ICBIE

Many articles in this blog, especially those dealing with Mestre Pedro, have mentioned the Alagados, the infamous favela of shacks perched on wooden stilts over the All Saints’ Bay. Located less than a mile from the ICBIE, up the end of the bay to the south, this slum is a true no-man’s land. Their houses…

During this “holiday” week, Pietro and Marlene have been frantically busy. A good part of this has been my fault, as my house purchase triggered a swarm of bureaucratic tangles and tense meetings with lawyers and mediators that nonetheless raced along to a happy ending. But beyond that, they have been constantly involved in planning…

There is a fourth ICBIE video on YouTube, this time dedicated to our Art Hostel in the verdant back courtyard, where we host our visiting professors, guests, and socially-responsible tourists.  Now people who are considering a visit to Salvador can see what awaits them: lovely rooms facing out on a tropical garden full of banana…

The ICBIE’s development work with Hapkido – the Korean Martial Art of Personal Defense – has objectives that go beyond the teaching of the techniques of kicking, body twists and immobilization (the principal training characteristics of this art). Our deeper concern is that the students who practice it acquire a better quality of life, rather…

I’ve seen a lot of amazing things at the ICBIE, but yesterday’s performance by Mestre Pedro’s Capoeira troupe surpassed them all. At four o’clock in the afternoon, about twenty incredible artists, ranging in age from eight to sixty, transformed the open space of our future theater into the site of a stunning ritual of twisting…

Yesterday Pietro had to spend many hours making artistic contacts in downtown Salvador, so I took advantage of the peace and quiet to put together another ICBIE video.  After the virtual tour of the premises, (which has been viewed more than a hundred times in just a couple days), it seemed appropriate to deal with…

The ICBIE is full of surprises, and the last four days illustrate the rich variety of experiences that animate our lives here. On Saturday we celebrated the third night of the cineforum with the showing of Schindler’s List, and about fifteen people showed up. We were curious to see how the locals would react to…

A morning of fooling around with a video camera and iMovie, and the ICBIE now has its first film on YouTube. You can find it on the Pages list in the right hand column of this blog. Please share the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xTP_Y7gmxU with your friends, and feel free to rate it with five stars!