Friday, April 11, 2008

Annotated Brazilian Trip Quiz



Since Kenny liked the Peru quiz, I have decided 
to follow up with a Q&A over our week-long excursion to Brazil. Good luck as you take this oh-so-important test.


1. When Jeremy Irons and Robert DeNiro climb up some major big waterfalls in the wonderful movie THE MISSION, where are they?

2. Which three countries were involved in Karen's birthday this year?

3. Which currency cannot be used in Ciudad de la Este, Paraguay?
a) the Paraguayan guarani
 b) the Brazilian real 
c) the Argentine peso 
d) the U.S. dollar
e) Merchants only take credit cards there.

4. Name that flag. The following are the flags of the six countries we have visited during this trip to South America:
Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil,
Argentina, Chile, Peru. Which
 is which?








5. 


Which dam/hydroelectric plant supplies 25% of Brazil's power and 75% of Paraguay's and inspired our group to tell many, many "dam" jokes?

6. What is the favorite soft drink of Brazil? _______

7. What game did we play daily with the cleaning lady at the hotel in Brazil?
a. Duck, Duck, Goose
b. hide and seek
c. kick the can
d. Operation
e. steal the passport

8. How poor are Paraguayans?
a. a little bit poor
b. a lot poor
c. seriously poor
d. quite poor
e. all of the above

9. Short answer. Describe just how good Brazilian mangoes and guavas are.

10.  How long was the trip to, during, and from Iguazu Falls, Brazil?

Annotated Answers

1. Iguazú Falls (alternately spelled Iguaçu, Iguassu, Iguasu, and probably some other ways too). These falls (actually over 250 different falls) are bona-fide magnificent,2.7 kilometers wide and up to 75 meters high. Beautiful. Good job, God. [Pictured is a Jesuit
mission, much like the one(s) depicted in the movie, which I recommend highly, as well.]

2. We visited the Falls on both the Brazilian and Argentine sides, and we also went on my birthday for a few hours to
Paraguay! The picture shows where the three countries meet 
(well, actually they meet in the river smack-dab in the middle). Strangely enough, this is not the first time I have visited multiple countries on my birthday, but it's the first 24-hour long cumpleaños I have. When I turned fifteen, my family and I were in Japan on April 7; then we boarded a plane, crossed the International Dateline, landed in Los Angeles, and went to Disneyland on the next day, which was still April 7th, my birthday! Cool, eh?! (Of course, the downside is that that may make me one year OLDER than I already am!)

3. You cannot use Paraguayan currency in the Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este. Yup. Good to know. As a doctor who came to treat one of our students for a throat infection (she's doing better) said, "I prefer green [dollars]; I'll take plastic or yellow [credit card or Brazilian real]; but it takes about a million of these [shows Paraguayan guarani] to make even one dollar."

4. The flags Argentina and Uruguay look similar: the big blue-and-white stripe with the small sun is Argentina, and the multiple stripes with the large sun is Uruguay. The "Texas flag" is Chile's; the red-white-red one is Peru; the red, white, blue one with the emblem in the middle is Paraguay; and finally, the green-and-yellow one is Brazil's. Now you're one step closer to being ready for Jeopardy. You're welcome.

5. The Itaipu Dam is dam HUGE, eight dam full kilometers wide. We had a dam tour of the facility on the Paraguay dam side, listened to some remarkable native music, most notably unusual harp music, and saw a dam video that reminded me strongly of the Dharma Project propaganda videos in the TV series LOST.

6. Guarana, which tastes kind of like apple juice meets ginger ale and is very good (but nothing, in my opinion, compared to Uruguay's Paso de Los Toros or, in my family's opinion, to the Peruvian soda Inca Kola).

7. b. The game in which we were unwitting participants was Hide the Bedspread. Every day we would leave our hotel room, bedspread decidedly on the bed,  (in the picture, you can see one on the extra bed) and 
would return to find it had moved to a shelf in the closet, or a spot by the door, or wherever other non-bed-spot she decided it should be. Beats "Steal the Passport" any day, but it was kind of strange nonetheless!

8. e. Very poor indeed. In the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70) — among Paraguay and Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay — Paraguay lost TWO-THIRDS (yes, you read that horrible fact correctly) of all adult males and much of its territory. Since then, what with natural disasters, bad management, military dictatorships, and perhaps worse, lack of dictatorship, things have not improved.

9. SO good. I ate good guavas for the first time since I left the Philippines in 1980, and last night for dinner, I had sayote, which is a tasteless squash-like plant that has great texture and that my mom used to cook for both a vegetable dish and/or for a mock-apple pie. And the pineapples and mangoes in Brazil were great too. Actually all the food was really tasty, with the possible exceptions of grilled chicken hearts, oxtail, and the humpback of a cebu (that's what they called it, for real). It was kind of like I was daring myself to try those things; it's amazing how much one's mind controls how a food will taste. I used to eat anything in the Philippines: bugs, dog, whatever. Now I really have to convince myself to eat something non-standard, like guinea pig. I had no trouble convincing myself to eat flan every night, however, in my quest for the most perfect custard. My mom still makes the very best, but some of these came close.

