Last week I learned …

Last week I learned a new swear word.  ‘Abaixo’ means ‘from below’ used like ‘today the temperature fell below freezing.’ However for my purpose, I enjoy a swear word when ‘oopsy daisy’ seems not quite right,  it can be used to to express disapproval or  protest.

Something  supporters might call out at a football match or a political activist on a march.

Yesterday, I returned from my holiday in Rio de Janeiro where I stay 5 minutes from Copacabana beach, the play ground of the rich and famous; while I have no pictures of them, I do have plenty of the palm trees, golden sands and the famous black and white boulevard.  However, I stayed in a favela, the home of the not so rich and famous, the so called ‘low life,’ a place like many others that has been carefully airbrushed from the holiday brochures. I will not discuss here how ‘airbrushing’ is also a synonym for bulldozing and flattening, and to those responsible I say ‘abaixo.’

While I  am not pleased to say I only learned one word of Portuguese while in Rio, I am proud to say ,I stayed in very beautiful Babilona and cannot wait to go back!’