Friday, May 10: Day 18 – Ciao, Portugal! Hola, Spain!

With each stay, our bags get more difficult to close. We pray for healthy zippers but also know that we are really challenging them. We are pretty sure that we won’t return home with our original gear and clothing. Already a carrying loop on one of my heavy backpacks has ripped out. Parting thoughts as we leave.

Portugal:

• There is a 40-day movement (April 26-June 5) to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. Believers are encouraged to host gatherings in city squares all over Portugal. How exciting! We were not able to participate but pray for this movement that makes use of social media. Read more @ http://global-missions.com
• Most everyone speaks English although I rarely heard it spoken unless we initiated it. We came across a business entitled Wall Street English. Hmmm.
• My daughter, Donna, explained to me about warm cultures and cold cultures. Americans come from a cold culture. We are friendly and smile to most everyone we meet and give a greeting and keep walking. In warm cultures, when you say ‘Good morning” to someone, that would then initiate a conversation. I witnessed this when I said, “Good morning” to a passerby and he stopped. It was awkward for both of us because I had used all the Portuguese that I knew so our conversation could not progress. I guess that would explain tardiness of people who come from a warm culture. One needs to start to your destination early as you are sure to meet people along the way!
• Surprisingly, people are very knowledgeable about American football. When we say that we are from Cincinnati, they make an informed comment about the Bengals. (We didn’t even think that they would know our city, let alone our sports team.) Our guide explained to us that American football is readily available on TV and they are the only country in Europe that is authorized to sell NFL apparel. It was not unusual to hear men discussing the recent draft results. They knew more about it than we did.

Spain:

Our family has been to Spain several times. Our favorite was when we came to visit Elle when she attended high school here for her senior year. She was very brave at 18. She lived in Jerez de la Frontera and said that we must include a visit to attend the Feria which is her favorite time of year. It is scheduled this year from May 11 to May 18.

Rob and I walked around Jerez and started to see things that were familiar to us…even the “helado” (ice cream) store that our family would visit every day.

We connected with our Airbnb host and then went shopping at a small grocery store.

I am trying to recollect my four years of Spanish.

I said, ” tenemos pollo?” That must have sounded like the Queen’s English to him as I detected a chuckle. Translation was “Do we have chicken?”

We went out to eat. There are many people here for the Feria so it was hard to find a table, but it is so fun to people watch.