10. 24-ish hours each way on a bus (OK, it was a GREAT bus, a double-decker with a game room downstairs and a decent little bathroom, but it was still a bus and no bedroom) and a week-long trip altogether. However, we made great use of the time on the bus. I, for example, slept a lot of the way to Brazil, and, on the way back, I relearned how to do the Rubik's cube and worked on Christmas cards (it's a long story). So, at least that was time well spent! Ha! 

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's a fun fact from my one year of studying Guaraní: Iguazú comes from yguasu, the Guaraní word for waterfall. It's literally "big water," showing how amazingly creative the Guaraní were in coming up with names for geographical locations.

It sounds better, though, with the funny guttural y sound they use in Guaraní.

That's your linguistic fact of the day. No charge.

Hope you guys are well. I think you'll have visited more of South America than I have once you're through.

Grace and peace,
Tim

Autumn said...

It sounds like you guys had a good trip! Wednesday night at church Donna talked about her trip to Brazil. It made me miss South America.

Was Wilson your tour guide in Brazil? Was Andres the guide that took you?

I'm working on recruiting my next group. :)

Karen said...

Tim, are you kidding me? You studied Guaraní a year? You astound me. I am SO impressed with your linguistic skills. I just know what an outstanding missionary you were/are, knowing your character, your work ethic, and your intelligence. I'm so glad Argentina got you for awhile.And no, I doubt we'll have seen more than you; our trips are whip-in, whip-out sort of affairs; but we are getting a nice overview, and we are so grateful for these opportunities. And yes, Guaraní names are creative, like the ones around Lubbock: Brownfield, Flat, Earth!

Autumn, Andres was our tour guide, and his 22-year-old son Mauricio went too; they were both wonderful, and we all felt like we were at home with them. Our guide in Brazil at the Falls, however, wasn't your same guide. His name was Carlos, and he was fantastic, one of the best tour guides I can imagine. He was about 30 years old or so, was a biologist, and had outstanding people and English skills. Krista and he got along really well. It was a GREAT trip overall.

Kayla said...

karen!! if i wanted to make curry ... could i figure that out on my own or should i wait until you return to me?

Karen said...

To make chicken curry my way:
Boil some (4?) chicken breasts (either boneless and skinless or else you can debone them after boiling). Tear into bite-size parts. Meanwhile, sauté some onions (the more the better, let's say 4) in the bottom of a big saucepan or a wok or transfer to a crock pot. Add 1-2 chicken bouillon cubes per cup of liquids you'll add, which will primarily be evaporated milk and/or coconut milk (maybe 3-4 cans/bottles). However, you add water too (I don't know how much; just see if it's too thick; if it is, add some water). For this amount, I'm guessing that I use about 3 Tablespoons of yellow curry powder OR if I'm going the panang way, add one can panang curry paste. For the amounts I make, double everything. Cook this slowly or the milk will curdle, and don't forget to add the chicken and add salt and pepper to taste or the whole thing will be too bland. Serve over rice, and it's great to have peanuts, chunk pineapple, coconut flakes, and other toppings (bananas, green onions, apricots, etc.). There! That may be the worst recipe ever, but it's how I do it. It's really quite easy, and, as you know, delicious. Good luck!

Gayla Herrington said...

I am glad to see you are back in the land of the internet. You scared me, I thought your maid had stolen your passports. I may not be able to pick you up at the airport on May 8 as much as I really, really want to. That is the dates for the State Industrial Tech contest and I had already told Don I would go with him, too many things always happen at the same time. I hope to call you on skype tomorrow.
Love Gayla

Karen said...

That's fine, Gayla. NO PROBLEM. We're seriously thinking about just renting a car and driving home, although Mom is saying she'll come fetch us. We'll see what happens. But don't you fret, my friend.

Autumn said...

Are you getting in super early Thursday? If so I could come and get you. I don't give a final until 2.

lecroy said...

Without looking at the answers, I will say
1 Vctoria Falls, Somewhere South of Texas
2 Uraguay, Argentina, Brazil
3 The Paraguay one. I bets its useless
4 At gunpoint I would have a 1\6 chance of getting any of those flag answers correct.
5 Google says the Itaipu hydroelectric dam
6 Coca-Cola
7 Steal the passport if you were dumb enough to leave it out
8 seriously poor. Which is relative, upper class is what, poor (or working class) compared to america?
9 I hope your answer is "not as good as Filipino." Traitor to your youth if you didn't. We had a guava tree in our yard. In our yard.
10 You aged 30 years. At least your spine did with the bus of no shocks.

Well, now I will go look at the answers to see how I did. :)

lecroy said...

I would tell you to come crash at our house since we wont be there the weekend of May 8, but that would be irresponsible to post that kind of infrormation on the internet.