Let passion be your guide, service your gift, family your home and the world your school.

After reading Bruce Feiler’s book, The Secrets of Happy Families, our family created the “mission statement” above. We added some other beliefs that defined us and my amazing graphic artist brother-in-law, Paul,  turned it into this wonderful work of art. Now when we lose our way, we literally have a map that leads us back to ourselves.

The map was also a reminder for April and me of how much we value traveling and the importance of experiencing other cultures. We were also reminded of this when a friend of ours talked about taking her family to live abroad for a year. That comment reignited something in April, and she passed that spark on to me.  I had no idea how we were going to make this happen, but I knew we had to find a way. Then, last fall, in a conversation with my department chair, Derek, I mentioned that I’d like to see more non-western movement added to our curriculum, such as African dance and capoeira.

If you don’t know what capoiera is, it’s a Brazilian martial art/dance form that was created by slaves to disguise their training to fight and free themselves. It generally involves two capoeristas “playing” in a circle as others sing and play music. It looks like this.

Derek asked me about teaching capoeira, and I responded that it would take several years if I started now as I could only go to one or two classes a week with my schedule. That’s when Derek suggested applying for the sabbatical my school awards one faculty member per year to go to Brazil and study it intensely. Some ideas popped into my head immediately.

Oh yeah, and this, too.

That’s me, on my head!

South America wasn’t even on our radar as potential place to live for awhile, but it seemed like it was meant to be. In the fall of last year I decided to take a capoeira class with Capoeira Brooklyn to see if I would like it. The movement was fun, but it was when Mestre Foca handed me an agogo (a percussion instrument) to play along that I was sold. The chance to move in new ways AND play music- I was IN! I quit Aikido- the Japanese martial art I had been practicing for the past 4 years- the next week and started training in capoeira immediately. Sidney started training, too.  I applied and received the sabbatical in December. Just like that it was all set in motion.

Sidney is going to be so much better than me.

So now we are flying to Brazil on January 20th for six months. April and I have studied Portuguese for the past year, got our visas, spent way more money on immunizations than expected and are preparing to home-school our children while I do an intensive study of capoeira. Though we are a bit nervous about leaving what is familiar, it’s time for an adventure!

The whole family will be blogging while there. You can find out how we’re doing and where we are on this site, as well as how to get in touch with us.

We’ll be living in a 2-bedroom condo with a pool on the beach in the tiny beach town of Arraial D’Ajuda in southern Bahia until the the end of February. After that we’ll see where my training takes us. Plans include Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Recife, but you know what they say about the best laid plans.

Wish us boa sorte e boa viagem!