However, being new to it all – to New Zealand, to Auckland, to playing an instrument – I didn’t bother too much with Wellington. I focused on practicing on Sundays and Mondays. Eventually, I was declared gig ready and while practices were fun, that’s when the real fun started: Ponsonby Market Days, Christmas parades, fund raising support for charities, Christmas parades, a fashmob for our own promotion, Christmas parades, and more Christmas parades.

With all those practice hours and the sweat & tears (yes, both) of months of gigs under my belt, I thought I knew what to expect from ‘Cuba Dupa’.

Man was I wrong.

Cuba Dupa, that’s two days of street festival in Wellington, taking performing and being a member of AK Samba to a new level.

Already playing a joint gig with five samba bands all at once.. We made some serious noise! And don’t get me wrong, the crowds at Christmas parades in Auckland are good. They enjoy listening to music, but people who come to a street festival on Cuba Street want to dance and cheer and celebrate!

And so do AK Samba band members when they go away for a weekend. The travelling, the different city, the leader (coincidentally a teacher by profession) telling us when to be where, the handful of people who sneak into bed an hour before sunrise.. it all felt a bit like a really really awesome school trip – and it is definitely THE thing I will be practicing for all of this year.

Iris

Aaaaahhh, have you ever had that feeling of missing something or someone from your “natural habitat”? It usually happens to those who somehow move to a different hood, city, state or overseas. Well, that has happened to me again. Here I am in Aotearoa! 

Since I moved here in October 2015, I had had no contact with my Brazilian culture or Brazilian people. That may sound a bit odd, but with a busy student life and lots of plans for my future in NZ, it simply did not happen. But, like a gift sent from the Gods, I got my first job in NZ and together with it a Brazilian work mate, Karla Egypto. She invited me to see her playing her instrument, surdo, in a Samba group. I had never heard of AKSamba and never thought I would find a “bateria de escola de samba” in Auckland. I was completely shocked when I saw the band. I could not ask anything more than to be filled with the magic and energy of this vibrant rhythm from my beautiful country! And what a special group of musicians from all over the world! My thought was, REALLY? I had goose bumps during the entire time of that gig at Aotea Square on a beautiful afternoon.

I went to see the group practice on the following Monday evening and from that day on I started practicing with my chosen instrument, the “agogo“. I have never skipped one practice since then! How amazing is that?! I had traditionally participated in all Carnival gigs since I was a little in my mom’s home town, Esmeraldas, near Belo Horizonte, the capital of the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. And now I am part of this amazing Samba group here in Auckland, bringing me back to my origins, making me feel closer to my culture and filling my life with the joy that is rhythm, colors, happiness, friendship and love. All this here in our beautiful Auckland, Aotearoa!

With a couple of important gigs on my ‘portfolio’; Women’s March on Washington (Auckland) and Brazilian Day Festival 2017, it seems I will not miss a single gig and be part of this addiction that is samba and carnival!

AK Samba “rocks” my world! 

 Paulo Henrique Rodrigues de Souza aka PH