Brazil is sunny...unlike england i hear!

---

Ive been in Brazil for 4 weeks now. The news i hear from england is obviously about financial doom and gloom, and all the snow...trust me to miss out on all the fun, but hey, im in brazil and its 30 - 36 C most days and nights, so im getting that summer feeling all the time at the moment.

Settling into life here has been good, everyone as usual is very kind, cooking for me, showing me around, translating for me etc. My portuguese is very limited still, but i have never really been one for new languages, but i get by all the same. Its been a steady move into brazilian life... the cultural differences aparent between here and england, can be seen just by looking around. Although not as bad here in Itumbiara as in other places, poverty remains, unequal income distributution, sees the poor and the rich living side by side. Reports from host Fr. Joaquim, on his trip down to rio de janiero where he stayed in the favela (spelling?), show corruption and social problems on a scale i just cannot imagine to be honest. I have been warned that when i move up in a week or two to a project outside the state capital Goiana, the inability of brazil to sought out this social and infrastructure stagnation is very vivid!

Anyway, i feel like ive become more ´brazilian´ as it were, over the last couple of weeks, more so now that i am a proud member of the video store just down the road...just a shame it still takes me 20 minutes to rent a dvd, cos they dont understand my mumbling portuguese. Meal times are very Brazilian/portuguese, façoa and rice, exotic fruits and the sorts, and lots of bbq and chicken things.. reminds me of south Africa.

I also feel like a life time fan of Itumbiara f.c., having been to all ´but one of this seasons 4 games, and beeing the proud owner of the coveted ´tricolor´ shirt! The games were a little dissapointing though till last nite, 0-0, 0-0, 3-1 loss, and then we thawpped the opposition from somewhere i cannot remember 5-1... and it felt gooood!

More helping out at the english language schools in conversation classes, has ensured another generation of english learners are more confused about the english language and culture after a couple of hours conversing with me. One of my adopted ´families´ showed me around the state capítal goiana for a few days, and completed a trip to uberlandia south of here, which was like goiana but different, but still nowhere near the size of sao paulo.

One of the positives of spending a long time in these places, is the opportunity to occasionally do random things... going to Gabrielle´s family ranch... a beautiful place just outside town, with a lake river, and what can only be described as picture postcard farming brazil...(if you understand what i mean!)
Also, a trip around the regions biggest hidroelectrical damn, was iteresting i guess, certainly haven´t seen the inside of power giving generators, and a 80 foot dam... was an experiance!

Anyway, i think thats it for now... hope everyone is well... not sure if anyone is still reading this, but its still nice to share my thoughts!

no picts apart from ones on my diposable camera cos the somewhere between johannesburg and buenos aires, someone thieved it, or i lost it, or both... either way, ill try think up ,more descriptions of places to give u an idea of things look like!

bye
joel

p.s. had a haircut aswell...and bought some new jeans!!

---