Today was great! I have taken over teaching Joyce's English class while she is in India - it is level 3B, so these students are in their fourth year of studying English (there is the intro level A and B, 1A and B, 2A and B, 3A and B and technically a level 4 although everyone who could be in that class is teaching lower level English classes and doesn't have time!). I speak very little Portuguese with this class, and Joyce organized everything before she left - she even photocopied the worksheets we're supposed to do! - so it has been really easy to take over.
After class, Frank's class was cancelled today so I read my Bible and my last textbook to get through. I practiced my testimony with Maricildes (which I still need to practice a lot!), and then I spent the rest of my afternoon in the break dance room!
There were only three guys there today, and I've hung out with all of them before so I wasn't too embarassed and got to try lots of things :) I kind of fell on my head once, and fell from a handstand flat on my back, which knocked the wind out of me BUT I also managed to finally roll out of a handstand instead of falling to my death so overall it was worth it!! I also practiced stopping in the middle of a cartwheel, which is a way safer way for me to go into a handstand and... other stuff. The plan is to practice more tomorrow, although Saturdays are often really busy days in the breakdance room and I prefer to have lots of space so I don't fall on/kick anybody's head! =)
Catherine went to visit a friend's mom today, so I got a ride home with Frank on the motorcycle... all was normal until we got a flat tire, but we weren't very far from the borracharia (which I don't think has an equivalent in English, someone please let me know if this exists in Canada: a place that only fixes flat tires. They fix car, motorcycle and bike tires, but they don't do repairs like a mechanic does. What do we do in Canada when a flat tire happens? If someone could let me know that would be great.) so Frank pushed the bike there.
While we were waiting for the tire to get changed (we had run over a nail the length of my pinky finger, it was crazy!), we saw our friend Bruno there - he does construction work at Free Flight and knows the lyrics to SO many English songs. Bruno bought Frank and I each a coke - the cutest coke I have ever seen! They came in glass bottles and were 200ml size. Aw! It was all a very South American moment, drinking coke in glass bottles while over-full buses rumbled by and blew dust through the air and families in cars with giant speakers on the roof navigated potholes in front of the borracharia.
The woman who sold the coke was also working some meat on a barbeque next to the borracharia (contributing to the overall very Brazilian ambiance of the day!), and Frank bought a meat kebab. Wow was that the best decision he made all day - he cut me a piece of it to try, and I was kind of sketchy about Brazilian street meat BUT.. it tasted like the most gorgeous steak I've had in my life... I will probably dream about that meat kebab tonight lol.
And then Frank's tire was fixed and we came home, and here I am! It's definitely been a good day =)
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
International Women's Day (57)
Today we had a feijoada at Free Flight - a lunch that we sold tickets for to raise some money. Apparently it was also to celebrate International Women's Day, although a lot of women had to give up their weekends to help with the event so that aspect is debateable! Food was cooked all day Saturday and also Sunday morning before the lunch started, and it was so good!
This was my plate of food - no I didn't manage to eat it all.
Feijoada is a traditional Brazilian meal (wikipedia says it's the national dish!) named for the meat and black bean stew. It is usually served with rice, couve (collard greens), farofa (roasted coarse cassava flour) and some orange slices to help your digestion :)
My job, after helping with setup, was pop girl! Also, tickets for ice cream girl because we served ice cream as desert. It was pretty complicated once people started arriving and had their hands full with a big plate and heavy food, and by the time it was over I was so exhausted from all of the Portuguese and all of the busyness that I could only lie in my bed for the first hour after we got home.
This was my plate of food - no I didn't manage to eat it all.Feijoada is a traditional Brazilian meal (wikipedia says it's the national dish!) named for the meat and black bean stew. It is usually served with rice, couve (collard greens), farofa (roasted coarse cassava flour) and some orange slices to help your digestion :)
My job, after helping with setup, was pop girl! Also, tickets for ice cream girl because we served ice cream as desert. It was pretty complicated once people started arriving and had their hands full with a big plate and heavy food, and by the time it was over I was so exhausted from all of the Portuguese and all of the busyness that I could only lie in my bed for the first hour after we got home.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Day 23
Today was the first day of classes at Free Flight. I sat in on Catherine's intro to keyboard class, which was lots of fun, and very helpful for improving some of my vocabulary. It was also very funny to Catherine and I because it was pouring rain during the class, so the roof was leaking in a few places and I had to make a couple of trips to the kitchen for jugs and pots to catch water so it wouldn't splash on the floor or pool on top of the keyboard covers. It wasn't actually that funny, it was just a good Brazil moment for Catherine and I to share unspokenly, as she lectured over the sound of the rain crashing on the asbestos tile roof. Ah Brazil.
I also had a great foreigner moment this afternoon - the rain had passed and it was very hot - hot enough that the grass dried, so I was sitting in the grass with some of the kids at Free Flight, and two of them I hadn't met before, Pricilla and Gabriel, and they clapped for me when I counted to ten in English, and they asked me questions about Canada, and Gabriel kept saying, "say something in English" so finally I told them about talking to my mom over the internet on her birthday, and this kid Gabriel was so excited and thought it was so funny that he could hardly stand up; it was incredible. I'm really pleased to say that my Portuguese is getting so much better that even when I don't understand everything people say, I can usually catch some, and when I don't know how to say something, I am more and more able to talk around it and get the idea across. It is great!
