This one is going to be short, and will be followed by a much longer, detailed post. I just wanted to talk about why I've been so busy and unable to blog. I'll start with a photo and few things I've learned.
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| I know that this isn't the best photo in the world, but it's my Brasilian family and it pretty well describes them. They're so cute and I love them so much. From left to right: Ester, Márcia, Raquel, and Carlos's chin, haha. |
- · Watching Pokémon with my Brasilian family in Portuguese? Possibly the most entertaining bonding experience ever.
- · Mixing up the Portuguese words for “where” and “when”? Not so great for communication. Yeah. I've been doing that a lot lately.
- · Note to self: the gesture for “a-ok” or “perfect” (making a circle with your thumb and forefinger and holding the rest of your fingers up) is the same here for flipping the bird. Lesson learned. I'm quite embarrassed, considering I’ve been making that gesture to clarify my bad pronunciation of “perfeito” the entire 5 weeks I’ve been here. Oops.
- · Going into Rio with just one other American, who doesn’t speak the language very well either, is maybe not the best idea. I had my guaraná stolen, but that’s it. It went very well, but every time I tell a Brasilian we went they told us we should have had another person with us who knew the language and the place. They said it wasn’t that dangerous, but that we could have gotten lost or something. But we did great, didn’t get lost, and did everything we needed to do very well and more or less efficiently.
- · When you live in a culture and study the language, you learn much more quickly than if you study it. I can make far more conversation in Portuguese, which I've only had ten 2-hour lessons in, than I’m able to make in Spanish, which I studied in school for 2.5 years. Every moment of every day is its own lesson, full of new words and situations. I learn best by seeing things in action as well as hearing them, so being immersed in the culture is the best for me.
- My nickname might as well be "the girl who's always asking questions". Yes, it's a long nickname. I wonder if the Brasilians ever get tired of my questions? I hope not. It's the best way I learn.
- Brasilian night-life is crazy. Packing a zillion things into your last fim de semana (weekend)? Not smart. I'm exhausted! But it's a good kind of exhaustion.
I haven't had much time to blog lately because we work at the church from 10 in the morning until 8 most every evening. At 10 we always have our Bible study for an hour or so, and then from 11-1 on Wednesday and Thursday we have had Portuguese class. After, we have lunch, and at 2 on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays we start reading the Bible with Brasilians in English until closing time. That has been the best experience of my life; getting to discuss the Bible and the things of our Lord with the people of another culture. I've learned a lot from the experience and I think everyone's been blessed immensely. On Wednesdays in our free time we've been working on our hypothetical church plant project, which is almost completely together. It's been an interesting experience, as well, researching and doing things that aren't necessarily working directly with the Brasilian people in and around the church. It's also been valuable in opening our eyes to how to work as a team, and the challenges of that.
The exception to the busy-ness is Saturdays and Mondays. Those are our days off. Since I've been living with my Brasilian family, however, things have seemed super busy! In the evenings, when I get home, I want to hang out with them, which has been really wonderful. These past few Saturdays we interns have been adventuring, so that day has been filled up. Mondays have held several adventures and mis-adventures, as well. Haha. By the time I get done with Saturdays and Mondays I'm so tired I don't wanna do anything but chill with my family. So, there haven't been many blog posts.
Good night, people. I hope to write you more tomorrow! <3
Deus abençoe-os! (God bless you all!)
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