Brazil Day 10 - Concert with the Canarhinos

On Sunday, May 22nd, we continued singing in the morning. Our host families took us to the church in Itabirito at 10:00 am, where a mass was already being celebrated at that time. After a short warm-up, the choir program started at around 11:00 am: First, the Canarhinos from Itabirito, the choir that hosted us, sang a few pieces and then we performed. Since people in Itabirito rarely hear foreign choirs, they were completely thrilled and praised us even after the concert. The highlight of this little concert was our piece 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams, which we performed together with the Canarhinos without rehearsing. Everyone had a lot of fun. You could see that in the audience, who enthusiastically swayed, hummed along, and rewarded us all with thunderous applause.

After these exhausting and eventful days before, we were allowed to relax on this day. Of course, the Canarhinos were also with us and enjoyed a delicious lunch with buffet and cool drinks. Then it was time for a pool party!

We all went to the 'União Sport Club' together and spent the afternoon playing soccer and swimming in the pool. A samba group, consisting of our host brothers and host sisters, played with various instruments, such as tambourines or ukuleles, creating a festive atmosphere. We tried our best to participate in the limbo and Brazilian dance performances, with varying degrees of success! When our host families picked us up at 6:00 pm, the party wasn't over for everyone just yet. Each host family individually planned the evening with us as their guests.

Now, let me tell you a little bit about my evening since a kind of house party was organized for us, Rebekka:

My friend Kim and I were accommodated in a kind of extended family. This consisted of five children, a grandma, and the parents. They live in two households together in a house with an open kitchen on the veranda. People in Brazil often don't have much, but they still make so much effort to offer us a great stay in their city and their home. For example, they cleared their room and slept on the couch so that we had a bed. And on this last evening, too, they showed us again what they would do for us and that we are actually already like family and friends to them.

They picked us up from the swimming pool and drove us home. They already announced that a few people would come to visit a party. Also six people from our choir. We were served a delicious dinner consisting of pasta with ground beef or cheese sauce with chicken. It was simply delicious and we immediately ate a few plates. One by one, the people arrived and we decided to take a few pictures outside in nature. Next to our house, there was an almost 400-year-old church, which became the scene of thousands of pictures in the moonlight. It was really funny because communication was either through sign language or through Portuguese, which we Germans, of course, don't master, and so many funny situations arose!

Afterwards, it was time for the BRAZILIAN COLA - 2-liter cola bottles filled with liquor for the Caipirinha.

The Caipirinha here in Brazil is actually water compared to the one in Germany. It tastes really good here and is a bit stronger. Our host families pointed that out to us and said that we should try it first. But not before we sang something: So we agreed to sing Viva la Vida with eight of us, which everyone, as always, as in our concerts, filmed and afterwards were completely thrilled. As the evening progressed, we went out onto the street and everyone started dancing. Our host brother João played the ukulele, just like in the afternoon at the swimming pool. It was really cool to dance with our families because they make completely different movements when dancing. You can't believe how fast they are with their feet!

It was a really great evening with plenty of food, lots of funny moments, and we definitely made new great friends here again, who already missed us in the evening because the next morning we continued to Diamantina.