Fala Portuguese?

I am getting Portuguese lessons in numerous ways: I am taking devotions with the younger boys who are memorizing Bible verses that I already know. I am reading billboards. There is constant chatter out our kitchen living room windows to listen to and pick out certain familiar words and statements. Anyone who comes to our house for water or rest is pressed into teaching me. And the pocket dictionary and phrase book are only secondary to reading my Bible.

Still I am experiencing limited success. Not often enough do Scriptures come up in the course of daily conversion. The bulk of billboards have to do with these five topics: it is best that you feed your baby breast milk for the first six months; keep connected with mcel service (the primary cell phone provider); think straight, use condoms; think straight(er), abstain, prevent AIDS; COKE welcomes you. One example of the limit of my success was early on recognizing the chatter from the porch wasn’t Portuguese at all, but Senna, the native language. And as for pressing visitors into service as teachers, I’ve found that if there are two people present, there are two ways to say it and two opinions on the right way to say it! After all, Portuguese is their second language, too.

As for the pocket dictionary, the problem is with me. First I have to find my glasses to read the word and that has to do with aging. The other problem is retention, and that has to do with aging. The next problem are the subtly different sounds that I don’t hear, and maybe that has to do with aging…but I think more likely occupational hearing damage from over inflated, or unseated exploding inner tubes in the Glacier Cyclery repair department.

And so I am a long ways from conversational Portuguese. Ron vocabulary consists of tools and bike parts, and lacks words for normal daily conversation. So we rely on our translator, Lovemore. A little about Lovemore later. Meanwhile, if I can find my glasses, I’ll sign off in Portuguese.

Ate Logo!