Samui Profile
The following is an extract of an interview between Steven Willeboordse of Samui Explorer and the entertainment section of Zico's Brazilian Grill and Bar in Chaweng.
Samui Explorer:
Can you first tell us where you come from and how you got on Samui?
Zoraia:
Joice and I are both from Sao Paulo in Brazil. Back home I already was a dancer and a friend of mine from Brazil who played in a band in Zico's before recommended me to go to Samui for a change to work in Zico's.
Joice:
I worked in Italy before with a friend from Brazil and he recommended me here in Zico's. And I thought it would be interesting to work in Azia, always good to have another experience on the list of life.
Elwin:
We, from the band, are all from the Philippines. Eula comes from Cavite, Lino and Tess from Laguna and I come from Bulacan.
Lino:
Elwin, my nephew, had is own group and after they broke up I asked him to join Tess (my wife) and me. We have played in Thailand for over 3 years with on and off in countries all around Asia. A little bit later Tess asked Eula, who is a close family friend and always wanted to go work abroad, to join us too.
Samui Explorer:
So what's the style of music for dancing and the band plays?
Joice:
During the six nights a week we dance we do two shows during dinner which is samba dance and another show later upstairs in the bar with a music style called axe (pron; aciee). This is a style coming from the north of Brazil and can be described as a choreography style dance.
Eula:
With the band we play covers, all depending on the atmosphere. Because of our background with many influences from different cultures we sing in a lot of different languages like Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Thai, Turkish and Korean.
Tess:
And of course English, which is our second language. Our native language is Tagalog, which is a mix of Spanish and Japanese with influences from Chinese, Malay and English.
Samui Explorer:
What is it that you like about living on Samui?
Zoraia:
I just love the beaches, the weather, and my work in a different country with different people. Of course we have great weather and great beaches in Brazil, but being from Sao Paulo the working circumstances and quality of life is much better here compared to back home in Brazil.
Joice:
It's more difficult for us to find a job in Brazil and indeed, working here for us has more benefits than in Brazil.
Lino:
For us it's a bit like that too. In the Philippines we have more competition and working here has more benefits for us and gives us more fun, experience and a better quality of life.
Samui Explorer:
So what you do in your free time?
Tess:
I love to cook, from Philippine dishes to international cuisine. My other hobby is making clothes, like the costumes for the band for example. Lino is into electronics, building and repairing computers and sound systems, and not to forget playing games on his X-box.
Eula:
Elwin likes to workout in the gym and going out with friends. I like photography and chatting on the internet.
Joice:
Zoraia loves to exercise on the beach and also chatting on the internet. I like to work out in the gym, walking with my dogs, play tennis and dancing.
Samui Explorer:
Any plans for the future?
Elwin:
We all have a bit of the same idea in our band, go on with what we do and save money for later so we can all have a nice and simple life back in the Philippines when we're older.
Zoraia:
I would like to study marketing to be able to start my own business and hopefully getting married one day.
Joice:
I have plans to start a real Brazilian bikini shop and make money to be able to go back to Brazil one day and start a family and have a happy and healthy life.
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