Laundry, Edwardo and lychee

Finding a place near hotel to laundry my clothes I came across Edwardo.

What a nice guy. He agreed to do my laundry ready for 4pm on same day.

When I went to pick up, I took a box of lychee from the market.

He didn't recognise the lychee but enjoyed.

Some notes from our 3 hour chat :
- he is a local of Rio all his life.
- worked for British and American navy hence English is good.
- 55 years old, his first child was at age 13.
- he's been working since age 8.
- retirement for men is increased to 75, women 65
- talked about children and disconnect with nature and absorption into internet
- spoke about the crimes in favelas, his story of meeting his friend Miguel from the Navy days and being escorted after being spotted since they don't tolerate people just wondering. He almost died as Miguel was only known as Michael.
- favela gangs if rivals will do shoot outs to control territory.
- both the police and military are in place in the city. Both dislike each other, both are corrupted.
- he has to pay 40 % tax, sometimes 50.
- poor people pay no tax, get welfare and are able to afford plasma TV he cannot. They are on the beach when he is working.
- his story of when watching his daughter and friends, the friend slept with the phone, unconcsiy answering phone texts all night. He related this to Chinese water torture where the brain never sleeps.
- his story of taking his grand daughters to his village where they had no signal, lit a fire and watched the stars.
- the story of the Playstation, Grand daughter asked for one, he brought a ps2, she openly said Ian disappointed, I want a ps4. He explained hired have to go hungry for 5 months, she said okay.

This is only a few of the things we spoke about in our 3 hours chatting.. Such a nice guy.Read more