BOLTON girl Lindsey McCulloch has reached the half way mark on her year long mercy mission to the poverty stricken streets of Brazil.

Lindsey, aged 18, left her home in Bank Top Grove, Astley Bridge, last summer to teach street children English and travel along the Amazon with the non-profit making charity Project Trust.

In this, her second newsletter to BEN readers, she describes her experiences on the road and of a Christmas with a difference in Rio. "HELLO again from what is now a very bright, extremely hot, sunny Brazil.

I cannot believe how the temperature has changed from fur coat weather to 40 degrees centigrade and tropical thunderstorms. We've been on flood alert once again. I'm back in Blumenau after the travelling experience of a lifetime and am settling into my new work schedule and the orphanage. My students who took Cambridge certificate exams have all passed with high grades and I have more students now to prepare for a higher exam. We've been given even more responsibility this semester, which is brilliant as it means we are even more valuable to the school.

My little monkeys at the orphanage gave us Christmas cards signed by them all and one also gave me a love letter. We threw a party using all the traditional party games. Pass the parcel nearly caused a riot and pin the tail on the donkey almost resulted in a few pierced ears. We bought chocolate Santas for them all which they quickly devoured after dancing round using them as microphones.

They greet us in English now which is so cute and are forever experimenting with new words and then laughing at their accents and ours of course. The older ones love writing the words to songs and I had quite a task on my hands in helping to decipher the words to a Vanilla Ice song and then trying to translate them. Now we've moved to Michael Jackson. I think they all want to be pop stars.

Carnival was as mad as it's supposed to be. I danced on the beach every night until the sun rose. I don't think I slept more than four hours a night for the whole time we travelled. There was just too much to see and do. You don't realise until you have to travel for 41 hours on a rickety old bus just how big and diverse Brazil is. The north east is completely different to the southern areas as it lacks the European influence and has 365 days of sunshine. I met some of the most amazingly friendly Brazilians.

We spent Christmas in Rio with a dinner of goat and squid, shared by a mixture of people from all over the world. It was really terrible to see such poverty stricken people in the streets of the city and realise that Christmas was nothing but another day of existence to them. Never in my life will I ever take Christmas for granted after what I saw. It is impossible to believe that 800,000 people live on the side of one hill in Rocinha, South America's biggest slum.

My amazement continued way into the heart of the Amazon where I lived with a family of Indians. There were 12 children, no electricity or lights, nothing but a Piranha and alligator infested lake in which to bathe and a hole in the ground with leaves to serve as a W.C. I learnt all about the flora and fauna of the rain forest and actually watched its magic healing powers in action when one of my fellow 'Project Trusters' fell sick. We have been invited to work at a medical centre and school that is being opened there in the future and I would definitely consider going back. It is fascinating.

Observing New Year customs on the beach in Salvador was an experience of a very different kind. Everyone wears white clothes and throws themselves into the sea with roses in their mouths. Then they dance the night away.

In the north east we had dance classes on the beach every day and still can't samba. I think it's a genetic defect.

We did learn Forro, a kind of waltz, but looked rather silly as most Brazilian men only come up to chin height.

It was the best six weeks of my life. In fact, these last six months have been the best of my life and I'm looking forward to the next six.

It's been a real eye opener and an educational experience. I can't thank you all enough for making it possible. Now I intend to make the last six

months just as valuable as the last.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.