Blogs from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, South America - page 9

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South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte June 18th 2006

Today Caro, Joao and I went to watch the Brasilian football match at Tobias´home. It was his 27 birthday and he invited everyone over to his place for a BBQ and to watch the game and to drink beer. Caro gave me a shirt with the Brasilian colors so I fit in very well. After the game and eating meat all afternoon we went to the main street in Belo Horizonte where everyone goes after a football match to celebrate and party. Thousands of people were there, much like whyte ave after an oiler playoff game. They are drinking beer in the street, there is loud music playing from the back of a truck, people are dancing and having a great time. I met a few girls who could speak some english, and one who even ... read more
BBQ2
BBQ3
BBQ4

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte June 17th 2006

Six weeks of living in a hotel room and we were very ready to move into our house. Luckily there was the short change of scenery in Argentina when the Belo Horizonte hotel room was replaced by one in Buenos Aires, so I wasn’t quite climbing the walls when it was time to move out. We were taken to look at a few places before we chose the house that we are now living in. We saw a mix of houses and apartments, they were all fully furnished, but none were places we were keen to live in (generally they were places people were about to move from and they had been their homes for the last gazillion years and when it said fully furnished it meant they were leaving EVERYTHING behind). As a result we ... read more
Living Room & Dance Floor
Casa de Verde (our house)
Let's Get  Cooking

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte June 17th 2006

It was early to rise for me on friday morning. Only having arrived the night before, I had my first day of work on friday. Silvestre and Carolina (the father and daughter of the family who I am staying with) and I drove to work only 15 minutes away. Silvestre is one of the owners of TECTRAN and his daughter Carolina (Caro) works in the HR department. I was introduced to probably 20 people but I can only remember a few names. Louis is a civil engineer who works in the consulting department. He reminds me a lot of my friend Bruno from I-House... just a layed back happy-go-lucky guy who likes to joke a little and have a good time. Next to him sits Andre. Andre has a little trouble speaking english but is trying ... read more

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte June 16th 2006

I spent four nights or so in the barrio Liberdade, about 45 minutes from downtown BH. It's a small community, initially founded with the construction of 200 homes for Habitat for Humanity, and then expanded by the construction of an additional 300 homes by the city. The neighborhood is more country then city. The houses sit along wide paved streets, the fronts obscured by the 12 foot concrete walls and metal doors added on by the residents. There's a public school, small shops, grocery stores, bakeries, fruit stores, butchers. The streets are usually full of people - as it is the winter and more windy, there are always kites flying. In the evening people stand about talking; there are always children running about. I'm working in a community center here teaching English and Art classes, but ... read more

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte June 15th 2006

I have come to understand that you can’t possibly be in Brasil and not have your nails done. This is quite novel for me as you could count on one hand the number of times I have had a professional manicure. There is no difficulty finding a salon here to provide this service and it is certainly very affordable. (For a manicure and pedicure it is about A$16 total.) To be honest I have been letting the side down a little as I have only been three times so far, but I’m sure I can set to rectifying this situation. The first time I went I met Maria, an older lady who is particularly lovely and has informed me that I am not to have my nails done anywhere else! Although she speaks no English we ... read more

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte June 14th 2006

I was always excited about the prospect of being in Brasil during the World Cup, but I never imagined the experience would be so amazing. Brasilians are very patriotic people and nothing seems to bring that out more than futebol (I’m sure you can figure out that is soccer). In the weeks leading up to the World Cup the passion and excitement has become more and more evident. It started with every second person wearing “Brasil” clothing around and about (and what an array exists!) and has accelerated from there. “Copa da mundo” is now a staple component of my limited Portuguese vocabulary and is very useful for striking up conversations with taxi drivers. All of the shops are decorated in green and gold and selling every Brasil product imaginable, there are flags hung from buildings ... read more
Pre-match, Brasil vs Croatia
Warming up
Gooooooooaaaaaaaaal!

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte June 6th 2006

well, after an interesting and enjoyable, if somewhat unplanned, week in Buenos Aires we're back in BH and back to work. the first day back started with our regular Portuguese lesson. I realised the importance of regular attendence today. After missing three lessons last week I was stuggling! We also got our house keys today... hip hip hooray! we now have two weeks to buy a house load of furniture and move in. this will be well timed with the need for me, and possibly Kell, to return to Asutralia to get a long term visa. What a great plan- get house, fill it with furniture, leave the country. We also got our official notification today that the office will be closing 1hr before Brazil's world cup game against Croatia. We just hope that we are ... read more

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte May 30th 2006

The new camera arrived last week via New York via Idaho via Salvador. Suffice to say even if this one is lost with haste, it will not be due to lack of diligence on my part as I will be duct taping it to my head. The classes continue, and things are beginning to ramp up for World Cup. Hopefully Brazil doesn´t lose at the first group as after all this investment it would be quite an embarrasment (although it´s highly unlikely). The attached pictures were mostly taken at Joses´ family´s farmhouse (or sitio) - many of middle class here in the cities have an apartment in the city and a country home outside of the city. As it was Jose´s birthday we stayed over for the weekend and barbaqued for two days. I may have ... read more
Flora
Even the flowers can hurt  you
Bonde do Tigrão

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte May 21st 2006

In the past weeks I´ve had the opportunity to work at two different project sites in the periphery of BH - teaching English (and a couple art classes) in 45 minute segments to various groups of children, ranging from 6 to 14 (and one group of adults). The difficulty in teaching is a multifaceted affair considering a.) I have no teaching experience, b.) I speak only rudimentary Portuguese, and c.) the children realize this. Most of the groups have been perfect, the greatest difficulty being their names (the creative tendency in choosing names has resulted in a rash of unheard of concotions, particulary those involving the letter "W": Wemerson, Welder, Wemeth, Weldon). When there are problems with attentiveness, it is most likely due to ineptitude and overzealousness of their teacher (who in trying to teach 6 ... read more

South America » Brazil » Minas Gerais » Belo Horizonte May 12th 2006

Perhaps I shouldn´t be writing on a travel blog website, as I haven´t been doing a whole lot of traveling. I´ve spent the past week in Belo, either staying with a friend or visiting some of the projects. In due course the Portuguese is improving, as well as the ability to navigate the city via public transportation (which could prove less challenging were it not for the density of unruly drivers making making every street crossing a brush with death). In the next week I´ll begin assisting another volunteer in teaching english. Neither of us have taught before, but the children (and the older staff themselves) are very eager to learn - even after I mistakenly explained our plans to teach them as "Next week we will set fire." Most of the middle class in Brazil ... read more




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