When my husband came home and said, "How would you like to move to Brazil?" my mind immediately flashed to visions of Rio, the jungle, the Amazon River and monkeys in trees.
That's all I knew of Brazil.
That's all I knew of Brazil.
"I would LOVE to!" I responded.
As it turned out, I knew NOTHING about Brazil.
I didn't know Brazil was larger than the contiguous United States.
I didn't know of Brasilia and the vast empty dry scrubby land that went on for thousands of miles without a house or even a road.
I didn't know the amazing beauty of canyons and plateaus or
walking steams picking up semi-precious stones.
I didn't know women without birth control would have 20 or more children before she is forty~ and broken down to the point
As it turned out, I knew NOTHING about Brazil.
I didn't know Brazil was larger than the contiguous United States.
I didn't know of Brasilia and the vast empty dry scrubby land that went on for thousands of miles without a house or even a road.
I didn't know the amazing beauty of canyons and plateaus or
walking steams picking up semi-precious stones.
I didn't know women without birth control would have 20 or more children before she is forty~ and broken down to the point
then just squat in a corner on dirt floor of the shack until she dies.
I didn't know many of these children leave home when they are about 6 years old, looking for food and ended up living in little groups under bridges near grocery stories where handouts are possible.
I didn't know people live in shacks without a roof and put up cardboard to shield them during the rainy season.
I didn't know that surrounding all the poverty, were quaint and beautiful cities all along the coast that would live in my mind forever.
I never dreamed of all that was before us.
I never dreamed of living an over the top existence as we were to have.
To top it off~ didn't know that before going, we had to learn to speak Portuguese!!
Totally amazing all I didn't know...or ask.
I wonder if I had known...would I have said "yes"??
If I knew of all languages written in our alphabet,
Portuguese was the most difficult to learn, would I have said "yes"?
I didn't know many of these children leave home when they are about 6 years old, looking for food and ended up living in little groups under bridges near grocery stories where handouts are possible.
I didn't know people live in shacks without a roof and put up cardboard to shield them during the rainy season.
I didn't know that surrounding all the poverty, were quaint and beautiful cities all along the coast that would live in my mind forever.
I never dreamed of all that was before us.
I never dreamed of living an over the top existence as we were to have.
To top it off~ didn't know that before going, we had to learn to speak Portuguese!!
Totally amazing all I didn't know...or ask.
I wonder if I had known...would I have said "yes"??
If I knew of all languages written in our alphabet,
Portuguese was the most difficult to learn, would I have said "yes"?
But once committed,
I actually learned the language. And living there, I learned a world that I didn't know exists.
Along with the most fabulous times one can imagine,
sadly,
I learned that I didn't know the real meaning of poverty.
I learned that to help one person better their life forever is far more rewarding than helping the masses a tiny bit.
Stories and photos to come.
iJune
I learned that I didn't know the real meaning of poverty.
I learned that to help one person better their life forever is far more rewarding than helping the masses a tiny bit.
Stories and photos to come.
iJune
4 comments:
This is your best blog yet!
Thanks Jane~ very nice of you to say. My goal to make them more interesting with lots of photos ~
Hang on...more to come.
iJune
I agree with Jane. I liked your sharing about Brazil and your increasing understanding of the culture and the language. Why do you say that Portuguese is hardest of all the latin alphabet languages? What makes Portuguese so hard?
Keep on blogging, iJune
westvirginiajanis
Janis ~
Should have knows a Linguistic Scientist would ask this question.
In Portuguese~
There are many different tenses that can be applied to verbs, and in Portuguese each tense has its own set of verb conjugations. In English, for example, verbs are easier to learn, because we tend not to change the conjugations so much. This means that there are fewer words to memorise – we often rely on auxiliary verbs to form the different tenses. Portuguese id DARN hard to learn.
I tested level 2 before going down and after living there a year, was speaking at about a level 3. Level 4 is native speaking. Will blog more about this.
iJune
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