Brasil Day twelve

I played in my first soccer game. And yes it was with Brazilians, and yes some of them were pretty good.

My roommate invited my to play with him and his friends on Wednesday, so of course I said yes and stepped up to the exciting and intimidating challenge. It was at a school walking distance from my house through a kind of bad neighborhood with rundown houses and small streets. The game was ‘sala futebol’ which is played on concrete with indoor soccer like shoes. It was basically a basketball court converted into a soccer field with goals on each end that were no bigger than six feet tall and 8 feet wide. They played five on five rotating out the losing team with fresh players. I wasn’t nervous until I saw what kind of game I was to play and be judged at.

My friend Girino and I went into our first game with me not knowing how this game was really played but to my surprise I did pretty well considering that I had never played the game before. It was all about ball control, with the better players being able to manipulate the ball and juke most people out of their way. It was actually cool to watch with goals being scored every few minutes instead of every half hour as is common with traditional soccer.

Through out the game everyone kept telling me what to do, in Portuguese, screaming and pointing. I only got about half of what they were saying, which by the second or third game started to annoy some of the players. I was doing my best to understand and play as well as everyone else. I scored three goals, something that was very satisfying considering the fact that I knew some people were talking shit about how bad they thought I was. I was actually puzzled at how much people were telling me what to do I Portuguese because my experienced up until this point in Brazil has shown people to talk to me as if I were a child or mentally challenged when they hear that I am just learning their language.

After a few hours we quit and everyone started packing up to leave. They talk fast here, with a lot of slang so I caught less than usual. And then my friend started laughing and said, ‘porra, ele e Americano e nao fala Portugues!’ It was at this point that every looked over at me and smiled, some laughed. And then I realized that everyone here had thought that I was Brazilian, understanding everything that they had been yelling and just choosing not to listen. At this point they all burst back into their fast paced conversations and one by one started talking to me with their limited number of English words, saying things like ‘I am in sorry’ or ‘thinking you were Brazilian’.

I found it funny; imagining what they all must have thought when I said close to nothing during the whole game. Shit! It was a compliment in the way that I could be Brazilian, physically anyway and amusing because of all of the shit that was said without me understanding almost any of it. And as I learn more everyday, it is amazing at how many miss communications happen when there is limited language. I am learning more every day, about myself and the language that is difficult for me to learn. I love you all.