Ilha’s funny ways

I enjoy interacting with the guards. This often is showing them MY funny ways, and seeing their reaction. Yesterday I explained that we dont have many barbecues in England because its often cold. They took some time over this fact and then came and asked if we had coal. We needed Joana to translate this. They were nervous that I called Joana to translate something unimportant. But it was fine. Today I introduced the concept of Bovril. Cha de vaca I said to Ignacio, holding out the Bovril pot. As always there follows a silence while he decides which of the three interaction types this might be: instruction, admonishment, information. This was information, a peculiarity of mine.

Its possible to watch these concepts fly in and look for a place to settle in the branches of their understanding, and find none. There are different phases to watch, like a difficult mouthfuls passage through the throat, and journey on to the stomach. Cha de vaca was a combination of ideas that needed plenty of time. What facet of tea was meant? What of cow? His version of what it might mean was decided on, accepted and filed somewhere arbitrarily in his worldview. It is like the bad Portuguese I speak with Amade. There is a paucity of reference points to tell us if we have understood each other. All we have as guidance is consequent action and good faith.