It's amazing to think that it's already been over a week here in Manaus. Last Sunday was my first full day here with Saturday being a half day. I'm thinking that I might be banished from Canada now for being able to wear long pants in 40 degree temperatures - or at least ridiculed for having to wear a ski jacket in September when I return, lol. Anyway, this morning we woke up a little bit earlier to partake in a morning of "missionary work". Basically, we drove around town, dropping off CDs for different churches to sell. The money from them would then be sent to missionary projects in other countries around the world. It was kind of neat to think I'd be helping out a variety of different countries (as little of a role as i played in the matter). It also made me think of "missionary week", the first part of the south Brazil portion of my trip. Tied to the world youth day event, it will be another home stay experience with some service work tied in (at the moment, I really don't know much for the details on what we're doing since I'm decently far away from our group meetings back home). I'm sure it'll be another exciting experience that will be completely different from the rest. Anyway, while in the car, we talked a fair bit about Christianity (this family is incredibly Christ-centred) Although our religions have obvious differences and disagree on various points, we share a lot of common themes as well. I think it's really good that I'll be living with them all the way up to WYD as it will strengthen my own faith and really make me solidify the reasons why I choose to remain Catholic. After we dropped off all the CDs, we returned home. The girls were out at a morning service (i'm pretty sure they were part of the choir), and today it was Jeffson's and my job to make the lunch. I wasn't able to help too much, however we ended up making spaghetti with meat sauce. Jeff added quite a bit too much salt though, so that was the joke of the table for lunch today. Along with lunch, I had another new drink here - an avocado milkshake! It baffled me that you could even do that with avocado, but yes Jeffson made up some for us and it was really delicious. Btw, their avocados are nothing like the little things we get at home; they're all huge with some as big as footballs! After lunch, I took my first swim in their backyard pool. I can't believe I hadn't sooner - this was the first time I had been outside and pleasantly cool. The trends of the day then continued: siesta time was next. I'm much more used to the pace and climate of Manaus, so I no longer need a nap every day. So instead, I watched most of the Spain vs Nigeria game on TV. Way to go Nigeria for giving the top team a real run for their money! Later on, I went with the family to their sunday service. Because it had been a week, I wanted to gauge my progress in the portuguese language. Last Sunday at their service, I couldn't understand a single word. I was happy this time as I could point out many words... and I'm pretty sure I'm close to being able to understand full sentences at that speed. Just a little more practice to go! After the service, we had a snack: basically a collection of whatever people brought with them today. There was a weird cake-type food, the same mild chilli from yesterday and prawns (buried in their corn flour of course). They also had coffee which was offered to me by one of the other guys at the church who spoke english. It surprised me - this was the first coffee I've had without sugar. When I brought it up, all the guys laughed and brought to my attention that this sweet coffee wasn't really as much a brazil thing - more of a preference for my family. I like both ways here - they are like two different drinks all together. The brazilian black coffee has a very unique taste to it that i've never come across in Canada. Of course, I'm not a coffee tasting expert so I couldn't tell you fancy details like what it would pair well with (i do know someone who might tho), but I can say it was good. When we returned home, we turned on the tv and watched a show that seemed to resemble Jimmy Kimmel live, except in Portuguese. It was funny because they were running what would be the portuguese version of Just for Laughs: Gags. That's something you don't need a language to find funny! This one is really quite a short post - a very normal day overall. Wednesday should be fun out spearfishing in the Jungle and depending on details, I'll probably be living in the jungle for 3 nights straight near the end of my trip! I've got quite an adventure in store! No pictures today either so here's me in my room:
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