In more of a cultural punch in the guts, I found out today that Linda-Inez' step-mom, who lives across the street from Free Flight in a house made of scrap wood and metal and tarps, who has a four year old and a one and a half year old and two step-daughters who are 11 and 9... her name is Bruna, and she is a couple months younger than my brother. Her birthday is September 2, 1990. Catherine thinks that the dad is older, probably in his mid or late twenties... so I am baffled, floored to imagine this girl's life, becoming a mother and step mother to girls who could be her sisters when she was at the age to be starting grade nine in Canada.
I don't really know what to say about Bruna - I don't know what I think. This is one of those things that is probably way more complicated than a young girl getting pregnant and raising another woman's children as well as her own, but it's also really shocking to think of all the heavy things that are so common among families here. It definitely makes me think of what a charmed life I've had.
This reminds me of a joke that I failed to make with some kids last week though - we were chatting, and I asked them how old they were - 11, 8 and 7. I said that I was twenty, which received the appropriate response of being impressed, and so I said (in Portuguese), "yeah, soon I'll be a grandmother" with high hopes of a little laughter and a new topic (favourite colours, maybe!). Instead there was a puzzled silence, and Linda-Inez whispered to Michelle "ela tem filhos?". Michelle shook her head, and I said that no, I don't have any children, and I think that the nods and half-smiles were acknowlegments of something along the lines of "Canadians are weird" also "you are cool because you are old and speak English and are from far away, but you are weird." That night at supper I asked Joyce for the best way to explain in Portuguese that something was a joke, just in case I forget myself and make some other offhand comment about who knows what.
Confusion is definitely a better response to a failed joke than offense though, so really, of all the possible failures this one hardly even counts. I was thinking about it after though, and I realized that 30 year old grandparents probably happen more often than I'd think.
Anyways, it was a full day here, and I'm sure that the rest of the week will continue to be full between classes and kids and language (and God too! We've been having lots of chats). If the weather where you are is getting you down, just think how much you would rather shovel snow than start a family before high school :)
love from,
Alyssa
I also had a great foreigner moment this afternoon - the rain had passed and it was very hot - hot enough that the grass dried, so I was sitting in the grass with some of the kids at Free Flight, and two of them I hadn't met before, Pricilla and Gabriel, and they clapped for me when I counted to ten in English, and they asked me questions about Canada, and Gabriel kept saying, "say something in English" so finally I told them about talking to my mom over the internet on her birthday, and this kid Gabriel was so excited and thought it was so funny that he could hardly stand up; it was incredible. I'm really pleased to say that my Portuguese is getting so much better that even when I don't understand everything people say, I can usually catch some, and when I don't know how to say something, I am more and more able to talk around it and get the idea across. It is great!
In more of a cultural punch in the guts, I found out today that Linda-Inez' step-mom, who lives across the street from Free Flight in a house made of scrap wood and metal and tarps, who has a four year old and a one and a half year old and two step-daughters who are 11 and 9... her name is Bruna, and she is a couple months younger than my brother. Her birthday is September 2, 1990. Catherine thinks that the dad is older, probably in his mid or late twenties... so I am baffled, floored to imagine this girl's life, becoming a mother and step mother to girls who could be her sisters when she was at the age to be starting grade nine in Canada.
I don't really know what to say about Bruna - I don't know what I think. This is one of those things that is probably way more complicated than a young girl getting pregnant and raising another woman's children as well as her own, but it's also really shocking to think of all the heavy things that are so common among families here. It definitely makes me think of what a charmed life I've had.
This reminds me of a joke that I failed to make with some kids last week though - we were chatting, and I asked them how old they were - 11, 8 and 7. I said that I was twenty, which received the appropriate response of being impressed, and so I said (in Portuguese), "yeah, soon I'll be a grandmother" with high hopes of a little laughter and a new topic (favourite colours, maybe!). Instead there was a puzzled silence, and Linda-Inez whispered to Michelle "ela tem filhos?". Michelle shook her head, and I said that no, I don't have any children, and I think that the nods and half-smiles were acknowlegments of something along the lines of "Canadians are weird" also "you are cool because you are old and speak English and are from far away, but you are weird." That night at supper I asked Joyce for the best way to explain in Portuguese that something was a joke, just in case I forget myself and make some other offhand comment about who knows what.
Confusion is definitely a better response to a failed joke than offense though, so really, of all the possible failures this one hardly even counts. I was thinking about it after though, and I realized that 30 year old grandparents probably happen more often than I'd think.
Anyways, it was a full day here, and I'm sure that the rest of the week will continue to be full between classes and kids and language (and God too! We've been having lots of chats). If the weather where you are is getting you down, just think how much you would rather shovel snow than start a family before high school :)
love from,
Alyssa
Sunday, February 1, 2009
A Note About Advertising in Brazil
It is a sunny Sunday morning, and all of us are feeling more or less sick (Catherine more, me less, Joyce in the middle I think). As we are all doing our different things around the house (me, for example on the internet and thinking about Matthew 14, while Catherine is mostly in bed waiting for death to come), our ears are occasionally taken captive by a Brazilian advertizing technique called Sound Cars. These are basically radio announcements that you can't turn off or change the channel to because they are played by cars and motorcycles with huge speakers on the roof or the back, driven by people who are paid to drive them and not allowed to go any faster than 30 km/h. Sometimes they are used to disseminate political messages or to announce where the cheapest and most delicious popsicles are being sold. These vehicles just tour around the neighbourhood (usually keeping to the paved roads) and blast their words at top volume for all to hear :)
Now you know!
Now you know!
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