Talking with our hands

While we were fact-gathering before moving here we learned that we shouldn't use the OK sign because it is like raising the middle finger. As it turns out, we see the OK sign used to signify "okay" from time to time and it doesn't ruffle any feathers. Brazilians are more likely give a thumbs up, though. It is kind of their go-to gesture. When driving thumbs up means "go ahead" and also "thanks," on the beach it means "it's all good" and as a response to a question it means "yes." This has been easy for us to get used to because thumbs up exists in the US. The tougher gestures are the ones that we don't have, like the "get it!" snap. It's a few quick flicks of the wrist that causes he index finger to snap against the middle finger. Neither of us can reliably make the sound yet, but we are working on it because it is very cool. They also have the "tanto faz" which is is a back and forth slap of the hand that means "either way" and the wiping the brow down to a snap which kind of means "whew" and the closed-to-open "twinkle twinkle little star" gesture that they use to mean "full" or "many." There is actually a whole pile of new gestures for us to learn but they are fun and a lot easier than spoken words because when making hand gestures, one doesn't have to pronounce any vowel sounds.

The best in the world

 Brazilian Portuguese is filled with hyperbole and and we love it. Sometime they use very very very very to express a lot. Other times they add pra caramba, which is also fun to say. There are endings available to exaggerate most words. For example, if something is really expensive one could say it is expensive-íssima, if there are a tons of people, one might refer to the people-ada and a really good game is a game-ão. Further, people are always dying of something here. They may die of laughing, of wanting a beer or of needing to pee. And from the pizza down the street to the traffic during summer, many many things are often the best, or the worst, in the world. So, in Portuguese, we are very very very lucky that later today the best cook in the world will make us lunch pra caramba and we will die of happiness to spend the afternoon with our friendãos.

Gringas

 

I heard us referred to as "gringas" recently (the feminine form of gringos). It was the first time and it went like this. I stayed with the dog while Carol and Amanda got lunch and ordered drinks, then they sat with the dog while I went in to get my lunch. While I was in line, I heard a guy ask (in Portuguese) who the Heinekens were for. The lady at the counter said that the beers were for "the gingas" and that we were sitting outside. It was weird to overhear us casually referred to as such. It is also kind of why we are here. We want to understand our privilege differently and to spend a little time with the shoe on the other foot. Metaphorically.

The school is the community

                                     

We came to Brazil to learn Portuguese and we picked our school years before we came. We picked it because of a connection with one of the professor. He was patient and kind and so engaging in our online classes that we couldn't wait to enroll full time and become friends in person. As luck would have it he is married to the school's director and she is equally amazing and we are humbled at their friendship. So of course they have a cool school filled with cool people who have cool stories and we are lucky to be associated. Our friend visited from the United States recently and said she was stoked that we had found community here. I don't think we really appreciated it as such until she did. These are our peeps!  They know what is happening with us, worry about us during the storms, would notice if we weren't there and are gracious and kind in many ways. Our school is our community and one would think someone who has studied community learning for so many years would have embraced that fact before now.  

Thoughts on the nude beach

 

We have a clothing-optional beach nearby and we go there a lot with the dog. It's a pretty good beach with beautiful headlands, a make-shift bar, surfers and sometimes families. Most of the nudists are guys and most of them are alone. Occasionally there are couples. I've been trying to collect my thoughts about it all.  I like the idea of clothes-optional spaces, at least in theory. In reality, it depends. On the weekends when there are a lot of people on the beach, the nude ones kind of blend in and it feels okay, just everybody doing their thing. On the weekdays and when it's stormy, there are fewer people on the beach and it doesn't feel that innocent. There is a lot of parading, posturing, hooking-up, and unwarranted invasions of space. The men can be pretty creepy. Yes, I'm chilling on a nude beach, no I don't want you standing in front of me staring with your junk hanging out.  It doesn't feel innocent or natural, it feels predatory.

Can you #! @*&% believe it?

Of all the things we are slow to understand about Brazilian language and culture, swearing is one of them. It's not like home were a swear is a swear is a swear and no matter the context most people wouldn't drop f-bombs in front of children. Here, the context matters. As far as we can tell, their f-word, foda, is vulgar when it refers to the sex act and profane when used as a negative enhancer but is fine when used as a positive enhancer.  For example, someone might cause offense by referring to a situation as fucked up but to say the music is fucking great would be just fine. For the record, we are not trying to drop effers until we really get these rules dialed, cause we very much want to be fucking respectful all the fucking time.

We are polyglots

Our teacher soothed us today with the idea that we already speak many languages. We sometimes talk to each other in hoots and half-grunts. I might talk to colleagues using languages of measurement or analysis and Carol says things I don't understand when she works. I swear a lot with some friends; Carol coos a lot at babies. We just naturally use different words and sounds and speak in different ways when we are in different contexts. Certainly with all this practice and nature ability, we will start speaking Brazilian Portuguese just fine any moment now...

My wife gets around

We tried pizza in Rio a few times and have aggressively avoided Brazilian pizza since. Someone recently challenged our pizza biases and off we went to try a new pizza place in Lagoa. The place was chique, as they say, and the pizza was fantastic. Halfway through our third slice, one of the servers approached the table and asked Carol if she was Carol. Shut the front door! The person had gone to a yoga class with Carol and recognized her. They chatted a little and I puffed up a lot. My little lover, she gets around!

The teaching plants

For thousands of years, people have used teaching plants to gain perspective and learn old things. The ancestors in the Americas used these plants for healing, expanding their knowledge and energy beyond the their bodies and brains. Today, our governments tell us which plants we can and can't use and what we can and can't know. In most of the United States it is illegal to use teaching plants at all. Here in Brazil they are available to any who might come. It's quite refreshing that on a Saturday afternoon on this island, anyone with $30 dollars and an open mind is welcomed into a safe space to be guided into new understanding by the mother of all the teaching plants, a local shaman and her helpers. Aho!