Trevor's South America Trip: Portugese

Day 17 - 15 de Junho: to Manaus, Brasil

You may have already noticed the even more weirdly spelled month at the top of the post - no that's not a typo, it's Portuguese and i've officially started the Brazil saga of this blog. Carrying on from the last entry, I woke up descending upon Sao Paulo, Brazil. The surrounding city was massive and the airport definitely reflected that. I was lucky enough to have the guy from Lima tell me that I needed to pick up me bags here, and even more lucky, mind was one of the first onto the conveyer belt during this relatively short layover. The only thing that really screwed me up was when I had to recheck my bag, I couldn't find the Lan counter anywhere. I ended up asking the empty Tan airline desk and lucky for me, even though my ticket said Lan, I was on a Tam flight so they checked me in without any wait at all. I made it to the gate where I found free wifi, but back home, it was 4am so I couldn't bug anyone on fongo and expect a response. While i was waiting, i got in a conversation with a language teacher that was doing a trip for a group from Japan. I was given a couple words to learn myself before we parted ways to our seats - i can't believe im going to learn a whole new language! The Tam airline was a huge one, big enough for everyone to have an in-flight movie screen. Movies made the last flying leg go by really fast which was great! I got off the plane, found my bag again (woohoo), the made my exit towards arrivals, with no 100% idea what would happen next.

.... (Random dots to add suspense) ....

Immediately, I saw my name on a whiteboard, help up by my homestay dad who I recognized from pictures. That sign made me feel like a celebrity! I followed him out and tried out a few words from my Portuguese guidebook on him - not quite perfect yet, even with the pronunciation written right in front of me. I think as the time goes by, my accent will adapt to the language (yup, these guys said I have an accent too!). I meet a few more of his family here at the airport, then we all jumped in his car and made our way to my first activity here. I was going to a family gathering to meet a whole bunch of extended family. The family I would be staying with had a mom, dad and 2 girls in their early teens. But at the house we arrived at, there must have been close to 15 people!! And to top off the cultural experience, only about 2 or 3 of them knew any english at all. Really nice people though. We had a big, fish lunch (fish hash, fried fish, fish soup.... reminded me of the shrimp guy from Forrest Gump). Here in Brazil, the major language is Portuguese, however most will understand spanish if it is said slowly, and a few will understand English. So, you can picture me trying to communicate with the family members, first dipping into my ten words of Portuguese, then speaking spanish, then trying English, then finishing off with the universal language of charades. They all though it was funny. The weather here is really random - sunny and hot all the time, but without warning it just downpours. Glad I have a jacket along, but I imagine that at midday, a bit of rain will be a welcome cool down. Not too long after lunch, we had a little variety of monkey visit the backyard. If these things come out in the city, I can't wait to see what the jungle here will have! After a little bit, I left with my family and we made it back home. I was offered a quick nap in the hammock outside, so after this long flying day, I gratefully accepted. Their house is very nice - every house I've been to so far has been gated, but this one has all the amenities of back home and even a swimming pool. With the temperature at 30 degrees and the humidity probably triple that, I can picture myself in that a few times. Also, in Manaus, people have a shower 2-3 times a day because you start to smell pretty fast here. After my nap, I showered, then joined my family for another event. My host dad is a lead singer in his church band (i think it's a baptist church but not sure) and their church was having a big anniversary, so we all went and got to hear him sing. He has such an amazing voice - reminds me of the lead guy at the 7pm mass I go to back at home. Apparently, this church is really big into missionary work, so after, we went around to different stands for the countries they work at and got to see pictures and try native food. I went to Costa Rica and tried a cup of rice and beans which was good. My family and I only had time for one of the countries though - after that, it seemed we were in a rush to another place. Before the event, I was asked if I have some nice clothes to wear - my best consisted of long cargo pants and a short-sleeved dress shirt, so I put it on with no idea why. Well, I soon found out why; my host family was invited to a really fancy gala where Jeffson (dad) was invited to sing. Right away, I felt just a bit underdressed. Nothing I could do about that, but I wish I would have known where I was going, at least I would have shaved, lol. But nobody seemed to mind. It was a great buffet dinner - however it did run a bit late and after a day of flying, I wasn't doing too good at trying to interpret the Portuguese speakers. That's ok, I had a really good tike and I've already learned a little chunk of the language in just one day! It sounds like my days will be busy during my time spent here, and by the end, I'm going to be well versed in Brazilian culture. Let's see what I do tomorrow.