Well, for those of you who are reading this, I would like to say what an honor it is. The life of a Gringo in Brazil is kinda hard. The language they speak in Brazil is not English, and after a week of study, I can follow roughly half of the normal conversations. The life here is extremely fun, exhilirating, laid-back, spontanious, and even at times exhausting. It has definitely taken a week or so of getting used to.
I arrived in Itu, Brazil exactly a week ago after taking a few buses from the São Paulo Airport. The fact that I made it was a feat in and among itself. No one spoke Inglês except for one girl at the airport, and her role was a crucial one. She informed on where I needed to purchase the bus tickets to get to Barra Funda (which is a major bus station in São Paulo) from the Airport. I would not have made it here without her. I would also like to thank the lady who provided me with 24 minutes of Internet at the Barra Funda bus station. She did not speak English, but through my very broken Portuguese and somwhat coherant hand motions, we were able to communicate, and I was able to get a hold of Daniel´s phone number to call him and make plans to pick me up at the bus station in Itu.
Long story short, this week has been filled with business, studying, listening, reflecting and lots of walking on my part. I can now navigate the streets of Itu pretty effectively. I have been over to Mark & Ali´s house pretty much every day, and there is always something crazy going on there. Thursday nights they have a youth group meeting at the house called Kaiserês, which I got to sit in on, listen, and try to find words I understood. Friday for lunch, they have a homeless ministry at their house called Shiki-Shol (I don´t think I spelled that right, but that´s how it sounds), which was great to be a part of this week. Sunday after church, we helped Marcus move into his new house in Indaiatuba and did a lot of yard work (it reminded me some of the work my youth group would do in Mexico because the whole youth group came to help). And yesterday I spent the day at their house studying Português and reflecting on the week.
Yesturday, I also bought a bright yellow hat with a Brazilian soccer team logo on it in the market because it reminded me of my good friend Barton back home. The hat is made from really cheap material, it really stands out in a crowd, and it only cost me R$ 5 (about $3 American dollars). When I showed Daniel my new florescent hat, he said, "now you can look like even more of a Gringo." I´m not really sure what that means, but at least I will have something now to rival Barton´s "I <3 VBS" hat trend.
As for now, I will leave you with a smidgen of information that I have learned this week.
- Preservatives in Brazil are in fact nothing like preservatives in the USA. They actually have nothing to do with jelly or jam at all. -
Go figure.
No comments:
Post a Comment