Eai Beleza!

Sarah (my teacher) and I sharing a light moment during one of the Portuguese classes

When a boy is seriously interested in a girl from another tribe, in my culture, you will notice how hard he works to learn her language. Maybe, in preparation to have a good first impression to his to-be in-laws. I once fell a victim of that, but luckily or unluckily ours did not last long, and there was no need to meet my to-be in-laws. 

However, I have to learn Portuguese if I am going to survive here in Brasil. This time though ain't looking for a `in-laws' first impression`,but rather a possibility to make my communication with Brazilians a little bit more effective. Brazilians study Portuguese, Spanish and English while in primary and high school levels, but only speak Portuguese as their national language, both officially and casually. English is spoken by those who take interest to be fluent, but generally, it is almost impossible to communicate with it even in government offices.  Spanish is closely related to Portuguese so they find it easier to use it when necessary.

Every Monday,Tuesday, and Wednesday between 1pm and 4 pm (that is about 3 hours) I spent time in one of Brazilian Universities studying Portuguese. My classes are facilitated by Sarah, a 19 year old lady studying Letters (Languages) in the University. Eva and I commonly call her Professora (meaning teacher in Portuguese). Our classes are semi-formal, or largely casual, though they involve serious Portuguese grammar content. 

A class session 

Portuguese grammar is nothing close to English (My official language), or Kiswahili (my national language), or Kamba (my mother-tongue/dialect), though there are some similarities.

For instance, in Portuguese we have masculine and femine words. For example, a girl is garota (F) and a boy is garoto (M); a pen is caneta (F) and a glass of water is copu (M). Basically, most of the words ending with `a`are feminine and those ending with `o`or `u`are masculine. 

Also the pronouns in Portuguese have a plural. 

Eu-------------I

Você---------You

Ele/Ela-----He/she

Noś----------We 

Vocês-------Plural for You (not found in English)

Eles/Elas--Plural for He/she (not found in English)

An example in a sentence would be: 

Deus abençoe vocês

God bless you(plural)

There are more differences I have observed apart from the two I have mentioned. 

There are three lessons I am learning from this experience: 

1. When I ever find yourself in a brand new culture,I need to acquaint myself with appropriate resources to make me relevant and appropriately part of the new system. Language,inevitably,is one of the cultural ingredients.

2. To be proud of my language and seek to speak it more often. 

3. Portuguese is a tough language to learn and speak. 

One Language-One Message

I have never travelled any where further than my home country Kenya, apart from going down south to my friends in Tanzania for a brief retreat. That then tells you that I am more curious than ever before to learn and share my experiences from places like the samba, where soccer is not a luxury but a way of life. A place like this where I am not hearing people talk about their tribal lines but enjoy and brag about the depth of their multiculture and yet speak one language as one-Portuguese.

Faces of students epitomizing a multiculture that I have never witnessed before. 

Italians, Spaniards, Asians, Dutch, Africans...and the list goes on,

Today marks 6 days in Brasil, but I feel as if it has been more than that. Maybe it is the warmness, kindness, and hospitality of the Brasilians that really makes me feel part and parcel of this epitome of beauty-diversity. You may not understand this untill you set your foot at the airport and the first thing you get is a bottle of cold water to quench your thirst and a kiss on you cheek. He he...ask Eve my co-missionery. She received both. You feel as if they have longed to meet you and finally you are at home away from home.

 Bible study group at Mackenzi University. We had traslators during the BS

 because most of the students do not speak English.

Last week I was able to finally meet the students that I will be working closely with. I visited University Of Mackenzie, Saõ Paulo where I attended a Bible study fellowship of about 10 students. We studied the Bible from the book of John 1 led by a student called Gabrielo. He was doing it in Portugeuse as Marcello (another student) translated the message to us. This was not easy at all for either of us. It was language barrier at its best. However, after the Bible study, in an interesting turn out of events, we found our selves singing songs of worship to God in different languages but same message. This was the peek of this episode. An episode filled with this beauty of language in music.

Singing with students after the Bible Study. We sung one song,with one message,
but in different languages.

Beauty In Diversity

HALD Internationl Centre students from across the globe.

