time as many head their
separate ways. I'm determined to make the most of it while we're all together.
We'll try to find the boys some ice cream again tomorrow.
--Mr. Fox
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