Brazilian Life 101

I won't lie, the language barrier is causing me grief of astronomical proportions. The amount of English speakers that I've encountered is far and few but they know some of 'our' basics and I know some of 'their' basics. The pocket phrase book is one thing I do not leave the house without. It is as essential as the local currency and without it I feel totally naked. My main form of communication is my terribly pronounced Portuguese (which I just read straight from the book) as well as the supplementary series of animate and superfluous hand gestures. My body-language vocabulary consists of thumbs up, handshakes, pointing and a wide selection of quizzical facial expressions. That being said, it is actually getting me by.

The streets of Brazil aren't exactly your Sunday morning walk in the park. Precautions aren't strict but are definitely advised. The main advice given to me by locals and previous travellers was "don't act as if you have money". Which is fine by me, it just means no public display of what would be deemed as luxury items. Jewellery, electronics, brand name clothing, etc. I have only recently mustered up the courage to take my camera out with me in public. I try not to bring my backpack out if only not to attract too much attention. Majority of the time I stash my valuables (cash, camera and keys) in a plastic shopping bag which is supposed to negate the attention and allow me to hopefully blend more into the crowd; I'm not entirely convinced that it's foolproof.

Walking down to the local shops around my area the pavements are littered with homeless people and the constant smell of urine. There are many street vendors selling items ranging from clothes, food to even junk found from bins. There isn't a day that goes by when you aren't stopped by a street kid begging for money. Only today I was approached by what appeared to be a half-naked, hysterical man who tried to grab my arm suffocating me with Portuguese. I smiled, avoided him and walked away only to hear "Sayo-nara" after I left his grasps.

One thing I am getting used to is the quality of the food. It could be the weather but I'm finding my food consumption has increased over the last week in Brazil. I'm constantly hungry and always trying to find excuses to walk down to the local food vendors. The deserts and sweets alone are worth the visit to Brazil. Funnily enough one area of my Portuguese which is slowly getting better is the ordering of food. I'll probably put up a separate post documenting all the different types of foods that I've sampled.