LIKE A VIRGIN...

I doubt if these guys are being ¨touched for the very first time¨

Today marks the first day of many days of debauchery in Olinda.

Mothers, wives and girlfriends send their sons , husbands and lovers to do battle in this UNESCO World Heritage Town.

Bidding farewell to their men is not the usual anxious, heartwrenching wonderment and hope filled goodbye associated with battle - Indeed , mothers, partners and sisters have helped considerably with the battledress of short skirt, lipstick, stuffed brassiere and nail polish...

Freudian fear dictates that the females do not worry whether their men come back alive and victorious, but whether they come back as, well, er....men...

Like most Latin American males, Brazilian men are essentially macho, and prima facie, there are only 3 phrases or verbal attacks which can send a Brazilian man into a frenzy...

1) Telling him that he is a ¨corno ¨... (corno, means horn, signifying that he has grown horns, meaning that his wife or girlfriend is having an affair).

2) Calling his mother a prostitute...

3) Calling him gay... (meaning homosexual)...

It is with amusement then, this weekend, we will see thousands of Brazilian macho men, cross-dessed, flaunting themselves as desirable, delectable, female virgins...

Apparently, Dia das Virgens, or Day of the Virgins came about by a group of men from a Bairro Novo family (a district of Olinda). They decided it would be great fun to become, transvestite, for a day...(no surprise that the virgins wiggle their bits the 2 weekends before Carnival).

This tradition caught on very, very quickly and is now a major and significant event in the Olinda calendar...

Flaunt your bits at Olinda this year, only a few places remaining for our main carnival event...

Check it out, here: http://volunteerbrazil.com/myPictures/carnaval.html

Have a great weekend, whatever your doing...

Alan (or is that Alana)...