Brazil was once a Portuguese colony. Plenty of slaves from Angola were brought to the south American state. They didn’t want to be prisoners of the Europeans, so they escaped in the woods and developed a martial art: the Capoeira. Today we learned four basic steps:

1.Ginga

To put your feet in a parallel position, protecting organs and head with your arms.

2.Negativa

To crouch to the side and protect your head, used for dodging frontal attacks.

3.Rasteira

To “chop” your opponents’ legs using your leg, that remains low. After the attack, do a quick spin and return to the defending position.

4.Martelo

To “hammer” your opponent with your leg.

Jakopo

In the morning we learned a dance with martial arts elements. The “dance” is called capoeira. This dance was normally preformed with music. The slaves (that were brought from Angola to Brazil from the Portuguese) learned this “dance” to defend themselves from the Portuguese. With capoeira they could also attack the colonialists.

In the afternoon we learned about Japan. We had a zoom meeting with Momoyo who told us everything we wanted to know about Japan. It was very interesting and she is very nice.

Nadir

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