Hello again from Lethem! We made it back here today after two days at Carnival in Boa Vista in Brazil. I'm absolutely exhausted but the generator is sometimes dodgy in surama so I'm updating now.

We stayed up till 4 on valentine's night dancing away and drinking rum with our friends from the school and our friends from rockview. It had been a long day seeing as Joanna and I had walked up to help them teach during the day. I taught haikus and comprehension to 3 different classes. As soon as I walked in they stood up and said good morning sir, and then stood till I told them to sit. Some were bright, some weren't but they were all well behaved and good kids. I walked back with three students in the heat of the 2:30 sun and then helped out with last minute party decorations. During the party I came second with Alma in the dance competition and then danced with Aunty Velda, Colin's wife. We went to bed at 4 and then woke up at 7 to head down to the road. Seven hours later we were on the back of a loaded pickup truck, supporting each other and holding onto the rope cover as we flew across the road and the creaky bridges. It was absolutely crazy but we got to Lethem, crossed the river and took a taxi to Boa Vista.

With about ten minutes to go of the hour and a half drive our driver, who spoke no english, spotted a red light on the horizon. He skidded to a halt, spun round and drove back at high speed. Bernie put her seatbelt on figuring she was in trouble, as did Jo, and then as he pulled into some woods and opened the boot I turned round and said 'I think we're carrying something illegal'. Apparently he was carrying Nike fakes which we'd stopped to pick up along the way. The guy was more than a bit nervours, but we drove through, got searched by the police and then reached the city.

The next day was pretty slow, I got a hair cut, we went for a swim in the pool and we got ready for Carnival. We reached just before it started to get going and watched the king and queen getting chosen. The contestants had to dance around in their g-strings and smile a lot. It was interesting to say the least! Anyway we then had some food (grilled mozeralla and chocolate hot dogs) and tried to dance. We were all tired and despite my efforts we couldn't really get with it so we headed home for about 2.

The next day I walked to the river and then Bernie and Jo came with me later on, we drank so much water and coke, picked up some food and ate it back at the hotel before getting in the pool again. The project trust and world teach girls turned up during the day, two of them had gone the night before but we'd missed them, and we agreed to walk up together later on in the evening. They came back but Bernie was on some antihistamine for wasp stings so she was really tired and headachy all night which was a shame, but we all walked up, drinking and eating when we got there. We all had sandwiches, mini pizzas and lots of cheese on sticks as well as lots of Nova Schin! The girls had this idea that they wanted the carnival t-shirts, so we spent some time blagging some and then we got our photos taken with a policeman called Israel, and I wore his amazing hat but he wouldn't let be keep it. Some of the guys running the carnival loved the fact that we were buzzing so kirsty heather and I got invited on stage. We played drums with the band, danced with the girls and just took photos in front of a good couple of thousand crazy people. Then the guy asked me where we were from, I said I was from England, so he introduced us to the crowd and we got to dance in front of them all! It was amazing, such a rush. We were so pleased with ourselves we moved to get down at the back and the man asked us if we wanted to go on the float. So we got led through the crowd and onto this huge HGV-type truck which was open at the top with a band on and had flashing lights all over it. we got up and danced with the two singers and waved to all the people waving to us, and I got to dance with three ladies in basically panties and bras who were grinding to the music. We were just falling about laughing and jumping around while trying to dance. I had the most amazing night from then on, a few drinks, talking with the policemen, being taught how to dance, making up funky moves with Kirsty and then getting in at about twenty to five.

We left Boa Vista today and we're back in Lethem now, we hope to catch the bus at 10:30 (but it's always late) and get to Surama at about 2ish to begin the next phase! I'm so tired now so i'm going to get a plate of food and find somewhere to nap. Till next time!