Oh man… to start off this morning, I must say that I am really glad I am able to laugh at myself. For some reason I can’t figure out the shower for the life of me. It’s a very nice bathroom, but the water is not something that is always available like in America. You have to turn the knob to get drops of water out and turn it on and off until the water comes out. I showered in cold water with a little bit of water coming out and I just dealt with it. Just when I finished, there was more water coming out and the water had warmed up, I am still confused as to why that is. For breakfast I had an avocado juice (yes, avocado) and let me say that it was actually very good. I am just glad that I am willing to try any food and that I am probably the least picky eater, because I don’t think a picky eater could take this risk. Anyways, today is the day that my roommate from Belgium leaves for home. She has been here for about 3 months and it has been fun talking with her and seeing how she interacts with the family. This also means that my translator is leaving, so I know everything is about to get a little harder for me. The family adored her and it was a tearful goodbye, and not going to lie, it made me tear up watching them say their goodbyes. The other side of my room is now empty, which is kind of an odd feeling, but I think with her leaving I can now challenge myself fully. I guess you could say I had been dependent on her to help me out the first 2 days, but now I am pushing myself to learn Portuguese and interact with the family in my own way. Being here is unreal and I remind myself how lucky I am to be able to experience all of this, but there are moments when I get overwhelmed with the challenge and I have to take a few steps back. Blogging is a way for me to gather my thoughts and focus solely on me. All I can say is that I really wish I pushed myself harder to learn Portuguese before I got here because then it would make things a lot easier. Sometimes I am silent and try to interpret their conversations in my way. I watch their gestures and make up stories in my head, in my head it is pretty funny to translate. Sometimes I can actually understand the basic idea of the conversation, so I am able to catch on and engage myself a little more. I went to an internet café with one of the other volunteers in the house and we ended up just making gestures with the sales person and laughing at each other. It lightened the mood a bit considering we both realized that with the language barrier there was no telling what the other was thinking. But this is one of the many challenges that I am going to have to face, and there is NO running. This is exactly what I needed.
Throughout small talk I am learning a lot more about the culture differences. Marita, from Denmark, does not have a microwave, so she learned how to use that when she came to Brazil. Driving is not a common thing for a young adult; usually the age for them is about 18 years old. They don’t have school buses like we do, they take just the public buses to school. Here in Brazil people drive around small vans, but they are known as buses here (onibus).
Ohhhh… there is one huge culture shock and something I know I won’t ever get over. Toilet paper can’t be flushed into the toilet! You put the toilet paper in the trash can next to the toilet. It is something that is very different and I miss toilets that flush toilet paper.
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