Merry Christmas? Well, not so much! I was sick for Christmas Eve (nothing like a fever to add a bit more heat to my life) but feeling a bit better on Christmas day, I accompanied Marcos to his mom’s house. It turns out that Brazilians (at least Marcos’ family and the people in the area we are) celebrate Christmas by doing…wait for it….NOTHING! No presents. No big dinners. Nothing. Actually a bunch of people in Marcos’family WORKED on Christmas including his mother. This BY FAR has been the most unexpected occurrence since I’ve arrived. (And that includes six years old riding on the handlebars of motorcycles without helmets on the highway!!) A well-known religiously devote country, that boosts an enormous CHRIST overlooking their once-capitol and most revered city…when Christmas comes around? Nothin’. If nothing else, you certainly cannot pigeon-hole these people.
Anyway, as most of you know, I am attempting to learn Portuguese a bit at a time. Today, I am trying to learn the phrase “Where can I buy a rifle?” I figure if I ask different people at different times for different words by the end of the day I can piece it together myself. Here’s why: I just started sleeping through the squawking (or whatever the f it is called) of the rooster at 4:00AM to have him joined by a monkey with some sort of a high pitched squeak that only seems to wake up me & Luisa (the dog). Sure, I’ve been known to sleep through passing trains and the occasional arrival of squad cars responding to domestic abuse. But roosters and monkeys? That’s just not natural.
Another important lesson I have learned is that if you don’t understand Portuguese, someone speaking Portuguese MORE LOUDLY does not help. I’ve always been the yeller (in English, of course) but, I’ll tell ya, being the one yelled at is pretty fucking annoying. I get it now.
Marcos came home the other evening after a marathon game of futbol to find me across the hall at the neighbors drinking what they call “vino”or as we know “wine”. Honestly, I think it was grapefruit juice with moonshine. Like most homes I visit, they had the obligatory small child assigned to follow me around with a fan. But, when I left, there was still a puddle of sweat pooling on their kitchen chair. I’m sure Marcos is finding me sexier and sexier by the day. Who knew: Heat + Moonshine = More Heat.
So here is another phrase I’ve learned: “Noa tem de que.” Pronounced “Now ten dee kay” meaning ‘That’s all right”’. As in “That’s all right. I do not want any more rice & beans.”
Other than some more sightseeing of the city, Marcos is finally going to take me to “our”’ house. (For those who don’t know the Brazilian is building a house for us in this area. Sounds fancy, huh, but I think it costs about $50 American dollars to buy that land! Don’t tell him I said that!!) I am really eager to see it and offer tips on installing central air-conditioning. Or selling the property and buying a nice piece of land in Alaska . We’ll see how his skinny black ass does in my type of weather.