On the Radio

Today we said good-bye to the city of Porto Alegre and our hostel. We were off to Lageado and a new hotel. While we loved the hostel and the owners we were thrilled when we saw the spacious hotel rooms and individual bathrooms. We are also looking forward to a quite nights sleep with no traffic... only crickets.

The bus ride to Lageado involved talking about some of the highlights from Porto Alegre. The gecko story, food, and Brazilian hospitality were a few of people's highlights. Jennifer or choir mom shared with us how she had been touched by the music. Despite hearing our concert numerous times she's not sick of us. She also shared how one song in particular, Salve Regina or To the Mothers of Brazil has affected her. It is a piece about the sorrow of mothers who lost their sons during a period of war and takeover by the army in Brazil in the 1980's. She shared how the haunting music and stories from Fernado about that time period had touched her deeply especially being a mother. Her story inspired us and helped us to remember how blessed we are in Canada.

Today's city tour was led by some students from Univates. They showed us around the city and the university campus. Some of the highlights of the campus tour included seeing there TV station set where they film talk shows, sports shows, and music shows. They broadcast on cable television and have logged more hours then all the TV networks in the state. We then visited their radio station where they play all types of music. We had the unique opportunity to be broadcasted on their show. Joy answered some questions about the choir and the concert and then we sang one of our pieces live on the radio as a teaser. Apparently it worked because later that evening the concert was packed.

Not only did we get a chance to sing on the radio but we were able to sing on the brand new stage at the cultural center in Lageado. The culture center was built to fill a demand for a theatre in the area and it is due to open on Saturday. An important dignitary is going to sing and there will be a celebration. Somehow, however, we managed to steal the honor of being the FIRST to sing on the stage. Our audience was a few construction workers and students but normally the audience can be several thousand.

After checking into our hotels we headed back to the university to prepare for our concert. We sang in their auditorium which had no piano. All our pieces were acapella. We had only one hiccup which involved starting a song a whole not higher than normal. We all pulled through with only a few funny looks at each other and a few screechy high notes from the sopranos. The crowd was full to capacity and afterwards we met many of the people including some students wanting to practice English. We of course wanted to practice our Portuguese which is improving thanks to a word of the day session with Fernando.

The evening was topped off with a visit to the universities social club for dinner. There we had delicious food and great conversations with the students who had led our tour. We also introduced them to our crazier side by calling harems on. Our bus driver Michael even got in on the action and was caught sitting by himself with a table of women. It was an evening of fun and laughter.

Each day we have been challenging the choir members to come up with a blog title for the day. It has brought out some competitive and creative sides. We've been meaning to credit people so today's blog title is courtesy of Catie.