Today was Mesquita's last day at the Capoeira studio. We had a long closing in the Roda where we all got to play with him. Then all the kids piled on top of him and wrestled for a while. He said a few words as he was saying his good byes. He said in Brazil everyone trains very hard because it is all they do, but here it seems we just do it for fun or a way to lose weight and don't put in the time and dedication that he is used to. I don't think he meant it in a bad way, but it seemed to me like he was saying we don't take it seriously enough.Class has been difficult because poor Ricki has been trying to translate from Mesquita's Portuguese to German and then English for Skylar and I, but sometimes gets too confused to do it. It's hard enough to teach in one language, let alone three. I've been trying to follow along as best I could without instruction to save her from the English at least, but sometimes I really got lost. Mesquita understood a little English if I spoke really slow, but it is almost painful to do that. I understood a little Portuguese from the Spanish I know, but it was difficult for him to speak that slowly as well. It tended to make our conversations pretty awkward.
Now class will go back to normal.
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