Austen & Shanita

I know Austen from way back but this was my first time meeting Shanita.  This was the one and only Arizona Tinyboatsession in Season 6.    We met on a warm spring evening on Lake Pleasant just north of Phoenix.  I met Austen 25 years ago when we worked at a gym in high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I hadn't seen him in perhaps twenty.  Life back then was simply swim team, lifting weights, and lifeguarding. 

One of the activities that Austen picked up in high school was Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that mixes tumbling, dancing, and fighting and developed from Africans enslaved by the Portuguese and brought to Brazil.  I remember him telling me about it and demonstrating some of the basic moves on the patch of grass behind the pool we life-guarded at.

I moved.  Austen moved.  We connected over a long phone call every couple of years.  During the pandemic, Austen posted an image of him sitting in a shallow desert river playing the ‘Berinbau’.   A berimbau is one of the main instruments of Capoeira.  Capoeira is meant to develop not just physical skills and strength, but community and spirituality.  A big part of weaving all this together is the music.  The Maestro leads the songs that outline the disciplines, style, tempo, and engagement of the dancers/ combatants. Austen had kept at the practice and 20 years later was teaching it.

We floated around Lake Pleasant looking at the large Saguaro cacti that stood like sentinels on the shore.  We rowed and played music till dark.  The song he and Shaneeta played was ‘Marinhero So’ or ‘Lonely Sailor.’  Shanita played a small drum called a pandeiro.  It was good to reconnect and we spent enough time laughing that it seemed like 20 years hadn't happened at all. Instagram: @uca_monitor_pavao