And now, among babies, old and young, crackaddicts and non-crackaddicts, blacks and… yeah mostly blacks, except from the three of us, Oledum pumped pounding powerful drummed rythms into our body and souls. It was impossible not to fall in love with the Brazilian culture.

My head was about to explode while entering the chaotic, wild, beautiful but also sad Afro-Brazilian bitter-sweet Unesco site and old city of Salvador Pelourinho, meaning Pillory (a device used for public punishment). Unchanged from Portuguese colonial times (when half the population were african slaves -abt 4 million) it’s today a living museum and a sensoral firework. The distinguished scents and visions of the baianas, the big fat Bahian-mamas. Poor crackaddicted children who seem to sleep the day away and crawl out at night from their hide-away. Frenetically running around with hunter’s eyes, hunting for tourist-pockets, food, crack and love… Capoeira-groups practicing capoeira or dancing samba in the streets. And pastel-colored buildings, now fully decorated with cheezy christmas-decorations.

With this as the backdrop we stumbled upon Brazil’s cultural pride, the drum-band Oledum, and their quite rear public rehearsal for carneval. Oledum is the heartbeat of Michael Jackson’s song and music video; They don’t really care about us, shot in this excact location.

I danced my way into the night sweaty and electric with a huge smile on my face and heart.