Children's Day. The frankly ridiculous idea of giving children their own day has caught on in Brazil and that day was today. Yesterday, we went to the mall and they had a small troup of actors doing a (tame) take on the 3 little pigs. The bad wolf was dressed as Elvis and played electric guitar. Today, we went to another mall where they had clowns and magic tricks - birds and bunnies coming out of hats, that sort of thing. Nelson endured it all admirably...

Anyway, on Friday, as part of something Rachel organised through the language school a few of us went and spent a couple of hours with 35 orphans at a home we've been involved with. It's a challenging group of kids but Rachel and I were pleased to see they had more amenities and generally looked in better health than when we'd first come. We delivered presents as donated by the parents of students of the language school and we played loud and silly games and generally had a good time. Pictures are here on flickr and are now circulating in the slideshow in the sidepanel over here >>>>. To round off Children's Day/Weekend, we held a small and intimate dedication service at our church group for Gloria. We'll do the same when my folks are here at Christmas and all the family are together. Despite my frequently grumblings, I suppose children are pretty cool...

Things I love about Brazil #74: Elections. Last Sunday saw the culmination of the local elections, held simultaneously across Brazil on the 5th of October. Natal got a new mayor in the process - Micarla, the daughter of a famous TV presenter. I chuckled this week as I saw a poster hanging in the language school written by one of the lower level classes. In an activity where the kids had to describe people I read: "George Bush is boring, short and old. Micarla is short, chubby and interesting". That about sums it up, I guess.

There's a lot of razzmatazz that accompanies an election and some of it can be a lot of fun for the innocent bystander. Unlike in the UK where the primary tool of the local campaigner is the poster in the window, the most essential piece of equipment for the Brazilian equivelent is a VW Kombi with a loudspeaker on the top (see pic). From there begin the festivities, music, parties, flags-waving and general hubhub that certainly help make life more colourful. Brazil is a young democracy and, to be fair, they certainly make participating in the electoral process seem a great deal more enjoyable than back in the UK. As voting is compulsory, its something people can't simply ignore... and so, for all of the above I salute the energetic Brazilian democratic system and toast its health for the future.

Tomorrow, the bad news...