This is the name of the bissau-guinean orchestra i am writing about at the moment. And i can’t help sharing with you one of its most famous pieces, “Dissan na mbera”, which means “let me walk peacefully”. A song from the years just after the war against the Portuguese, when the new independant goverment was starting betraying the ideas of revolution, and more and more big rich cars could be seen crossing the country like storms crushing everything on their way.
Hi!
I’m Sylvain Prudhomme, just arrived from France to spend one month in beograd, thanks to Krokodil and its invitation. Glad to be here and to write these posts, even if i still don’t feel very familiar with blogging… nor with Beograd, which i’m just starting to investigate! That’s why i’ve decided to try and write this blog in english, rather than in french. It will be a challenge for me, similar to that of being immersed in the city, still not understanding very much of what happens and what people say. And my approximative english might be convenient to my still approximative observations bout belgrade, since the first sights i’ll write here about will probably be quite clichés, despite all my efforts to be as accurate as i can!
Things i like till now (among many others):
-the way serbians say cheers before drinking: “Jiveli!”, “let’s live!” (if i’m not wrong), which is far more beautiful than our “Santé” (Health!). Would that mean a difference of programm in life? i wonder about it.
-trying to read the titles and the autors’names on bookcovers in the bookshops (i’m still very slow at reading cyrillic alhpabet); and realizing after a few seconds that i know them very well, and that sometimes i’ve read them!
-an old bar in a quiet street near the place i live, probably closed for many years, but still called “Robin Food”: the curtains are closed and covered with grafs, some windows are shattered, but what i like is this big bunch of trees grown in the yard, so high that when you see it you think it’s a small sample of Nottingham Forest brought here just for the atmosphere.
(i will post a picture of it as soon as i get a camera, in a few days)