7.05.2007
Day three: A big man with the Brazilian form of machismo tries to sit with me at dinner, but my neighbor (the one who tried to teach me Portuguese cuss words), slips in so that he has to eat somewhere else. We eat in shifts on a long table. This translates into: rush to get a seat so that there is still a good selection of food. Lunch and dinner are usually rice, noodles, and beans, sometimes there is meat.
Maria is 39. I discover this after a good bit of talking, repeating, and hand gestures. Later I will pretend to be trapped in a glass box with similar communicative efficiency. Her hair is a deep chocolate and forms a fuzzy wave behind her. She has a son, filho, and a daughter--a word I do not know, but as it is not filho I'm betting on a daughter or a hermaphrodite.
*Actually, Griff talked to her after I wrote this originally and found out that she has 4 children, all daughters. So much for smoke signals. At least I got her age right.
"Voce e bonita," she tells me. I have a rash on my face that will not go away, I have not showered in two days, and I am covered in poison death spray. Not exactly bonita. Griff says its the blue eyes. He's a fucking movie star here, and I mean fucking literally.
The music upstairs is deafening. Griff says its quieter than usual. They are being considerate because there are families below.
The Lord has sent his judgement on me in a plague of mosquitoes. I asked Edinelza if mosquitoes would be a problem. Nao, she told me. I can count six bites since then. That means at least 20 bites in total in Brazil. Griff has not been bit once. So when even the Brazilians started slapping their arms and legs, I immediately applied a fresh layer of poison death spray to my body, even as mosquitoes were landing on me. Griff helped me put up my mosquito net. I am the only one with this up. Stupid American. I suspect I will sleep my most peaceful night on the trip thus far. I suspect this I suspect this net development will lead to a large number of Brazilians getting bit, as the mosquitoes will no longer have my gringo blood to feast on. I hope Griff gets bitten. Its only fair. My one fear is that mosquitoes will get stuck in side my net and suck my blood until they are bloated and unable to fly.
I have given up all fear of looking stupid, as I accomplished this task early in the trip.
Day four: We awoke this morning to screaming. The boat had tipped so far to one side that a pirhana flopped in. On the other side, several passengers were strapping on life vests. Griff and I, being a bit slow on the uptake, awoke with a "Huh? What?" the boat was tilted slteeply to one side, but soon righted itself. I asked Edinelza why she was so scared. She told me that she can't swim. That seems to be the case for several people.
There are pink dolphins along this section of the river (really). Griff has already spotted two.
We pass small thatch houses on stilts. The children paddle out to us on dugout canoes so that they can play in the waves. Sometimes the captain lets them attach their canoes to the side of the boat so that they can do the equivalent of skiing.
Day five: More of the same. I've heard that the way people get veal is by feeding the calves high carbohydrate food and and not allowing them to move. I'm begining to thin that this boat actually has another purpose. They are fattening us up for the kill. I, for one, think I would be quite juicy meat.
Day six: Earlier this week, a man tried to trick Griff into saying sexual things. In return, Griff taught him that giving the bird is a cool American thing. He is most likely going to hell.
Anyhow, whenever we saw this man, he would give us the bird. I sat with him and his friends tonight and he did it again. Fortunately, I remedied the situation. He has been giving me the eye all week, and tonight he asked me to be his third wive. That's three consecuative wives, not all at the same time. I didn't feel to keen on that idea.
Maria, a woman who is interested in Griff, has reached stalkerish proportions. I told him to just sleep her so that she will leave us alone. She gets super jealous when he talks to other women.
We actually really like the people on the boat, although those two paragraphs imply otherwise. I spent most of the day with a little girl name Lecitietcia. We took pictures of each other and then she ran around board taking pictures of everybody else. We draw pictures in my notebook and play tic tac toe. I seem to have lost my knack for the game. She teaches me how to pronounce a number of Portuguese phrases. I teach her a few English ones and her pronunciation is always perfect. Its great to be young, eh?
