Houston Evacuation

My friend from Houston is leaving the city and heading up to IL. He sent an email update this morning from somewhere in north-east TX. This excerpt gives a good idea of the crazy situation down there:

We left Houston late Wednesday night (or early Thursday morning, if you will) at 03:00. Leaving the city per se was rapid; we got to the airport (25 miles to the north) within an hour. But it was a complete disaster from there. We averaged 5 miles per hour for quite a long way. Highway 59, which goes north-north-east toward Arkansas, was one disaster area. Many people ran out of gas. If the hurricane has any real strength (as reported), people will be in serious trouble. Drivers were behaving in a crazy way, driving either on the grass or in some situations in the opposite direction lanes (with opposite traffic!!!) and the police did nothing. We saw one major crash and numerous stalled/stranded vehicles.

Finally, after 19 hours we got onto an empty sideroad. Until then every effort that we made to navigate around the catastrophe didn't succeed, because the sideroads were also clogged.

Our gas was reasonable. We ended up with a third of a tank left. Obviously on the highway there was ZERO gas, but once we got onto previously mentioned sideroad, there were gas stations with lines but with the precious commodity. We managed to refuel and finally got something to eat. (We had been drinking water all along but because of the insane traffic couldn't really stop anywhere; it was 2-3 hours between any two junctions on the road.)

After gas and food, we slept very well at a rest area. It was full with people from Houston, and obviously there are no hotels in Texas....

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Filhos de Gandhi

Yahoo's launchcast continues to expand my musical horizons. At this moment it's playing a great little song with an intriguing title --- "Filhos de Gandhi" by Gilberto Gil. Both artist and song are completely new to me.

Finding the lyrics here didn't help in figuring out what the word Gandhi is doing in the title of a Brazilian song. (My portuguese is very rusty :) --- a translation into english would be appreciated).

A few minutes of googling later, I now know that Gilberto Gil is a famous brazilian singer (in the league of Caetano Veloso --- who I have heard of). Filhos de Gandhi ("Sons of Gandhi") is a musical group that performs during Carnival, and according to wikipedia:

In 1949, a group called Filhos de GhandiGandhi began playing afoxê during Carnaval parades in Salvador; their name translates as Sons of GhandiGandhi, associating black Brazilian activism with Mahatma GhandiGandhi's Indian independence movement. The Filhos de GhandiGandhi's 1949 appearance was also revolutionary because, up until then, the Carnaval parades in Salvador were meant only for light-skinned people.

But what exactly the song says is still a mystery. Here's the portuguese :

Omolu, Ogum, Oxum, Oxumaré, todo o pessoal
Manda descer pra ver Filhos de Gandhi
Iansã, Iemanjá, chama Xangô, Oxossi também
Manda descer pra ver Filhos de Gandhi
Mercador, Cavaleiro de Bagdá
Oh, Filhos de Obá
Manda descer pra ver Filhos de Gandhi
Senhor do Bonfim, faz um favor pra mim
Chama o pessoal
Manda descer pra ver Filhos de Gandhi
Oh, meu Deus do céu, na terra é carnaval
Chama o pessoal
Manda descer pra ver Filhos de Gandhi

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