And now we are in Blumenau. A wanna be German town. Dr. Blumenau and his wife were actually the first settlers of this town. It was highly recommended to us - especially to me. But - even though it has it's German roots - it was mostly a facade and Octoberfest, Lederhosen, Dirndel and -of course- beer are the attractions.
The highlight for me was staying in Adelaide's home, meeting her family and friends and also meeting up with Philipp (a German world cyclist who we met in Iguaçu and who has been "chasing”after us since we said good bye back at the falls to bring us some items we had forgotten back there).
We were A's first WS guests and she enthusiastically opened up her home and herself to us. She spoke some German, some English, Spanish and -of course- Portuguese. Seldom have I met such a curious, tireless and excited woman -in the midst of a full work schedule none -the -less -to patiently share and continue to learn all those languages, listen and tell stories and be fully and joyfully present. She also dealt with James’
https://gopro.com/v/m0VwKKZE2VPo3
and Philipp's birthday's
when we basically took over the whole kitchen, baking Bienenstich
cooking Spätzle and Kartoffelsalat. James cooked a traditional Brazilian dish (moqueca) and the kitchen was ours for days.
The conversations were a mix of all four languages. My brain goes automatically from Spanish to German..rarely to English, but the Spanish/Portuguese words are bouncing around pretty loosely in some parts up there in my head. I don't even know what language I spoke in that mix at a given time, but phenomenally A and I got across what we wanted to say to each other most of the time and when we didn't we “cheated” with the iTranslate app. All the while looking for clues in the eyes and/or the facial expressions....even body language... of recognition/understanding for what one of us had just said......and then - a lot of the time - especially with the chance of 4 languages...one word, sentence or what - ever......”will bring it home” and that little spark in the eye will communicate that the efforts were paid off and were transformed into a happily confirming: é isso!! (That’s it!).
A joy for all and a happy ending for each given moment and there were so many, that we were not as much exhausted as we were elated by the whole experience. An incredible mix of cultures on the culinary, language, tradition and behavior level. Thanks to all the players in this game: I wouldn’t have want to miss it for the world!
