It's been a while since we last blogged so thought we should let people know all's well here in Rio.
While winter in Europe seems to be dragging on longer than usual this year, the weather here shows no sign of cooling as autumn approaches. Even when we have spectacular thunder-storms in the night, it's invariably back to 30+ degrees the next day. It may sound wonderful & we don't expect you to feel sorry for us but the heat can be very enervating, day after day.

Well, what have we been up to? Fairly routine stuff really. Patrick was away on a field trip up north with some students last week and this week there are senior BG people, a trade delegation from the UK and Rachel from Edinburgh uni in town so Patrick has lots of extra meetings and receptions to attend. Generally, his job still lurches from mini-crisis to mini-crisis but he perhaps knows how to handle them better now than he did when we first arrived!

Hugo is still with us and yesterday he extended his visa to stay until May. After Carnaval and his new French friend Suzanne had returned to Paris, he took off again and did some travelling in the state of Minas Gerais (literally,General Mines). He took in some of the colonial towns and has inspired Patrick and me to make the trek he did to Diamantina which sounds distinctly off the beaten track and which is still a mining town. In the absence of many photos of our own this month, I'll cheat and put some of Hugo's up.

Today is his first day at work! After quite a bit of chivvying on his part he finally got an architect in Rio to say he'd take him on although he's not exactly sure what the deal is...
The main man seems a nice guy with an interesting mix of projects and with us being able to support him out here, Hugo just felt it was a great chance to get involved with some hands-on work outside Europe. Time will tell how the next couple of months work out for him but working with Brazilians should do wonders for his Portuguese and he's done well to get this far as he's met lots of young people who came out here hoping to get a job who haven't been successful. Brazilians don't make things easy for anybody!
And he's also finally made a decision about next year which pleases his parents. He's going to be studying in Delft for 2 years from August so we're looking forward to visiting him on Holland once we're back.
Coincidentally, Will is in Holland this week. He's working in his firm's Dutch office in Amsterdam for a week and wouldn't mind a permanent transfer but that doesn't look likely unfortunately. Still, he's in a central company flat and Alice is joining him for the weekend so he's not complaining!
Jess is busy with school as always but enjoyed her half-term break with Martin in Paris and Glasgow and was down in Worth last weekend with friends from Sheffield so it's not all hard grind.

I've started up with English teaching again and am continuing to help with a library project in a school in a favela in Rio's north zone (ie rough). We had hoped to finish the project in January but the school had a disaster over the christmas holidays when a roof collapsed after heavy rain and several classrooms were filled with sewage from nearby housing. As if they hadn't got enough problems already! Apart from the odd tell-tale stain on the walls, they've done an amazing job of clearing up and we hope to get back on track once the classrooms have been redecorated and the library is no longer needed as a temporary classroom.
Unfortunately, one of the mainstays of this project is an American woman called Elaine who is transferring back to New York at the end of March so is unlikely to see it completed before she goes.
Two other women I've got close to through the English teaching project are also going to be moving within the next couple of months and the project will sorely miss their leadership and expertise. I'd forgotten this side of expat life - ie that it's very transient with a constant stream of arrivals and departures. We're going to lose 2 of the women I'm teaching with in Botafogo too so my social circle is going to be much diminished. After this round of leaving parties, can I be bothered to invest in some new friendships I wonder?

Meetings this week were taking up and getting everyone around Patrick 's attention. HWU was 'mentioned in dispatches' in both meetings so I guess our presence is being noted - and appreciated! The UK-Brazil meeting today agreed that the secret to working in Brazil is simply summarised as needing to concentrate on: personal contact, personal commitment, language, long term, partnership, building capability,trust and innovation - all things that describe what I'm doing (or think I'm doing) - and still it ain't easy! We now promote ourselves overseas as a large Great and small Britain....I suspect the way logos evolve well soon be just "Great" the way that BP and BG have become global brands! The Scottish industry is well respected down here in Rio and the opportunities are certainly there. I did make a plea for UK to try and make things easier for folk like me down here - because I do think we can make a difference! I have included a few pictures from my Sergip field trip - mostly scratching around big hot cement quarries - but also a grotto with 'ancient' wall painting and a stone arch - which were unexpected discoveries for us. Spending a week in Brazil doing geology, having a beer and eating shrimp with young Brazilians was a memorable experience!!