Our boat arrived 11 hours late (at 5 in the morning) because of engine trouble. Griff and I were just about ready to brave the pirhannas and swim to Manaus.
Maria is 39. I discover this after a good bit of talking, repeating, and hand gestures. Later I will pretend to be trapped in a glass box with similar communicative efficiency. Her hair is a deep chocolate and forms a fuzzy wave behind her. She has a son, filho, and a daughter--a word I do not know, but as it is not filho I'm betting on a daughter or a hermaphrodite.
*Actually, Griff talked to her after I wrote this originally and found out that she has 4 children, all daughters. So much for smoke signals. At least I got her age right.
"Voce e bonita," she tells me. I have a rash on my face that will not go away, I have not showered in two days, and I am covered in poison death spray. Not exactly bonita. Griff says its the blue eyes. He's a fucking movie star here, and I mean fucking literally.
The music upstairs is deafening. Griff says its quieter than usual. They are being considerate because there are families below.
The Lord has sent his judgement on me in a plague of mosquitoes. I asked Edinelza if mosquitoes would be a problem. Nao, she told me. I can count six bites since then. That means at least 20 bites in total in Brazil. Griff has not been bit once. So when even the Brazilians started slapping their arms and legs, I immediately applied a fresh layer of poison death spray to my body, even as mosquitoes were landing on me. Griff helped me put up my mosquito net. I am the only one with this up. Stupid American. I suspect I will sleep my most peaceful night on the trip thus far. I suspect this I suspect this net development will lead to a large number of Brazilians getting bit, as the mosquitoes will no longer have my gringo blood to feast on. I hope Griff gets bitten. Its only fair. My one fear is that mosquitoes will get stuck in side my net and suck my blood until they are bloated and unable to fly.
I have given up all fear of looking stupid, as I accomplished this task early in the trip.
Day four: We awoke this morning to screaming. The boat had tipped so far to one side that a pirhana flopped in. On the other side, several passengers were strapping on life vests. Griff and I, being a bit slow on the uptake, awoke with a "Huh? What?" the boat was tilted slteeply to one side, but soon righted itself. I asked Edinelza why she was so scared. She told me that she can't swim. That seems to be the case for several people.
There are pink dolphins along this section of the river (really). Griff has already spotted two.
We pass small thatch houses on stilts. The children paddle out to us on dugout canoes so that they can play in the waves. Sometimes the captain lets them attach their canoes to the side of the boat so that they can do the equivalent of skiing.
Day five: More of the same. I've heard that the way people get veal is by feeding the calves high carbohydrate food and and not allowing them to move. I'm begining to thin that this boat actually has another purpose. They are fattening us up for the kill. I, for one, think I would be quite juicy meat.
Day six: Earlier this week, a man tried to trick Griff into saying sexual things. In return, Griff taught him that giving the bird is a cool American thing. He is most likely going to hell.
Anyhow, whenever we saw this man, he would give us the bird. I sat with him and his friends tonight and he did it again. Fortunately, I remedied the situation. He has been giving me the eye all week, and tonight he asked me to be his third wive. That's three consecuative wives, not all at the same time. I didn't feel to keen on that idea.
Maria, a woman who is interested in Griff, has reached stalkerish proportions. I told him to just sleep her so that she will leave us alone. She gets super jealous when he talks to other women.
We actually really like the people on the boat, although those two paragraphs imply otherwise. I spent most of the day with a little girl name Lecitietcia. We took pictures of each other and then she ran around board taking pictures of everybody else. We draw pictures in my notebook and play tic tac toe. I seem to have lost my knack for the game. She teaches me how to pronounce a number of Portuguese phrases. I teach her a few English ones and her pronunciation is always perfect. Its great to be young, eh?
Our boat arrived 11 hours late (at 5 in the morning) because of engine trouble. Griff and I were just about ready to brave the pirhannas and swim to Manaus.
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