Meeting with Sifu Meng - Fortaleza Brazil - June 2009 Day One - 24:On Wednesday I went early to the airport, there I found a few sidais and todais waiting for me. All of us were very eager, after all had spent just over a year since Sifu Meng is in Fortaleza. As we are waiting, we talked about the expectations of the latest discoveries and conclusions of Ving Tsun Museum on the Wing Chun originally developed in Shaolin.
The flight finally arrived in time. We met Sifu Meng at 08h40min and after see some old and new students, we left the airport and drove to the house of my sidai, Marco Antonio, who had prepared a reception followed by a special lunch for our master. We all saw this meeting as a new and bright beginning. So much of the steps that we would walk and places that we would visit have implied some symbolism with some importance to us. Starting from where we would spend the morning of Wednesday with Sifu Meng. It was precisely in the assembly room of the condominium where lives my friend and sidai Marco Antonio that there was, even in May 2005, the first meeting of the group of friends that would change the history of Wing Chun in northern Brazil. At that first meeting were me, Mairton, Marcos Roberto, Marco Antonio, Eugenio Araujo and Jurandir Nogueira. So the morning of Wednesday was reserved for a private meeting with that pioneer group and Sifu Meng, additionally some of my older students that helped very much in this project were also present, as Humberto Herculano, João Batista, Jorge Medeiros, Claudio Costa, and Julio Cesar. We pleasantly this morning talking about the past and contemplating the good news that waiting in our future.
After eating a great lasagna served by Marco Antonio’s mother, we take Sifu Meng to check in at the Vela e Mar Hotel (Sail and Sea) (
http://www.velaemarhotel.com.br) on Avenida Beira Mar (Seaside Avenue). Following resumption of our journey, we reserve the same hotel in which Sifu had been the first time he came to Fortaleza in April 2007, so he could practice his jogging on morning before training. We had planned a rest for Sifu Meng in that afternoon, but he preferred to start the training immediately, then we drove to the place of training which was in UNIFOR (University of Fortaleza), one of the largest private university in Brazil (
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=669470).
Some students are already waiting in the place of training in the UNIFOR and then others were coming. Sifu began a lecture on his research on the approach to the formatting of the Three Halls program and on the basis of 6 Shaolin Wisdoms. In this first time, Sifu Meng addressed the first wisdom, sik (techniques / tools) and its importance for development of the practitioner’s skills and highlighting the importance of having the Shaolin culture as a vision and way of life. Then we began training in the 1st Hall - Gei Bun Gung (Basic Exercises) on Qigong natural breathing and control breathing, and flexibility, strength and endurance. Then we began the 2nd Hall - Gei Bun Dung Juk (Basic Movements) focusing on the 36 Chambers of Shaolin within the 6 areas - hand methods, body methods, leg method, stances, footworks, posture / facing. So we spent the afternoon of Wednesday.
With night coming, we needed to leave the university, and then we went to have dinner at the Beira Mar Grill restaurant which is on the beach. It was another place that gave us the impression of some déjà vu. Back in 2007, this was the first restaurant where we had dinner with Sifu Meng in Fortaleza. After dine the students have already asked for our traditional training night on Avenida Beira Mar (Seaside Avenue) on the beach (
http://mesquita.blog.br/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/bl-pl-fotos-memoria-fortaleza-beira-mar-2007.jpg). Unfortunately this was not possible because at the first of all it was rainy, and the second because Sifu Meng was very tired due the long trip from Dayton to Fortaleza. So I I and my student Jorge took Sifu Meng to the hotel to get some rest, but for me the night still had not finished, yet I found myself with sidais to talk about the news that Sifu Men brought to us.