It is difficult to ignore the beauty of cultural diversity across the globe. Hald International Center (where I am schooling) it is not an exception at all. Apart from the interaction that we have during our class and outdoor activities, there is room for birthday parties. We have celebrated quite a number here. It was always amazing to see the unique ways of celebrating the birthday boys and girls. Africans had there way of pouring buckets of water on the birthday boys and girls, as the Norwegians pumpered them with candy and cakes.

At the same breath of celebrating diversity, I had an opportunity of participating in my first ever fashion show.He he... Believe it or not this happened during one of the African student's birthday party. Her name is Flavy from Cameroon. I dressed up as a Maasai man, a popular tribe in Kenya. I thought most of the other international students would identify with that. They did. On the platform were also students who dressed other culture's traditional regalia. This event depicted significantly a way of setting aside our differences to celebrate life. All along the birthday party my eyes moved across the lecture theatre in stare of the beautiful faces that represented a diversity of 18 nations from the North and South of the earth. On one table was a Chinese, Norwegian, Thai, Ugandan, and a Serbian, chatting through while biting banana fritters from Cameroon, and one the other side of the tables a Kenyan, Lao, Brazilian, and a Tanzanian laughing at the Madagasscar guy who seems to struggle to dance capuera dance (which is originaly from Angola but now in Brazil).  What a diversity!

This world would be a better place if the scenario painted in this birthday party was a reality amongst us everyday. I am not speaking about having birthdays everyday he...he. This is it...!I agree we have different backgrounds here (and I know you also do), but I would like to agree that we have as much similarities as are the differences, especially if we view ourselves as  God views us. I come from a country where ethnicity or tribalism could be considered a society norm. We have lived it and in 2008 we were never spared the postelection violence in the name of this tribe and not the other eating the largest piece of the 'national cake'. What a pity!

My experience here is opening my eyes to love without limitations. Love the Chinese, Serbian, Monterego, Ugandan, Lao, Thai, Brazilian, withstanding their skin colour, race, status, ideology, philosophy, religion, or education. To make them feel they matter though they are atheist, homosexuals, pagans, idol worshipers, refugees, poor, or homeless.

I choose to see and think of them as Christ would.

 

 

Village Boy Aboard

After an 8 hr flight to Amsterdam and 1 1\2 hrs from Amsterdam to Kristiansand, Norway, and 1 hr on road, Eva (my teammate) and I where warmly welcomed at HALD International Centre in Mandal, Norway. This is the school that will be training us for the next 5 weeks in readiness for the upcoming mission internship. This was my fist time to ever fly in a plane. And I have taken time to briefly share with you the journey of  the village boy from Kenya to a land only heard on peoples' lips as they said the stories.

AT SHIPHOL AIRPORT
We had a 5 hr wait at SHIPHOL Airport for our KLM flight to Norway. We did plenty of window shopping and walking up and about. We at least had Dutch fish n Chips for lunch for 6,25 € each.We also met a US Citizen but Kenyan born lady by the name Lucy, who apparently could tell, just by looking at us, that we were Kenyan (that's what she said). She was on transit to Kenyan and had missed her flight. After sharing with her we realised that she was a strong Christian. She actually prayed for us after we told her what we were now engaged in. God was indeed with us.

IN THE PLANE
During our flight from Kenya I was disappointed that my seat's TV screen couldn't work. However, I opted to read a book titled Courage & Calling that indeed gave me deeper insights about my calling. In between,I ate, slept, and paved up and about the KQ 116 Boeng plane, once in a while peeping through the window for beautiful bird's eye view. I was puzzled by the beautiful scenarios of the Sahara desert and Mediterranean Sea.
 At 8:45 pm we were aboard KLM 1112 to Kristiansand, where we were conspicuously the only dark-skinned passengers. At some point I couldn't believe that was real. 

MANDAL
On arrival at our new home we were met by a few of the other students and 1 staff member. My very first culture shock was the meal that we were about to take.I couldn't tell where to begin from though I was desperately hungry. I ate any way wishing something like Ugali-sukuma wiki was close by.

That's just a summary of my first day at the North Pole, where the Sun is setting between 9-10 pm,the dark skinned a minority,dust is a word hardly mentioned, and where we are only getting a hot meal during Lunch hour.