Portugal is the first country I have been to in eight years where English is not the native language.  I try to communicate, stumbling through with the help of a Portuguese phrase book. However, the first thing I ask is "fala Ingles?" Do you speak English?  I find that I am more hesitant to talk to people because of the language barrier.  Every contact is a challenge.  Being here makes me appreciate the difficult situation of immigrants who live in a world where they can't speak to most people.  I also feel a bit more isolated and separate from people than usual.  I've been getting by with hello (ola), good morning (Bon dia!) and thank you (obrigada).  So, at least I feel polite!  But, I've had more hugs, handshakes and kisses from people on tours in Portugal than anywhere else.  Even if we can't talk, I know people here love, appreciate, and understand the mission of Amistad. Not always being able to use language has pushed me to use other forms of communication.  I grab kids more often and show them how to steer, or put museum pieces in their hands.  I try to make the experience more hands on.  We have great translators with us that help so much! Storm and Pistol (our nicknames for them) are taking time out of their graduate thesises to translate.  They are enthusiastic, energetic, and great fun to have around.  I'll miss them both, and wish we could take them to Madeira! 
    Before Storm and Pistol, life was a mess! One of the first projects I did in Portugal was try to get a welcome poster translated into Portuguese that read "Open for tours in downtown Lisbon".  I found someone to translate, and I made a beautiful poster, complete with a Freedom Schooner Amistad drawing. The next few days, people kept asking if we were selling tickets for a sail to Lisbon from Cascais.  This really confused us since we were not even having a public sail to Lisbon.  One visitor finally let me know that this misinformation stemmed from our Portuguese sign that actually read "Open for visitors and voyages/ Passages to downtown Lisbon".  It is a bit of a difference.  My Portuguese is improving by 25% a day.  Till I'm fluent, I'll stick to kissing people goodbye on both cheeks!
 

Comments (0)