Portuguese Words of Love

With all the rain we’d had that week, I’d lost the internet and was down to a feeble 2G – not optimal for a digital nomad.

Within a few days, a MEO technician came by to install a new “rooter,” as the Portuguese call it.

While he was working on the inside of the house, I could hear my farmer neighbors Maria and Jose arguing, as they sometimes do while working side by side in the small field on the other side of the stone wall that borders my garden.

I saw the technician was also listening to them.

“What are they saying?” I asked. My Portuguese was not good enough to understand them.

He paused a moment to listen.

“Words of love,” he replied, laughing. Which, of course, was not at all what it sounded like to me!

He then explained Maria was accusing Jose of always picking the easy chores to do, leaving the hard ones for her. We laughed some more.

A few minutes later, the technician was in the garden, on a ladder working on the receiving dish on the outside of the house. We could hear Maria Alice and Jose Francisco at each again, fussing over something.

“What are they talking about now?” I asked my friendly technician.

He paused another moment to listen.

“Shakespeare,” he said, smiling down at me.

I love the Portuguese sense of humor. ☺️

Original art by Kristin Fellows

Kristin Fellows is a published writer, a world traveler, and a well-seasoned documentary film consultant. This tale comes to you from a small farming village in Portugal, where she is still surprised to find herself living.

When not writing, Kristin can often be found walking Kiitos, listening to someone’s story, or behind the lens of one of her cameras. Or perhaps doing all three at the same time.

More about Kristin @ kristinfellowswriter.com