This last year brought with it a few changes for me, including getting married and moving into a favela in Rio de Janeiro. I am frequently surprised by things I see and hear and yet it's also remarkable how quickly I've found myself accepting frankly shocking situations as the new normal. There is never a … Continue reading Outside my window
Category: Favela life
A second helping of beans and a smattering of proverbs
After the first great bean adventure, I thought I had the whole bean thing down and had been merrily regaling everyone, including my mother-in-law, with the wonders of our rice-cooker and its many beanifits (wahay!). At this point I should have heeded our first Brazilian proverb, 'não conte com o ovo no cu da galinha', … Continue reading A second helping of beans and a smattering of proverbs
Two legs good, a hundred legs bad
I'd never really noticed until now that the word wildlife is made up of two words, and the first of those is 'wild'. I realise that even saying that is ridiculous, but living in Brazil has highlighted just how un-wild much of British wildlife is. So I have always seen animals which do not live … Continue reading Two legs good, a hundred legs bad
Brazil from the outside in 