Day 6 - Lost In Translation.

I have a whole new appreciation for "lost in translation." As part of our deal here, we have an assigned translator. Most of the NACC team do not speak English except for the director and the marketing/communications person (figures). So language and communication are definitely a challenge to say the least. In my group I speak Spanish and then there is Marina, who is from Spain, who speaks Spanish also, and then we have Rue, who is from Malaysia and he speaks English and Malay (I think I spelled that right). These last few days of interviews with the clients have been insanely funny with the hand gestures, half Portuguese/half Spanish that Marina and I try to get by on, and then broken English translations. I just want to film one interview to see how insane it can be but somehow we get through what we need to communicate and vice versa with the client. At one point the client kept saying "Who, Who, Who" and it was several minutes until we realized they were calling "Rue" - the 'r" has somewhat of an 'h' sound. Ooops... :-)

We have done little exploring around the city other than trying out the local cuisine around our office for lunch and the hotel for dinner. Brazilian food reminds me a lot of the Paraguayan food, so I am in total heaven. It is quite the change for me in my working environment to have the whole "lets stop and go out for lunch" as I am usually working at home and eating a quick bite at my computer. It's nice to have the face-to-face time again. My only complaint about the work is the morning and evening traffic - that part also feels just like home, but it's one part I would be happy without.

I am trying to make the most of my location by taking a walk on the beach every day (and working on my tan - I am getting more freckles than color!). So far I have stuck to my plan (shocker), however, I have noticed that the weather in Recife is a little schizophrenic. One second I am walking on the beach with a bright (and HOT!) sun at 7am with no cloud in sight and the next thing I know it is pouring rain for about 5 min. I have to say though - it even rains pretty here...it's this gentle mist that feels cooling on your skin and has that fresh rain smell. Lets just say I was a tad bit drenched by the time I got back to the hotel and just as I stepped into the hotel it stopped raining. Just my kind of luck!

Lesson of the day: Don't leave without your umbrella!