Busy in Brazil

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So far I have been in Brazil for three weeks without a day off. So I´m getting really knacked.
Although we did spend an afternoon at Copacabana beach, which was a welcome respite from the hard streets of Rio de Janeiro. Copacabana beach is not quite as spectacular as what I had been led to belive. It would be really spectacular if it wasn´t such a city beach. The hills backdroping the beach are cool, but are spoiled by the large buildings. There´s a heap of bronzed bodies, but it didn´t feel like the sex crazed surfers paradise that I had heard of. Many Yuppies and tourists. But then, add our bunch of Chileans, fresh from a freezing chilean winter and you´d think we had never seen a beach before.

We have performing at a lot of local schools in Belford Roxo, and in the main plaza here. The schools really love our performances, but the main plaza things are a bit harder. It´s a pretty poor area and some what dangerous apparently, but I have seen nothing unusual so far. But some others in our group saw some guy get shot, or least him lying on the road in his own blood.
The is a heap of contrast between the houses here. One house will be a narrow crumbling exposed brick hovel, and next door, a grand house tiled like bathroom complete with swimming pool and private jungle.

There is a lot of witchcraft here. The witches leave little "gifts" down our street, and come past the church we are sleeping in early in the morning to yell "special blessings" on us. Apparently, if you touch the "gifts" demons enter you and cause all sorts of mischef, so the "gifts" just sit there untill they are run over by a sufficient number of buses to make them disappear.

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