Sunday 16 June 2013

Learn to speak

Day 18 - 16 de Junho: Manaus

Today I woke up around 7:45 excited to see what the day would bring. I would have to wait a little bit though - i woke up about an hour earlier than everyone else. It was fine though - it gave me a chance to shower and get in a bit more portuguese practice. Although I've thinking to myself that it took me 4 years in high school and 3 trips to spanish-speaking countries to get any good at Spanish, i have to weigh in that this is basically portuguese emersion - i either learn fast or end up not talking all that much this trip. I think I'll go with the first option. A major part of this home-stay experience is that while I get taught their language, I will also be teaching english to the family and to the staff of the jungle tours. Hopefully I'm a good teacher. Anyway, back to the plot - when Jeffson awoke, I accompanied him to the local market to pick up food for breakfast. This morning we would have scrambled egg sandwiches, so we needed to pick up all the buns. We lined up to the bakery counter and when it was our turn, Jeffson had me make the order. I had to repeat what I said to the girl, but my sentence worked in the end - "onze paes" meaning "11 buns". We returned home and had breakfast outside on a patio table. After eating, Jeffson taught me about regular verbs in portuguese and to my delight, they conjugate in nearly the same way in spanish. By the looks of it, the big challenge will just be getting down saying and hearing the pronunciation. Some of the letter combinations make completely different sounds than i'm used to. For example, the word tarde means afternoon in spanish and portuguese. To pronounce it in spanish is tar-day as you'd expect but in portuguese it is pronounced tar-jee. This has made it quite difficult to recognize even the simplest words in conversations. I think i'm slowly getting better though. After my lesson, i called home to my dad for father's day - wish he was sharing the experience with me but i'm glad i've been able to keep in such good contact. By the time i finished, it was getting really hot outside - probably 30-35 degrees today. The beard that kept my face warm in the Cusqueñan cold was overstaying its welcome now, so i took the chance to shave it off for the first time this trip. Looking respectable now, the family and I got in the car and made our way to Jeffson's mom's house for her birthday lunch. Again, just like Peru the back seats don't get any seat belts - i guess only the front seat people feel the car accidents ;). It felt like deja vu from yesterday - a big meal and family gathering and I was doing my best at juggling 3 or 4 different languages. I was very happy to see a plate of lasagna among the dishes on the table - tick Manaus off the lasagna list. I had that along with rice, beans, chicken, steak - yup, they really know how to eat here. I'm going to plump back up if I don't get out on a jungle hike soon. I fill my plate here and everyone is still amazed that I don't go back for a second or third plate. After a little bit, we made the drive back home. It was about 3pm and the heat was exhausting me. They said it was time to chill now, so I took a quick nap, followed by a bit more portuguese studying and my second shower of the day. Jeffson really stressed the importance of frequent showering here - the climate gets you stinky pretty fast. He said that his last volunteer was from France, and never took a shower for days on end. Then he was upset when nobody wanted to be near him - poor Manaus. Our final activity of the day was going to church (it's sunday today). My family took me to their Baptist church. It isn't my religion, but i'm glad I went just so now I know how they practice. It's quite common these days for religions to stereotype and generalize other religions without knowing a thing about them. I'm glad now to at least have first-hand facts about them. The only thing that bugged me was that the speaker they had for their service sounded very interesting, but of course I couldn't understand it. Jeffson translated a fair bit for me, but there would be times when everyone would laugh and I'd just have this confused look on my face. Everyone was very nice; i talked to a few of the english speakers after the service ended. They were all amazed by all the places i'm travelling and are very glad that i'm spending so much time in Manaus. They served soup and cake after the service which served as dinner for tonight. This suited me well since the lunch was so heavy. It was late-ish when we got home, so it didn't take long for everyone to make their ways to bed. But first, i had to try one more thing. Jeffson said that you can't say you've had Acai berry until you've had it from this local area, and i'll give it to him - the smoothie/juice he made with it was incredible. Too bad it can't stay that fresh when it arrives in Canada! Anyway, tomorrow it sounds like I can sleep in a bit, and I also may find out when my first trip to the jungle will be. I'm excited!

Lot's of studying from this book today. All my pics are on my real camera today so this is it. More tomorrow!

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