Vaso de Barro

Where did we leave off?

Oh yes. You learned all about my crazy adventure to Niterói, Brasil. Now I'm here!

I'll start out with some of the most striking differences/things I've learned about Brasil:

1. You cannot flush toilet paper down 99% of the toilets here. The city is old and the pipes will not support it. So you put it in little trash cans beside the toilet. Nifty. I have been known to forget said rule, and commence praying when I flush the toilet, that it will go down and not clog anything. 

2. This metro area, home to around 1.2 million people (not counting Rio de Janeiro), feels like a small town. Everyone is so kind, generous, and open, even and especially to us Americans. The missionaries say it feels like a small town, too.

3. I love the challenge of attempting to communicate with a person when neither of us know much of the other's language. Everyone here speaks Portuguese. Hardly no one speaks enough English to have a proper conversation, and I certainly don't speak enough Portuguese yet to successfully converse. But I love it! The nationals are so fun to talk with because they're endlessly patient with my inability to understand them. It's a weird thing to enjoy, but it's so fun to guess at what they're saying and respond in kind, or try to figure out the Portuguese words to say. I really love the language!

4. People you meet and pass by on the street don't smile. At first I was very sad about this, because I smile at everyone I pass! I thought they were very unhappy people. But then I met, really met Brasilians, and I have to say that they're some of the friendliest, happiest people I've been given the opportunity to meet. It's just a cultural difference. Even if you make eye contact with someone, if you aren't familiar with them, you just don't smile. I've been working on it. But people still look at me funny 'cuz I can't help myself and smile, especially knowing how friendly they really are!

5. Residents around Rio, including Niterói, have an accent different from people in, say, São Paulo or Curitiba. These people are called Cariocas. I am AWFUL at said accent. It involves tongue aerobics that I just can't seem to pull off. But I love the language. My Portuguese teacher called me a Paulista (resident of São Paulo) because they don't do the stuff in the Cariocas accent that I can't do. That's fine by me, and I think everyone will still be able to understand me without the local accent, so I think we're okay.

6. You walk a LOT here. And I mean a LOT. It's either walking or public transportation. I am too directionally challenged to recognize yet where to ask the bus to stop. Luckily there's been someone with me every time I've had to take the bus, so it's okay! A taxi is an option too, but they're kinda expensive. Side note: I rode in a taxi for the first time on Friday night, because we left from Bible study at around midnight. Bernardo, my new friend, lives close by so we shared. It was fun! Bernardo had paid my bus fare on the way to Bible Study, so I paid for the taxi. The driver apparently didn't like that, and was refusing to accept that I was paying for the whole fare. I think he was very adamant to make Bernardo pay at least half. It was really funny. Finally the driver accepted my money, after arguing with him some more. 

7. This city is unlike anything I've ever experienced. It's built into the hills, so at night it's breathtakingly beautiful. I can't get over how much I enjoy the beauty. I could see myself living in a place like this, despite how loud it is and how busy things are (both of which, being a small-town girl, are out of my element, but I'm finding how to enjoy both). 

God is at work here in the city and at O Caminho, the church I'm interning with. I'm so thankful that He saw fit to lead me here and let me in on what He's doing in this great city full of wonderful people. 

Last Saturday I went with a group of Americans who are here with Let's Start Talking, a great program that helps people practice their English through studying the book of Luke in English, to the modern art museum in Niterói, and the Christ Statue and Sugar Loaf in Rio de Janeiro, just across the bay not 30 minutes from Niterói. It was beatiful! Rio is such an amazing city, as I've said before. A really nice woman who lives down the hall from the apartment where the LST people live and her boyfriend took us. They knew everything about Rio and Niterói, so it was great! Here are some photos from that day!