Journalled on Thursday, 6 July 2023 | Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 25 degrees, warm and sunny.

It is Thursday, and as usual, I have a lot of classes today: twelve classes from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., including one with Dona Vera in Copacabana.

So, I am up early and taking a long walk in the cold of the Carioca winter, only 16 °C in the early morning. I pass by the Portuguese baker’s for an early morning coffee before arriving home to begin classes.

My one o’clock class is with Tadeu, a seventy-four-year-old retired man originally from the northeast of Brazil who has been alternating between Rio and Belo Horizonte for the last sixty years.

Tadeu is a statistician and a professor who has worked in education with local, state, and federal governments all his professional life.

He has two daughters from his first marriage, Clarissa and Ana Leticia. Clarissa is a doctor, married to a surgeon, and has two children. They live in Campinas, about 120 km from São Paulo.

Ana Leticia, the elder daughter, is fifty now. I went to her wedding twelve years ago to Gabriel, an Argentinian she had met in Australia. They have lived in Perth since then and are now in South America for the first time in five or six years. They intend to stay two weeks in Argentina with Gabriel’s family in Buenos Aires and five days in Rio to visit Ana’s family.

During their penultimate visit to Rio, about ten years ago, Tadeu hosted a large feijoada lunch.

Feijoada, Brazil’s national dish, is a hearty stew of black beans and various meats such as smoked pork loin, bacon, and chorizo sausage, it’s truly delicious. The event included a Roda da Samba, a samba circle dance that derives from the indigenous term for a dance circle. Indigenous peoples historically danced in celebration during Catholic festivals, religious ceremonies, or spontaneously, all to vibrant samba music.

The gathering was sublime, with excellent food, lively music, plenty of drinks, laughter, jokes, and often dancing to the captivating rhythms of samba. In situations like these, when everyone is happy and lively, it’s common for people to tease each other, especially if there’s an Argentinian present and football is the main topic of conversation.

It was fascinating to see Gabriel, despite having a good job and situation in Australia, openly admit that this kind of banter, playfulness, joking, and human connection is not common in Australia or Argentina.

At the end of our class, Tadeu told me he would be meeting Gabriel for a drink tonight and that, if everything were confirmed, he would send me a message. I thought it would be nice to meet Gabriel again; it is always good fun when we are together.

I gave classes for the rest of the day, including going to Copacabana to give Dona Vera a class. When I arrived home, my last class was cancelled.

As I was doing nothing, I thought maybe Gabriel and Tadeu were having a drink at the place he said they would be. I hate watching TV nowadays, so I thought that, at worst, I could do some necessary shopping for home and pass by the bar Tadeu said they would be at to see if they were there.

Unfortunately, they were not. What a pity! I did my shopping and had a coffee with Yasmin at the baker’s. I was tired on Thursday night, thinking about what to do tomorrow and over the weekend, but that’s good.