get your dance on :)

not feeling so great today, have the start of a cold but last day of carnival so making the most of it and getting my dance on with the rest of the town, Humphreys, Blackburn, you would be proud of me!

Samora really doesn’t like the whole carnival thing, the closest we can get him is to a restaurant nearby so it is Tuta and I again, we make a good team… I get him the gringo attention and he translates fast complicated portugues into slow simple portugues, the man has the patience of a saint!

like I had said earlier, my portuguese is starting to take some sort of shape and my confidence is growing, after carnival at around 2am we sat on a wall chatting for 2 hours about a lot of cultural things, they included.

A bit on politics and finances, the corruption in the government and the inability to be heard in brasil, Tuta got an eye opener when he realised how much tax we pay or the simple price comparisons. Life and marriage was a big one, the girls here very often get married at 13 the guys here think nothing of having a girlfriend 15 years their junior, tuta was shocked that many people in london are still not married at 30.

the age thing got us on to human trafficking and the underage sex trade in north brasil, i had seen the posters but not realised the extent. i brought up the sense of community and the lack of it in london, he’s lucky in some senses as without money and work in the uk society can shut you out. we also got on to black versus white, clearly still a major problem here and i think some of the stories on farm landlords back the problems.

a long night!